Yesterday, I gave a lecture entitled “Alternate Careers: Taking the Road Less Traveled” to over 100 members of the University of Pennsylvania’s Biomedical Graduate Student Association. As always, there were many good questions and comments during and after the presentation. Some of the career anecdotes offered by several of the students reminded me of a conversation that I had several weeks ago with one of my Fundamentals of Bioscience students—I teach a Product Development and Regulatory Affairs course in the program—who refreshed my memory about a typical graduate student approach to career development and job searching. “We don’t think about jobs or our careers until we begin writing our PhD theses” she said. “Until then, our advisers don’t talk about careers or jobs and only bring it up because our funding will run out” she added. Admittedly, I had forgotten this because so many years have passed since my graduate student days.

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Many people are not aware of the benefits of career planning, and often seek help only during unplanned transitions in employment. As managers and executives, we help you design a career map to assist you in taking charge of managing your career, whether in early, mid and late career stages. No one else can manage this vital part of your life, but you.

We help you with assessment tools, coaching and planning to design a road map for your career future and design our services upon key areas of need that we mutually identify. Our goal is to deliver value to you, so built into our process is how you will define success in our work together. So, we partner in a plan that you design and we support. Areas of focus can include: interests, skills, areas of passion, research, professional branding, relationship development tools, networking strategies, use of social media, like LinkedIn, career exploration and mapping and an actual plan to help you achieve your designed goals.

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Once you find out your strengths and interests, it is a good idea to make a list of potential occupations. The list of career paths obtained from career tests are often lengthy. Scan through this and find the ones that you like best. You should be able to get your list of potential careers down to five to ten choices.

Once you get your list narrowed down, do some in-depth research about the career choices on your list. Have a look at the requirements needed to obtain a job in each particular field. It is important to make special note of the potential earnings that can be obtained in each field, as well as the educational requirements.

Another great tool in choosing a career path is interaction with people that are actually involved in the field that you are interested in. This is the best way to get first-hand information on the career you are considering. They will be able to answer most questions you have involving their job.

Once you are able to explore all of the potential career paths, and narrow it down to one selection, it is time to start planning for a career in that field.

It is a good idea to write down a career plan. This plan should involve all of the education needed to obtain a job in your desired industry. Also, other training, such as internships, are great ways to get the experience and skills necessary to get a job in the particular field. While completing the schooling necessary, if possible, it is great to find part-time jobs that are relevant to the career path you have chosen.

Remember, when doing your career planning, the most important person in this process is you. Do not let others talk you out of the career you always dreamed of.

There are many individuals who are clueless about their pursuits after graduation, as they do not plan ahead. Finally, they end up earning little and feeling dissatisfied. It can help you to realize your intentions and dreams – and if you want to have a stable future, proper planning is the key to success.

The Multi-Skill And Multi-Tasking Trend

The focus today is on acquiring multiple skills and cross functionality, and not on specialization. With proper career planning, we can avoid dead end jobs. It helps us to focus on our positive and negative traits.

Planning your career basically starts after the secondary level of education. After a certain level of education, we have to decide on our careers, to be able to pursue higher education that will help us to secure good job opportunities.

Advantages

Career planning helps to pave a secure path. For example, if a person wants to become a banker, they have to possess a Bachelor’s degree in finance. Preplanning can help us achieve our educational targets effectively and also helps us to evaluate our personality. In short, career planning is necessary to guide us towards a proper and safer future.

Without proper planning, we may find ourselves lost – it will also be difficult to find the job we want in the future. It motivates and drives us to accomplish the task.

A well-planned career helps us to achieve our goals and dreams. As time passes by, we grow and our needs change. Therefore, to keep pace with the future, we need to plan well ahead. It helps us to make many adjustments along the way as we keep learning throughout our lives. Successful people are those who have adopted proper career planning.

Mentors and guides play a pivotal role in this. It is an important aspect of our lives, but we should not put too much pressure on ourselves, as that would probably discourage us from making any real, profitable choices.

