Who wants career success? You do, of course. Your career may be the most important thing in your life ... or it may not be. Theres no arguing, though, that it certainly is a significant part of it. We spend at least 40 hours at work each week. Thats a lot of time In addition to paying the rent and putting food on the table, your career should be fulfilling. Following these 11 tips will help you make sure it is. Dont Let Anyone Tell You What Choice is Best for You Ignore those who say, Pick this field because it has lots of opportunities right now, You will make loads of money so it doesnt matter if you hate your job and I like this career and therefore you will too. Your career choice is a personal decision and it is one that will have a significant effect on your life for many years. Oh, and by the way, the relationship between earnings and job satisfaction is minimal. Measure Your Own Success How do you define success? Is it the size of your paycheck or having the corner office? Is it the feeling you get when you know you did a great job on a project (praise from the boss doesnt hurt) or the one you get when you know you helped someone? Perhaps you feel successful after putting in a day at work and coming home at a reasonable hour to spend time with your family. Since everyone measures success differently, only you can determine what it means to you. Your satisfaction with your career is strongly linked to how successfully you feel you have met your own, and not anyone elses, definition of it. Dont Be Afraid to Ask for Help As much as you think you know, you dont know it all. There are people who have more experience than you do and with that experience comes knowledge. In order to have access to that knowledge, make sure your network is filled with contacts other than your peers. More experienced contacts can help you with things like learning more about an occupation you are considering, getting the lowdown on an employer before a job interview or solving a problem at work. Always Acknowledge People Who Help You It may sound simple, but its truly a significant gesture: always thank those who offer you assistance. Whether someone gives you five minutes of his time or an introduction to a potential employer, its important you let him know that what he did meant something to you. And when that person or another needs help, you can return the favor. Consider it good karma. Own Your Mistakes You know what they say about mistakes. Everybody makes them and you are no exception. Of course you will do what you can to avoid making a serious error, but sometimes they happen anyway. While your instinct may be to run away and hide, that is actually the worse thing you can do. Admitting your error, finding a way to fix it or at least taking an action that lessens its effects, will help restore your reputation. Be Your Own Cheerleader Root for yourself because if you arent your own biggest fan, who will be? Take note of and pride in all your successes and positive attributes. Dont wait for someone else to tell you job well done Reflecting on your own achievements will spur you on to accomplish even greater ones. Dont Beat Yourself Up From time to time a little voice inside your head might whisper (hopefully not shout) that you arent good enough or smart enough. Tell it to shut up Unfortunately there will be plenty of people quite willing to bring you down. Dont do it to yourself. When you make a mistake, admit it, fix it and move on. If you are missing a skill or have some other shortcoming, take whatever measures necessary to improve. Never Feel Like You Are Stuck No matter how careful you were about choosing the right career, at some point you may become disheartened with it. Give yourself permission to explore other options. You will probably be able to come up with a bunch of reasons not to, but remember the first tip about life being too short to spend it wishing you were doing something else? The older you get, the more you will come to believe it.
Being the Best For the BC Public Service Career Planning Workbook BEING THE BEST Plan, Learn, and Experience 4 Using Your Career Planning Workbook 5 First Things First: Discover Yourself 6 Identify Your Preferred Job Characteristics 7 Examine Your Strengths 8 Which Abilities Do You Enjoy Using? 8 What About Your Interests? 10 What Have You Learned From Failure? 11 Phase One: Plan: Prepare For Success 12 Step One Determine Your Strengths 12 Step Two Get Input From Your Supervisor 13 Step Three Be Curious! Do Some Networking 15 Step Four Think About Your Potential Career Path 17 Choose A Career Path Within The BC Public Service 17 Check Out @YourService 18 Career Profile 19 Step Five Organize Your Plan And Enter It Into Your EPDP 20 Organize Your Plan 21 Review Your Plan With Your Supervisor 23 Enter Your Plan Into Your EPDP 23 Phase Two: Learn: Build Knowledge And Skills 24 Step One Identify Areas You’d Like To Develop 24 Step Two Identify Activities That Address The Need 26 Step Three Set Realistic Timelines 26 Corporate Learning Programs 27 Other Learning Programs 29 Ministry Specific Learning Programs 29 Phase Three: Experience: Enhance Your Skills 30 Self-Development Opportunities 31 Career Planning Reading List 33 Career Planning Online Resources 34 W orkbook