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Approach
#2: Find
your perfect Job, Career, Work at home or other Business Opportunity
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Approach
#1 - Effective and Easy Job Search
Learn more about Approach #1
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After your
self-assessment
and exploration of possible
career
options, you are now ready to understand which additional skills
and training you require to develop your career plans. There are
many different options for education and training, either in person or on-line.
In order to systematize your
decision-taking process, we divided the Development Plan into 4
Steps:
1.
Define
Development Goals
2.
Choose a
Development Method
3.
Available
Resources
4.
Realize
Progress Evaluation
5.
Financial Aid
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You can develop your skills by
learning a new skill or developing a new ability, trying a new experience or improving your performance in
a specialty you already have experience in.
Then set development
objectives under the following headings:
a.
Priorities
b.
SMART Objectives
c.
Progress Measures
d.
Defining Goals
a) Priorities
In order to decide on Development Priorities
make a
list of your immediate and longer term priorities and limit yourself
to three of each. As a help to find priorities, start each priority
with "I need to...".
Example: I need to improve my Computer Skills in order to be
considered for the management position in Miami.
b) SMART Objectives
After defining your priorities, set yourself
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic,
Time bound)
objectives
for these priorities.
Use expressions such
as:
-
change my
. . .
-
be able
to . . .
-
improve
my . . .
-
carry out
. . .
-
achieve .
. .
Example: I improve my Spanish language skills
and will be able to perform translations for my company and other
clients. Improving
the language skills I will be able to work in the marketing section
and get a better salary.
c) Progress Measures
Asking yourself the following questions
in order to measure your progress on the Development Objectives you
defined:
-
How will
my behavior change?
-
How will
I be regarded?
-
What will
I do now?
-
What will
I have stopped doing?
-
What will
I have started doing?
-
What will
I know?
d) Defining Goals
To help you think
about your future career, ask yourself these questions:
-
What are my lifetime goals?
If you were to look back at the end of your life, what would you
like to have achieved?
-
Where would I like to be in the next 5 years?
Imagine the future for the next few years. What would you like to
have done?
-
What would I do with a year off?
You have a paid year out – what would you really like to do?
-
What if I was guaranteed success?
If you couldn’t fail –what would you do?
-
What if I had six months left to work?
With a set amount of time left, how would you use it?
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You can choose
between a variety of development methods and you may need to use
more than one method to meet you development need but you should try
not to use too many at once. Examples of Development Methods are:
On
the Job Development or Cross-Training
Ask your supervisor if you can
take on new responsibilities related to your job. This is
interesting for you as well for your employer as it can be a way of
broadening your experience or increasing the level of responsibility
you handle, while providing the employer with more staffing
flexibility and back-up coverage.
Every day you encounter different challenges
and situations, all of which offer you the opportunity to learn and
develop your skills. We often learn and develop on the job without
even realizing it. Take time to reflect upon what you have
learned from a specific experience, what you did particularly well
and
how you might do things better or differently next time.
When learning on the job, there is a range of
options open to you, including: job-based activities, team working, work shadowing, deputizing,
etc. All
provide opportunities to review, reflect and document your progress
and gain feedback from colleagues.
Off
the Job Development
Off the job development opportunities include
training and development courses and/or programs, videos, books,
journals and publications, online or distance learning or interactive
learning.
The value is
enhanced if there are opportunities to put
into practice
what you learned when
back in your workplace.
Talk to your supervisor and Human Resource
Development about the range of off the job training and development
opportunities available within your organization.
Learning
with a colleague
Many people benefit from learning with one or
more colleagues, enabling them to gain different perspectives and to share experiences.
An interesting approach for learning also is coaching. Providing support, advice and
guidance to others many times challenges you to learn more about the
theory or technical background of a process or technique and
promotes you as an expert in this field.
Learning
in a Network
Networking is a way of tapping into knowledge
and experience of other people who are in a similar situation to
you. You can do this formally or informally by attending conferences
and seminars.
General
Education Development (GED)
If you did not earn a high school diploma, get
the equivalent. Contact the high school you attended to find out
what credit you have and to obtain a transcript. Then contact the
local high school and ask about their Adult Education Program.
Re-training:
Re-training is a
way of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills for a new
career. It may involve formal education, seminars, hands on
experience or a combination of learning experiences.
Continuing Education Units (CEU):
CEUs are a way of continuing training. Some
professions require this form of continuing education. Again try to
check out how good the program's results have been. Some seminars
and training programs carry CEUs, which you may have to take an
extra step to have formally recorded.
Degrees:
Getting a degree many times is the basis for the next career step.
Make
sure the school you select can provide the education you want
and is recognized by your employer.
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-
Think
about the resources available within your team, in other parts of
the organization or externally
-
Plan how
much time you can devote to personal development within your
work schedule
-
Be
realistic about the time your supervisor or colleagues can
make available to you for coaching, feedback or mentoring
-
Find out
whether, and/or when, there is any budget available
-
Find out
whether you can obtain any funding from other sources
-
Research
other sources of information and ideas about personal
development such as observation, work shadowing, learning from
the experiences of others.
You may use the following sources to get more information:
-
Local
community centers for classes and learning options.
-
Learn
on-the job in an Apprenticeship (find a
registered
apprenticeship)
-
Take
classes at a college or university.
-
Try
service learning and volunteer opportunities. If you are volunteering, you are working and learning
on-the-job without pay. Look for volunteer opportunities that
have to do with your skills and interests. Spend time as a
volunteer to see whether you are interested enough to find
paid work doing something similar and to gain experience.
-
Experiment
with job shadowing. Job shadowing means watching someone at
work to see if you would enjoy doing this work and to
identify lacks of skills. As you observe a person working,
notice whether you think that person's duties and
responsibilities fit with the kind of work you would like to
do and ask specific questions about the skills and knowledge
required.
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If you do not know how to pay for the training or education,
look for assistance in the following pages:
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For effective and
easy job search use the
Approach
#1. Find listings of more than 500 self-employment ideas by browsing
here. We also investigated top
franchise opportunities and
home based business Opportunities.
To find daily updated work at home jobs, click
here. Get very useful information on how to
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business, realize
your Debt Consolidation and get
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credit cards.
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