CAREER PLANNING

The current economic context, marked by increased competition, integration in the European Union and especially the need to maintain competitive advantage in an increasingly uncertain business environment, have led to the introduction and the deployment of human resources activities until recently neglected. Thus, more companies in Romania have started to develop and implement organized planning and career development systems of employees.

The career planning process involves both the organization and the individual responsibility. Thus, the individuals must identify their aspirations and abilities, and through assessment and counseling to understand their needs of training and development; the organization needs to identify its needs and opportunities, to plan its employees and to ensure its staff the necessary information and appropriate training for career development.

EMPLOYEES CAREER PLANNING RESPONSIBILITY An important aspect of career planning is to establish the extent to which the two parties (individuals and organizations) are responsible in this process. On one hand, the individual is responsible for its development along the stages of his life and, secondly, the organization involved in planning and development of career helps to improve the organizational environment and enhance employee satisfaction at work.

Features:Career planning Written by Editor, Graduate Prospects, November 2011 Career planning can help you maximise your chances of securing one of the many opportunities out there. Even if the job you want is not advertised (or you dont even know what it is yet), a career plan is the most useful way to determine what you are after and to go about securing it. Know yourself The first stage in any career plan is to increase your self-awareness. Identifying your strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes, will help you narrow down the type of work you might enjoy. By using a career planning tool like what jobs would suit me? you can discover what motivates you and identify the skills you have to offer employers. Psychometric tests and personality questionnaires are another useful way of building up a personal profile and identifying your interests and working style.

Know your options Once you have built up a more detailed picture of yourself, the next stage is to see how this relates to the career opportunities out there. You might start by looking at the range of options with your subject. You can also take a look at job sectors to find out more about the job market and careers on offer in different industries. When you have narrowed down your options, work experience in your chosen sector is a useful way to determine if this is the career for you. This is also the time to find out about postgraduate study in the UK and any further qualifications which may be required. If you are still uncertain, some structured time out or agap year might offer the extra time you need to develop your plan.
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Take action Armed with a sound understanding of yourself and the job market, its time to put your plan into action. Your university careers services can help you develop the skills that will make you stand out, such as writing targeted CVs and application forms and preparing for interviews. When you are ready to apply, take a look at our job-hunting tips and graduate job search to identify suitable opportunities and take the first step towards your career. If you have decided further study is for you, this is also the time to search courses and research.

Successful Career Planning and Management

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY ON CAREER PLANNING According to the theory and practice of management, the career planning process focuses particularly on individual skills, abilities, needs or aspirations. Given all this, the individual will create a basic information necessary to ensure preparedness for a possible promotion. ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSABILITY ON CAREER PLANNING To be viable, on short-term, or to maintain competitive advantage, in the long term, organizations must match employees with appropriate skills in the right positions. The type and skills of the employees are different, depending on the scope of the firm, economic sector, specific technology, consumer characteristics, etc.. Peculiarities of organization affects the jobs structure, the types of recruited employees for each job and the development ways on the job. Many employers offer numerous promote opportunities to certain types of positions (especially those involving unique skills to give value to the organization) and limited opportunities for others.

THE ORGANIZATIONAL CAREER PLANNING SYSTEM Due to numerous changes manifested in the lives of individuals and organizations, the idea of developing a fixed career trajectory has become somewhat outdated because fewer are those who plan on long term. Careers are shorter and more unstable, job security is reducing and the short-term employment becomes more common. Most individuals are expected to change several jobs throughout their working lives and to participate in a variety of projects. The reduced number of jobs available within organizations and restrict managerial levels have led to changes in the traditional route to an organizational
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career development. There are fewer promotion opportunities so that employees are keeping the same job on longer periods before being promoted. The traditional career path involved an upward mobility, giving to the employees the certainty of an welldefined promote pathways. Currently, the emphasis is on job rotation, multiple skills development and sideways promotion. THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF CAREER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Career planning systems differ in terms of complexity and of emphasis on certain components of it. However, all career planning systems include the following components:

1. Self assessment assists employees in setting goals, values, skills and behavioral trends. Psychological tests are used as Inventory goals Strong Campbell (it helps employees to identify occupational and professional goals) and self quest (it identify the employee preferences for different working environments - sales, consulting, etc.) which contributes to identify the level of emphasis on work and leisure. Career counselors are often used to assist employees in self-evaluation process and in interpreting test results. 2. Reality check: the employees are informed on how the company assess their skills and knowledge and what place they took on company plans (eg opportunities for promotion, lateral moves). Usually, this information is provided by the direct managers in the performance evaluation process; the discussion on career development can take place separately. 3. Setting goals: Employees establish the short and long term career objectives that are related to concerned professional positions, the necessary level of competence, setting steps forward, learning new skills. These objectives are discussed with the manager and recorded in the individual development plan.
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4. Planning activities: during this phase, the employees determine how to achieve short and long term career goals. These plans may include attending lectures and seminars, applications to fill vacancies within the company or participating in interviews.

