Creating a Career Vision

by Angela Gallogly
Vice President of USA Operations, Advanced Team Concepts
http://www.atctraining.com

Last week I had the opportunity to work with a group of young adults in a summer work program. If they successfully complete the program they’re given a summer job opportunity and a variety of training sessions for their career preparation. One of their prerequisites requires that they participate in a 2-day Work Readiness workshop with me. The class includes a variety of job related topics: interviewing, resume writing, job retention, professional conduct, communication, etc.

The section that resonated with me was at the beginning of day 1. The participants went through a variety of goal setting steps, including creating a career vision for themselves. It was exciting to see the goals that these young adults had. There was no limit to their hopes for the future. I encouraged them to identify the barriers in the way of their goals, and the actions it would take to remove them.

I decided to revisit my own career vision and give it some thought. Is my vision the same as it was 5 years ago? What’s changed? Are there new barriers? Should there be new actions? It was a very worthwhile experience for me. Often, we get so busy doing the work that we don’t think about how we’re doing it, why we’re doing it or even if we want to do it.

Organizations invest millions of dollars to map out their team’s vision. I have personally facilitated many strategic planning or vision planning sessions to meet this end. Most people in the business world have participated in this process in one way or another.

Why not take the time to do this as an individual? Think about your own career vision. A vision is not necessarily a “position.” It is more a statement of the quality and results you desire from your future work experience.

An example:
The ideal position will give me opportunity to expand my computer skills, surround me with great people at work, and give me the flexibility and income to enjoy more quality time with my family.

Why bother?
Vision, or purpose, is a strong force to help us move forward. We tend to deal with challenges and change better when we have a compelling purpose, or vision. Your vision should be creative and expanding. It should not be inhibited by your current assumptions about how things are, or how they have always been. A personal vision provokes you to think about a preferred future, and more importantly, the work that will be necessary to move toward that ideal.

When you create your vision, you can’t skip the last step that the young adult group went through. You’ve got to create actions that will move you toward the vision. Otherwise, the vision is just a dream, with no real substance. Last week, I encouraged the class to create a couple of actions each week, with deadlines, that would move them in the direction of their vision. As the journey unfolds, they’ll identify new challenges, opportunities and actions. The point is to keep the vision in front of you, and to keep working on it all of the time.