Do You Know How Far Your Career Can Take You?

Do you know how far your career can take you? The desire to stay  with the same company for life is becoming rare and rare by the day, and this create fear in the minds of some people because they are not sure of what is likely going to them in their place of work in the nearest future. 

If you’re working in a place but don’t know what is likely going to happen to you concerning your work, then maybe it’s time for you to take time out, sit back, and have a rethink of how to plan your life.

It’s common at times for you to find that you’ve got into your job through a series of coincidences and each one of them is taking you a little further away from where you were aiming to go when you started. There is simply a huge gap between the jobs that people get and the jobs they wanted. 

No-one aspires to work at a paper company, but someone’s got to do it. This may happen beyond your widest imagination, but notwithstanding, you are there right now. Once you’ve been there a few years, you suddenly realize that your only options are to either move sideways into a similar job somewhere else, or move upwards in the hierarchy and become a manager.

So what exactly do you want to do. The answer is to finally prepare answers to yourself that most elusive of questions: what do you want to be doing five years from now? Ten? Twenty? If the answer isn’t “what I’m doing now” or “I want to be a high-level manager”, then what you need is drastic action. You need to sit tight to plan how to get to where you aspire to be in the next five years.

What you might not realize, though, is that forging out a career path isn’t as difficult as you might think. If you can free yourself from the day-to-day struggle to survive by living below your means for a year or so and accumulating some savings, you suddenly have some time to get where you want to be in the job market. Whatever your ambition is, the chances are that there’s an entry-level job going somewhere, or a community of enthusiastic amateurs.

If it’s really what you’ve wanted to do all your life, then it should be as simple as getting started and getting noticed. And if it doesn’t work out, then you’ve always got the other job to fall back on. Whether you succeed or fail, it’s always better to try, and it’s not as hard to do as you think.

Take the plunge today by deciding on what you want to do. Do everything within your means to work towards getting to your dream. And, have a strong believe in yourself that you can do it. Think about if you don’t want to leave but you are fired at the end of the day, what are you going to do?

Plan. Plan. And, Plan.

Plan today, for a better tomorrow.

Thank you.

Activity Plan for Those Who Lost Their Jobs

The fear of loosing one’s job as always being overwhelming for every intelligent person due to both physical and psychological effects it can have in one’s life . 

But the real experience is not a tragedy, because no matter how great the loss may be to you, there is still room for improvement. The skilled psychologists advice that you should not fall into a perpetual state of depression, but to work your way out of this dreadful situation. 

 Everything depends on the level of motivation. There are two possible options for people that changed their status to unemployed: the options are either to continue searching for an alternative job within the sphere of your former employment, or to start looking for job in a new fields you have not worked before. 

 Remember the choice is yours to make and how meticulous you are about this will determine how fast you come out of this problem.

 If you feel like you want to continue working in the same sphere, you may decide to started with the simplest decision of calling or visiting the competitors’ company. In order to be attended to within the shortest possible time, I would advice you not to follow the normal procedure of submitting your resume to the personnel department, but contact the authority involved directly, as you try to offer your services in a very polite manner. 

All a good boss has to know about a future employee is professional knowledge and expertise. Tell him about your professional experience, education, special qualities and skills possessed as well as those features that will facilitate you as a worker to improve your service considerably and professionally, thereby strengthening the great impact you can contribute to the company’s progress.

Be certain to stay business-like and try to notify your future employer only about what he/she has to know. You need to remember that any previous failure of yours can be used as an argument to reduce your cost at the job market. 

 According to the statistics, those who change their places of employment have more chances to be promoted than those who work there all their lives. The results of the research show that those who change work have more chances to be promoted than those who work in one company all their lives. Look for a place in spheres you feel comfortable with. If you get stressed out because of the recurrent strain and noise in a big company, look for a place in smaller ones. 

 Another statistics shows that employees of the smaller, but fast growing companies get to the top of a career ladder earlier than those who get disoriented among thousands of employees in a big company. If no one of the mentioned above options work for you, start looking for a part time job. 

 You have to understand that proposals will not be piling up in front of your door; you have to hunt for them. There is nothing more of great importance than an ability to cover the bills. In this case all the possible variants are suitable. 

 You can get a part-time job from a service provider or get employed by a company in terms of a contract. This is a suitable way for big companies to manage the process. The employer is responsible for the project and works on it from the start to the state of completion.  This way you will have time to find a good full-time job.

 Part-time job gives you an opportunity to cover your bills. In this case it doesn’t really matter if the job you are going to take part-time participation at is related to the field where you have previously worked. Be sure not to incorporate this employment in your resume unless it really contributes to your list of skills.

 Thank you.

 

WHO AM I?

