The GFC may be behind us but the so called ‘two speed economy” has left some with lingering troublesome impacts and others, lucky enough to be unaffected by it, asking, “what GFC?”
Some will act hastily on their new year resolution and hit the job market but often without a well thought-out and written plan, which may be to their detriment…
Where downsizing did hit hard, individuals said good bye to colleagues and found themselves feeling relieved that it wasn’t them but also guilty for surviving the cull. Some have had workloads increase significantly to pick up the slack of lost colleagues with work life balance feeling like an unattainable aspiration. While for others career satisfaction proves stubbornly elusive for which there may be many reasons. This blog explores several proven and sure fire ways of getting on the path towards career satisfaction and highlights that it’s not as hard as you may think…
The summer holidays are also looming and for many this is a time to wind-down on beaches and other places where relaxation and forgetting about life’s stresses become the only priorities. This is also a time to reflect on the year just gone and the one ahead. It is often a time for making a resolution to change jobs: whether it is to craft a solution to a bad boss; lack of career opportunities; boredom or monotonous routine; or a feeling of not being valued financially or otherwise. One thing is for sure, some will act hastily on their resolution and hit the job market but often without a well thought-out and written plan, which may be to their detriment.
Career satisfaction is important to both individuals and organisations. Research points to a clear link between career development and job and employer satisfaction with employee engagement, work performance and retention. Moreover we believe that every individual has a right to career satisfaction and that every organisation has the opportunity to guide and facilitate it. Career development and the pursuit of career satisfaction combined with building positive, effective employer and employee relationships are key building blocks of individual and organisational success.
To sum up, the employment market has never been more complex, offering a myriad of choices and opportunities. For some this is confronting, if not overwhelming, particularly when you consider in the new reality some will transition through up to 5 careers and 20 jobs in their lifetime. The uncertainty of knowing whether you are making the right career decisions is perplexing for many. And on top of this there seems to be so many things to consider for example, work life balance, remuneration, satisfaction, professional and career development to name a few. Sound familiar?
Fortunately there is a solution – effective strategic career planning. Think of it this way, your boss would understandably be concerned if when asked for your business plan, you responded that you didn’t have one, rather opting to make it up as you went along and leaving much to chance! And yet many do exactly this with their careers.
We prefer to think of careers and career planning as choices; not chances, where we can influence, manage and direct the controllable elements. Applying conventional strategic planning methodologies to careers works well. It ensures we define our career objectives and milestones, how we are going to achieve them including identifying target markets, overall marketing strategy combined with short and long term timelines, milestones and specific action plans. No strategic plan would be complete without also identifying key career derailers and mitigation strategies. Planning for navigational change helps to mitigate those risks and importantly capitalise on those unexpected events that appear from time to time in our careers. Examples of where we may need to revise career plans include, changing government policies, a new boss, a shift in the economic environment, a performance review that holds a surprise, a new role with new responsibilities, organisational restructuring, haven’t reviewed your career plan in 2 years.
Self-awareness is a great place to start in preparing your plan and one of the key building blocks. In our experience, individuals that take the time to achieve heightened levels of self-awareness often get the best results. Combining self-awareness with the researching of opportunities are the key ingredients to your plan as these elements guide your career decisions and development requirements in the pursuit of career satisfaction. Your plan will also need to consider marketing yourself to your target audience together with identifying, building and nurturing your networks.
Our approach to long term career development has 2 key components. These are:
1. Career Counselling (Explore & Discover)
- Contextual considerations including managing change.
- Professional Self Assessment & social awareness.
- Research – option exploration, identification and analysis
- SMART Goal setting.
and
2. Career Coaching (Implementation)
- Action planning including allowance for navigational change.
- Employability and enterprise skill development.
- Self-marketing and building your personal brand.
- Review, evaluation and adjustment
Our qualified and experienced career advisors, using our proven career model, can assist individuals to explore and discover their career motivators and goals combined with developing the skills and a written plan to put them on a solid and clearly defined path to achieving their career aspirations. Additionally, our programs assist with the identification and development of risk mitigation strategies to deal with potential career derailers.
It is vital to remember that your plan is not a plan unless it is written down, so commit your career plan to paper. It’s your career and you are entitled to career satisfaction – so why not start planning today?
deliberatepractice is committed to assisting individuals to move towards their career goals and to organisations helping them do it. Contact Greg Smith at greg.smith@deliberatepractice.com.au to learn how our structured and proven career development frameworks can assist you to identify and achieve your career goals and for organisations to assist their employees to realise career satisfaction.