A career is a journey, not a destination. You, therefore, need to carry out some solid career planning to help you move along smoothly. A good plan helps you determine your short and long-term goals. This way, you will be making strategic moves that will help you make incremental gains until you get to your target.
While a career is not static, it pays to have a plan that will keep you in check. BrighterMonday recently held a Facebook Live session with Perminus Wainaina, the CEO and Managing Partner at Corporate Staffing Limited and he had a few tips on career planning, based on his experience.
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Be Ready to Learn and Discover
When most people leave school, they don’t really know what they want to do. Most people leave school and enter into the most available career path and during this time, you should work to know yourself. As noted by Perminus, “I worked in accounts and finance for 6 years and that is when I discovered there is something called HR and it looks like something I can focus on and I pursued it.”
Therefore, you do not have to have it all figured out by the time you leave school. Take your time to discover what you like and where your passion lies. Your plan should have room for learning and self-discovery.
2. Work to Gain Skills
The first step is to work to gain industry-relevant skills. According to Perminus, “If you are in campus or targeting your first job, don’t focus on the money, pay attention to the skills. The money will come later. Right now you are competing with people who have the same training as you. You don’t have skills, you only have training.”
Skills will help you take the next step in your career as you will be able to differentiate yourself from the rest.
3. Know When to Move
Once you know what you want and what skills you have, you can now take the next step. This is where having goals is important. When you are clear on what you want and when you want it, it becomes easy to make strategic career moves. This makes you proactive in your career and thus, you can take control of your career.
Perminus advised, “When you join a job, have goals of what you want to learn. Once you reach your goals, then you can start looking for other opportunities.” This then calls for you to make new goals to help you look for relevant opportunities.
4. Have a Mentor
A mentor who has knowledge in the field that you are in helps you grow by giving you a chance to bounce your ideas off them and consult. A mentor will give you advice and help shape your career path. The advice you get is immense and you can pick out those ideas that can help you. This will help you make fewer career mistakes.
5. Carry Out Your Plan and Review on a Regular Basis
A career plan is not static. Just like anything else, you need to keep evaluating your plans on a regular basis, making plans and then changing where necessary. Make every move a stepping stone to your next level.
Perminus stressed this by saying, “You have to be intentional.”
For more insights on career planning for Perminus Wainaina, watch the Facebook Live session here.
https://www.facebook.com/BrighterMondayKenya/videos/1554799271280441/
