Develop a Career Plan

Some people get stuck in rest stops on the superhighway of life. Bored, unchallenged, and underutilized, they wonder how they'll make it through another year at the same dreary job. If this sounds like you, are you taking advantage of past, present, and future opportunities to maximize your potential and increase your rewards?

Every businessperson knows that time is money, so it's important to make good use of yours in building a career. You need to be proactive in polishing and marketing your current and potential skills. Take this quick survey to see if you are mining past experience, current efforts, and future goals to earn rich dividends. (Check all that apply.)

Past:


_____1. I keep in touch with former colleagues and mentors.


_____2. I keep samples of past projects or earlier work as performance indicators.


_____3. I follow the career moves and successes of former coworkers to network.


_____4. I build on past training by taking advantage of follow-up offers for seminars, workshops, or classes.


_____5. I reflect on past mistakes and develop strategies to avoid repeating them.

Present:


_____6. I keep a log of current projects and an estimate of how my job time is spent.


_____7. I pursue professional development opportunities several times a year.


_____8. I offer my company periodic proposals to enhance personal or company productivity.


_____9. I look for opportunities to increase my usefulness to the company.


_____10. I make set higher personal performance standards each year and try to meet them.

Future:


_____11. I plan to develop or revise an existing personal mission statement.


_____12. I have developed a reasonable five-year career plan.


_____13. I am exploring prudent ways of saving and investing money for my future.


_____14. I am acquiring experience that will help me climb to the next level at my job.


_____15. I have a contingency plan (and savings) in case I lose my present job.