Don’t leave it to chance
You can take control of planning your own career, says Alison Telfer
 Have you ever stopped and thought about
where you’ve got to in your career? You may
have carefully planned every step and
associated development or, like many people,
you may have fallen into jobs without too
much thought. Career decisions are not
always carefully thought through and people
do drift into jobs and even professions only to
encounter what seems like a brick wall later
There usually comes a time when we need to take stock and look at what we must do to
develop our careers. Career counselling can be helpful, but there are things that you can
do on your own.
First of all, try to define what you are looking for in your career. A quote from Alice in
Wonderland is a helpful reminder here: ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, then what
does it matter what road you take?’
If defining what you want from your career seems daunting, define your ideal job or the
key components you are looking for. There are a number of questions you can ask
yourself:
| Your career |
- What do you want from your career?
- How quickly do you want to progress?
- Do you want to work in a particular specialty or area and, if so, why?
- Do you want to stay in a clinical position or move into management?
- Where would you like to work; is location important and why?
- What type of work environment do you want?
- Will you need to take a sideways move or perhaps a backward step to achieve a longer-term aim; are you prepared to do this?
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Then ask yourself what you want from life outside of work. Questions might include:
| Your life outside of work |
- How much time do you want to spend with family, partner and friends?
- How much time do you want or need for outside work activities?
- Is moving to a new location a possibility?
- If you have dependent relatives, what are their needs and how will these fit in with your career goals?
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Then, it’s useful to identify your skills and competencies and highlight your achievements
in relation to them. This will help you decide where you want to go and also help you plan
what development you need to get there. This exercise can also act as a useful audit of
what you have already achieved. Doing this will also be a great help in preparing
application forms, CVs and for selection procedures.
“Manage your career; don’t leave important decisions to chance.”
List your skills and competencies. Underneath each one, identify three achievements in
your life that relate to these. Think of examples and evidence.
The next thing to do is to compare your skills, competencies and achievements against
where you hope to go in your career. This will require some research and you will need to
build on the work you’ve done in identifying your ideal career (or job).
You can use job descriptions and person specifications to help do this if you have a
particular job in mind. You could talk to people working in the area you’re considering to
find out what the job involves, or you could get in touch with people who educate and train
in the work area. There may be literature available that could help too.
Once you’ve done this you may find there are gaps between your skills and competencies
and what you need to succeed in a career in the area you’ve identified. Now could be the
time to look at a personal development plan that goes beyond the needs of your current
work and helps you develop your career.
Talking things through with someone (perhaps your boss) will help you identify the range
of development options and help you manage your career rather than leaving important
decisions to chance.
Alison Telfer is Lecturer in Continuing Education and Training, RCN Institute
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