Creating Your Own Career

By Author: Joann Javons
Total Articles: 5
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It's no longer about being employed, but about being employable. Even if you have your own business, you need to be employable to your customers. And ready to change.
It's no longer about being employed, but about being employable. Even if you have your own business, you need to be employable to your customers. And ready to change. Change jobs, change the direction of your business, change some critical element of your website. Whether you have your own business or you're working for another company the same concept holds true. The most critical step in creating your career is to have 100% clarity on your unique pattern of values, traits, skills, and interests. Many people want to avoid this step and just go out and find what they say they want. Big, big mistake. You'll pay the price in less satisfaction, less achievement, less money....and until you do it right, you'll just be making the same mistakes over and over again. Stephen Covey, author or the best seller, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" zeroes in on a principle which you probably know as an adage: You reap what you sow. You already *know* that ...
... you cannot forget to plant in the fall, slack off in the summer, and then reap the harvest in the spring! Nor can you skip this first step in creating your career. The principle operates whether we like it or not. Principles are universal, timeless, exist outside of us, and lead to predictable outcomes. Always. You reap what you sow: it's the law of the harvest. In other words, you have to pay a price to achieve the results you desire: it takes commitment, time, consistent effort. Do you really think that plant is going to grow if you do nothing? If you don't invest in the very first step of creating your own career, a default plan, based on your own conditioning, conscious and unconscious, will kick in. Result: you'll end up where you don't want to be. Career planning counselors call this first critical step Self-Assessment. It's a structured, proven approach to your values, interests, personality, and skills. Commit to it, do it. Here are some excellent resources to get you started: Richard Bolles is known as one of the top career and life planning authorities in the world. There are over 11,000 sites that write about him and carry the many books he has written. Each book he writes is unconventional in it's approach, inspiringand works. Of course, when I worked with him he wasn't quite so famous and I was lucky. But that is one of the things I learned from him: how to make serendipity work for you! Of all his publications, I especially recommend "What Color Is Your Parachute?" and the "Quick Job Hunting Map". But they are all very, very good. People Success gives you an excellent description of his runaway best seller and the book that started a revolution in thinking about career planning, "What Color Is Your Parachute?", a must-have for anyone wanting to change careers, get a better job, create their own job. Make sure you read "About the Author" in the right-hand column. T.Rowe Price did a very interesting interview with Bolles. It's right here T R Price Interview. Goshen University does a good description of Bolles' approach and his "Quick Job Hunting Map", an excellent tool that I've used with many clients. In his book, "The New Quick Job-Hunting Map", Richard Bolles advises: "Alas, there are no techniques that will guarantee that you will find a job, if only you follow them faithfully. Any true job-hunting veteran will tell you in all honesty that it takes three things to find a job." Those 3 things are Techniques, Art, and Luck. Read about it at the Goshen site. John Holland, Ph.d has a wonderful tool, the "Self-Directed Search" (SDS) that quickly gives you a lot of information about yourself. The SDS is fun to take. It's based on research that indicates people are most satisfied in work environments that reinforce their personalities. It's a simple-to-use, self-administered assessment that requires about 35 minutes to complete. You'll answer questions about aspirations, activities, competencies, self-estimates. You can take this self-assessment online at http://www.self-directed-search.com/whatisds.html. Another self-assessment that I recommend and personally vouch for is The Strong Interest Inventory II. You can get information about the Strong, take self-assessments online, and get other excellent information about self-assessment at About.com. Click on "Self-Assessment" in the left column when you get to About.com. For many helpful resources click on Text-Link to Homepage then click on "Jobs/Careers". About the Author Joann Javons is a consultant and coach with a passion for helping people be all they can be. She is the owner of http://www.AttractClients.com, http://www.private-practice-marketing.com, and http://www.peoplepoems.com