Over the past decades, most people believed that after graduating from their college or university, they would get a job in a company and stay there for the long haul. They also thought that they would remain in this company for most of their working lives and under the supervision of one employer who would not change—resulting in a lack of guidance to develop their personal and professional skills or thinking of career management skills to achieve this.
Nowadays, working life has become more flexible, and these expectations have become rare. The majority of employees expect to move from one job to another according to the exigencies and conditions of life they face. It makes it more difficult to find a suitable job that suits the aspirations of many. It became necessary for individuals to make more effort to manage their work and professional lives.
In general, people no longer need skills to apply through just one employer. Instead, they need skills to achieve a meaningful and fulfilling career for themselves. They also need to plan for their personal and professional development, called career management skills.
Planning and Career Management
You need career management skills to control and manage your career journey. It includes:
- Planning your career, setting goals and objectives.
- Develop a strategy for your career.
- Develop and implement an action plan, including developing the skills required to succeed in your chosen profession.
- Evaluate your progress against your goals.
This planning and management process will naturally be familiar to anyone who has ever done any learning and training, especially one that involves an element of personal development. It’s a fairly standard process, but it’s also essential.
You can move on with your life and hope to take advantage of the available opportunities. However, without focusing on updating and improving your skills and especially the gaps in them, your career opportunities are likely to become fewer and fewer. Furthermore, you may reach a point where you start thinking, “I wish I were able to do this-and-so…”.
In your career, it is you who create your opportunities
It enables you to think about where you want to be and become. You can achieve this by planning, setting goals, working on how to achieve them, and taking advantage of more opportunities.
To create your opportunities in your career, you must be aware of some of the following:
1. Develop your general skills
Several skills are helpful in any profession, such as good communication and interpersonal skills. These skills are not job-specific and tend to be about how we relate to others or our personalities, and these are transferable skills or employability skills.
Suppose you don’t know where to start developing your career. In that case, it is best to begin developing general skills because it will give you a reasonable opportunity regardless of how to work with them. These general skills are easy to acquire from external work situations or even through social interactions and relationships only.
2. Develop your professional skills
Many professions and fields of work require specific and specialized skills. For example:
- Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants must pass professional exams and may study for many years to develop their professional skills and knowledge.
- Business and crafts may require specialized skills acquired through professional practice or training.
- It may be easier to access other jobs if you have vocational training. For example, you could run your own business without a qualification, but it may also be easier to get a job in this field if you qualify. Without qualification, it is necessary to have more experience to prove that you can do the job.
- Certain jobs may also require specific skills. For example, it is easy to get a marketing job if you have social media marketing knowledge and experience.
3. Develop your employability skills
No matter how good your general or job-specific skills are, it would be best if you also were employed (getting a job). The skills required to do this include:
- Writing a CV
- Applying for a job
- Write a cover letter
- Effective use of technology websites that offer jobs
- Interview skills
In writing or person, the way you present yourself is vital to getting a job, and it can also affect personal interactions in your work life and outside work. Therefore, it is best to take the time to consider the impression you want to convey and how well you look and act to do so.
Planning or not Planning?
It is not necessary to have a strict plan for every career step. Sometimes, the most successful professional activities occur spontaneously, perhaps from an opportunity meeting or conversation. It is vital that you are flexible enough to take advantage of these opportunities as they arise. However, it would be best to plan appropriately to acquire the necessary skills to take advantage of these opportunities. Therefore, it is helpful to think in advance from time to time about the opportunities that you want skills you may need to obtain these opportunities.
Of course, as you advance in your chosen career, you will also learn more about yourself and what you love to do. Your view of your preferred opportunities may change, and thus your developmental needs may change.
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