Career planning necessary to work out

Career planning is one of those things you don’t learn about in school but what decisions you make with your career affect your future in more ways than one. No matter what choices you make regarding your career, make sure you have it worked out before you step into any interviews. Your interview is your prospective employer’s first impression of you. How you sell yourself career wise is how your employer will see you for the duration of your employment with him or her. Don’t sabotage your own career.

Don’t be unprepared for the interview question, “So where do you want to be in 5 years.”

Here are some of the ways that decisions regarding your career affect you:

• You salary depends on your career decisions. You need to start as high as possible and get as high as possible pay raises, both at one company and in between jobs. Remember that you’re the only one that cares about your salary.
• Your education should complement your career. You should always be taking some form of education whether it is in a traditional class or in a distance learning program. Education, strategically taken, can help advance career or give you more career options.
• Your career path. If you don’t plan strategically where you want to be in five years, you’ll still end up somewhere in five years. Right? Better that your career path follows your career goals than somebody else’s.

Interviewing shouldn’t be all about what you want; who would want to hire somebody like that? But if your interviewer asks about your career plans, make sure you have something prepared to say. Don’t let your interviewer decide your fate at your new company. Have a clear vision of where you want to be in five years and convey it to your interviewer. Then shut up and listen to what your interviewer has to say.

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