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7 Step Career Plan

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Some people spend years trying to find themselves the right career. Some never make it.

Research confirms in response to the question 'What career are you planning to do?', numerous students replied with the answer 'I haven't got a clue and what's worse is I don't know where to begin.' If that's you, it is perfectly normal and you are not alone.

Careernav is experienced in career advice, career guidance, and career management. Let them show you the way forward to a longer term, directional pathway that plays to your strengths and alerts you to the factors that can derail careers before you get started.

First, let's get rid of some of the misconceptions surrounding career choices;

• Your first job will establish the way the rest of your jobs will result.
• If you don't go straight to university or college, you'll never go.
• You want to be an X because your parents want you to be an X.
• You select one career now and stick to it for the rest of your life.

 Now add some facts; 

And remember these pearls of wisdom;

• A job is different to a career.
• You can always change jobs and careers.
• You can always 'go back to school', even after s long time away.
• You can accumulate as many degrees as you desire.
• You should not worry what other people think.
• You don't have to start your career immediately. If you're burnt out after a tough year 12, then take some time out. You won't get left behind.
• You should let several factors dictate your decision, not just one.

Use the Careernav motto -

DREAM IT. PLAN IT. FUND IT. DO IT.

So, not surprisingly, selecting a career path starts with you.

Step 1: You’ve got to know who YOU REALLY are.

The FULL REVEAL, the TRUTH, no HIDING.

The probability of making the right career choices goes up considerably with increased self awareness.You have two options – a quick quiz or a professional psychometric assessment. The likelihood of making the right career choice goes up considerably with increased self awareness.

Answer the following questions and then ask your parents, your family and your closest friends to answer them as well. These are the people that know and understand you best and will give a realistic answer.

This not the time to give you what you want to hear. You need to know the truth.

There are no right or wrong answers.

Compare your answers with theirs. Using individual words describe your personality.

• What are your three main personal strengths?
• What are your three main personal weaknesses?
• What do you like doing and don’t like doing?
• What activities do you enjoy doing the most?
• Are you more people focussed or more task focussed?
• Are you more of a risk avoider or risk taker?

Many of these questions come from a program called Targeted Selling, by Mike Godfrey CEO of Godfrey and Associates, a proven, an excellent training and consulting company who understand human behaviour. They are used extensively by many well known corporations to train their staff, managers, and business leaders.

Careernav encourages you to learn more about the broad types of personality types you are likely to fit into. Reading Targeting Selling is an essential read for those who want to be ahead of the game.

 OR

If you want a more detailed, more thorough, more accurate assessment of who you really are, then take the cMyOpportunity psychometric assessment offered by Australia’s leading psychometric assessment company  Chandler & MaCleod.

It’s a product developed in conjunction with the Federal Government specifically for senior secondary students. It is an online assessment, takes about 60 minutes with your results being validated and discussed with you by a qualified psychologist.

The cMyOpportunity psychometric assessment is more accurate, more insightful and provides a stronger base to make the most important decision on your life so far.

• It will reveal a lot about you
• Your personality and how to use it to best effect.
• How you think, whether you are better at dealing with abstract or real issues
• Your level of numeracy and how well you communicate.
• Your strengths and limitations.
• Quantify the results and benchmark them against your peers.

A qualified clinical psychologist will review results and then talk you through them. You will then receive 3 reports, one that identifies your strengths, one that suggests what jobs match your results and one that identifies the job of best fit & development.

Check out cMyOpportunity in more detail on www.careernav.com.au/students/discover-yourself

Step 2: Make a long list of Careers.

Now you have decided to pursue a career, let’s get started in the process that culminates in you making an informed choice about a ‘career of best fit’.

Write down your personal goals. People usually work to live, not live to work. Sure you have to enjoy your career but most work to fund their chosen lifestyle.

So make a list of your personal goals and the timeframe you have given yourself to achieve them. The list can include your financial position, accommodation, type of transport, holidays, fashion and accessories, play toys, social outings, hobbies & interests, education, spending money, savings money and so on.

Calculate how much it costs you to live now and potentially 3 to 5 years from now using today’s costs. Your parents will help you with this one or alternatively go to http://www.fido.gov.au/fido/fido.nsf/FIDO%20CalcW?readForm&title=Budget%20calculator. Make a list of careers that interest you for one reason or another. Here are some of the reasons to help select your career;

• You think it would challenge you,
• You are passionate about it
• It matches my hobbies and interests
• It makes good money
• You work with smart people
• You work good hours
• Opportunity for overseas travel or an overseas posting.
• You work outdoors
• You use your hands rather than your mind or vice versa

Read widely and don’t have pre-conceived ideas. You will probably come up with 10 or 12 careers. Gather all the information you can and prepare your long list. Go to the Universities, Specialist Colleges and TAFE. Go to the internet and search relevant articles.

Step 3: The elimination process

Make a list of the criteria that is important to you.

