Career planning: Your career, your life

What are the most influential factors shaping contemporary careers, and why is individual adaptability critical to succeeding in a rapidly evolving career landscape? This week you will be introduced to a range of economic and technological issues redefining the future of work and its implications to contemporary career management. You will also review how to proactively think about your career that will help you not to lose focus even in the light of the fundamental shifts in work and also learn about career competencies related to successful adaptation.

This week you will explore and collect career information from diverse sources to inform your professional awareness about different career paths and help you become more adaptable and flexible in your approach to career management. You will be guided to begin exploring “possible selves”, identify your favourite / best skills, and think about them in the context of different professional behaviours / roles.

What is the link between your values, vision, goals, and careers you’re interested to explore? This week you will apply elements of the design thinking approach to career planning to further help you identify what defines your professional identity even if you don’t exactly know what your career goals should be. These activities will help you to imagine alternative career trajectories in relation to the future of work. You will learn strategies to achieve better alignment between your skills and job description / job specification documents and be invited to create an unconventional (but effective) career game plan.

How will you navigate a career path in order to ensure that it is going / developing in the direction you want? This week you will review several critical areas that can orient you to develop important skills to manage and improve your career prospects (networking, self-awareness) and the ability to proactively manage difficult situations (e.g. career crisis).