Having a greater knowledge of what one’s capability is, is one of the prerequisites of eventful living.  The act of asking insightful questions like this will undoubtedly open a wide vista for an individual to plan for whatever  he/she is aspiring to achieve in life. 

If you are able to ask yourself this question as often as possible, this will give you the opportunity of knowing “who you were, who you are and what you stand to become in future”.

Asking this question is a clear indication that you are a dreamer, who knows what stands your way of becoming someone great in life.

Who am I? is a question that gives you purpose of life, direction, vision and goals to what is achievable for every trying soul. As an individual you should cultivate the habit of asking yourself this leading question to serve as guide in your life engagement. Asking this question alone is not going to give you the required information needed to succeed in life but by providing answers to the question asked.

Provision of right answers without begging the question will go a long way in giving you insight of what the future holds for you. Begging the question involves not giving direct answer to the question or procrastinating away your time without any definite direction. DON’T DO IT!!!

Another aspects to take cognizance of are the likely skills that you are going to develop by asking yourself this question and answering it accordingly. 

The skills are Academic skills, Thinking skills, Interpersonal skills, Teamwork skills, Technical skills, Communication skills, Proper workplace behaviour,  effective performance and productivity disposition, good work ethics, obedience to rules and regulation, among others. All these will guide you  to your goals and objectives set to achieve in life.

• Academic skills will prompt you to work hard by facing your study as expected  of you (in as much you have goals you are targeting in life)
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• Thinking skills will propel you to think critically and positively before you embark on any job or disposition. By doing this you will be able to weigh the pros and cons of your action before doing anything at all
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• Interpersonal skills will make you relate with people with regards and respect for their personality. This on the other hand will open a new vista for you because people will love you for whatever you are doing and will be ready to assist you  when you need help. Empathy and positive regards is a virtue that everybody supposed to cultivate towards their fellow human being.
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• Teamwork skills involve thinking about any joint decision that has  to do with group work. Don’t isolate yourself from others, believe that “there is no I in group work”. Everybody has its own relevance in group work and you must understand this fact. This will assist you in developing good communication skills.
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• Ø  Communication skills involve ability to communicate effectively to bring about positive results. Good communication skills can go a long way getting message across to your fellow human being without any problem.
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• Proper workplace behaviour is another opportunity you can derive while developing yourself to meet up with the challenges of purposive lifestyle, when you ask yourself a probing that can prompt you to go extra mile to be an achiever.   
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•  Having developed all these virtues will make you understand and exhibit good work ethics. Good work ethics involve working towards setting and achieving corporate goals. Understand and stick to assignments until the results are achieved. You will also imbibe the habit of loyalty to your organisation. 
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 Ask yourself this question, provide answer to the question and look out for people of high integrity and fashion your life alongside the way they fashion theirs in a way that are profitable to them. Look out for how to improve yourself on daily basis. Do your best and pray for God’s guidance.

Build your tomorrow, Build your life, Build your Future; because there is no destination called FUTURE! It starts NOW!!!

On a final note, take enough rest and be cheerful.  

The importance Of Career Planning in Today's Turbulent Times

The Importance Of Career Planning in Today's Turbulent Times

The career planning process involved the ability to guide against the negativity that may occur at any particular point in time in an individual’s career path, which may undermine or prevent reaching the set objectives in an individual’s life. 

However, the current situation in the world economy especially the aftermath of global economic recession has made it very compulsory to be cocksure of the career planning process one is engaging in in order to meet up with the current challenges in the world of work. 

It is clearly evident nowadays, that what you were taught in school no longer applies to the job-searching skills needed in today’s market.  The rules have changed from the resume to the interview and conditions of work.   Don’t be caught with an “objective statement” on your resume, or asking the interviewer questions you should have researched on the web on your own.

  

Here are some hot tips for being a savvy career planner:

 Firstly, identify your top competencies, strengths, demonstration situations, and high-point stories. You need to know that different behaviors for different jobs are needed.  Today there are sophisticated career planning assessments on the market to help you identify your ideal work environment. It is important for you to become very familiar with your strongest skills.  Then, whether it is a resume, a job application, or a job interview, you’ll be able to articulate them succinctly and professionally.

Secondly, identify your competitive advantage – the single most important job search skill is your ability to communicate what you can do for a company!  When the hiring manager believes that you can help solve the type of problems they face, you dramatically increase your chances of being offered the job.  The fact is, companies will hire someone when they believe that the person will bring more value than they cost.

Thirdly, you should sell yourself using high-point stories and demonstrating your skills through examples such as your contribution towards solving a particular when you’re in college or your former place of work. Your accomplishments or achievements can be identified in your demonstration situations.  

