You can increase your probability of success by approaching your career with the right mind-set. Career planning isn’t a onetime event; it’s a continual process that has to be actively managed over a lifetime. At each step, you need to ask yourself: What can I do next that will maximize my options in the future?
Takeaways
1. Don’t try to formulate one trajectory for your career. Instead, think of your career as a series of steps–with you gaining knowledge and skills at each step.
2. Assess your own characteristics, skills, and preferences when considering a job or career change. Be honest about what’s important to you.
3. Research your desired careers in various ways: interview people in the field, attend conferences, and read related articles.
4. Look carefully at external demand before focusing on one career or industry. Does the world want many more people in this profession?
5. When making each step along your career path, try to maximize the number of options you will have for your next step.
6. Don’t overspecialize too early. Choose jobs that will teach you skills that will transfer to other careers.
7. Pick a job that will teach you how to lead, how to operate in different types of organizations, or how to navigate another country’s business environment.
8. You may have to accept an unpleasant intermediate step in order to reach your ultimate Career Aims.
9. Revise your goals annually throughout your career; that will help you identify the right time to move forward or stay where you are.
10. In order to have an active retirement, get involved with local organizations and try out new activities while you’re still working.
* Source: Extreme Productivity by Robert C. Pozen