We understand why it is important to think about professional development and how to prevent typical mistakes when planning a career.
You need to plan your career in order to get to where you want in life.
Wandering in the dark, relying on the theory of probability, is also an option that works on the principle of 50/50. You may or may not be lucky. So is it worth the risk?
If you have not planned in advance when and where you will go on vacation, you will either have an enchanting adventure, or the most terrible vacation of all possible. You will remember both for the rest of your life.
And if an unsuccessful vacation is an annoying disappointment that can be corrected next summer, then a failed career is an irreparable mistake.
In order to realize yourself as a professional and achieve certain career goals, just going with the flow will not work. And even if one day you were lucky by a lucky chance to be in a worthy position and step to a new step on the career ladder, remember that it was an accident that may never happen again. Even worse, the lack of a plan can throw you back a few steps.
No matter how simple and banal it may sound, you have to do it. And the answer can by no means be abstract.
You should honestly answer yourself the question "What do I want from my career?", and not in general terms "I want an interesting job." What do you want at a particular moment, where do you want to go, what do you want to achieve, and what do you need to do for this?
The vague concept of "good work" will not help you, you need to make a list of specific items that are important to you and at this moment in your life:
This list can be continued based on your personal needs and priorities. It is important that the answers are honest and the questions are specific.
Over the course of life, our desires, opportunities and priorities change. And in different periods, fundamentally different factors influence decision-making. At one moment it may be the prestige of the company, the team and the prospects for growth, at another — the banal availability of medical insurance.
Ask yourself questions at every stage of life, choose priorities and focus primarily on them.
You have not been able to formulate a specific question and continue to keep an abstract image of "good and interesting work" in your head. You have to decide what meaning you mean by these words. There is no single true description of a good job, everyone has their own requirements and selection criteria.
Be honest with yourself and don't generalize. Think about what goals you pursue when choosing a company or industry. If it is important to you that the work is interesting, determine what this interest is for you. Are you interested in the people working in the company, your responsibilities, or still the salary that is offered?
Without knowing specific industries, without talking to people working in companies that are attractive to you, you run a very serious risk of falling into the brand trap.
A well-built company image and stereotypes about the fields of activity can mislead anyone. For example, a popular belief: PR people drink champagne at events, have fun and constantly communicate with interesting people. Without knowing the ins and outs, you might think that this is not a job, but a dream. But not everyone understands that between three—hour events there are months of scrupulous and routine preparation, sleepless nights and years of working out the necessary contacts.
In the era of social networks it is a sin to complain about the lack of communication. You can always ask a question to your potential colleagues, find out the specifics of the work and hear what difficulties may await you.
No one has canceled attending industry seminars or webinars — this will allow you to get to know the industry and its representatives better. You will be able to ask questions, make useful connections and understand whether this is what you need or not.
If you are an avid procrastinator and you have problems with self-organization, then you will be looking for a dream job for a very long time. And perhaps unsuccessfully.
First of all, you will have to change the approach to the process. Learn to evaluate your resources and capabilities in order to set adequate deadlines for the performance of certain tasks. Start writing down what you are doing to achieve the goal, what you have already done and what you have not yet started, how much time and effort you have spent on completing each of the points. So you will see what is easy for you, and what comes out only from under the stick.
You made a mistake in your plan. You could have unwittingly deceived yourself by writing down your real goals in the plan, get confused in choosing priorities or determine an inaccurate sequence of steps.
Be guided by your desires and capabilities. Even if everyone is trumpeting that you need a leadership position in a large international company, although you like a small local business where you need to manage several people.
Reconsider your actions and answer the question: why didn't they lead me to where I was going?