THE ROLES OF THE EMPLOYEES, MANAGERS AND ORGANIZATION IN CAREER PLANNING The employees, managers and organizations (Hollenbeck, et al., 2008) share the responsibility for career planning. 4.1. The Employees Role Regardless of the operating organization, the individuals must be actively involved in managing their careers, motivated of its beneficial effects on welfare (the economic and psychological standpoint) (George, et al., 2007). - The economic standpoint at a basic level, the work provides an income to the individuals to ensure their existence and their families and to satisfy other interests, hobbies and recreation; career opportunities are a source of extrinsic motivation (external) for employees. - The psychological standpoint as a source of spiritual comfort, the work provides a sense of accomplishment and gives a meaning to the individual existence. Psychologically, career opportunities are an important source of intrinsic motivation (internal) for employees. The Psychological Contract consists of all the expectations that employers and their employees have from each other. In general, the psychological contract emphasizes that the organization will offer job security and promotion opportunities if the employee remain in the company and maintain a high level of professional performance. However, due to technological change, competition and structural social, psychological contract between employees and organizations has changed. The organizations can no longer offer job security and promotion opportunities and employees are more interested in a job that offers challenges, diversity and opportunity to be creative. The employees are still interested in job security even if they realize that having a job within the same company throughout working life is an unrealistic goal.
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The new psychological contract suggests that employees can become more valuable to employers by taking responsibility for their career planning. THE MANAGERS ROLE Regardless of the career planning system type in the organization, managers have a key role in its planning process. Generally, the employees ask for advice on career to their direct managers because they are the ones that determine the level of training and assess their ability to promote. However, the managers are the main source of information on job vacancies, training courses and other development opportunities. Unfortunately, many managers are reluctant to engage in the employeess career planning activities because they do not feel prepared to answer questions related to their career, have a limited time allocated for these activities or they are not able to relate to a full understanding of their needs. To help the employees in this process, managers must demonstrate effectiveness in four parts: a coach, evaluator, counselor and referral agent. The success of manager- employee discussion about career (Otte, et al., 1992) is based on achieving the following aspects: The managers need to form a complete picture of the employees work-related purposes and goals; The manager and the employee agree on the next steps for development; The employee understands the manager's perception of his performance, development needs and career options; The manager and the employee agree on how the employee needs are satisfied with the current job; The manager identify the resources to help the employee to achieve the committed objectives set out in their discussion. A key role of a manager (Zeus et al., 2008) within an organization is to provide employees with career development coaching. The purpose of this type of coaching is to help employees to consider various career options and make decisions for them. In return, the organization will benefit from identifying the employee's career prospects, thereby could plan and provide the opportunities to achive their goals.

STUDY ON CAREER PLANNING When students hear about Career Services, they often think of activities related only to the job search process. Career decision making involves increasing self awareness, exploring career options, and acquiring the knowledge, skills, and experiences that will help you implement your career choices. This process is unique to each individual student and the Career Services staff is here to assist you in developing your career goals and planning steps to reach those goals. The first step in career decision making is developing self-awareness. Your career decision isyours and is rooted in your own identity consisting of your interests, values, skills, experiences, and goals.You may be certain about all or only a few of these aspects. To increase your self awareness, career counseling offers an opportunity to discuss your life and career goals. Counseling may include assessment, which is available to help you identify and organize your interests, abilities, and values as they relate to career fields. Career counseling will increase your awareness of career options, reinforcing those options youve already considered and expose you to ones you havent yet considered. Discussing connections between your self knowledge, experiences, and your vision for your future can lead to identifying careerareas to explore.