Career Planning FOR THE BC PUBLIC SERVICE A message from Jessica McDonald, Deputy Minister to the Premier, Head of the BC Public Service Plan, Learn, and Experience WE WANT YOU TO SUCCEED Whether you’re new to the public service or you’ve worked within government for many years, we believe that career development is important. That’s why it’s such a fundamental element of our Corporate HR Plan, Being the Best, which states that the BC Public Service wants “to put more focus on requiring every employee to have a strong career path so the BC Public Service can identify and develop those with broad interests and potential.”While having a career path will mean different things for different people, the foundation for success is rooted in one simple idea: your career development is driven by you. Managing your career is a continuous process that typically includes these elements: Plan The planning section is where you begin your journey. Effective planning allows you to understand and learn about your interests, strengths and weaknesses and chart what learning and experiences you need to achieve your goals. Learn Here you begin to research and discover what learning opportunities exist and how your strengths and interests factor into those opportunities. The more information you seek out, the closer you will come to identifying areas where you want to invest your time and energy to develop. Experience There are many ways to put into practice the different skills, knowledge and competencies you have developed. With support from your supervisor, you can look into project work, volunteer for committee work or temporary/developmental assignments to enhance your effectiveness and efficiency. Helping our employees to grow and develop professionally greatly contributes to our goal of ‘Being the Best’. I hope you enjoy working through the ideas and exercises supplied in this Career Planning Workbook. UsingYourCareerPlanningWorkbook EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Career Planning Workbook is intended to provide a resource for all BC Public Service employees to support you in managing and developing your career. It includes a number of exercises that are aimed at stimulating ideas that will help you to determine your career development goals, as well as to establish a clear plan to help you successfully achieve them! One of the core elements of career development is the idea that the process belongs to you. No one is more qualified than you to figure out what’s in your best interests in terms of the direction that your career will take and the best time to make those course changes. This booklet also incorporates the ways in which we, as your employer, will support you in your career development. This includes highlighting how you can best utilize your supervisor’s support in developing your career plan. It also identifies many other organizational resources at your disposal and how you can take advantage of them. Please remember, however, that while your supervisor can provide support and guidance, it is you that has to consider this input and then determine if you’re going to act upon it. The public service can provide many different learning and experiential opportunities, but you must decide if or how you will take advantage of them. In essence, you are the “driver” in your career development journey! This booklet uses a number of “best-practices” typically used by virtually all career coaches and follows a step-by-step format. All you need to do is to go through the exercises in a thoughtful way. To do this, it’s best to find a quiet, comfortable place where you can reflect on the questions being asked, so that you can properly consider your answers. Take your time. You don’t have to do all of the exercises in one sitting. The exercises in this booklet are designed to help you stimulate ideas and help start conversations. Remember, as with most things in life, you get back what you put in. If you invest the time to go through the exercises in a thoughtful way, you will likely dis- cover things about yourself and your career that you might not have thought of before…that’s exciting! This booklet is also available online. Please go to @Your Service and click on the Careers & Hiring link in the Information column on the left side of the screen. BEING THE BEST 5 T here’s an old saying that states that knowledge is power. This is especially true when it comes to finding a career that excites you. Before you can make any decisions about career direction, it’s important to know what drives you…what inspires you. The more you’re inspired and motivated at work, the more successful and happy you’re likely to be in your job. Define What Success Means For You Defining success is important because a successful career may mean different things to different people. For some, success is based on advancement or job titles. For others, it might be related to salary and benefits. For some, it’s the level to which their skills are advanced. And to some, it may revolve around making a clear contribution to society. How can you find out what inspires you? One way is to make sure that the key characteristics of the job match- up favourably to the things that are most important to you at work. You could call these the “characteristics” that you’d most like to have in your job. Knowing these characteristics before you start your career planning will give you a sense of what to look for in a job when you’re ready to start examining potential career paths. 