Career planning seems to be an obvious step for people seeking career growth. However, without a proper and clear-cut system to follow, taking required steps to reach this goal may be hard to achieve.

Career planning normally entails exploring diverse career options, evaluating yourself as a candidate or employee-that is, your skills, strengths, weaknesses, aspirations for work and then finding the right ways to get on your desired career track.

Though it is advised to embark on career planning as early as high school, the process is just as valuable when one applies it during their career journey. Career growth often comes with defining and redefining yourself, as well as your interests and goals.

Depending on your choice of career path, the steps below can serve as a guide for career planning;

Self-assessment

This often includes pointing out your interests, salary expectations, working environment preference, and aptitude evaluations- tests on your talents, strengths and weaknesses. These are all elements that have a crucial influence in your decisions regarding which type of career to choose and in what field.

For example how much you want to earn and the skills you have or plan to obtain drive your career path. 

Career exploration

Look out for jobs that match your interests, skills and values. Cast your net as wide as you can in order to have multiple sources to solicit from. From here, you can then narrow the list down to only those jobs that reflect factors you value most in a job. At this stage, experts reveal that approaching professionals from different industries for informational interviews can be of immense help. They also recommend volunteering and doing internships as a way of getting oneself acquainted with their desired field.

Make research

This is especially important when deciding which career to take.  When equipped with enough information, you will have a diversity of ideas to choose from and see what path best suits you and your career needs. Doing ample research also gives you access to various options, such that the decision you take is based on wider scope of the job market.

Identify a career 

At this stage, one is aware of their strengths and weaknesses, built or working on their skills for their dream job, hence the next step is to choose a particular career to embark on. Decide on what occupation to go for, however, have a few others lined up just in case this particular one doesn’t work out as expected. One of the greatest skills to possess in order to succeed in the career world is flexibility.

Create a plan

After assessments, making career choices and ample research, the next step is creating an action plan. This is the bridge towards attaining your set goals. At this point, you have your short and long-term goals, hence it’s time to reach out to potential employers, creating networks, drafting resumes and applying for jobs. Ensure to be unique and creative with your chosen approaches in order to stand out from my competition.