Your Career Plan, "It's and Inside Job"

The beginning of the fiscal year is a good time to take out that written career plan that you used for the past year and give it an update for the current year. This is a good practice for all of us, because you can never tell when an unexpected layoff could occur. Who could predict that their company would be purchased, for the intellectual property, and all of the staff laid off. The average American only keeps their job for 3.5 years.

You may pick another time to update your plan, for example on your birthday or after you file your taxes. These are times when we reflect on the state of our lives and good time to update your career plan.

None of us has much control over our manager, the company management or the business environment, but we do have control over ourselves – our own behavior. We can think through our career strategy and attempt to understand what we want from our work. We can maximize the purpose for working and achieve our own intrinsic reward for achieving our goals. Our job may force use to be compliant with rules and norms of behavior, but we have autonomy over our thinking and we can be very creative with our own plan for the future.

Most people perform at their best when they feel that they have purpose and bring value to their organization. However, you may be stuck with an old school boss, who will try to micromanage your work behavior or a company committed to the old “carrot and stick” philosophy, punish perceived laziness or expected avoidance of responsibility. If you have a career plan, that you believe in, you really don’t need validation from your company nor your boss. You can pursue being effective at work regardless of your job title. You can decide to become an expert in your profession and prove it by your work performance and your external activities, such as special interest groups, blogging, or volunteering in non-profits to hone your skills. You really don’t need acknowledgment from your “old school” boss nor your dysfunctional company organization. You will know your intrinsic value without external validation.

You may pick another time to update your plan, for example on your birthday or after you file your taxes. These are times when we reflect on the state of our lives and good time to update your career plan.

Some practical things that you can do right away.

1. Make a list of your accomplishments for the past year. It is always difficult to remember these as time progresses, so keep this list in your inventory of accomplishments.
2. Update your Linkedin profile. There are always changes that you can make. Changed profiles pop up on a recruiters screen as they search for candidates. It is your accomplishments that catch interest, so update you top accomplishments for the year in your profile.
3. Remove your old resume from job search websites, refresh your resume and re-post it on every web site where you have it posted it previously. It is important to remove these older versions of your resume, especially if you are shifting your career strategy.
4. Social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter cannot be ignored for a couple of reasons. If you have an account or your family members have accounts on one of these social networking sites, you have to manage the information posted. If you want to be perceived as an expert in your field, you may use these tools for positing relevant accomplishments via these networks. Make sure that you manage your privacy settings, keep family information separate from your business information. Secondly, these social networking sites are the future of career management. They are evolving rapidly and you need to manage your image or brand. Take charge, you will come off as technically savvy.

It may be obvious that you are facing a job change in the current year. Your industry may be retrenching or it simply is not practical to keep focusing your current job position.

Strategy for change starts with evaluating your current plan and brainstorming possible industries that are expanding and organizations that you admire. You have experience that is valuable and skills that you have honed over time. Identify organizations to research. Write down your strategy, even if it is not perfect.

Not having a written plan is a huge time waster. Not only is it difficult to take inventory of your effort, but people tend to think and rethink their strategy on the fly. This can end up in countless hours of vacillation. Do your critical thinking on paper. Then evaluate your plan by doing research campaigns based on the organizations that you admire. If your plan is written then you can come back, like now, and make changes that are sensible and productive. A thoughtful plan will build confidence, self-esteem, and provide a sense of stability in an otherwise unmanageable work environment.