How to develop a Career Strategy

With a good career strategy you can manage your own career and tailor your development needs as and when you require them.

In the event of changing jobs, redundancy or career break, with a strong career strategy you can be clear about what steps you need to take to rejoin the labour market at the right level and in the right job.

You can set your career strategy at any time and the earlier on in your career you start the better it will be. In addition, your strategy may change over time, however it is better to have a plan than to be without one.

How do you make a career strategy plan?

From an early age no doubt you have been asked, what do you want to do when you grow up, leave school, university etc.  Your answer will depend on a number of things.  The most important things to think about are what do you enjoy, what interests you and obviously, what are you good at.  Along with family traditional occupations, these will influence your decisions for secondary and further education.

The more you understand yourself, what is important to you and what options you have, the sooner you can create a clear career strategy.

Recognising your values, skills, interests and knowledge will help you identify possible careers or areas that match your strengths and your level of education and training.   A personal understanding of your career aspirations means you can access lists of possible careers or areas of work that appear to match your strengths and will help you develop your weaknesses.

Part of the journey in mapping your future so you can land the perfect job is to have a concrete career strategy and part of this strategy is to identify your goals and to investigate ways to go about achieving them. Setting a goal within a specific sector allows you to target organisations, academic institutions and work experience accordingly.

To help you clarify your career strategy you need to set goals and make a plan. This plan should be a list of:

• Your current objectives for the future.

• What you need to do to achieve your objectives.

• Ideas about who or what could help you achieve your objectives or where to find help.

• A clear picture of what action you need to take, what you have to do to meet your objectives with target dates.

Your career strategy needs to be SMART* and along the lines of:

1. Where are you now?

• Do you know where you are  in your career?

• What are the areas of my expertise and how can I use them?

• Where do my career interests lie?

• What are your future aspirations?

• Are  you happy in current career but looking for more challenges?

2. What is your mission and vision?

• Mission statement needs to be clear, concise and informative with action verbs

• Vision statement describes where you want to go and what you want to become

• Your vision needs to be real and long-term

3. Goals and Objectives

• With your vision in place, set your goals and objectives

• Goals dictate your decisions and choices to make your dream come true

• Objectives are the statements that relate to how you reach your goal

• Actions and a time frame need to be added

4. What does a SWOT analysis look?

• For every part of your career strategy plan you need to understand who you are and where you want to be.

• Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors reflecting who you are

• Opportunities and threats are the external factors and things that you might need to overcome to be successful

5. What critical factors will help your success?

• These are the skills and resources you need to achieve your goals

• They may be people who can help you, skills you need to develop or different roles to sample in different organisations

• Training courses and additional reading should all be included here

6. Summary of your career strategy plan

• This is for your personal use only and should change after you achieve each objective and are nearer each goal

• It provides all the information as an overview in a condensed for,

• When going to interviews, reread your summary of the strategic plan and take it with you.

• Demonstrate you are a focused, serious and motivated candidate for the ideal position.

Good luck and much success

A SMART career strategy plan means :

• Specific – pinning down your aims will help you to be clear about what action to take.

  Measurable – being able to see and measure your progress will help you to set further goals.

  Attainable – setting small, achievable tasks will encourage you to progress and will build towards your larger goals.

  Realistic – being realistic about what you can achieve is important in making progress. There is no point setting yourself career aims which do not match your abilities, qualifications, interests and personality.

  Time-bound – setting yourself a time scale for each part of your Action Plan will help motivate you to make progress. Being realistic here is important too.

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