CAREER MANAGEMENT

Career Management is the combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one's own professional career. The outcome of successful career management should include personal fulfillment, work/life balance, goal achievement and financial security

INTRODUCTION The word career refers to all types of employment ranging from semi-skilled been restricted to suggest an employment commitment to a single trade skill, profession or business firm for the entire working life of a person. In recent years, however, career now refers to changes or modifications in employment during the foreseeable future. There are many definitions by management scholars of the stages in the managerial process. The following classification system with minor variations is widely used: 1. Development of overall goals and objectives, 2. Development of a strategy (a general means to accomplish the selected goals/objectives),
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3. Development of the specific means (policies, rules, procedures and activities) to implement the strategy, and 4. Systematic evaluation of the progress toward the achievement of the selected goals/objectives to modify the strategy, if necessary. A great career strategy relies on strong foundations The form of your career strategy will depend on the kind of person you are. It may be very structured, or you may just need a few notes in each area - such as knowledge, skills and qualities, what you like doing and the type of jobs that interest you. Step 1: Self-assessment helps you understand your personal and career goals, your interests, preferences, strengths and weaknesses. Step 2: Consider your career options and identify which available roles fit your interests and abilities. Step 3: Decide on your career goals Step 4: Develop and implement a career strategy Step 5: Review and adjust your career strategy Step 1 Self-assessment Life values Consider what is important to you. We all have different values, needs and motivations. Our work takes up a significant part of our day - usually a third or more - and has a significant impact on other aspects of our life, including our sense of self-worth and wellbeing. This is why it is very important to carefully consider your values and needs when planning your career direction and developing your career strategy. Use these exercises to help you establish your life values:

career planning chart examining life values career/life planning timeline. general requirements of a job. These exercises will help you decide your essential and preferred job requirements:

where am I right now? motivated abilities patterns career questions.

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SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND PERSONAL QUALITIES It is important to understand your skills, knowledge and personal qualities so you can match them to jobs you would like to do. This will also help you identify the knowledge and skills you might need to acquire, or the personal qualities you might need, to achieve your career goals. An accurate and realistic assessment of these things is vital to an achievable career strategy. This kind of understanding is a powerful aid when selling yourself for potential jobs. It will also boost your self-esteem and confidence. Try to think of your skills in terms of those that are transferable and those that are specialised. Think about how the skills you use in one job could be used or adapted elsewhere. A smart career strategy needs to be flexible and adaptable. So describe your skills in a way that makes them applicable to the widest range of situations. To assess your skills, knowledge and personal qualities, use these exercises:

what are my skills? what are my job requirements? what are my short- and long-term goals? Career planning barriers Despite working hard on your career strategy, you might sometimes come up against obstacles or hindrances you were unaware of or had not considered. The 'Examining the barriers using force field analysis' exercise will help you to explore those obstacles. Step 2 Consider the options Often, the most difficult part of career strategy and planning is finding out what jobs are likely to suit you best. The good news is your choice might be wider than you had realised. It's important to consider each of the options against your values and preferences. Your options are broadly described in the table below. You can also get more information about jobs in government by browsing these links:

Victorian Government jobs Jobs for mature workers Australian job search or by looking at popular job boards. Step 3 Decide on your goals

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Now it is time to make some decisions. Carefully consider the information you have gathered. If you have completed the 'career/life planning timeline', you might have already decided on your career goals (the cornerstone of career strategy) and be ready to enter them on your career planning chart. If you are yet to decide on your career goals, or you want to revise them, start by considering your career goals for the next two years. What do you want to be doing in two years' time? What about five and ten years' time? This kind of thinking helps break down big picture career strategy and planning into manageable pieces. The SMARTER system can be useful for planning your career goals: Specific: be as clear as you can and avoid ambiguous statements. Measurable: so you can see what you have achieved. Achievable: provides motivation, but also keep your goals reachable. Realistic: be reasonable and avoid the realms of fantasy. Timely: create timeframes for completing steps, for example, doing short courses or talking with someone about the skills required for a particular job. Empowering: make sure your goals feel right for you and help you make the changes you want. Reviewable: do not set your goals in concrete; be flexible. Write clearly defined, short statements you can work towards. If you are unable to identify a specific job you want, indicate your goals in more general terms. This is all part of good career strategy foundations. But remember: the more specific you can be, the easier it will be to plan. For example: I want to work in an office, in the Bendigo area, four days per week providing advice to the public. You might have more than one idea in mind and might want to keep your options open. In this case, specify your goals, but bear in mind it is unlikely you will realise all of them, so plan accordingly. You can begin to prepare yourself for all your options, and over time you will probably find yourself gradually become clearer about what you want to do, and the goals you are capable of fulfilling. Step 4 Develop and implement your career strategy Now you have decided on your goals, you can develop an action plan to help you put your career strategy into action. Remember, planning will increase the likelihood of success, but it's

