Career/Life Planning

The stress of looking for a job diminishes just after finding a new job, making you feel satisfied with the effort made. You certainly deserve an emotional rest, temporarily forgetting about the future of your career. However, it is imperative that you never lose sight of your long term career outline prepared together with Career Services.

Planning a career should begin as soon as you decide on a specific degree course, and above all during the early years of your working life. This does not necessarily mean that the planning conceived has to be fulfilled. As people, we change and mature, we adapt to different realities and we discover new paths. We should therefore adjust the outline of our professional future, adapting it to new circumstances in our life. We should never forget that our career should be in harmony with our personal life. For example, if you thought of pursuing an international career and your companion now has another personal or professional plan that does not fit with living abroad you will need to readjust your plans accordingly. You will now have to reconsider your plan and decide, together with your companion, on the best option.

So, what is the point of having a career plan, if you probably won't follow it and you will modify it according to your circumstances? It is indeed of use and, moreover, it is absolutely essential. Good managers have to know how to manage their professional life, to plan, to foresee, to react positively to sudden changes and to overcome crises. Good managers need to know how to manage their career and not to be overwhelmed by inertia or carried away by a blind reaction.

As well as learning to plan our professional future from a young age, the concept of networking should also be incorporated into our training. We meet different people throughout our personal and professional lives, each being a source of incalculable information, which at a given moment may correspond to what we are seeking. It is therefore very important to keep our Address Book up to date, attending meetings, seminars, social events, etc., where we can meet people. It is not a question of establishing self-interested relations, but rather, of establishing relationships according to our personal style, while remaining aware that one day we may be interested in contacting them, just as they may contact us.