by Donna Hamlin

Created on: April 28, 2009   Last Updated: April 08, 2011

How to Take Command of Your Career

Are you directing your career or is work directing you?  I ask this often of people and then explore how they ended up with the career they actually have today. Interestingly, most people are not doing what they imagined they would do. Most people confess they end up in jobs and - ultimately - careers based on luck or circumstances. Some say a friend helped them find a first professional job, after which they found their way within the company. Some say they graduated, interviewed and took the best paying first job, which led them to a path they didn't imagine. Some try several roles and companies until they find a role they feel is comfortable and interesting.

Today, work opportunities are both more complex and more competitive, especially with the economic downturn. It's a good time to identify your core capabilities, work style, vocational fit and passions so you take command of your career and make yourself happy every day you work. If you focus your career direction, you can stay engaged and excited for the long-term.

Here are four recommendations to get started.

1. Identify Your Core Competencies. Read Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. The book is crisply written and quickly helps one understand the value of identifying one's personal core strengths and how to develop a career with them. The inside jacket cover has a serial code you can use to go on line and complete as assessment of what are your top five personal strengths. You can then use these to help create several possible career direction that uses your key strengths. The key is to create a career path that plays to your strengths rather than spending time trying to "improve your deficiencies". People are happier and more engaged if they work from their natural strengths.

2. Consider What Makes You Happy. Write down what you love and hate about the work you do today, as well as all the jobs you've had before. Look for patterns. Take the themes of what you like best and decide which career will give you the most of what you love. Maximize your opportunities to enjoy making a difference because you like what you do.

3. Ask an HR professional or career coach to work with you to assess your current strengths and stretch your thinking about career options for the future. This could include getting feedback from colleagues, managers and direct reports about what they see are strengths as they work with you, as a basis for understanding how you work. It helps to have an objective person open your ideas to alternatives about how to use your strengths with work you may never have considered. Thinking out loud with a creative vocational coach can both offer new directions and guide you about how to get started.

4. Talk to your manager, friends or mentors about the direction you want to take. Ask their help about how to create opportunities to take that direction. Shadow professionals who do the work you desire to better understand what it takes. Tell people exactly what your goal is so they can help in meaningful ways. The more people clearly understand your career ambitions, the more they are able to steer you with promising leads, connections and ideas.

Many people simply "fall" into a line of work  but you can take charge of your professional direction. Taking time to explore your career is healthy. If you are already on a path that suits you well, it can help you move up the career ladder.  If you seek new experiences, it can spark a refreshing new direction that will engage and excite you in year to come.

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