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important to remain flexible and open-minded. You might have a couple of choices that interest you so take opportunities to prepare for both. As you progress, your ideas might become more specific. The career planning chart provides a simple way to put the information together. As a starting point, here are some questions to ask yourself:

CAREER PLANNING CHECKLIST

Do you need additional job skills, experience or information? What areas of yourself will you need to develop? Do you need to develop a wider network or links with specific people? Is there a course you need to do (perhaps to gain specific qualifications or skills)? Do you need to find ways to demonstrate your skills and knowledge so you can provide evidence of what you can do?

What actions do you need to take to realise your career goals? Do you need to find out more about what would be required to achieve your career goals? Do you need to find out more about what is available? If so, how will you do this? What kind of work experience would be helpful to you? What new job skills or knowledge will you need? Do you need to demonstrate you have job skills in particular areas? Are there contacts you can make, or relationships you can develop, that might help you? Are there any changes you could make to the way you deal with people or work situations that might increase your likelihood of achieving your goals? How will you start to do this?

Who can you discuss your goals with? When will you do this? Are you clear about the type of work you would like to do? How can you clarify this further? Do you have a supportive network? Do you believe you are recognised as able to contribute information to this network? If not, what could you do about this?

Do you have a mentor with whom you can discuss both the technical content and the intangibles of your job? If not, have you thought about finding a mentor? Is there someone in your workplace or elsewhere you could approach?

Do you need to make some radical changes to your present direction? What are the first steps to achieving this change in direction and how will you take these steps?
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Do you think you will need to undertake further study? What steps could you take to do this? Do you feel in charge of your own career direction? If not, how can you gain more confidence and take charge? When preparing your career strategy action plan, include WHAT you will do and HOW you will do it. Make a list of people whose help you will seek and draw up a time plan of WHEN you will do each action. The timeframe should be at least 12 months, however, a longer period may be appropriate. Step 5 Review and adjust your plan Career planning is a way of making the best use of your current situation and foreseeable opportunities. Given that unpredictable events and changes can occur over time, view your plan as a guide and allow space for adjustments and changes to your approach. Draw on your experiences at work to help you achieve your goals. You will generally find it helpful to revisit your plan each year. Remember, the career strategy you put in place at one stage of your life may not be relevant once you have achieved certain goals and experienced other job and life events. Revisiting your strategy will help to reinforce and clarify your thinking, and can help you decide if you need to change your career strategy, seek help or advice or put more effort into achieving your goals. PERSONAL CAREER PLANNING JOURNALS Keep an ongoing journal or record of your achievements and the training and development activities you have done. Include any work experience you gain and outline what you learned from the experience. Retain any letters or other communications that provide feedback about your work or other matters, and refer to them when you apply for new positions. Reflection and documentation provide assistance with ongoing career strategy planning. Many people find a loose-leaf ring-binder is ideal as a career planning journal, but choose a system that works for you. The journal will help you understand your career development and will be a useful resource when you apply for new positions. GOALS OR OBJECTIVES DEVELOPMENT The career management process begins with setting goals/objectives. A relatively specific goal/objective must be formulated. This task may be quite difficult when the individual lacks knowledge of career opportunities and/or is not fully aware of their talents and abilities.
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However, the entire career management process is based on the establishment of defined goals/objectives whether specific or general in nature. Utilizing career assessments may be a critical step in identifying opportunities and career paths that most resonate with someone. Career assessments can range from quick and informal to more indepth. Regardless of the ones you use, you will need to evaluate them. Most assessments found today for free (although good) do not offer an in-depth evaluation. The time horizon for the achievement of the selected goals or objectives - short term, medium term or long term - will have a major influence on their formulation. 1. Short term goals (one or two years) are usually specific and limited in scope. Short term goals are easier to formulate. Make sure they are achievable and relate to your longer term career goals. 2. Intermediate goals (3 to 20 years) tend to be less specific and more open ended than short term goals. Both intermediate and long term goals are more difficult to formulate than short term goals because there are so many unknowns about the future. 3. Long term goals (Over 20 years), of course, are the most fluid of all. Lack of life experience and knowledge about potential opportunities and pitfalls make the formulation of long term goals/objectives very difficult. Long range goals/objectives, however, may be easily modified as additional information is received without a great loss of career efforts because of experience/knowledge transfer from one career to another. 4. Making career choices and decisions the traditional focus of careers interventions. The changed nature of work means that individuals may now have to revisit this process more frequently now and in the future, more than in the past. 5. Managing the organizational career concerns the career management tasks of individuals within the workplace, such as decision-making, life-stage transitions, dealing with stress etc. 6. Managing 'boundaryless' careers refers to skills needed by workers whose employment is beyond the boundaries of a single organization, a workstyle common among, for example, artists and designers.