6 Shauna Assistant Deputy Minister Discov er Yourself! FIRST THINGS FIRST JOB CHARACTERISTICS IMPORTANT FAIRLY IMPORTANT NOT IMPORTANT 15. Loyalty is valued in the organization 16. Allows me to make important decisions 17. Mobility: can move to other locales 18. Multi-cultural affiliation 19. Can exercise power and authority 20. Involves precision–detailed work 21. Gives me a sense of prestige 22. Recognition from colleagues/superiors 23. Job stability 24. Good relationship with supervisor 25. Time freedom – flexible hours 26. Opportunities for travel 27. Allows me to work w/ others most of the time 28. Allows me to work alone most of the time 7 JOB CHARACTERISTICS IMPORTANT FAIRLY IMPORTANT NOT IMPORTANT 1. Affiliation/friendships with co-workers 2. Alignment w/boss’s expectations 3. Artistic creativity 4. Working autonomously/independently 5. Work offers change and variety 6. Activity with my community 7. Healthy competition between departments 8. Excellent employee benefits 9. Allows me to help others/impact society 10. Can influence people positively 11. Intellectually challenging work 12. Leaving a positive legacy 13. Physical work environment/office space 14. Location is close to home Identify Your Preferred Job Characteristics Use this table to help you determine which of these 28 job characteristics are most important to you: Adapted from Right Management Consultants ‘Career Survey’ Jot down the ten job characteristics that are most important to you: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Examine Your Strengths Knowing your interests and abilities allows you to take stock of your core strengths. When your natural strengths are fully utilized at work, it increases the likelihood of you feeling satisfied and engaged. Which Abilities Do You Enjoy Using? Knowing how to move forward in your career really begins with an honest evaluation of your abilities. When you get a better awareness of yourself along these lines, you’ll be in a much better position to make good career choices. One of the most important considerations in thinking about your future path is the notion of using the abilities that you actually like to use. We all have many abilities, but sometimes our work requires us to use abilities that we don’t enjoy using. So, why not try to visualize a career in which you get to use those skills that you actually enjoy using? The next few exercises can help you to determine what those abilities may be for you. From the list below, place a checkmark beside the abilities you like to use: MY ABILITIES GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ABILITIES LIKE DOING DON’T LIKE DOING 1. Research research, observe, investigate, study, perceive, sense, measure, test, inspect, examine 2. Analysis analyze, compare, extract, correlate, derive, evaluate, differentiate, identify 3. Interpretation interpret, explain, understand, portray, advise, deduce, read-between-the-lines 4. Problem-Solving solve, trouble-shoot, improve, critique, re-direct, redesign, restructure 5. Systematizing systematize, coordinate, organize, develop procedures, bring together 6. Planning plan long-term, plan short-term, forecast, strategize, set goals 7. Management manage, supervise, control, direct, budget, administer, delegate, cope, administer 8. Leadership lead, show the way, govern, inspire, motivate, assert, decide, advise 9. Initiative take the initiative, be among the first to do or try 8 Adapted from Right Management Consultants ‘Career Survey’ Continued on the next page MY ABILITIES GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ABILITIES LIKE DOING DON’T LIKE DOING 10. Flexibility be flexible, adapt easily to change, be “politically” aware 11. Innovation innovate, invent, change, develop, devise, break with convention 12. Team Player work well with a team, be a team player when necessary 13. Vision ask “what if?” or “why not?” then act to find the answer; “see” the future 14. Synthesis synthesize, adapt, bring together with imagination, fuse, produce 15. Listening listen actively, understand the message others are delivering 16. Written Presentation write clearly, concisely and effectively; eye for grammatical errors; editorial ability 17. Verbal Presentation speak clearly, concisely and effectively; use the spoken word to get results 18. Persuasion persuade, convince, influence, overcome opposition, sell, win over 19. Negotiation mediate, intervene, resolve differences, arbitrate 20. Imagination imagine, visualize, conceptualize, fantasize, picture Adapted from Right Management Consultants ‘Career Survey’ Jot down seven or eight abilities that you most like to use: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 There are a number of tools that can help you to assess your skills and abilities. Please see the Resources section on pages 33-34 of this workbook to find out more 10 What About Your Interests? It makes sense that there’s a greater likelihood of achieving job satisfaction if you’re doing things that you actually enjoy doing! So give some thought to your work-related experiences over the past year. List the three or four activities that you enjoyed most during that time and the reason(s) why: Now consider your entire professional career (and include your educational career if you’re new to the world of work). In which jobs/assignments did you find the greatest interest and satisfaction: ACTIVITIES I’VE ENJOYED MOST OVER THE PAST YEAR THE REASON I ENJOYED THIS ACTIVITY 1. 