Clear on where your Career's heading?

Thinking about a change of career? Moving to a different industry, pursuing a different type of job or simply want to progress your career to the next level? Well, what’s your plan?

I regularly get approached by people wanting to progress their career. Unfortunately, most have not thought through the reasons they want to make a change or how they are going to make it happen. So, before you start updating your CV aimlessly, or approach Executive Search firms or network into someone in an industry you are interested in…STOP.

Take some time to sit down and get clear on why you want to make this change, what the change looks like and plan how you will go about it.

Unfortunately, developing a well thought out career plan often only happens when Executives find that their role has been made redundant. If this happens to you, and you’re in a good organisation, you’ll probably be provided access to a Career Transitioning Service and Coach. Or, you may just engage a Career Coach yourself. Now these services are great and I recommend to anyone who is fortunate enough to have access to a service like this to take full advantage of it. You'll have all the tools and support you need and your coach will help you pull it all together.

But if you don’t have access to a Career Coach, you can still lay down the foundations to build yourself a career plan and own the actions to make it happen. Here’s some simple tips to get you started:

1.      Set out your Career Objectives.

Start by describing where you want to take you career. There may be more than one step needed to achieve your career objective so write them down and put some time frames around them.

2.      Specify your strengths and development areas.

We all have strengths and development areas. Get out all of your 360 feedback, Leadership Profiles, Performance Reviews etc. You don’t need any more...make use of the ones you’ve got. Write down your strengths and development areas, particularly those that support your career objectives. 

3.      Think about the types of roles that will enable you to achieve your career objective.

Write down the roles you are targeting that will enable you to achieve your career objective. There may be more than one role depending on the steps between where you are now and your ultimate career objective. Describe the features of each role identified, is it a specialist role or leadership role, how many people does it lead, do you need P&L responsibility, who will these roles report to etc. Getting clear on the role and its scope, along with your strengths and development areas, helps you chart the course to achieve your objectives.

4.      Write down your achievements that build the case to support your career pathway.

State your achievements showing your suitability and readiness for the roles you’ve identified. Be specific about what you achieved and support it with metrics.

5.      List the Industry Sectors that will enable you to achieve your career Objectives.

You may be clear on the Industries that will support your career objectives already. If not you will need to do some research to determine which industries can provide you a pathway to achieve your career objective. 

6.      Describe the characteristics of the type of organisation and leadership that gets the best out of you.

This is about the size of the business. Is it a multi-national, Public, Private, Listed or NFP etc.? What type of culture you enjoy working in? Describe the type of leader that gets the best out of you?

7.      Identify the companies in those industries that will provide the pathway your career objectives.

A great opportunity to research and identify companies that fit with the requirements you've crafted above.

8.     What locations would you consider working in?

Where are you prepared (or not prepared) to work? For example, are you seeking to work in an overseas location, do you want regular travel, would you prefer a CBD Head Office, are you prepared to work or live Interstate? These are important considerations you need to be clear about.

9.      Assess the Risks and identify the Opportunities.

Assess the potential risks and likewise, opportunities associated with the pathway you are choosing. What’s the future hold for the Industries you’ve identified, are their any changes on the horizon for companies you’re targeting and what are the likely impacts?

10.  Be clear on Reward and Benefit Expectations.

What remuneration and benefit arrangements are you seeking?

11.  Who are the key influencers in the Industries and Companies you are targeting?

Now you need to work out who you need to talk to in the target companies or industries that you’ve identified to help validate your research and increase your understanding of opportunities or the experience required to transition into the sector? At the same time making your interest and capability known to people who are decision makers should any opportunities become available.

12.  Who is in your network that is associated with the Industries or Companies you’ve targeted; or is connected to someone who is?

Connections. List down your network connections and map them against the key influencers you identified. Are there people in your network who have connections with key influencers you need to meet, or are they connected to people in their network who have connections into the influencers you need to meet?

13.  Now update your CV.

Now that you've put the time in and got clarity, you can reflect your career objectives, achievements, strengths, capabilities etc. into your CV to support your career transition plan.

14.  One Final Tip.

Revisit this career plan each year, keep it relevant and keep it current along with your CV.

If you follow these steps and document your thinking you'll have laid a great foundation for your career plan and you are ready to get started. You'll have focus, purpose and clear intent on where you want to get to and why. Enabling you to clearly articulate your value proposition and career goals to the people you need to network into and get in front of. AND, you have a comprehensive checklist to assess the fit of the organisations you connect into so that you can make sure they are aligned to the requirements YOU identified in your career plan.

Good luck.

If you'd like any help or just need a quick sounding board, reach out and get in touch with me. I'd be more than happy to catch up over the phone (0400175821) or schedule a coffee for a 30 minute chat.