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7. Taking control of one's personal development as employers take less responsibility, employees need to take control of their own development in order to maintain and enhance their employability.

PROCESS OF CAREER PLANNING The process of career planning is also known as career development stages and career development model. These steps help you in planning your career and deciding about your future

Self Assessment

Self assessment is a process that helps you in assessing your skills, your potential, your strengths and your ability to fulfill your aims. As the name of the step suggest, you self asses yourself and then based on your analyses and keeping your strengths and weaknesses in mind you draft your future plan. By drafting your future plan we mean that executing this step helps you to finalize
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the profession and career path you want to choose. Make sure that you choose and finalize more than one career, keep one or two careers in case you decide to roll back. In case the career you chose does not satisfies you or later in time you come to know that this was not meant for you then in that case you must have a backup plan.

Self Development

Once you have self analyzed yourself the second step that await your attention is to fill the loopholes you have identified in the above step. By this we mean that in this step you have to see that what are the qualities and skills that are required by you to help you achieve your aims and goals. For instance you might decide that you need training or a particular course in a field in order to make you perfect for the profession you have chosen.[3] It could be that you are interested in painting but you are not much aware of the trends or the knowledge that is required for this field. Or there can be a case where you are interested and much aware about a profession like teaching but you do not yet know that what is the niche level that is meant for you like and the subjects you can carry off pretty well.

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A THOROUGH RESEARCH SELF DEVELOPMENT

Once you have list down the careers that are favorable in your case and the skills and improvements that are required by you in order to achieve excellence the third step requires you to do an intensive research and see that what that are findings related to career options and the skills that are required to make you champion in that. You research will be looking into following questions:

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What is the scope of the career you have chosen? Will that career pay you off in the future? Is there room for expansion in that career field? Come up with Action Form

Once you have researched the feasibility of the factors that you have finalized in above steps, the next step is to show some action and translate your plans on a piece of page. This step requires you to make plan as in how you are going to achieve and fulfill the steps you have decided above. The best way to come with an action plan is to come up with small goals for oneself. Once these small goals are achieved, we can see that how much close we are to our main aim and major goal. This small step acts as a path way to the main aim.

ACTION

Once you are done with small goals and the main aim, the next step remains to start implementing your plans. Keep a very close track of your activities to make sure that you are on the right track and that by following this path you are surely going to achieve you goal!

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SUCCESSION PLANNING KEY ADVANTAGES

The advantages of succession planning include the opportunity to:

Conduct a SWOT analysis of the business to determine its leadership needs now and in the coming years

Develop a strategic Leadership Human Resource Plan that includes comprehensive position descriptions, needs analysis and plans to bridge the gaps

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Build relationships with and carefully study the performance and behavior of successors over a long period of time

Provide a sense of direction, stability and expectations for all key stakeholders: employees, customers, shareholders and vendors

Retain a critically important employee who might otherwise leave if not formally recognized as the successor KEY DISADVANTAGES

Its difficult to think that there might be disadvantages to succession planning but here are some things to consider:

Appointing the wrong person can lead to a variety of problems that result in poorer company performance and turnover

Pulling the trigger too quickly to appoint someone only to have a better candidate appear later on

Engaging in succession planning when the business is immature may lead to erroneous conclusions about leadership needs

A poorly conducted succession planning process will lead to poor decisions, disharmony and ultimately poor company performance as well Lets take a second to look a little closer at these key advantages and disadvantages of succession planning.