Using accomplishments in your letters, resumes and interviews give a convincing picture of you in action.  Employers today want doers.  Not somebody that will promise to achieve what they cannot if given all the necessary incentives. 

Your high point story should illustrate a contribution that you made to something that had positive outcomes that you know if an opportunity to be given the job is handed to you, will no doubt be beneficial to the company must also be talked about.

the points listed above and many more will give you direction on how to channel your job-securing opportunities. Be meticulous about everything you need to stay away from as well and you are definitely on the right track to getting a job.

I wish you good luck,

Please kindly drop in your feedback to know more about how this post has added more value to you, 

Thank you

Guide to The Best Option In Career Decision Making Choice

Guide to The Best Option In Career Decision-Making Choice

How does one decide the best option in career decision-making choice? How does one decide and take a decision that may shape life excellently or doom it forever? It is not as if nobody has the right or opportunity to choose their own vocations. 

Circumstances decide the way things will go. But it is true that many people when asked will say that they would prefer a different job or career of their own taste and liking.

Most people now have a formal education before they step into the real world where each one is to his own. Careers start at a very junior level. There are very few people who actually start at the top. 

They either inherit or are extremely brilliant. You may consider artists. Art is considered by most of us a hobby. Very few venture from the beginning to become artists for a living, since it is well known that an artist might take years before his work is recognized and gets some value. Till then they are non-entities and have to depend on some other vocation for their living.

Many times careers are decided by an individual’s belief in his/her capability. Bill Gates left Harvard to co-found Microsoft.  If he had continued at Harvard, he might not have reached where he is today. He might have gone the conventional way of taking up the best job offering a good salary. Instead, he pursued his natural talent in software. I needn't talk further about him. People actually take up jobs and see how they come up with the same. It has been seen in many cases, where executives keep on flitting between different jobs and departments and ultimately take up something else which is very different from what they started with. It’s this experimentation which helps them discover their natural talent. People learn about their own temperament with experience. They slowly move towards their goal. Very few are able to transform their avocations into their vocations.

People with determination try and succeed wonderfully in their own interests and work. Kalpana Chawla, the astronaut on the ill-fated Columbia, nursed a wish to fly into space and become an astronaut. Scientists like Einstein and Edison with their independent thinking and research reached a position that is unrivaled. Abraham Lincoln chose politics and social work as his line and after numerous failures, became one of the most revered Presidents of the US. Gandhi and Martin Luther King chose the path of social change. They pursued their hearts and achieved their goals. If you can follow their footstep and use the lessons learned from them to manage your life, you will undeniably get to your goals and reach your target.

The opportunity for pursuing one's natural talent always exists. It’s how one recognizes the same and then pursues the instinct that decides one's fate. If you can try to study and discern what your interest and capabilities are, you’ll be able to make the right decision in your career choice-making process. 

I wish you good luck in your life and career engagement!!!

Self-Assessment Tips For Choosing Appropriate Career Path

Self-Assessment Tips For Choosing Appropriate Career Path

If you are unsure of what kind of job you want or are interested in making a career change but don’t know exactly what career is right for you, you may want to consider taking an assessment test to get some answers.  

Assessment tests are good for career planning as they will give an insight about yourself. It can also be used to identify some of your values, personality, abilities, strengths and interests and then suggest a career path that would suit you and allow you to succeed.

There are all types of assessment tests including the ACT and the SAT which colleges use as a way of judging admittance into college.  But when you are making a career change or just want a new career, the assessment test we talk about is a little different.  These types of assessment tests will ask you questions about certain job situations and you pick the one you are most interested in and the one you are least interested in.

After you have answered all of the questions as applicable to you– usually between 50 and 100 questions; your answers will be analyzed.  That analysis will include a list of the jobs that most accurately match your personality and abilities.  For example, you can take the test to check whether one of what you like doing best is the right choice for you to be taken as your career path. This is because you may not have enough expertise in what you like doing best at times and it may require that you have to develop yourself the more before you can venture into this as a career. The test can as well shed more light about some other areas that you are good at while you are not even aware of them.

Assessment tests can tell you a lot about yourself.  Often, you might find out that a career will show up on your list that you had never even considered.  It could spark a long-buried or abandoned interest you might have had a long time ago.  Once you start to realize that you have so many choices in careers, you may find yourself excited about the true possibilities that exist.

Go online and do a Google search for “assessment test”.  You will find many websites that will offer these tests for free.  For a small fee, they often will also give some career planning advice and more in-depth information on how to achieve your career goals.

Assessment tests are great tools in the career planning process and should be used especially if you are confused as to which career path you should take.  Use them to formulate some goals and then make a plan toward achieving those goals.  There’s no reason why you have to stay in a career you’re not satisfied with.  Take an assessment test and start your new career.
Happy reading.