If you work in any company – and you probably do – you must have heard the expression career plan at some point. This is a detailed plan that tells you how you should proceed in order to reach new and better positions and, consequently, increase your financial rewards – salary, profit sharing, etc. In this way, you will be able to know perfectly well how to best use your time dedicated to your professional improvement to reach your professional goals.
Many companies already offer career plans for their employees, but some of them do not. And what can you do if the company you work for doesn’t have that kind of guidance for you? Well, in that case, the best way out is for you to create your own career plan – a plan that may be more flexible and adjusted to you, but does not mean that it will be easier to execute and achieve your goals.
Building your career plan
When you create your own career plan, you need to keep in mind what you do today (your current job title) and what you would like to be doing or how much you would like to be earning 10, 15, or 20 years from now. With that in mind, you must ask yourself how you can proceed, and what steps you must take, in order for that goal to be achieved. Of course, some answers you may already know, but there are others you may not yet know. And for the “undefined answers”, the solution is to search for more information on the web and rely on professional advice.
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of information available on the web, so maybe your question has already been answered there. The problem is that such answers cannot always be trusted, so it is important to do some serious and in-depth research to be sure that such answers are really sincere. “Don’t believe the first thing you read” is the best rule to follow when your source of information is the Internet.
In addition, a career advisor can help you understand the best path to take to reach your goal. What courses should you study? Which companies have the best opportunities to achieve your goal? How best to introduce yourself to them? What is the expected professional profile of someone seeking such a position? The main advantage of the career consultant is that the greater your experience, the greater the chances of achieving your goal.
So, if you don’t have a career plan, it’s no use simply blaming the company you work for and sitting idly by. You need to run after and do your part!