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ADVANTAGES (CONT.) The business SWOT analysis paints a picture of the opportunities and threats in the market, importantly including, what the future of the market looks like and what the special characteristics are that effective leaders will need. The strategic Human Resource Plan is where the rubber meets the road for solving your leadership needs. It includes understanding your leadership needs, creating an organizational plan, developing comprehensive position descriptions to fill those needs and then comparing that to the experience and attributes of internal and external candidates. Internal successor candidates would then receive training to help them become the leaders they will be needed to be. The ability to monitor the performance of internal candidates closely and external candidates to a lesser extent is a great advantage of succession planning. Generally speaking, the availability of more data regarding a persons performance in a variety of situations, the better we can predict their success.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Succession Planning (Cont.) Not to be underestimated is the value of managing the expectations of stakeholders via succession planning. Knowing who will be taking over and being confident about that decision matters greatly to shareholders, customers, employees and vendors. Succession which are well managed can be communicated and marketed effectively to all of these groups so that they are pleased with the companys leadership direction. A critically important employee, especially one who knows their value, may not stick around without a succession process that demonstrates the companys commitment to them. They may or may not accept casual verbal comments of support as adequate proof of a commitment to them.

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DISADVANTAGES (CONT.) The wrong successor will not optimize the firms future. Missing out on the opportunity to hire a better successor will be painful, especially if they go work for a competitor. An immature business may not be capable or have enough information to develop an effective succession plan. It may be better to wait a few years until maturity sets in. Even worse than not doing succession planning is doing it poorly. Making poor decisions is never a good practice and this will happen if proper thought, time and consideration are applied. Done well, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages So, in weighing the advantages and disadvantages of succession planning, keep these factors in mind. If you are committed to an excellent process, youll find that the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. An incompetent or half hearted effort reverses this. Succession planning, done well, is an important ingredient in the long term success of your business. THIS CAREER PLANNING WORKBOOK This Career Planning Workbook is intended to provide a resource for all BC Public Service employees to support you in managing and developing your career. It includes a number of exercises that are aimed at stimulating ideas that will help you to determine your career development goals, as well as to establish a clear plan to help you successfully achieve them! One of the core elements of career development is the idea that the process belongs to you. No one is more qualified than you to figure out whats in your best interests in terms of the direction that your career will take and the best time to make those course changes. This booklet

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also incorporates the ways in which we, as your employer, will support you in your career development. This includes highlighting how you can best utilize your supervisors support in developing your career plan. It also identifies many other organizational resources at your disposal and how you can take advantage of them. Please remember, however, that while your supervisor can provide support and guidance, it is you that has to consider this input and then determine if youre going to act upon it. The public service can provide many different learning and experiential opportunities, but you must decide if or how you will take advantage of them. In essence, you are the driver in your career development journey! This booklet uses a number of best-practices typically used by virtually all career coaches and follows a step-by-step format. All you need to do is to go through the exercises in a thoughtful way. To do this, its best to find a quiet, comfortable place where you can reflect on the questions being asked, so that you can properly consider your answers. Take your time. You dont have to do all of the exercises in one sitting. The exercises in this booklet are designed to help you stimulate ideas and help start conversations. Remember, as with most things in life, you get back what you put in. If you invest the time to go through the exercises in a thoughtful way, you will likely discover things about yourself and your career that you might not have thought of beforethats exciting! This booklet is also available online. Please go to @Your Service and click on the Careers & Hiring link in the Information column on the left side of the screen Define What Success Means For You Defining success is important because a successful career may mean different things to different people. For some, success is based on advancement or job titles. For others, it might be related to salary and benefits. For some, its the level to which their skills are advanced. And to some, it may revolve around making a clear contribution to society.
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How can you find out what inspires you? One way is to make sure that the key characteristics of the job matchup favourably to the things that are most important to you at work. You could call these the characteristics that youd most like to have in your job. Knowing these characteristics before you start your career planning will give you a sense of what to look for in a job when youre ready to start examining potential career paths.

Discover Yourself Theres an old saying that states that knowledge is power. This is especially true when it comes to finding a career that excites you. Before you can make any decisions about career direction, its important to know what drives youwhat inspires you. The more youre inspired and motivated at work, the more successful and happy youre likely to be in your job. Define What Success Means For You Defining success is important because a successful career may mean different things to different people. For some, success is based on advancement or job titles. For others, it might be related to salary and benefits. For some, its the level to which their skills are advanced. And to some, it may revolve around making a clear contribution to society. How can you find out what inspires you? One way is to make sure that the key characteristics of the job matchup favourably to the things that are most important to you at work. You could call these the characteristics that youd most like to have in your job. Knowing these characteristics before you start your career planning will give you a sense of what to look for in a job when youre ready to start examining potential career paths.

