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Peter Weddle
is an Army veteran and business CEO turned
author and commen-tator. He has written or
edited over two dozen books and penned columns
for The Wall Street Journal and CNN.
He has been a guest on The Today Show, CBS
This Morning, the McLaughlin Group, Bloomberg
Financial News and other television and radio
programs and is often quoted in the national
media.
WEDDLE's
is a book publishing company that specializes
in resources for job seekers and career activists.
Called the "Zagat of job boards," it produces
annual guides to the 40,000 employment sites
now operating on the Internet as well as other
publications designed to help people increase
the satisfaction and the paycheck they bring
home from work each month.
 WEDDLE's
2005/6 Guide to Employment Web Sites
Reviews 350 of the top employment sites on
the Internet, and provides the information
you need to evaluate them effectively.
 WEDDLE's
Wiznotes
These guides are the “CliffsNotes” for job
hunting and careeer advancement.
More
articles by Peter Weddle
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By Peter Weddle
[Have an opinion about this article? Visit
the
Career discussion forum.]
It's May. For many of us, that means it's time to start making
our summer plans. These holiday excursions and family trips are
important events, so almost no one treats them cavalierly. We browse
the Internet looking for vacation rentals. We talk to friends and
co-workers about the trip packages they bought, the hotels they
stayed in, and the restaurants they enjoyed. In short, we invest
a lot of time and effort to make sure it all goes well and that
we have memories we can treasure for a long, long time.
Why, then, don't we invest a similar level of effort in making our
career plans? Clearly, they're just as important, just as central
to our happiness this summer (and the rest of the year) and for
a long, long time after that. Yet, most of us treat career planning
as something only slightly better than a root canal. We only do
it when we absolutely have to, and we wait until the absolutely
last minute before we do so.
While there may be several reasons for this aversion to career planning,
I believe one is the principal culprit. Most of us don't know what
career planning is or what it entails. The prospect of doing it,
therefore, seems a whole more like work than planning a vacation.
Now, I won't try and con you. Career planning does take some time
and effort, and the gratification you get from doing it is different
from what you experience lying on the beach getting a tan. But,
there are some similarities:
- A vacation liberates you from work; a career plan liberates
you from unexpected changes at work. In other words, a good career
plan makes sure you are in charge of what happens on-the-job rather
than its victim.
- A vacation enables you to regenerate your enthusiasm and capabilities
so that you can enjoy work more once you return. A good career
plan enables you to build up your enthusiasm and capabilities
so that you can enjoy success in the job you have now and compete
effectively for the job you hope to have in the future.
- A vacation lets you spend some time enjoying hobbies, avocations
and other interests that you have outside the workplace. A good
career plan lets you spend your time in the workplace doing something
that is engaging and rewarding for you.
What's involved in building a good career plan? It takes just four
steps:
Step 1: Figure out what you want to do with your career. In
short, what is the objective of your work? As fundamental as that
may sound, many of us spend our entire careers trying to earn an ever
bigger paycheck rather than working to build up our sense of satisfaction
and fulfillment at work. The U.S. Bill of Rights doesn't promise wealth
to all Americans; it guarantees them Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness. That's what you want to focus your career on-the pursuit
of whatever brings you real and lasting joy in your work-and it's
never to late too start that quest.
Step 2: Identify your Achievement goal. This is a goal that
you can accomplish in the near term, say the next 6 to 12 months.
It identifies an outcome you can achieve in your current job or employment
situation, such as the completion of a special project, the solution
to an especially tough problem or the resolution of strained relations
with your boss or a co-worker. The Achievement goal enables you to
make a meaningful contribution to your employer-that's the only definition
of loyalty that makes any sense in the 21st Century-and be loyal to
yourself by advancing your own performance in the workplace-that's
the only way to enjoy true employment security in the 21st Century.
Step 3: Identify your Advancement goal. This is a goal that
you can accomplish in the mid-to-longer term, say in the next two-to-three
years. It identifies the next job you want to hold or the next level
of work you want to be able to perform. It may involve your current
employer or it may require that you move to another work situation,
but it will always represent a major leap forward in your effort to
develop and express your capabilities in the workplace. The Advancement
goal is the way you ensure that your career is always moving forward-not
up some employer's corporate ladder-but ahead in terms of the skills
and experience you are able to use in your work.
Find employers that value military
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Step 4: Identify your Development goal. This goal is a bridge
that connects your Achievement goal and your Advancement goal. It
enables you to build on the success you achieve in your current job
by adding the supplemental capabilities and knowledge that prepare
you appropriately for the next challenge in your career. That might
involve acquiring a new skill through training or a formal educational
program; it might require that you achieve greater stature in your
field through participation in your professional society or association;
or, it might mean that you gain more sight and understanding about
certain aspects of your work through discussions with a mentor.
Once you have these four goals in place, you need to revisit them
from time-to-time to see how you're doing. Just as we sometimes forget
to make our plane reservations and thus lose out on that great holiday
we'd planned, you can forget to focus on your career goals and lose
out on the security, opportunity and, ultimately, the happiness we
deserve from our work. I call this review process a "personal performance
appraisal." It's a candid conversation that we hold with ourselves
every quarter, just to make sure that we are still pursuing our own
Happiness. If we keep ourselves focused on that outcome, we will always
enjoy our careers as much as we enjoy our vacations.
[Have an opinion about this article?
Visit the
discussion forum.]
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© 2005 Peter Weddle. All opinions expressed
in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those
of Military.com.
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