Career Planning
September 24, 1999
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In the past I have written about analyzing your current
job, your job prospects and your career as a whole. You should always
have some idea where you are headed in both life and work. That said,
It is possible to focus on your ideal career so much that you are never
quite happy with what you have. Career planning can be more of an oxymoron
than you might first believe. People often end up in places far different
from their original plans, both better and worse. While you can direct
your career, controlling it proves to be another story.
One example
From my own experience I know that career planning is a lost art akin
to divination and alchemy. I have always had a direction in my career
but life has a way of sending you down curving roads where you can't see
what's around the bend.
If you would have asked me years ago whether I would ever work for The
Walt Disney Company, a mutual fund company and a web site company providing
movie information I would have said no. How could I conceive of working
for Mickey Mouse? How could I know that I would end up working in an Internet
business that didn't even exist when I started college? Life is odd. Life
is capricious. Life is life.
While I may have known I wanted to work in computers when I started my
career it was impossible to know where I would do that. My first job was
working for an early online service dedicated to the music industry. While
I liked this job a lot the company didn't survive. I worked for a mutual
fund company for 1 1/2 years but left to join what I thought was an interesting
startup. After 2 days I found that company to be so screwed up that I
left. I ended up working as a bench technician repairing and configuring
PC's. After 2 months there I got a call from Disney on an old resume.
At this point I was undecided where my career was headed, but clearly
life took matters into its own hands and showed me a path.
After Disney I knew I wanted to get more involved in "The Internet."
I moved to an online company moving into Internet-related areas. The company
abandoned their efforts though so I moved on to become Director of MIS
for a web startup.
Direction, not destination
While it is important to know the direction of your career, trying to
figure out the destination is a fruitless and sometimes damaging game.
Sure, you really want to work at the latest greatest computer company
and you focus your attentions there by sending resumes and trying to make
connections. Don't let that goal sour you on your current position. It
is important to have goals but not when they get in the way of seeing
the good things we currently have.
Rather than focusing on a particular company or position, develop a set
of scenarios. We all have a wide variety of careers that would be equally
satisfying. Satisfaction often depends more on what you are doing in your
job than where you are doing it. Open up your horizons and you just might
find that there are even greener pastures out there then you ever imagined.
Investigate the competitors of your favorite company. Can they offer you
a similar environment or job? Are you drawn to one particular company
even though others offer the same benefits? Emotions can effect your career
planning but they shouldn't be your only guides. Point yourself in the
right direction, but be flexible when you encounter unforeseen roadblocks
and setbacks.
Stepping stones
Consider each job you take as a stepping stone to your number one career
scenario. How does it fit into the plan? Developing the perfect career
takes time. Don't be disappointed if you don't walk into it on the first
day. If you can't get your perfect job with a perfect company, what is
your next best position? How can this position fulfill your needs, both
financially and mentally until you can make the next step?
Adjusting your career plans doesn't mean you have failed. It only means
that you are adapting and insuring that your career continues in the best
direction even though you might not know yet the roads you will end up
taking.
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