Career Development Planning - Moving The Goalposts
You can pay great attention to your career development planning, read all the right books and articles, set all the right goals, take all the right careers advice, but sooner or later the harsh reality is that someone will move the goalposts on you.
You should still be encouraged to do all the right things. You should know that you can achieve your career plans and that the targets you set are both realistic and achievable. However, it wouldn’t be doing you any favors if all you were told was all cuddly and fuzzy and the facts were hidden from you - because those facts are important to your career success!
You need to know that sometimes you are going to get derailed by things beyond your control. If you know this in advance you can prepare. You can take into account in your career development planning that there may be unexpected changes or obstacles.
Which sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it. How can you take into account something which is unexpected?
Of course the truth is that you may not know when it will arrive or what form it will take, but being prepared for career change is part and parcel of good planning. As you establish your career goals, think about the things which could alter them. These can be personality clashes - but those can normally be worked around or accepted. They can be radical changes of circumstances within your employer organization. They can be a change of rules by government or regulatory bodies.
So how do you cope with these? You stay abreast of what is happening in your business sector. Subscribe to relevant magazines or blogs and websites. Nobody expects you to have a crystal ball but it is frequently possible to follow trends and discern patterns.
Already you know more than you did five minutes ago. You can look at your career development planning in a different light. Being more aware of your business sector not only gives you a better ability to change your career path if necessary, it also makes you a more valuable asset - in case it’s you who wants to move the goalposts before someone moves them for you!
Get the right tactics for your career development plus plenty more free advice at: Career Development Planning.
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