In April 2016 a LinkedIn study suggested the millennial
generation tended to job-hop in the five years after they graduated college. College
graduates between 1986 and 1990 averaged more than 1.6 jobs, and those
graduating between 2006 and 2010 averaged nearly 2.85 jobs (Berger, 2016).
Although a baby boomer, I too held many jobs over my career that included
various positions in nursing, education, and leadership. Similar to many of my
colleagues, my career path has taken many twists and turns based on family
responsibilities, economics, life events, opportunities, deliberate decisions,
and focused goals. My passion for teaching was a major influence in how my
career plan was formulated over my career as an educator in both academic and
practice settings.
Career planning is “a structured process for analyzing your
skills and interests, formulating long-term goals and devising strategies to
achieve them” (ConcordiaOnline.net, 2013, para. 7). In fulfilling the functions
in a mentor role, NPD practitioners are often called on to counsel and advise
others regarding professional growth and career development. Helping others in
their career planning is a basic tenet of NPD practice, but career planning is
also necessary for one’s own professional growth and career advancement. Although
sometimes doors open and opportunities appear with little effort, typically
career planning is a cogent and deliberative practice. I have been approached
many times by colleagues seeking advice on how to become an educator as they
explore possible positions in either an academic or practice setting. Although
academic faculty and NPD practitioners have many similar competencies focused
on education, there are some fundamental differences in the roles and
responsibilities. A framework that can help sort out what direction to go and
apply to career planning follows:
Who am I?
Self-awareness – An important starting point is to develop a perceptive
sense of self-awareness. This requires recognizing one’s values that inform
what is important for the individual’s career and associated work. Being able
to articulate one’s interests, competencies/skills, and associated gaps in
knowledge, skills, and attitudes, is necessary to begin developing the
strategies needed to direct and manage a career plan.
- Values
- Interests
- Competencies/Skills
- Gaps
What do I want? Goals
– The major driving forces in establishing goals for a career plan are based on
fiscal, education, and personal influences. Thus, conveying fiscal, education,
and personal goals assists in structuring the career plan. A periodic review
(e.g., annually) of the goals established for a career plan can ascertain accomplishments,
or the need to reassess and change the goals and associated actions of the career
plan based on these influences.
- Fiscal
- Education
- Personal
What is out there?
Exploration - An essential practice is to continually scan the horizon to
align a career plan with changes that may impact nursing, education, health
care, and society in the future. A flexible career plan is necessary based on
inevitable change and the associated adjustments needed to make a career plan
relevant today and in to the future. Individual effort is needed to actively
research what options are available to lend validity to a career plan.
- Scan the horizon
- Research available options
What do I need to do?
Decisions and Actions – Reflecting on the information gathered, weighing
the alternatives, and applying a logical decision-making process helps to
devise a realistic career plan. Outlining the short- and long-term goals, connected
actions, and related outcomes provides the structure needed to begin the
operational phase of the career plan. Other important strategies require the
individual to at times take risks and purposefully network and market
themselves to showcase their knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation, and talent.
- Plan – short (< 5 years) and long-term (5 years and beyond)
- Take risks
- Network
- Market
Career development is not an event that just happens, it
requires reflective self-awareness, thoughtful career planning, strategic
networking and marketing, and persistent monitoring to ensure the career plan
is relevant and is able to accommodate fiscal, education, and personal
influences and overarching changes in society that impact future career
planning. Mentoring others in professional growth and career development is
essential for NPD practitioners, yet attending to one’s own professional growth
and career development is just as critical as the NPD practitioner is a role
model for life-long learning. I challenge my NPD colleagues to strategize your
own personal career plan and make it actionable and relevant for you!
References
Berger, G. (2016, April 12). Will this year’s college
grads job-hop more than previous grads? Retrieved from https://blog.linkedin.com/2016/04/12/will-this-year_s-college-grads-job-hop-more-than-previous-grads
ConcordiaOnline.net. (2013, November 14). What is career
planning and who needs it? Retrieved from http://www.concordiaonline.net/what-is-career-planning-and-who-needs-it/
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