Some of the criteria may be

• Industry must be growing or essential or traditional
• Environmental, humanitarian or economic issues are important
• Good career progression prospects
• Upper end remuneration
• Level of education required
• If I want to change career after 5 years, can I easily use the skills & knowledge I have gained
• International travel prospects
• Am I better suited to an office or outdoors
• Flexible office hours
• Immediate superior I can learn from
• Coaching and mentoring opportunities
• Environment and culture a match to your personality
• Future opportunity to commence your own business
• Continue to add your personal criteria

Rank them in order of importance to you from highest to lowest and place them in Column A of an excel spreadsheet. In colum B give a rating out of 10 to each of the criteria you have chosen. This exercise forces you to make a choice of which is more important to you.

For example: Remuneration might rate a 9 out of 10, International travel a 4 out of 10 and an immediate boss you can learn from rates 10 out of 10.

• Go back over your long list and apply each of the criteria to each career on your ‘long list’  For example if a high salary is important, then cross out those careers with low salaries.  This will cull the list down. Now apply your psyche test results or self assessment results from your Quiz and consider culling those careers you clearly have no strong aptitude for.
• You should now have a shorter list of career options.

 Step 4: Talk to those who know.

Now you ask, ask, ask and hunger for information about the careers remaining. Make a list of insightful questions;

• Ask recent graduates you know
• Talk to career counsellors at school
• Search out career mentors in industry
• Ask successful people in that career what is their secret to success.
• Contact the industry career association.
• Attend different occupational workshops.
• Ask for some work experience in school holidays. Work for NO wages
• Anything you can get your hands on to gain insight into each career.

Talk to your parents and extended family. There is a high probability they know you better than anyone else, so discuss your thoughts openly with them. They want you to have the best education and start in life that they can provide. Ask their advice or even get them involved.

Continue to cull those careers that don’t meet your criteria.

Step 5: Check out the Careernav website.

Fortunately for you, everything is here. Right here at Careernav.

• Crawl all over this site, participate in the programs and you are likely to discover yourself.
• There are up to 150 careers profiled by writers predominately from industry – practical stuff, no theory!!
• We profile 120 professional and 30 para-professional/trades.

Each profile includes:

• General description of the occupation
• What you do every day
• Personality that best fits the career
• Best things about the career
• Worst things about the career
• Education and qualifications you need
• Career progression – from bottom to top, see how your responsibilities change, how long it takes before you get promoted, how much extra you earn and what’s the go with extra study.

• Companies and culture – which markets and companies dominate, what the work environment will be like, the general look, feel and sound of your potential work place.

Step 6: Finalise a short list of two or three careers

Return to the Excel spreadsheet matrix you have started of the factors important to you which you have already ranked. Make sure they are still in the right order in column A on the  left hand of an Excel spreadsheet.

Then in column B review once more the numeric value you have placed on each criteria with a rating out of 10.  Now  write the career options that have so far survived your test along the top columns, allowing two columns per career option.

In column C rate each career option a score out of 10 against each criteria you have ranked according to its importance to you. Now multiply Column B score with Column C score and write the result in the next column as B x C Repeat this process for each career option you are still interested in and total each career to a score out of the maximum criteria you have set for a career i.e. each criteria x 10 then add to a total.

Here is an example of what the chart will look like -

Remember this is your evaluation and perception. It is not a contest with others rather a personal view you have and an expression of which criteria are the most important and how you perceive each career to stack up against them.

The career option with the highest score is NOT necessarily the one you pick as your career. The table above is simply another ‘selection tool’ you can use that forces you to make choices. Use it in this manner.

Now go back over your key criteria and re-evaluate it against your shortlist. Refine it by putting it away for a couple of weeks then drag it out and review with fresh eyes. Ask recent young graduates about how they finalised their choices and how they transitioned, what they got right and where they went wrong.

This process does NOT GUARANTEE you will select the right career. But it will force you to think carefully, seek advice from experts and from those who know you best and make an informed choice.

Step 7: Go with what feels right.

The process above is designed to make you think, evaluative, reach within yourself to find an answer. But your final selection must also ‘feel right’. If it sits comfortably  with you, chances are you should enjoy the career you’ve chosen. If it still feels not quite right, then go back over each step to the specific point you’re concerned about. Spend time there until the doubt is gone.

Some students will select their career without following a more formalised process. As this is probably the biggest decision you have had to make so far in your life, Careernav takes the view you should approach it responsibly and professionally.

Remember 30+% of first year university students change courses, change universities or drop out altogether.  Try not to be one of the 30%.  

8. If it doesn’t feel right, take some time out.

But don’t commence your tertiary course because you feel pressured to do so. Peer group and parental pressure can often influence your decision or even push you into something you’re not ready for.  

If you’re tired and burnt out after a tough Year 12, then take a break from study, a holiday, or even a Gap Year. Do something different, reinvigorate yourself, get out of sitting at a desk watching a computer screen, do something that’s psychical rather than mental. Do it outdoors rather than indoors and do it away from home in a different environment, different, culture, where the air is different and so is the lifestyle.

There are plenty of part time jobs during the December to March period. Work on an island resort, as a landscape gardener, go fishing, be a tour guide, a brickies labourer anything to clear out the mind and begin the psychical and mental rebuilding process.

Take as long as you need to get ready for your next tertiary challenge. Your Year 12 result is good for 12 months and you won’t lose your tertiary spot. If a Gap Year is affordable and of interest, try www.projects-abroad.com.au.

Good luck.