- Their interests:
What did I enjoy in my previous jobs and what do I like in my current
job?
In what type of environment I perform best?
What truly motivates me?
In analysing one’s capacities and wishes it is necessary to confront these images with the
facts of reality, through a series of other questions:
- What observations and comments related to my achievements so far have I
received from colleagues, friends, family? - What are the strengths and limits they identified in me?
- What similarities and differences are between my assessment and theirs?
The next step is drawing up a career plan taking into account the requirements of
employers on the labour market, the competences they seek most when hiring, and one’s
resources and abilities.
A relatively similar approach is to be found at Gysbers, Hughey, Starr and Lapan (1992),
who consider that a strategic professional plan must include the following stages:
- Setting aims. This is how one can keep focus on future actions, on the desire
to do everything at best. Professional aims must be realistic (realizable) and
interesting. - Specifying action steps. Once the objectives set, they must be converted into
concrete action steps and distinct activities. These steps involve the answer to
the question: “What must I do to attain this aim?” - Identifying resources. The planning process and reaching the objectives also
involve answers to the questions “who” and “with what”. - Timing. Concrete and rigorous planning favours the efficiency of career
planning and implementation. Setting deadlines must not cause fear, but
stimulate. - Identifying the success indicators. Ever since conceiving the career plan we
must ask ourselves what does success represent for us and how we will know
that our plan is working. The indicators to measure performance may be
intrinsic or extrinsic.