The Ins & Outs of Smart Career Planning

If you were to ask someone what they felt was most important to their job right now, they’d probably say job security.

Right now, people are more afraid than ever about losing their jobs, having to halt or restart their careers, or losing financial gains they may have made over the past months. Worse off, entire sections of society are now actively looking for work; and there is not much luck. But while this might seem hopeless, there are some smart strategies that can help those looking for work get their goals into perspective. Welcome to the world of SMART career planning.

SPECIFIC

It is good to set goals, whether you are doing so to find new work in the job market or merely move forward in life. A lot of us do not actually struggle with our goals however, we simply struggle with specifying them. When looking for a job in Japan, break it down into specifics. What are you good at? Why are you good at it? Could you see this job becoming your career? Answer these questions for yourself, and as you do; you will find you are more able to ascertain and understand what you are looking to specifically get out of the work you are going into.

MEASURABLE

Try to imagine going to a basketball game. Everything is set up exactly the same, except you notice the referees are not keeping score of the baskets earned by the players. This is what it is to set up a goal with no measurable outcome. We have to understand what goals we are trying to reach in order to reach them. Hence, going back to specifics; we have to know what we want. It is all fine and good to say you want to become a CEO in five years, but how do you plan to get there? With measurable goals, you are more likely to create a concrete plan for career success and avoid failure.

ATTAINABLE

It is great for you to dream big, even when you are just starting out in your career field or job. But it is important to remain conscious of what you can attain. Everyone certainly wants to become the store manager or the CFO; but do you have the effort to reach that position? Are you making meaningful team contributions that have earned that spot? And most importantly, is this position available to you openly? There is not a bigger waste of time at work than pursuing something you are not qualified for.

RELEVANT

One thing that keeps good businesses going is staying grounded in reality. It is fine to say you’d like to increase business by 50% or take over the market; but those may not always be the most realistic goals in your life. Instead, one should aim to keep their business relevant with both the times and the supply and demand of the people present at that time. A community should have a reason for wanting to keep your business in the area, being mindful of relevancy will help them come up with that reason all the same.

TIME-BASED

Now that we have proper goals which we know are relevant and can be obtained, we still need to remember that we should aim to reach these goals as soon as possible. The more we complete, the farther we move in life. It is good to set time limits and deadlines for ourselves in order to meet specific goals by said timeframe. Doing so allows for us to experience a greatest discipline in our work lives, as well as provides faster service to the business clients.