Career Planning Handbook

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I) Why should you Plan Your Career?
Choosing a career is an arduous task, just like every important aspect of our life, planning one’s career is very essential. Career Planning is choosing a job that you would want to work on for the rest of your life. A quote by Harvey Mackay that states -“Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life” holds very true. Being stuck with something you don’t like will make your life miserable and resentful. This makes it all the more important for you to plan your career. Planning a career that is in accordance to your likes, interests and abilities holds more meaning to you and proves useful in the following ways.
1) Doing what you like motivates you to give it your best and helps you grow professionally. Also there is job satisfaction.
2) Since you like what you are doing, you are more likely to give it your all and be the best at the job.
3) Overcoming obstacles will be more challenging rather than a pain when you love what you are doing.
4) Most importantly, having a plan helps you stay focused and grounded to what you want.
5) Planning a career, helps one make adjustments through the various ups and downs that life throws at them, without complaining.


II) Who Should Plan Your Career?
Who should plan your career? Well, this is a very tricky question and the answer to it varies from culture to culture. Parents in many cultures are very worried about their children’s future and consider it their moral responsibility to decide what their child should take up as a career option. Some cultures place a lot of importance only on certain kinds of jobs like engineering, academics and medical sciences. Certain cultures on the other hand follow a hierarchy of family business wherein on attaining a particular age the individual irrespective of his choice is required to carry on this family tradition. Some individuals on the other hand consider it a burden to sit and plan out their career and let their friends, family or acquaintances do it. So who then should plan your career? The most suitable answer to this question would be that, an individual himself/herself should choose a career for themselves with the guidance of their family members who have a good knowledge of the present market or experts. One could always consider the advice given by their acquaintances and family, but ultimately need to make the decision themselves. There is a lot of difference when YOU make the decision for yourself and when someone else makes it for you.


The four major steps towards Career Planning are

I ) Self Assessment

Self assessment involves the four aspects.

a)Values b) Personality c) Skills d) Interests i) Values: The first step in assessing yourself would be to identify values to which you give utmost importance. Values are core detriments that ensure if you would be comfortable with a particular job or not. What do you value most is the question you need to ask yourself. “Do you prefer relaxed and friendly atmospheres than extremely competitive situations”. “Are you are at ease in physically demanding areas” “Do you prefer working individually rather than being in a group” “Do you prefer working in the corporate field where you are require to analyze and conceptualize or do you prefer serving and caring for others”