Career Mapping And Planning

Overview

Learn the keys to success in your job search.

Take the Career Planning Readiness Assessment.

See the value of understanding yourself.

Take the Career Mapping Questionnaire.

Evaluate your core competencies.

Write out your career values, vision, and mission statements.

Assess how the job market may impact your career path.

See Everything as an Opportunity

Understanding how the business world and job market work helps us shed negative emotions associated with recent change and create a career plan that works.

Career mapping and planning is about seeing every situation as an opportunity.

Find the Silver Lining!

List 5 reasons why your current situation can be seen as an opportunity.

Examples:

I am now free to take my career to the next level.

I can finish that degree I have been putting off for years.

I can spend more time with family and friends.

I can spend more time on personal, professional, and spiritual development.

I can find and achieve the career of my dreams

You Will Be Successful

Starting point: You have to truly believe you will be successful in your career pursuits. From there, implement a plan to attain success.

It’s important to have a clear and positive vision in your mind about achieving success.

Have a Positive Attitude

The Law of Attraction is real.

Having a positive attitude allows you to see new opportunities and possibilities.

Understand and know the difference between positive affirmation and limiting beliefs.

Limiting beliefs will continue to hold you back.

INVEST in positive influences and REMOVE all negative impediments.

Limiting Belief vs. Positive Affirmation © 2009 LaunchPad Careers, Inc. Limiting Belief Positive Affirmation I am going to go broke if I don’t find a job quickly. My next job will pay more than my previous one. There are absolutely no jobs that match my skill set. There are many job opportunities that match my skill set. I am angry that I was laid off. My employer was greedy and selfish. I learned from my last position, and am glad I can now pursue my dream job.

Invest in Positive Influences © 2009 LaunchPad Careers, Inc. INVEST in positive influences and REMOVE all negative impediments. Negative Influences Positive Influences Typical News Outlets Success Magazine Limiting Beliefs Positive Affirmations Negative People Mentors and Advisors

Exercises 1.1 & 1.2

RICH vs. POOR People

RICH people: Really Inspirational Chosen Helper

POOR people: People Opposing Our Right

Take stock of the influences and people in your life.

Think about how they contribute to or take away from your success.

Begin to understand how you got to where you are by looking at the people you spend time with and evaluating the roles they play in your life.

Revisit Past Successes

STOP thinking negatively and BEGIN revisiting your past successes.

This practice reinforces your transferable skills, brings them to forefront of your mind, and provides you with accomplishments to put on your resume.

Career Planning Readiness Assessment

What are your career goals?

What are you really good at professionally? Can you provide a specific example where you demonstrated this skill?

Can you describe your most significant accomplishment?

What are you not so good at or not interested in doing? Can you give an example?

How would each of your last 5 bosses rate your performance? How would these ratings compare to that of your peers?

Why did you leave your last 5 places of employment?

What are your expectations or goals regarding travel, work hours and schedule, compensation?

Exercise 1.3

Why Are You Unemployed?

Have a specific and concise reason for being unemployed.

Turn your “Reason for Leaving” statement into a “New Opportunities” statement.

Key to framing this message:

Keep it short and sweet. The more you try to explain, the worse it gets.

Focus on the positive. Frame it in a way that addresses your opportunities.

Downplay the negative. Show a level of maturity by admitting to your faults.

Understanding Yourself

Career mapping and planning is a bottom-up process.

Begin your map by starting at the foundation, which is you.

Best place to start is by analyzing strengths and “development areas,” (what others refer to as weaknesses).

Starting with your strengths, look at what you enjoy doing and what it is you do really well.

Belief: People strong in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. From these values emerges a defined life’s purpose.

Fairness/Empathy: People strong in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of others by imagining themselves in the lives or situations of others.

Futuristic: People strong in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

Ideation: People strong in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Responsibility: People strong in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Exercise 1.4

Development Areas

The brain is hardwired for our strengths rather than weaknesses.

This theory supports the reasoning as to why we should not try to overcome all of our weaknesses, but instead learn how to manage them effectively.

Instead of thinking of them as weaknesses, consider them areas of development.

Identifying areas of development enables you to start building systems to improve.

Impatient/Activator: People strong in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient. (Do Less.)

Illogical/Analytical: People strong in the Analytical theme search for reasons and causes. They have the ability to think about all the factors that might affect a situation. (Make a decision, wait 24 hours, then re-evaluate decisions.)

Stereotype/Individualization: People strong in the Individualization theme are intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively. (Practice learning one unique quality about everyone you meet.)

Interpersonal/Maximizer: People strong in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb. (Spend more time on planning and goal setting.)

Self Conscious/Significance: People strong in the Significance theme want to be very important in the eyes of others. They are independent and want to be recognized. (Place focus on things which are internal instead of external.)

