How to Start Formulating Your #Career Strategy

Part 2 of our series on career management. 

  
We have been exploring what is career management, with a view to helping individuals devise their own career management strategies.

Previously we identified the elements of career management as:

The First Step Is To Define The Elements Of Your Career Strategy

 The Next Steps:

In the spirit of owning and shaping your personal career strategy it is necessary to do some preparation work up front. This helps to ensure that you get the most effective career management strategy possible. Give some thought to the first things you will need in order to begin to define your career strategy. I would suggest the following:

• Interests
• Values
• Goals
• Drivers
• Vision/Career Direction 

Break Down The Components of Your Career Strategy

Below are some ideas to get you started, it is not an exhaustive list. Do ask yourself the questions and answer them honestly - you may surprise yourself by getting different answers than you expected!


Interests:

• Does the content of any job need to be aligned to your own interests?
• Are you already interested in a particular sector/industry?
• Will the job/career you are considering allow you to follow/continue to follow your own interests?

Values:

• What is important to you in general - what makes you tick?
• What values are you seeking in an employer?
• When considering an employer is a particular brand or market position important?
• Is being able to make a difference important to you?
• Do you need to feel valued through pay and benefits?
• Do you value family and work-life balance? Is flexible working essential?

Goals:

• What is important to you right now?
• What is your most important priority?
• Where do you want to be in x time?
• What outcome are you seeking in this situation?

Drivers:

• Do you need autonomy?
• Are you a decision maker?
• Are you motivated by recognition for having specialist expertise?
• Do you want to be a people manager?
• Are you highly creative?
• Are you highly competitive and thrive on a challenge?

Vision/Career Direction:

• Are you ambitious? What career progression do you want or need?
• Do you want to work towards a management or more senior management position?
• What size company do you want to work for?
• Are you risk taker or do you seek job security?
• What about geographic location?
• What personal/career development do you want or need?
• Do you see yourself swapping careers at any point?
• Do you want to run your own business?

Still unsure about a career strategy? How about discussing some of the above with friends and family? They know us so well, so are often great at helping shape some ideas. 

Hopefully that's given you a few ideas for a starting point. In Part 3 we will be discussing skills, experience and growth and the role they have to play in a personal career strategy.

Good luck with developing your personal career strategy. If you require any help and advice we can be contacted at Help With Formulating a Career Strategy

Is Your Career On The Go Slow? Why Not Consider Coaching or Mentoring

What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?

Coaching or mentoring is not just about career progression with a view to getting a new job or promotion - although clearly it can prove beneficial for that purpose. They are also valuable tools for personal development, ensuring you are not overtaken by your peers. The two processes enable individuals to enhance and grow their skills, ensuring they remain current. It can be an equally valuable exercise for both mentor and mentee.

However often people use the terms coaching and mentoring interchangeably as if they are the same things. They are not! They are in fact 2 different tools. So what is the difference between them?

What Is Coaching?

• The coaching relationship is generally short term in duration.
• It is aimed at enhancing individual performance and growing skills.
• It provides a more immediate approach, with regular meetings focused on a specific targets or area(s) of development.
• Coaching provides feedback on both strengths and development areas.

 e.g. you start a new job and you are unsure how to operate a specific computer system or unsure how to apply company processes. You may shadow another colleague who will work with you to support and enhance your learning. Within 2 months you gain a full understanding of the system and processes and so the specific coaching relationship ends.
 
So What Is Mentoring?

• Mentoring is more of an ongoing relationship which can last a long time.
• It is a trusted relationship focusing on career development.
• Meetings are more informal and less structured and often only happen when there is a specific need.
•  The mentor is usually more senior (but not always) and passes on their experience.
• The agenda is set by the mentee depending on the specific career support they feel they need. 

e.g. your career aspiration is to move to a new role but you know it involves a lot of influencing and stakeholder management. You have strong competencies but you recognise that stakeholder management is a development area for you. You therefore proactively identify a colleague who has excellent stakeholder management skills and you meet informally over coffee for a year. They provide you with valuable support. It is a mutual exchange, but you drive the meetings by identifying scenarios you want to discuss. 

I also liked these 2 a articles on mentoring Mentoring a 2 Way Street from @HandleRecruit and Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help As You Climb The Career Ladder from @GuardianCareers

Don't put your career on the go slow, consider how coaching or mentoring could help you and just go for it! Good luck.

Lifelong Career Management

I liked this article from Careerealism http://www.careerealism.com/career-management-process/ It dovetails nicely with our earlier posts on developing a personal career management strategy; and encouraging career choices and talent management at an early age in schools.  

What I particularly liked is the reference to career management being a life-long exercise. We will be exploring taking ownership for your own career management in later posts

What Does Career Management Mean to You?

Part 1 of our series on career management. 

In the coming weeks we are going to be exploring what is career management, with a view to helping individuals devise their own career management strategies.

  

Recently on LinkedIn I ran a poll on what others associated with career mentoring. 

The results were as follows:

50% wanted help to formulate a career strategy 

20% wanted help in establishing what is important to them in driving their career

20% were seeking help and support with job applications  

10% wanted help to identify a career direction in terms of role/sector

This led me to thinking that the components required for an effective career strategy was probably a good topic to launch our blog.  

I particularly liked the picture above which got me thinking about what to consider for an effective career strategy. Other factors I thought of were:  

• Contribution 
•  Knowledge 
•  Perseverance 
•  Responsibility 
•  Growth 
•  Potential 
•  Performance 
•  Development 
• Training 
•  Ability 
•  Management 
• Experience 

I have clustered these component parts loosely as follows and will cover them in future posts

More information about career mentoring can be found here