What is Career Planning in a Pandemic?
Did I take a career planning online course? Yep I did, and I’m so happy that I did. As ridiculous as that sounds, here’s what I learned from it!
No seriously, what is career planning during a pandemic? Did you have ideas set out on the different career strides you’d make in 2020 or are you normal? Well shocker readers, I’m the not-normal person who does make yearly career goals, and mini goals within larger accomplishments. Its a little OCD — I’ll admit — but it keeps me accountable to my self and my goals.
Now how are we suppose to keep to those lovely goals when for the better half of the year, you’ve been working from home? What does your career planning even look like? As a new-ish professional, how do we make those long lasting connections and partake in training when we don’t have access to our tools. Well, its time to get new tools, especially tools that are flexible even in a pandemic.
1. Control what you can control
It dawned on me that the goals I set for myself in 2020 might not be achievable considering our global predicament. Actually let me start with saying how grateful I am to have a job, not everyone does, and that is not lost on me while writing this article. If you can donate to support others during this difficult time please do.
I work for the federal government in Environment, you can find me on LinkedIn, I accept 8/10 connections. Anyway, I started to feel like I was less in control of my career path as the pandemic waned on. Luckily fo me the public service youth network held a webinar on foraging a career path during the ‘new normal’ and it got me thinking. What can I do? I can control what I can control, simply put. I can control what tools and resources I connect to and I can control my mindset moving forward.
2. Take stock of yourself
The webinar lead me to some great resources, but before I tried them out I had to get a concise picture of what I do want, hand much changed? As mentioned earlier, I took a career planning online course. It was a brief 30 minute module but it was everything I was looking for, and honestly needed. I’ll discuss the key things I learned from the career planning course. I know it can see mundane and practical advice, but sometimes the simplest tasks are the most worthwhile.
Write down what you’re Values are: I know not everyone connects their 9–5 to their passions or their values but for those that do, it is important to take stock of this. I wrote down “trust, collective good, freedom, evidence based data, giving, and support” — go figure I work in public service.
Write down what you’re Good At: This is kind of hard to do, especially if you’re like me where you’re not necessarily good at one thing because you tend to moderately enjoy most things. Nonetheless, somethings to help identify this for you is to first look at your soft skills, what are they? Mine where communication and being adaptive. Then your hard skills, mine where writing, policy development and qualitative/quantitative analysis.
Write down what your InterestS are: This was abit hard for me. All I could get it down to was Finance/Economics, Law, and Global Issues. That’s what interests me, career wise. The module also mentioned what interest you doesn’t have to be something you currently have the technical skills for, because skills are always attainable, just focus on what YOU like for this step.
Write down your Strengths: I had to pause the module for this, to take the time to think about what my strengths are. The module recommended looking back at your previous performance reviews, feedback from management and your colleagues. A few of my strengths are my writing, communication, organization, adaptability and engagement. The module noted that usually, your strength is when your ability and interests align.
Write down your Weakness: What helped me in this section was not only identifying what I can improve on, but seriously considering skill sets I would want. I wrote improving my decision making, technical quantitative skills, and working on a PMP training. How you conceptualize your weakness is up to you. I would recommend trying to think of it as an opportunity for growth, where and what can you grow?
3. Set realistic flexible goals
The next step is creating a vision, what do you see yourself doing? Which jobs appeal to you, what industry would you explore if you could? I have a larger 5–10 year vision but for now I like to focus on a 1–2 year vision for myself to keep things in scope and to be more realistic. From that vision, you have to create an action plan to drive your goals. I had a previous action plan from early 2020, and I updated it to reflect the new normal. Lastly, it is important to understand that there is no vision without a timeline. A timeline keeps you accountable to yourself. When creating a plan set realistic and flexible goals. Always plan to reassess your goals whether that is quarterly or bi-annual, keep yourself accountable.
P.S. don’t sweat the small details, you’re in a pandemic. Do what you can when you can, and plan for growth the way that best fits your livelihood.
Cheers
Faith