Testing can be done by group especially if a large number of applicants are involved, by individual assessment which is common in the recruitment of managers or executives and by assessment centres which is used for employee promotions and recruitment of executives and graduates.

Personality tests and other types of psychological tests normally measure an individual’s characteristics and emotional state. Specifically, they help determine a person’s values, skills and interests as well as your aptitude for certain types of jobs. Career counselors use these tests in the self-assessment segment of the career planning process. The Color Quiz and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are just two of the commonly used personality tests.

Career tests are used to find out which jobs match an individual’s personality. They are helpful in planning a person’s professional career so although some takers may not be amenable to it, it’s advisable to have an open mind and be honest in answering the questions if possible.

Employee Selection and Development, Inc. is an international provider of cost-effective pre-employment and post employment testing. It aims to help companies, notably their human resource managers in selecting qualified applicants for certain jobs based on work ethic, integrity, aptitude and core competencies. It also offers psychological testing for positions in the fields of distribution, retail sales, customer service, manufacturing, hospitality, health care, call center sales service and technical support and administrative support. You can visit its site at www.employeeselect.com to get more information.

One of the best ways to make it clear that you’re looking for more responsibilities is by taking on more tasks or extra work and lending your hand to other groups, or departments. This is a good way to show how committed you are to achieving the goals of the company. When it’s time to dole out the promotions, your name will be among the first mentioned. You must take the initiative to have an important, straightforward discussion regarding your career advancement with your boss. You have to be your own best advocate. You should emphasize your desire to meet the firm’s objectives as well as your own individual ones. Look for a trusted mentor and counselor for career guidance, either inside or outside the company; research confirms that they have an impact on a lot of promotions. You must make an effort to build up your social skills like being outgoing and forthcoming. Additionally, being a powerful and clear communicator with exceptional listening skills plays an important part in gaining the respect of your colleagues and boss as well. Having these skills help you in promoting yourself and advertising your abilities by making people aware of your skills on the job and your achievements.

One place you should begin regarding finding the career information is the web. Take one of those free tests that tell you what you enjoy and where your interests may lie. Also, give job shadowing a shot. Test the waters before diving in. You may not like a certain field after seeing it up-close. Hey, no one ever said finding the right career was simple. It takes some initiative and exploration.

The next day, a few hours before your first interview, you feel like backing out. It seems that the pressure is just too much for you to take right now. But then you realize that you really must push through with the interview lest you become jobless all your life. So you muster all your strength, and take the interview. A few days later you receive a response from your employer that you are hired, and perfect for your job. You inhale and exhale a few times, knowing that you’ve passed a big test, one that will certainly define your career.

Now looking back it seems that the challenge was not that hard at all. It was all just in your mind. And it leaves you asking what could have caused that undesirable feeling of self-doubt and panic.

What you got into my friend was a strong bout of Anxiety. Yes, Anxiety can be a very potent force in keeping even the most determined individuals from taking a step forward. Anxiety can leave you mentally paralyzed from making reasoned judgments for fear of failure or rejection, or for a variety of reasons.

There are several ways to combat anxiety. The first step is to recognize and accept that you have anxiety problems. You can then approach the problem by realizing what situations can give you anxiety. You then work on those issues and try to determine a good scenario to solve them, or a good way to calm your mind before making any decisions on them. Anxiety attacks usually come when there is overpowering pressure being applied on someone. To face this pressure you must try to think logically, and do not tell yourself that there’s no use of trying or that you will fail without even trying in the first place. Give yourself some breathing exercises or count one to ten before going over any decision. During anxiety attacks you will certainly make rash decisions which might be detrimental or can even cause you more pressure. What you want to achieve at this point, is the capacity to still think logically amidst the situation, to be able to sort out a better solution to the problem.

If the anxiety still persists, a calming walk, a cup of tea or even light music can give you some distractions to help you steer away your mind temporarily. After which you can come back with a clear head to deal with things.

And if the anxiety still continues, amidst all your caution and proper response to it, you may seek medical advice.