2. 3. 4. JOBS IN MY CAREER THAT PROVIDED THE MOST SATISFACTION THE REASON THIS JOB WAS SO SATISFYING/REWARDING 1. 2. 3. [...]... Your Career: Expert Solutions To Everyday Challenges Boston: Harvard Business School Press Ryan, Robin (2006) Soaring On Your Strengths: Discover, Use And Brand Your Best Self For Career Success New York: Penguin Books Stein, Marky (2005) Fearless Career Change: The Fast Track To Success In A New Field New York: Mcgraw-Hill 33 CAREER PLANNING Online Resources n Career Developer-BCCAT This career planning. .. articles on change and resiliency, business and social networking, and career planning Education and Training Resources Making Career Sense of Labour Market Information The Canadian Career Development Foundation offers this online guide to researching labour market information for making career decisions n n n n n n 34 Jumpstart YourCareer! LearnMore https://employee.gov.bc.ca/ click the learning and... topics in the field of career and educational planning n Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development This website provides useful information and resources on the BC labour market and career planning projections and tools Achieve BC –Job Profiles This site provides job profile listing by type of work Work Infonet Provides information and resources to help employees make career decisions... experience in accounting or auditing) Competencies n Expertise n Planning, Organizing and Co-ordinating n Analytical Thinking Go to @Your Service and click on the Careers & Hiring link to view some of your favourite career profiles Assemble Your Plan and Enter It Into Your EPDP 20 By this point, you’re likely starting to get a sense of the types of career choices that may be of interest to you You’re also... skills and experience in a particualr career stream 10 Lateral Transfers A lateral transfer is when an employee moves from one position to another which does not constitute a promotion or a demotion Lateral transfers are ideal for gaining more experience across the ministry or across government CAREER PLANNING ReadingList Arruda, William And Dixson, Kirsten (2007) Career Distinction: Stand Out By Building... (2008) Retire Retirement: Career Strategies For The Boomer Generation Boston: Harvard Business Press Frodsham, Joe And Gargiulo, Bill (2005) Make It Work: Navigate Your Career Without Leaving Your Organization Mountain View: Davies-Black Publishing Garton, Jeffrey (2008) Career Contentment: Don’t Settle For Anything Else Alexandria: ASTD Press Harkness, Helen (2005) Capitalizing On Career Chaos: Bringing... yourself or the work – and how will you use this information in your current career planning process? 11 Are there certain job functions or assignments that you’ll avoid in future? If so, jot them down here: Prepare for Success PHASE ONE: PLAN A s you learn more about yourself, it’s important to keep track of your findings Using a career planning booklet like this one can help It keeps your notes and findings... work is the number of career opportunities that it provides Offering 200 different jobs in 280 communities, we are the largest employer in the province! To help you in researching those opportunities, we’ve developed a Career Profiles section within our @Your Service website that provides important information about key career streams within the BC Public Service These paths include: CAREER PATH 1 2 3... continue to be, in high demand Which career paths are most interesting to you? Check Out @Your Service Within our @Your Service website, you’ll find a Careers & Hiring link in the Information column on the left side of the screen Click on this link and once inside, you’ll see a Career Development section that houses numerous resources, including a large number of career profiles” Each profile describes... to your supervisor to get more information as to how coaching might advance your career 2 Mentoring Mentoring is less focused on day-to-day functions but rather is aimed at providing advice and support to the employee who is in the midst of exploring career- related options Mentors encourage individuals to actively pursue careers in the government by linking them with people already established in their . through the ideas and exercises supplied in this Career Planning Workbook. UsingYourCareerPlanningWorkbook EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Career Planning Workbook is intended to provide a resource for. Enhance Your Skills 30 Self-Development Opportunities 31 Career Planning Reading List 33 Career Planning Online Resources 34 W orkbook Career Planning FOR THE BC PUBLIC SERVICE A message from Jessica. Being the Best For the BC Public Service Career Planning Workbook BEING THE BEST Plan, Learn, and Experience 4 Using Your Career Planning Workbook 5 First Things First: Discover Yourself