How to get into a good job? Which is a good career option for me? How do I grow up in my career? – These are few questions that baffle many. Unlike in the past, career options are aplenty today and to choose the best one from them is a difficult task. A proper career planning could come handy in such a situation. But how can one do a career planning? Career planning helps to set a goal and it helps a person to plan how to achieve it. According to A Subramaniam, Senior VP, HR – Consim Group, “Before making a career choice it is important for a person to learn about himself/herself. His/her values, interests, and skills, in combination with certain personality traits, will make some careers especially suitable for a person and some particularly inappropriate. People can also opt for self-assessment tools like career tests, which are available on the internet or they can go in for career counselors,” suggests Subramaniam.

“The most important part of career planning is the vision part – knowing who you want to be, or at least knowing what you want to achieve. It may be useful to have short term goals, but it is far more important to have a long term vision to which you can guide your short term career decisions,” adds Manas Fuloria, co founder & executive vice president, Corporate Development and Strategy, Nagarro Software Pvt Ltd.

Though there is a difference of opinion about the appropriate time period for planning a career there is no denial about the significance of it. “The vision for the career should be created early in life. At that time, the mind is fresh and has the ability to dream big. As we get older and encounter more obstacles, most of us start to limit our dreams, even as our capabilities and strengths are actually increasing. This is one of the big paradoxes of life,” says Fuloria.

Aman Mittal, assistant director, Lovely Professional University opines, “It is always advisable to plan a career early in life. This enables an individual to have sufficient time to go through the minute details of the learning aspect on which his/her career will be based. Prolonged training in a particular field also helps in taking corrective measures in time and skill enhancement and spontaneous process along side academic training.”

But according to Niharika Davar, senior director – human resources, DHL Lemuir Logistics Pvt. Ltd, “Career planning is not a one time exercise. It is only once you get into a career that you know the real world and that is the time for making a decision.” She also feels that even though a long term career planning might not work, having a direction is important.

It is said that even if a person fails to make a career decision early there are many options of doing it later also. “It should not be thought that if a person has failed to make an early decision, he/she has no room for career planning later in his/her life. There are numerous cases, when a student has made abrupt changes in his/her career, guided by his/her instinct and bent of mind and made giant leaps career-wise,” adds Mittal.

Career planning gives a clear road map about the direction in which a person wants to take his/her career. Subramaniam suggests that there are certain things that one must keep in mind to plan his/her career which includes specific fields/occupations to explore, one must understand the job description, education and other requirements, job outlook, advancement opportunities and earnings, go in for informal interviews with people who have first-hand knowledge of the occupations in which you are interested, narrow down the list of possible occupations based on what one has learned from their research.

Apart from the personal decision organisations also play a key role in shaping the career. “Organisational interventions play crucial role in career planning by means of skill enhancement, enhanced exposure and job enrichment. The job profile of a professional and the responsibilities assigned to him/her automatically helps a person to plan his/her career alongside pursuance of the job. An organisation’s support matters a lot for an individual which can come in any form be it financial, exercising the mind, decision making and strategically planning the next step for a better career,” explains Mittal.

A successful career cannot happen overnight it happens as a result of continuous and careful decisions taken over a period of time. So a well planned decision about a career will ensure a steady and successful career path.

by Priya C Nair