by Cody Hodge

Created on: July 03, 2009

Career growth is a big deal in your life. If you can't grow your career, what is the point of going to work? Do you want to be an overnight shift worker when you are 50? It might be good when you are starting out, or when you just stay up at night anyway, but do you want to still be doing that when you have a family, and when you don't want to work at night anymore? You need to keep moving up the ladder so that you can have the job and lifestyle that you really want for yourself.

Take a look at where you are right now. What are you doing? Where do you want to go, and how are you going to get there? Those are the three questions that you always want to ask yourself when assessing your career, and planning for where you want to go in the future. If you know what you want, or at least where you see yourself in the future, you can focus your energy on getting there, and that is half the battle.

So where are you? Do you like your job? Do you see yourself at the company in the future, or do you feel like you might need to get out of there sometime soon? If you feel like you want to leave assess why you want to leave, and if that is the best move. Do you just need to work in a new department, or do you just not like the industry? I left one job once for another job in a similar industry only to find out that I hated the industry, and not my old job.

Where then do you want to go? Do you want to make more money, or do you want to have more job security? Is money important, or would you prefer to work a job where you have flexible scheduling. Do you need a lot of vacation time, or would you settle for a job that allowed you to travel, and bring your family when you do travel. That is almost as good as being able to spend time on vacations, and you will likely just do work on the road even if you are on vacation.

How are you going to get there? Do you need more training, more schooling, or do you just need to put more time in? Get out your resume and see what you have done in the past. See what you are doing now, and see what you will need to take the next step. Your boss will give you some things to work on if you ask, but you need to figure out for yourself what you need to do to get where you want to go. Talk to friends, people in your industry, or people in other jobs. Get all the information you can to make a good choice about your future.

Career planning is all about knowing yourself, and where you want to go in life. What have you done, what do you want to do, and what are you going to do to go where you want to go? It is all up to you, and using the resources you have around you to get the job done when it comes to planning where you want to go in your career.

Learn more about this author, Cody Hodge.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.