Career Planning - article by Good English Article Sites

Career planning in today's world: You may be doing it the rest of your life!

Sometimes, careers fall in your lap. You take a job, do well, you're promoted, and before you realize it, you've been working in the field for twenty years. You may not have had any fondness for the field when you started, but were just happy to get work. Nonetheless, you might have have done well in the field simply because you have all the abilities and personality characteristics that tend to produce good work. You may have even taken classes in the field to keep your job. On the up side, through those classes, you gained the knowledge to assume greater responsibilities and get promotions. This is how a career may have just 'settled' on you. In the middle of your career, when you begin to ask if you're really happy in your work, you may well just shrug your shoulders and tell yourself it doesn't matter now, it's just too late to change. Some of us never do career planning. To some of us, careers just come.

Others, starting young, although age is not a determinate, intentionally choose the work we'll be doing for the rest of our life, and engage in career planning to map our way to our highest hopes, potential and ambitions. Our selection of the field we'll work in will first be motivated by the work we enjoy, the work that would allow us to realize our potential. We may choose the field because the abilities and personality characteristics of a worker in that field matches ours, and, through that field we are able to do what we do best. Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, said a person should do what they do best, for then what they do will be done well and the good work will be rewarded as we expect. Whatever field you choose, choose one for which you have some love.

Once you've chosen your field, research your prospects thoroughly. Learn what jobs are available in the field and what skills, training, and education are required for each. Which jobs lead to higher jobs, jobs with more pay and responsibility? When career planning, you should try to get some direct observation of the work and the workers in your chosen field. Ask the workers how long they've been doing it and ask yourself if you'd truly be happy that far down the road. Know what you're getting into before you begin your career planning.

Career planning is planning for your success, but what you consider success is not necessarily reaching the top position in the field. Vice President of Information Technology may be the top position in the Information Technology field, but if you're a programmer who loves programming, you're not going to be very happy dealing with the administrative matters all V.P.s must tolerate. Perhaps shooting for Chief Software Engineer will be your greatest possible fulfillment as a programmer and you're happy to go with that career for the rest of your life.

Career planning is not fantasizing, but serious business. Your career planning will result in what you may be doing for the rest of your life.

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