#1 Career Planning

TITLE: #1 Career

1. Career planning is a rewarding and positive experience. It can have multiple benefits, from goal-setting to career change, to a more successful life. Write the essential steps and their corresponding explanations towards a successful career planning.

The career planning process is comprised of four steps:

v  SELF - It talks about the personal data of you. It indicates the values you inculcated with your parents, your roles as good individual, and of course your skills that you proud of. In short you are going to assess yourself to that matter needed.

Begin by thinking about where you are now, where you want to be and how you’re going to get there. 

Once you have thought about where you are at now and where you want to be, you can work on getting to know your skills, interests and values. 

Begin by asking yourself the following questions:

• Where am I at now?
• Where do I want to be?
• What do I want out of a job or career?
• What do I like to do?
• What are my strengths?
• What is important to me?

At the end of this step you will have a clearer idea of your work or learning goal and your individual preferences. You can use this information about yourself as your personal ‘wish list’ against which you can compare all the information you gather in Step 2: finding out.  Your personal preferences are very useful for helping you choose your best option at this point in time, which you can do in Step 3: making decisions.  

v  OPTIONS – Define as an act of choosing. Meaning you have choices for the skills you are fit to. Meaning to say that, you are choosing the best thing that is specific to your interest or want to.

This step is about exploring the occupations and learning areas that interest you. Once you have some idea of your occupational preferences you can research the specific skills and qualifications required for those occupations.

• Explore occupations that interest you and ask yourself how do my skills and interests match up with these occupations?
• Where are the gaps?
• What options do I have to gain these skills or qualify for these occupations? 
• What skills do I need?
• Where is the work?

At the end of this step you will have a list of preferred occupations and/or learning options.  

v  MATCH – After doing so the above steps, you are now matching which occupation really fit to your skills, attitudes, interest and values that you have. So that, you will have a good occupation waiting for you.

This step involves comparing your options, narrowing down your choices and thinking about what suits you best at this point in time.  

Ask yourself:

• What are my best work/training options?
• How do they match with my skills, interests and values?
• How do they fit with the current labor market?
• How do they fit with my current situation and responsibilities?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
• What will help and what will hinder me?
• What can I do about it?

v  ACTION – After you reach the above steps, you have to do action so that you are already legible to the work you are wanted to pursue. You have to attend seminars for your improvement, you have also to make your own resume as honesty as you can, you will undergo interviews and of course different trainings fit to your occupation.

Here you plan the steps you need to take to put your plan into action.
Use all you have learnt about your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan. 

Begin by asking yourself:

• What actions/steps will help me achieve my work, training and career goals?
• Where can I get help?
• Who will support me?

At the end of this step you will have:

• a plan to help you explore your options further (eg work experience, work shadowing or more research); or
• a plan which sets out the steps to help you achieve your next learning or work goal. 

Decide which step is relevant for you right now and start from there.  

2. Since teaching is a lifetime profession and vocation, why is career planning a significant endeavor?

In today's rapidly changing world, new career paths are constantly unfolding, traditional ones are being changed and shifts are taking place in occupation skills and educational requirements.  These changes are a result of new technology, changes in organizational design and the trend towards global business operations.  With all these changes, you might ask "What is the point of planning ahead by developing a career plan?"  The point is to develop a set of career goals, strategy and options based on your interests, personality, values and skills.  Once you have a plan, you will be equipped to self-manage your career and take advantage of changes in the economy and job market rather than becoming a victim of change.  Your career is totally your responsibility.  It is up to you to do the planning and take the necessary actions to obtain the education and training that will support your career plans.  However, you can get help.  Keep in mind, throughout your life, you are the one who must make all the decisions about your career and you must produce the results that support your goals.  It’s up to you to control and

          "A goal that you desire to achieve in a selected field or occupation with a well-thought out plan, to get you there is called Career Planning."                                                         

The world is now moving very fast, and the time has come when this meritocratic society accepts only those, having right qualification and right skills.                                  Olden days are gone, when just a degree would help an individual to get high profile job by giving bribe or using some other mean. Now it's high time, when the transparency in job recruitment has taken place.                                                                             Challenges and competition are the part of today's society, and therefore, Career Planning is the only task, which can guide us to do what we want to do in our life, rather than just aimlessly changing job all the time in future.                                                              Career Planning is one of the broader aspects of learning in our existence. We all have some intentions and we all think to have stability in our future lives, and for that purpose, CAREER PLANNING serves as a key to success.                                                             Career Planning makes a person to think suitably about their positive and negative aspects. All about their interest, about their creativity becomes possible through proper analyzing ourselves.                                                                                                     In short, Career Planning is like mapping our future. Without proper planning, no one could think of getting a desired job in future.                                                           Career planning directs us, motivates us, and helps us to accomplish what we want. A career goal is a specific vision such as an architect or a teacher or a career goal can be a particular field, which we want to work in, such as Media, Education, Medicine, Engineering etc.   Career planning is a life time process we are always learning and growing, and as we do, our interests and needs also change. Career planning is not just making plans to obtain our career, but it also help us to make many adjustments there will be along the ways we learn throughout our lives. Very few of us actually plan our careers. Usually, more thought is given to a summer holiday or social activities. This is bizarre as you will spend around two-thirds of your adult (waking) life at work - your career goes a long way to determining your quality of life. 

3. Interview an artist teacher using the following profession:

          1. Why did you enter the teaching profession?

          2. How did you prepare for your teaching career?

          (Indicate the teacher’s name, age, school, position, length of service)

Why did you enter the teaching profession?

I wanted to become a successful teacher. It’s really my ambition! Dealing with school children is one of my interests in life. It fascinates me! I wanted to share my knowledge to the pupils especially the less fortunate because from the, I draw strengths and inspirations.

3.2 How did you prepare for your teaching career?

I studied very hard. I was focused to become a teacher no matter. I want to prove that poverty is not a hindrance to fulfill my goal.

Teacher’s Name:  Larry B. Espiritu, Ph.D.

Age: 45

Position: Education Program Supervisor

Length of Service: 20 years