As a nurse, you have skills that you are building on to lead and manage and the determination and ambition to succeed in your career. Knowing what is needed to build a prosperous and satisfying career though is completely objective. This means you will have to seriously consider what YOU will need to do to attain your goals, rather than simply doing what others tell you to do or following somebody else’s guidelines. You need to create your own path, you would like your career to take.
In order to do this, you’ll need a willingness to succeed, a goal/s and the skills required to facilitate those goals. By utilising these three things, you will not only be highly likely to achieve, but you will undoubtedly encounter opportunities along the way.
It is important to work systematically towards developing your skills so that you will have the capability to use them along your career journey. By planning your career, you set out on the right track guided through the process of self-development reinforced with SMART Goals and SWOT Analysis tools so that you advance to learn and develop skills to assist you with your career path.
Three easy steps to follow:
The following should be worked on in succession;
- Learning About Yourself,
- Identifying Your Career Objectives
- Creating Your Career Plan
This will then enable you to consider your own self development, working through the sections should be worked on in succession, as they build upon each other in order.
Only you can control your professional journey, so you need to have a clear goal in mind for your future. Take control of your career by thinking about what you want, putting plans into motion and then taking action. In doing so you need to set meaningful goals, defining the steps you will need to achieve in order to accomplish them, and finally, identifying any weaknesses in your skills or experience. It is such an easy but valuable process that so many people overlook, it is part of developing and knowing yourself.
Identifying your career objectives
Your strengths and weaknesses will affect your choice of career opportunities. The next task will be determining the steps needed to achieve your goals of your choice. You will start by creating a Long-term Vision Statement which will list your aspirations followed by a list of goals that will help you see through your vision.
This statement acts as the motivating foundation for your choice of career direction so take the time to consider the questions. Basically, you will write a personal statement declaring where you’d like to be in five to ten years, and it can be as simple or as detailed as you want.
Ask yourself:
- What do you want to accomplish?
- Why do you want to accomplish this?
- Which values drive your decision?
- Will your choices benefit others?
- What does/ will this accomplishment mean to you emotionally?
Q&A: My Long-Term Vision Statement:
(Write 3-5 paragraphs)
Now that you are aware of what your long-term vision is, it is time to break this down into manageable goals. It is all very well to say you would like to be working as…………in six years; though if you don’t know how to get to that point, you won’t.
Manageable steps will keep you on track and keep you motivated. Ask yourself:
- Do you require any specific qualifications or education to achieve your goals?
- Will you need to master any skills or competencies?
- Do you need to secure a promotion within your current career?
- Do you need more experience in a particular area or field in order to secure the promotion within your current career?
- Do you need to work in an area/field to compliment your skills and knowledge?
Now, go over your Long-term Vision Statement and apply the SMART guidelines to it.
Use the SMART guideline to ensure your goals are achievable. SMART stands for:
- Specific – make your goals specific, focusing on one particular outcome.
- Measurable – you need to define an outcome, so you know when you have achieved each goal.
- Achievable – your goal needs to be in the realm of possibility and reasonably achievable.
- Relevant – your goals should be relevant to your final outcome and should not distract from it.
- Time sensitive – you should set time limits to achieve each goal in order to remain focused and motivated.
Creating your career plan
The final step of your Career Planning involves putting everything you have compiled so far into a format that allows you to monitor your progression as you work towards your goals.
Knowledge and Skills
Q&A: Looking at everything you have discovered about yourself and your goals so far, try to identify any knowledge and skills gaps that exist:
(Write 3-5 paragraphs)
Now, define what you need to do to resolve these weaknesses and add those steps to your goals list. By now, you should have a list of achievable goals that address these extra weaknesses, as well as those identified earlier in the SWOT Analysis.
Bringing It All Together
Finally, start a plan of action by listing any short-term goals that you can begin working on straight away. Then, create a list containing your longer-term goals, listing the actions required to meet them and the method you will use to measure success. Your headings could include:
- Goals
- Actions
- Date to be completed by
- Obstacles and solutions
- Results
A comprehensive, meaningful, and achievable career plan!
Here are a couple of tips to help keep you motivated along the way:
- Keep your career plan in a visible location and at the forefront of your mind, so that you will be reminded of your goals and progression regularly.
- Try to do something every day that will help you work towards your goals.
- Tell other people about your goals so that you feel a level of accountability and encouragement.
- Reward yourself with each successful completion of a goal.
- If circumstances change, it is ok to change your plan along with them. By keeping it dynamic, you will be more likely to stick to it.
Q&A: Long term goals
(Write 3-5 paragraphs)
Q&A: Short term goals
(Write 3-5 paragraphs)
References
Parsons, T. (2016) 7 Ways to Actively Manage Your Career. Retrieved from https://www.workitdaily.com/actively-manage-your-career. Accessed 15 November 2019.
MindTools. How to Manage Your Career. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/videos/manage-career-transcript.htm. Accessed 15 November 2019.
Skillings, P. (2019) What You Should Know About Career Management. Retrieved from https://biginterview.com/blog/2018/03/career-management.html. Accessed 15 November 2019.
