Career Tools

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The Career Planning Process
5 Most Common Barriers to Career Planning
To be successful in work search, you need to ......
Ways to identify your skill strengths

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The Career Planning Process

Step 1. Self Information:
                    Interests, skills, values
                    Financial needs, health
                    Lifestyle, family situation
                    Level of education, training

Step 2. Identifying Alternatives:                                    Identify at least 12 alternative because you
                    Your ideas or those of others                        will lose some in the researching stage.
                    Paper Exercises

Step 3. Researching:
                    Using printed materials
                    Interviewing people
                    Volunteering, job shadowing
                    Labour market information
                    Library
                    Internet                                                        Sometimes here, after the research is done
                                                                                       you find you have nothing left you like, and
Step 4. Deciding:                                                            have to go back to Step 2.
                    Decision Making styles
                    Methods of evaluation
                    Self information matched with research

Step 5. Action Planning:
                    Identifying and defining the steps needed to achieve the goal

More help with career planning here.

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5 Most Common Barriers to Career Planning

FEAR OF FAILURE:
Nothing worthwhile is achieved without some risk.

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN:
Investigate - make it the known!

PROCRASTINATION:
Start with small steps.

LACK OF SUPPORT:
If no family support, seek it from friends or community resources.

RELUCTANCE TO PLAN:
Easy solution : Plan!

You need accurate information about yourself
- who you are
- what you want in your worklife

You need accurate and up to date information about the world of work.

More help with career planning here.

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To be successful in work search, you need to ......

- educate yourself as to work realities - to ensure your marketability
- have an awareness and understanding of the external economic situation
- know the trends in the workplace
- have self awareness
        - what do you care about?
        - what gives your life meaning?
        - what engages you and keeps your interest?
Only by knowing yourself will you be able to make the decisions that reflect your most important values and concerns.

Doing work that is not suited to you doesn't make you feel good
        - you feel unproductive
        - unhappiness and depression set it
        - it is much more fatiguing than well suited work

More help with Job Search here.

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Ways to identify your skill strengths

1. Brainstorm on all the things you've done, both paid and unpaid

2. Do a skills analysis of the jobs your had, and other things you've done.  What were the duties and responsibilities?  List the skills required for each.

3. Think about things you've done that gave you the most feeling of satisfaction

4. Look at yourself through the eyes of a stranger.  I someone who doesn't know you at all were to follow you and watch what you did for several days, what positive things would that person notice about your abilities, your work habits, attitudes and the things you enjoy and do well?

5. Ask people you know well and who are familiar with the world of work help identify your skills, what would they tell you?  Often family are not the best people to ask, but ask friends, teachers, previous coworkers etc.  Write down everything they say, then look for patterns.

6. Use word lists to help identify your skills

How many skills does the average person have?

500-700, many of them are so natural to us, that we don't even think of them as skills.  Think of the things you do that your friends and family don't do, or don't do well.  This could well be a skill that you have.

Out of every single activity you do, you can identify skills.  Write down a list of what things you do, then  make a list of skills from each one.

More help with Resumes, Interviews, Career Planning and Job Search here.

For more free tips and articles, visit our Blogs:

Work-Jobs-Careers Blog - tips on job search

Interview  Blog - tips on how to ace that interview