how to plan your career

Hadi Abdulkader
Mar 31, 2020
4 min read

Updated: Apr 1, 2020

This series of articles are designed to help students to choose their career path.

I am a fan of choosing a career for your personality than just consideing future prospects.

In real life we need to consider the career compatibilty with who you are and what market needs and how you can walk the path step by step.

Here I guide you through four stages of Career Planning from knowing yourself to getting admitted in to college based on my own experiences and research.

(Image courtesy: Photo by Pang YuhaoonUnsplash)

STAGE # 1: KNOW YOURSELF

In a career choice, the most important criteria to choose an area from an ocean of choices is about who you are.

The quick and effective way of doing it is a personality test.

There are a lot of online personality tests available and you can make use of them.

If you need more assistance, seek a professional's service.

If you are a person who prefers to go into depths of self-awareness, you can opt for assessments to obtain clarity about who you are.

Personality tests offer a wide range of career options in their ' your personality report'. It's an easy alternative way of analyzing your skills, interests, abilities, values, and preferences.

My Website suggestions for online-based personality tests are :

https://www.123test.com

https://www.16personalities.com

https://www.careerexplorer.com

https://www.gallup.com

By the end of knowing yourself phase, you will have a list of career choices from your personality test.

If you are looking for options use the internet using your personality type.

Always it's better to have more options to choose from.

My personality type is ENFP from the test by 16personalities.com. If I require more choices. I can google "ENFP Careers" as below.

Always keep in mind, personality tests are only indicators and your choice should also consider your interests. In the next stage, we will analyze the scope and demand of the careers you have chosen.

STAGE# 2: DEMAND AWARENESS

Yes, markets are changing, jobs are disappearing, robots are coming, AI is overtaking us, there are endless negative chatters going on every job seeker's head. Let's accept the challenge.

As I always suggest, being adaptable and resilient is the only way to get ahead in these unpredicatable times.

The brighter sides of all these challenges are:-

Markets are wide open and accessible to everyone in every nook and corner in their fingertips.
New jobs are created.
Still, there are a lot of areas robot and AI can't overrule us.
The power of the internet is charming and endless.

Click here to know if your career is prone to the risk of robots

https://willrobotstakemyjob.com

After this demand awareness stage, you might have a handful of choices.

To proceed to the next stage, you must shortlist your choices to not more than three careers.

STAGE# 3: NARROWING YOUR CHOICES

Generations back we had only a handful of choices, but now we have plenty of good choices. The lads and lasses are confused about making a choice as they have a lot of opportunities out there.

'Saying NO to a lot of good choices' and choosing the 'better ones' is what we are doing here in 'Narrowing your choice' stage.

To get ahead in this stage, take a white paper and list your three choices and form a table as below :

Download Making the Final Choice Worksheet : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZiRH0RTquofDdS9LnOPHBuk8VOLXarzU

Brainstorm your pros and cons as extensively as you can. Consider the below criteria :

Budget
Course availability
Location ( home or abroad)
Duration of the course
Your merit eligibility
College and University's available and their quality of education

Add your own criteria to consider all factors that could impact your decisions.

Once you list the pros and cons of your career choice, choose the one with more pros and fewer cons.

There is a lot of information available on the internet about 'typical day' of each profession. Go through it gain more information on how your future work life looks like.

In this stage, to obtain more information and guidance, you can get in touch with your parents, teachers, current students of the college/university, career counselors and friends.

Now you have your career choice ready. In the next stage, you will work on your final choice from choosing the college.university to getting the admission.

STAGE# 4: Getting In : The Admission Process

We had all the exercises to choose the desired course.

While shortlisting colleges ensure you are eligible according to college/ university's admission criteria such as minimum cutoff marks, entrance exams and other requirements as nationality, age, gender.etc Now we will select the college/university which suits our preferences.

I will walk you through step by step 1. Visit college website Make sure not to fall in on your initial impression. College websites are designed to draw in admissions.

First impression should not be the best impression especially while you visit college websites.

2. Give a real visit to a college

See the infrastructure, facilities and campus environment. Talk to students and staff to gain as much information as possible.

Here too,don't fall in to marketing campaigns, always take any mouthwatering offers with a pinch of salt.

3. Go through online reviews of colleges and universities

Here go through the comments section to gain more insights.

Also ask questions on online forums to clarify any doubts you have.

A lot of students are a bit concerned about the extracurricular activities. If you are an art or sports enthusiast, surely check if your choice is the right place.