Prepare For Success As you learn more about yourself, its important to keep track of your findings. Using a career planning booklet like this one can help. It keeps your notes and findings all in one place so that they can be easily referenced again and again. Its also important to remember that career planning is not something that is done once or only at certain times of the year. Instead, this booklet should be viewed as an
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ongoing, living document that is regularly adjusted to meet your changing needs and progress

Review Your Plan With Your Supervisor Before you enter your plan into your EPDP, it would also be helpful to get a final, objective perspective to gauge your thinking. Once again, the best person to do this is your supervisor. Engaging your supervisor throughout this process will help both of you establish a mutual understanding about where youd like to take your career. It will also give you an opportunity to have an honest dialogue about the best ways to get there. Your supervisor can be an important guide in this journey as she/he can make you aware of resources or opportunities that you hadnt considered. To help facilitate this discussion with your supervisor, you can print out those pages in this booklet where youve organized all your key answers (see pages 21-22). Give your supervisor some time to review before your meeting. This way, she/he will be able to give some thought to your findings and be better prepared for your meeting(s). Enter Your Plan Into Your EPDP Your EPDP should be used to keep track of your development goals, establish appropriate deadlines for completion, as well as provide opportunities to regularly check-in to ensure that youre on course. In fact, the e.Performance tool that we use for our EPDPs provides structure for these activities by giving you places to document action steps, as well as organizing your objectives into short-termor long-term goals. Remember, even the best plans encounter obstacles at times. When this happens, dont be discouraged. Be flexible. Talk to your supervisor. Modify your plan if you feel you must, but dont lose sight of your goals Self-Development Opportunities 1. Coaching

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Coaching involves specific on-the-job advice and support that helps the individual convert formal training on a given topic, into day-to-day practice. As such it is oriented to the specific tasks of the job. Whether youre interested in receiving additional coaching or in becoming a coach, you should speak to your supervisor to get more information as to how coaching might advance your career. 2. Mentoring Mentoring is less focused on day-to-day functions but rather is aimed at providing advice and support to the employee who is in the midst of exploring career-related options. Mentors encourage individuals to actively pursue careers in the government by linking them with people already established in their field or in other areas of interest who can act as role models and advisors. Mentors do not normally provide job-specific knowledge and skills. 3. Temporary Assignments Temporary assignments is a broad term that includes different kinds of new work assignments. It can include substitutions, a formal assignment for a specific length of time, secondments, or other kinds of role changes. Generally, we define the term temporary assignment as a time-limited role change within the public service. Temporary employee development assignments within and between ministries are intended to: broaden the experience of employees; help create more rewarding careers for those interested; develop skills through exposure to new challenges; and assist government in enhancing horizontal integration and crossgovernment, citizen-centred approaches. Temporary assignments are posted regularly and can be found on the @Your Service website.

4. Job Shadowing Spending a day or two shadowing another person is a great way of getting to know what its like to work in a different area.

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It offers a real-world snapshot of a potential area of interest. Speak to your supervisor about this interesting way to increase your knowledge and experience in one of your areas of interest. 5. Job Rotations A job rotation involves two people who typically work within the same work unit or the same field of work (e.g., human resources) exchanging responsibilities for an established period of time. Speak to your supervisor about this interesting way to increase your knowledge and experience in one of your areas of interest. 6. Cross-Training Cross-training involves the same principles of a job rotation but is much more short-term in nature and does not require the re-assignment of employees. Speak to your supervisor about this interesting way to increase your knowledge and experience in one of your areas of interest. 7. Secondments A secondment is a process by which the employer may assign an employee to another agency, board, society, commission, or employer not subject to the Public Service Labour Relations Act. (Article 30.1 Collective Agreement). 8. Projects and Developmental Assignments Being involved in a projecteven if its not in a leadership rolecan provide valuable experience in terms of developing new skills or enhancing current skills. A developmental assignment is another good way to develop valuable skills. It provides employees with opportunities within a specific ministry or even with an organization outside the BC Public Service.

9. Internships Internships can vary from program to program. Generally internship refers to a formal process where a graduate moves into a job for
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a specified period of time with the purpose of gaining knowledge, skills and experience in a particualr career stream. 10. Lateral Transfers A lateral transfer is when an employee moves from one position to another which does not constitute a promotion or a demotion. Lateral transfers are ideal for gaining more experience across the ministry or across government

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