Strategic planning to change your career is key to long-term success and growth. There comes a time when you yearn for a career change as a result of a number of underlying reasons, however, you need to have a strategic approach if you want to do it right. Having a solid career plan in place will help you get closer to your career dreams.
Strategic planning to change your career is the process of defining the direction, strategy and then making decisions on allocating resources such as time to pursue that strategy. It entails the what, the how and the why of what you intend to do and get out of the plan and once you decide, you embark on implementing and executing accordingly.
4 Strategic Planning Steps In Changing Your Career
Do you feel stagnant in your current career? Like you have exhausted all the opportunities and in search of new challenges and better opportunities? If you’re thinking of changing your career but unclear about how to start, there are strategic planning ways to go about it. Here are some strategic planning steps you need to consider before changing your career.
Assess and Analyse Yourself
Assess yourself before embarking on changing your career. Ask yourself what, how and why you want a career change and then decide how to go about it. It is important to understand the root cause of your career change, that way, you can apply tailor-made measures. Self-assessment is key; starting with your career path to present – from your work history, interests, skills, passions, pet peeves, and your ideal work environment. Note what you would you like in your new career, salary, analyse your lifestyle and if you need to leave your industry or relocate to a new country or city. All these matters should be considered.
Identify Preferred Career Options
Once you have thoroughly assessed and analysed yourself, identify your preferred career options. Create a checklist and decide whether you intend on staying in the same industry and profession or not before embarking on the research process.
Research Extensively
After assessing yourself and you have identified your career options, research extensively before making final decisions. Your research could be about the industry, skills, and qualifications required for your identified career choices, etc. Once you have gathered the relevant information, decide on how you are going to use the information from your research to materialise your goals – set goals which could range from long-term to medium and short-term and how to execute them.
Evaluate and Execute Accordingly
Evaluate all the above-mentioned factors to ensure they’re aligned with your preferred career options, interests, salary expectations, skills, etc and use the findings from your research to execute the most suitable decision then compare and contrast what works and what doesn’t. This could mean you need to up-skill and acquire new skills or revise your resume, whatever the case may be.
Final Thoughts On Strategic Planning To Change Your Career
Strategic planning to change your career is not something you do as a quick fix; it is an intense task that requires numerous resources in the form of time, information, research, etc to get it right. If you don’t plan; you plan to fail hence arming yourself with thorough information through research before making career changing decisions is crucial because the more informed you are, the better-informed decisions you’re likely to make to achieve your career goals.
What strategic planning steps have you taken to change your career? Share with us in the comment section.