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Career Selection and Planning Guide
2nd edition: August 25, 2008

Congratulations on selecting a career goal!  As you now know, it was no easy task and you should feel proud of your accomplishment.  And because you've taken the time to carefully examine your personality style and matching occupations, you can also feel confident that you've improved your chances of achieving success in your future career.

Now that you've selected your career goal it's necessary to develop a plan regarding what steps (tasks and decisions) you should take to actually realize your goal.  Crafting a step-by-step career plan is equally as important to achieving career success as was making the decision regarding which career to pursue.  Don't take shortcuts in this step, as many career seekers fail to achieve their goals simply because they lack an effective plan!

Developing a career plan is not difficult, but because it involves anticipating and predicting the future, it can be tricky without the right information and/or guidance.  Career planning usually involves:

• identifying the qualifications recommended or required of people who wish to enter your career field,

• determining which of these qualifications you have and have not developed,

• determining which steps (decisions and tasks) you can take to develop the missing qualifications.

This last step in the program will help you develop a basic career plan.  However, it is strongly recommended that you review your plan with a professional career counselor, academic advisor, or other similar professional before putting it into action.  This will help ensure that you have identified all necessary steps.

Directions:

1. Print a copy of this checklist.  On your printed copy, check off each step as it is completed to keep a record of your progress through this exercise.

2. Complete each step in the order presented.  Note: for the hyperlinks found below to work, you must be viewing this checklist online.

Steps

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[1]  Print a copy of the Career Planning Guide (Form 5).

Click the link to the right.

MS Word   PDF

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[2]  Select the steps you think you should complete.

On the Career Planning Guide, you'll find a list of common steps (decisions and tasks) that someone such as yourself may have to complete in order to reach their new career goal.

Place a checkmark to the left of any step that you believe you should complete in order to actually realize your career goal.

Note: To complete this step, it may be necessary for you to return to the occupational literature sources that you used in Step 3: Research and profile your career options to refresh your understanding of the necessary steps involved in reaching your career goal.

 

Note: Some of the steps on the Career Planning Guide require that you enter information to complete the step. Please do so wherever required.

 

Note: List any additional steps that you believe are necessary, that are not currently listed on the guide, under the "Additional steps" section.  Make sure you check each of these steps!

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[3]  Indicate the order in which your checked steps should be completed.

Under the "Completion Order" column, place a number "1" next to the first step that should be completed.  Continue numbering steps (2, 3, 4, 5 etc.) until all steps have been numbered in the order in which they should be completed.

Note: It is permissible to give two or more steps the same number if they should be completed simultaneously.

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[4]  Assign a starting and ending date to each checked step.

Using your best judgment, assign a "starting" and "ending" date to each step that you have checked to create a time line for your career plan.

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[5]  Identify obstacles and needed resources for each checked step.

If possible, identify the obstacles (and resources needed to overcome each obstacle) that you believe will be encountered as you attempt to complete each checked step.  This strategy will help you anticipate and prepare for obstacles that might otherwise impede or prevent you from achieving your career goal.

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[6]  Review your plan with a professional career counselor!

To ensure that you have identified all necessary steps, and that you have arranged them in their proper order of completion, and have identified all likely obstacles and needed resources, it is strongly recommended that you review your plan with a professional career counselor, academic advisor or other such professional before attempting to complete the first step.

Congratulations!  You have now completed the Career Selection and Planning Guide program.  Good luck and best wishes for a rewarding and successful career!