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Best Tips for your long-term Career Plan

October 12, 2024

Making a long-term plan for your career can feel intimidating, but it’s a great approach to making the most of your professional life.

It is a sad yet actual fact that many Nigerian undergraduates don’t know what they want to do after school— even the graduates who are done need to figure out what to do with their degrees.

What about you, then? Have you given more than a few years worth of time to future planning?

Here are our top five suggestions for planning ahead to maximize your career:

1. Consider the upcoming year

This initial step should be simple if you are already employed in your target field. However, if you want to stand out inside your company in today’s cutthroat industry, consider what you’d like to accomplish in a year. It would be excellent if you considered increasing your knowledge and abilities this year, whether in advanced IT, project management, or media production. It could be anything.

These new competencies and skills could result from taking on more work responsibilities, attending professional conferences, or studying online.

2. Recognize patterns in employment

Maintaining active involvement in your career plan is the most excellent strategy to prepare for upcoming job changes and developments. In addition, you’ll be more prepared for your next move if you regularly study the labour market and careers.

You will be among the first to choose this new job path if you can find a new rung on the career ladder that can be attained with further education.

Getting a second degree or another advanced degree no longer has to be as risky as it once was. Wherever you are, you can take a course that meets your goals for professional development at a speed that works for you, thanks to flexible and remote learning providers. The good news is that you can study while working.

3. Considering changing careers

Does the niche you’ve created for yourself still match your objectives or style? Have you realized that you don’t want to work your current job for a living for another year? If so, you should start preparing for your next step right away.

Be extremely clear about the aspects of your current position you like and dislike before deciding what might make your working life more joyful. Then, be practical and consider different careers that will let you use your existing knowledge, abilities, and skills.

4. Establishing long-term career objectives

It’s time to think about your slightly longer-term goals now that you’ve already evaluated the upcoming year, assessed your skill gaps, and pondered a career shift.

The two main kinds of these are short-term goals and long-term goals. Consider short-term objectives that you can complete in less than three years first. Then your long-term objectives will be fulfilled in five to ten years. For instance, to launch a firm in your industry. Your short-term objectives will help you reach your long-term objectives.

5.Write down the steps

You must choose your top priorities to direct most of your energy toward those objectives. Next, determine the precise objectives that must be accomplished in the next five years so that you may concentrate your efforts on them. It may be more challenging to attain your goals if you do too much during that period, especially if you have a long list of objectives.

 

Once you’ve identified the most important goal or goals, then start making a list of steps you need to achieve to reach those goals. Next, identify the actions you need to take monthly, quarterly or annually to reach your goals within five years. You can more easily track your progress by identifying the steps you need to take and writing down what you need to do each month to reach those goals.

6. Remain focused on your objectives

Your focus will increase by setting concrete, quantifiable, doable, pertinent, and time-bound goals. 

Doing long-term planning for your work can seem intimidating, but implementing these six suggestions can maximize your professional potential.

To be more practical. Here is a free template of a 5-year career plan. Found it useful? Then Subscribe to our newsletter to get premium career resources.