Career Blog: Career Planning
Make Career Planning a Habit at Any Age and Career Stage
According to Psychology Today, “habit formation is the process by which new behaviours become automatic”. Interested in creating a career planning habit? Here are the top four behaviours you should embrace:
- Create a master resume. By tracking your experiences and accomplishments, you will easily be able to recall this information and refer to it as you contemplate your next career move.
- Pause to reflect on what you like, dislike, need and want from work. It’s a quick way to identify your interests, transferable skills and motivators.
- Adopt a growth mindset. Be open and curious about learning, including lessons from failures and successes. Take chances to stretch outside your comfort zone. Seek feedback from others. Get a coach and mentor.
- Set SMART goals and monitor your progress to adapt along the way. If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?
These behaviours will serve you well whether you are launching a new career, advancing, changing directions or reinventing yourself in retirement. Most importantly, career planning increases self-awareness and confidence, keeps you attuned to trends and opportunities and will help you make informed decisions. Check out some McMaster career planning resources to get started.
Career Planning