Career Planning 101

If you want to figure out where you want to go next, it may be helpful to first start with an assessment of where you’ve been. Investing in the right professional career coach may help launch your career. However, there are a lot of questions you could consider on your own that could lead you to the right decision. If you choose to hire a career coach, you will find that coming to that first appointment with answers to these questions could improve the return on your investment!

• Is there a common thread in your career history? Are you using the skills, education and training you have? If not, why not? 
• Set career goals for yourself. Where do you want to be one year, three years and five years from now? What do you need to do to get there? 
• Take time to document your work accomplishments. What was the most important thing you did in your job in the last year? What was the impact of that accomplishment — did you save your company money or bring in revenue? Can you quantify the financial impact? 
• Look at your relationships with your co-workers, bosses and those you supervise. Do you need to make any adjustments? Could you strengthen these relationships? How?
• Think about what you’d really like your life to be like. If money and time were of no concern to you, how would you spend your days? 
• Determine what your number one priority is (personally) for the next 12 months. What is the one thing you absolutely want to accomplish, or see or experience in the next year? 
• Professionally, what do you want to be different in the next year? What do you want to be doing more of, and how can you get there? Ask yourself — am I doing the things I need to do to get where I want to go? 
• Write down what kind of support you need — personally and professionally — to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself. 
• Start an accomplishments journal, brag book or brag file to document your accomplishments.

The sooner you get started answering questions like this, the sooner you will start to develop a plan to get you from where you find yourself today to where you want to be! Your past doesn’t have to define your future, but you can use it to determine your next steps.

Dave Isbell is the Assistant Director of Alumni Professional Enrichment in the MSU Alumni Office. In this role he facilitates opportunities for alumni to engage in career content. Dave proudly graduated from MSU with a Master’s in Social Work in 2013. He is a Licensed Master Social Worker, Global Career Development Facilitator, Certified Online Instructor and Certified Human Resources Specialist. In addition to his part-time employment with MSU, Dave owns a private Mental Health and Couples Therapy practice and is the founding President of Mid-Michigan Emotionally Focused Therapy, a Not-For-Profit training & development organization.

Karen J. Reiff is an alumnus of Michigan State University who recently retired from a 30+ year career as a Career Coach, Executive Resume Writer and Licensed Practical Counselor and is currently enjoying “life after work.” She was Dave Isbell’s GCDF Instructor early in his career and decades later remains a source of inspiration and friendship.