Career Planning

Instead of resume writing, the first step in your job search is career planning. For example, you may need to know if you want to find a job in academic, industry, or even start your own company. You also need to have a long term vision in your mind to guide yourself. Government statistics show that average American has more than 10 jobs in his lifetime; and ten years from now, half the working population will be in jobs that have not yet been invented. Without a clear vision in your mind, you may easily get lost in job market. After all, even if you get your perfect job, how long can you keep it?

Your career planning can all boil down to your self-analysis. You can ask yourself some questions like "What kind of person am I", " What kind of person do I like best to work with", "What kind of knowledge and skills do I have" and "What's the most important things for me in a job?" etc. Be honest to yourself and take some time to reflect on it. You may not really know what's your perfect job until you first do some self-exploration like this.

Then you can brainstorm some job titles that sound interesting to you. For example, if you're a recent electronic engineering graduate, you can pursue job positions in the following fields: electronic engineer, technical support, sales representative, consultant, etc. Compare your options and decide which career path interests you the most. People tend to select careers they think they already know: law students become lawyers, engineering students become engineers. But what if after several years, they find that they don't like their jobs at all? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are about 22,000 occupations in American society. If you can think outside the box and develop a broader vision of your career possibilities, you'll find a career that you enjoy doing and also do well, a career which is based on your interest, aptitudes and personality.

Many job hunters ignore this step and go directly to the resume writing step. The problem here is two-fold. First, since they're unprepared, they may fail a job interview when they are asked questions like "Why do you want this job", "Where do you see yourself in five years"? And second, even they find a job by luck, they may have a harsh transaction time when they have to find another job. Let me put it this way, careful career planning allow you to have more control over your career and life, without career planning, you allow life to control you.

There are many career assessment tool and career tests on internet to help you evaluate yourself and your career planning. You may also want to know what are the current ten hottest careers.