Introduction: Career Planning

“Every decision is a career decision” (Redekopp, 2015, 5:43). 

Careers are complicated and involve a myriad of varied decisions, some of which may feel more significant than others. To illustrate, choosing to buy a vehicle may seem far removed from career decision-making, however, it can set off a cascade of career decisions, especially if a loan is needed to buy a car. These are a few considerations that could come to mind,

• Which occupations have a salary that will sustain the loan payments for this vehicle? 
• Where is the cost of living is lower? 
• Working part-time is an option, what types of jobs are available immediately?

The impact of even small decisions can be life-changing. If you do this, buy this, learn this, or move here, what moves you closer to the way you want to live and work? The decisions you make, are they actually moving you toward your vision?

We have deconstructed the careers process to get you started so that it feels manageable and doable. We want you to feel empowered and excited about creating a vision, a career and life story that you are engaged in. We offer this career development model (Career Professionals of Canada, 2015) to provide guidance so that you continue to move forward to your vision or direction.

• Create Your Future by clarifying a vision. 
• Know Your Value and Explore Your Options by evaluating your personal assets and external factors to inform your career direction and decision-making, as well as reviewing two strategies to manoeuver through uncertainty. 
• Plan Your Actions by establishing near and not too distant goals.

We advocate for developing a vision or direction. A vision or overall direction is much more useful for your life as a whole, rather than a plan. Where a plan is a helpful tool, a vision is a more fluid and agile approach to accommodate happenstance events. Positive and unexpected career outcomes can emerge from day-to-day decisions. That being said, planning and goals can help support you to achieve your direction or vision.

On the next page, we discuss the strategies for this module.