An essential part of everyone’s career is looking towards the future. Planning for your next step is nice, but knowing the next five and your destination is even better. In order to get to a point where you’ve got it figured out several years down the line, there’s a bit of groundwork that needs to be done. This groundwork, career planning, is an essential foundation for anyone looking to grow and evolve.

The Basics Of Career Planning

An essential part of career planning is to understand where you’re coming from. Start by reflecting on where you are and where you want to be. Whether you’re currently looking for a job or you’re employed but curious about opportunities, there are numerous reasons why you’d want to consider additional opportunities.

At its core, however, career planning is not just about finding a job. Career planning is about finding the right job. An article by Your Career Optimiser has three questions to help guide this reflection:

• What activities energize me?
• What environment do I thrive in?
• What interactions do I value at work?

We’ll explore each of these questions in greater detail and dive into how guided self-reflection can guide your next career move.

Energizing Activities

The first is to think about the activities you prefer to do. These are the things you do that make you feel fulfilled, happy, and confident. Identifying these activities is no small feat, but understanding where you want to be and what you want to do is crucial. This first step is akin to goal setting, though instead of knowing exactly where you want to be, you instead have a general idea of the type of work you’d like to be doing.

Personalized Environment

The second of three questions asks you to consider the environment that you feel is best suited to your style of work. Focusing on the work environment is a great way to narrow down potential candidates. If you know you like working in your own space, for example, it’s probably best that you stay away from jobs promoting a collaborative work environment and team-based practices. 

Fulfilling Work

The final question they ask revolves around what you do in the workplace, a bit of a combination of the first two. For this question, think about your favorite activities at work. This might include talking with a client, directing a team, or figuring out a complex problem. Take note of whatever you find most exciting at work. This information can go a long way towards pointing you in the direction that your career should go in.

How Recruiters Help

Ok, you’ve done the legwork and figured out a bit more about what you like to do, where you like to do it, and with whom you like to do it with. This is where working with a recruiter can really elevate your career. A recruiter can do a couple of things for you at this point, like suggesting specific titles. Recruiters are equipped as part of their job to know the positions available in the area. Because of this, they have access to real-life local information on job trends. It doesn’t matter if accounting jobs are up fifteen percent in the US: what matters is whether or not Auntie Sue’s Bakery down the road needs a bookkeeper. Recruiters can help you make that connection between industry and local trends.

Hidden Opportunities

Recruiters can also point you in the right direction when it comes to finding the right job title. If you share with a recruiter the type of work you enjoy and the environment you want to do it in, more often than not they’ll be able to use that information to point out various open positions that could be a match for you. Oftentimes, your skills and preferences can be used in roles that you might not consider: recruiters can use their knowledge of available positions to find a place that meets those preferences.

Goal-Based Recruitment

A key part of career planning is its future-facing nature. Recruiters can work with you and adjust the positions they recommend based on your career goals. If you’re looking to advance and want to be in management in five years, a recruiter can help you find companies that promote from within and have numerous opportunities for advancement. 

Likewise, if you’re looking to gain skills or experience before moving on, a recruiter can find you a position that lets you transfer between departments or even some type of temp work. Using recruiters to help match you with positions that align you with your career goals is a great way to combine your knowledge of yourself and their knowledge of the industry.

Working With Premier

Finding the right recruiter is no easy task. Premier understands this, which is why we’re incredibly proud of the group of recruiters we work with. Our extensive team of recruiting talent is a perfect fit for helping you guide your career to where you want it to be. With our twenty-six years of service, you can be sure that we’re experts in the industry. Our team is ever-evolving, understanding the latest AI trends in order to help our candidates find success, and armed with the most up-to-date knowledge on the hiring process. Take your career to the next step, and learn more about how Premier can help you today!