Exercise 1.5

Skills in High Demand

The best kind of job security is having a set of skills that are not easily outsourced.

These are predominantly “soft” skills not easily learned in a classroom environment:

Leadership

Project Management

People/Interpersonal Skills

Communication

Sales Skills

“ Soft” or “interpersonal” skills that require creativity, innovation, persuasion, and communication are harder to outsource.

Visualization

The ability to clearly visualize your dream job will take you further in realizing your goal than any other action.

The key is to do it in enough sensory detail.

© 2009 LaunchPad Careers, Inc. Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny. − Mahatma Gandhi

What Does Your Ideal Career Look, Sound, Feel Like?

What does your ideal career look like?

Example: My ideal career includes traveling, speaking to groups of people, minimal time in front of a computer, and wearing custom-made suits.

What does your ideal career sound like?

Example: My ideal career provides periods of silence and self-reflection so I can spend time on personal development. There are also considerable periods of human interaction and public speaking. People listen to me as I give presentations and train others.

What does your ideal career feel like?

Example: My ideal career is exhilarating because I get to learn new concepts and ideas, and share them with others. I am compensated comfortably and in a way that allows me to expand my enterprise. It is rewarding because it gives me plenty time to participate in charitable endeavors.

Exercise 1.6

Career Mapping Questionnaire

If anything were possible, what would I want to be different about my career?

What type of job would I want?

What would I want to be responsible for?

What type of boss, coworkers, and team would I want to work with?

What kind of hours would I want to work?

Questionnaire Continued

What type of company would I want work for?

What sort of company culture would I want to work in?

What city would I want to live in?

What kind of salary would I want to earn?

What kind of approach would I take to stress, my workload, and deadlines?

Exercise 1.7

Core Competencies Questionnaire

The list of core competencies on your handout will give you an opportunity to evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses.

Intellectual Competencies

Personal Competencies

Interpersonal Competencies

Management Competencies

Review Exercise 1.8

Job Opportunities Scorecard

This exercise will help you assess, prioritize, and determine what is important to you and your career as you think about your next opportunity.

Key factors:

Company Structure

Management Structure

Financial Factors

Position Factors

Compensation Factors

Personal Factors

Exercise 1.9

Values, Mission, and Vision Statements

Once you have clearer picture of your ideal career or dream job, you can begin to define it in terms of your values, vision, and mission.

Write in present tense so it becomes real in your mind. Use material from the visualizations exercise.

Values, Mission, and Vision Statements

Value Statement

Example: In my career, I work at a company that is driven by the success of individual employees and the overall success of the community. We value and encourage personal development, and strive to make positive contributions to society through our business.

Mission Statement

Example : The mission of my career is to continue to learn about personal and career development, bettering myself even as I teach this information to others. I will also improve my ability to seek out opportunities for others, assisting them in career opportunities as a recruiter and entrepreneur.

Vision Statement:

Example: I view my career as dynamic and diverse, with opportunities for challenge and growth. I see the people I encounter and work with as individuals I can learn from and people I can help. Each day brings another opportunity to develop people, build careers, and create opportunities.

Exercise 2.0

The Job Market and Your Career

5 industries or sectors expected to see strong growth in the next few years.

Federal Government

Construction and Engineering

Healthcare

Technology

Education

Projected Growth Industries

Federal Government

Opportunities to work directly for the federal government.

Contractors that provide goods and services to government.

Fewer opportunities in state and local governments due to budget.

Located in and around Washington DC.

Construction and Engineering

Federal spending on infrastructure will provide opportunities.

Skilled engineers are in high demand in many industries.

Located around population centers.

Healthcare

Aging population, modernization, research, and development will provide millions of jobs from nursing to technology.

Located around populations of retirees: Southwest and Florida.

Projected Growth Industries

Technology

Primary growth stimulator of economy is innovation. Technology is the key.

Industries from business services, life sciences, defense, and aerospace continue to need highly-skilled talent.

Located in California, Washington (state), and Washington DC.

Education

Education is usually fastest growing field during recessions.

People return to school to re-educate themselves for better job opportunities.

K-12 and ESL will also be in high-demand as population grows.

Make Your Map

Create a visual map of your career.

Work backwards: set a goal, then lay out the steps in reverse.

Monster.com career path tool: http://my.monster.com/Career-Planning/Pathing.aspx#

Career Map: Guess Who? © 2009 LaunchPad Careers, Inc. Community Organizer President of the Harvard Law Review Civil Rights Attorney and Writes 1 st Book Teaches Constitutional Law at University of Chicago Runs for Illinois State Assembly Runs for Congress Runs for Senate Writes Book Runs for President Next Goal? Keep Growing

Make Your Map!

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