The Career Planning Process

The Career Planning Process
Taking It Step-By-Step

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay, About.com

What is Career Planning?

Career planning is a lifelong process, which includes choosing an occupation, getting a job, growing in our job, possibly changing careers, and eventually retiring. The Career Planning Site offers coverage of all these areas. This article will focus on career choice and the process one goes through in selecting an occupation. This may happen once in our lifetimes, but it is more likely to happen several times as we first define and then redefine ourselves and our goals.

Career Planning: A Four Step Process

The career planning process is comprised of four steps. One might seek the services of a career development professional1 to help facilitate his or her journey through this process. Whether or not you choose to work with a professional, or work through the process on your own is less important than the amount of thought and energy you put into choosing a career.

Self

Gather information about yourself (self assessment2)
Interests
Values
Roles
Skills/Aptitudes
Preferred Environments
Developmental Needs
Your realities

Options

Explore the occupations3 in which you are interested
Research the industries4 in which you would like to work
Research the Labor Market5
Get more specific information after you narrow down your options by:
Job Shadowing6
Part time work, internships7, or volunteer opportunities8
Written materials9
Informational interviews10

Match

During this phase of the process, you will:
Identify possible occupations
Evaluate these occupations
Explore alternatives
Choose both a short term and a long term option

Action

You will develop the steps11 you need to take in order to reach your goal, for example:
Investigating sources of additional training and education12, if needed
Developing a job search strategy13
Writing your resume14
Gathering company information15
Composing cover letters16
Preparing for job interviews17

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Links in this article:

http://careerplanning.about.com/library/weekly/aa111798.htm
http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/aboutassessment/a/assess_overview.htm
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/exploringoccupations/
http://www.vaultreports.com/hubs/industrylist.jsp
http://www.bls.gov/
http://www.jobshadow.org/
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/internships/
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/occupations/
http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/occupations/a/info_interviews.htm
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careeractionplan/
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/continuinged/
http://careerplanning.about.com/library/weekly/aa050398.htm
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/resumewriting/
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/companyresearch/
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/letters/
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/jobinterviews/

Retrieved on 21 Sep 2008
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