5 Tools for Intended Career Building
Luci Peters
Certified Professional Resume Writer
July 27, 2022, 12:37 pm

5 Tools for Intended Career Building

The professional journey is a blend of sweet and sour experiences for people. They tend to remember each and every aspect that they have lived professionally. When you travel on road, you might wonder seeking help from several of the markings found on both sides. It is because the road is long and people attempt to remember important points in the form of markings. Your professional journey is somehow similar to the road; you need to remember all of the markings throughout this journey. Here are some tools that will help you in the process of giving these markings:

The SWOT

You have come across SWOT in several ways so far in your professional life. Companies keep using SWOT analysis for the development of strategic planning. In a personal context, the SWOT tool helps in recognizing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats presented in the labor market for you. It works in the following way:

  • Strengths are the benefits that you gain from your skills and achievements—and you write them professionally in your resume no doubt. Your skills are the standpoints over which, your professional life stands firmly. This is more like assessing the strengths in the form of benefits that one has achieved in the course of one’s professional journey.

  • Weaknesses refer to the disadvantages of many types such as the conditions of the labor market, the targeted segment of the job you have applied for as well as the internal weaknesses in your professional profile. A combination of all of them requires formal assessment.

  • Labor markets display opportunities for growth and stability. At the global level, the demand for skilled professionals may increase or decrease in a particular sector. However, the steady growth of any business sector presents the opportunity for more and more employment in the future. Thus, the opportunity section in SWOT helps in understanding which sector is growing and what type of effort individuals should give in order to enhance their chances of getting hired.

  • Threats are external factors in the labor market. They are improvised conditions and they render unexpected outcomes. People are expected to understand that one particular business sector has gone down because employment in some specific category required additional training. Thus, professionals did not show much interest in getting these jobs.

Career Anchors: Why do we need them?

Edgar Shane, the American psychologist, developed this tool to help people understand the concept of why professionals are encouraged to pursue their careers positively. There are eight major categories under which, the concept of career anchor works. These are given below:

  1. The first one is professional competence. It takes a little effort to identify what are your professional strengths. This is the recognition of the escalated competing level you have developed over the course of time. You might love teaching in the classroom, solving puzzles of math or explaining poems to young students. This way, you will love to have employee recognition.
  2. Management leads to progression in a career in a certain way, it develops the skills of coordination of services and working with other employees.
  3. Independence is something that every professional wants; they prefer working with their own style intact as well as in the preferred model they have chosen (this tendency has increased in the post covid19 period).
  4. Security and stability are well-sought-after kinds of concepts. Professional work depends on the choice of employment in which, job security and stability both are present.
  5. Entrepreneurship is the new phase of encouragement. Professionals in this category like innovation and creativity and they tend to develop new ideas with full potential. They believe that if their ideas are unique, people will love the product and services they have offered.
  6. Every corporate should have this desire to benefit; professionals looking for job opportunities where they can envisage their benefits as well as the benefits of other individuals. This is one of the major foundations of CSR practices taken up by organizations these days.
  7. Challenge is definitely one of the best motivations. The intrinsic level of encouragement is taken from the perceptions obtained in organizational culture. Genuine professionals love the challenging work environment because it gives them the opportunity to stand out as bright and competent.
  8. Work-life balance/lifestyle is the last career anchor, which is enlisted here. Professional life is anchored well if the personal life is okay. These days, emphasis is given to developing work-life balance positively globally. Organizations provide internal facilities to their employees in order to reduce their stress issues and provide help in their work management.

Replaying Action

This tool is employed to evaluate errors and draw conclusions from a particular "operation," and it is based on the knowledge of the US Army. It might be a poor interview, a squandered negotiation, or a project that is in danger of failing in the context of a professional summary for a career transition. It should be beneficial for a particular project because it is essential for learning and error repair (which is also a job search). This tool can be used alone or in groups, however, it is typically utilized in groups.

The concept responds to the following four questions simply:

  • What was about to happen?
  • What actually happened?
  • What is the difference between planning and execution?
  • Why I should learn from this?

Disney’s Creative Strategy

This tool can be used by anyone who wants to build plans or find an unconventional solution to a problem, not just members of the creative professions. To achieve this, you should experiment with several personas, such as the dreamer, realist, and critic who contributed to the production of the studio's amazing animated films.

In the dreamer position, why is this objective so significant and motivating? When I get there, how will I feel?

What must I do to accomplish my aim in the realism role? What exact algorithm is used to accomplish the goal? What resources ought to be drawn in?

Is it feasible to put this strategy into action? Asks the critic in the role; what’s lacking?

The GROW Model

This model works on Goal, Reality, Options, and Will. The aim must be defined and stated as precisely as feasible. Not only will it set the objective, but it will also more methodically begin the journey there. At this point, there is a chance that you will engage in self-criticism; therefore, you should exercise caution and maintain balance to prevent motivation loss. Answering your questions honestly is crucial, such as acknowledging that being afraid or lazy is a success and a reason to change one's behavior. It is crucial to gather the most thoughts and alternatives possible, free from judgment and assessment. The crucial word in "I will" is "will." It suggests resolve and a desire for transformation.

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