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Career Planning

The process of career planning involves steps such as evaluating your options, making key decisions to move forward and setting goals to help reach your desired destination. While these steps may seem straightforward and rather linear, the reality is that in any career planning journey you are bound to encounter unexpected events and situations that may throw you off course. This is the paradox of career planning – it is important to set goals, have a plan and work hard towards your dreams but, at the same time, it is equally important that you allow room for your route to change as you gain new experiences, learn more about yourself, understand career options and encounter various obstacles along the way.

“Planned Happenstance” (Mitchell, Levin & Krumboltz, 1999) is the term used for the approach encouraged in today’s changing work environment. This involves making plans and taking action while being open to unanticipated opportunities as they arise. In order to do this successfully, there are 5 important skills or attitudes that a person must develop:

  • Curiosity
  • Persistence
  • Flexibility
  • Optimism
  • Risk-Taking

 

  • Decision Making
  • Setting Goals
  • Skills Development

Decision Making

The process of career planning involves making decisions – many decisions. Just as there are different learning styles, there are also different styles of making decisions. It is essential to be aware of your priorities and what things you consider to be important (i.e. your values).

The following resources can help guide you through some of the decisions you may be facing right now and help you build confidence in your decision making approach.


CareerStorm Navigator, an online career/life planning tool, is also an excellent resource to help you approach your decision making with confidence.

Setting Goals

Goal setting helps to keep you focused on where you are heading and lays out the action steps that will help get you there.  Whether they are short term or long term goals, it is important to be flexible to changes as they come along.

As you begin the career planning process, it is easy to get lost in the details and feel overwhelmed.  At this point developing specific plans is helpful.

Below you will find resources and tools you can use to help you develop “SMART” (Specific, Meaningful, Action Oriented, Realistic and Timely) goals.

Skills Development

As you go forward with your education, you will begin to develop essential skills – many of which are transferable to the workplace.  Employers are looking for specific skills when seeking candidates.  These skills are identified by the Conference Board of Canada’s Employability Skills Chart.

While some of these skills develop naturally, it is also important to be intentional with the types of skills you want to develop as they will identify you as a qualified candidate when looking for employment or gaining entrance into professional schools.

By exploring the various professions in-depth and familiarizing yourself with these competencies, you can actively work towards developing those skills or experiences you may not have had otherwise. You can do this in a number of ways, whether it is through involvement with extra-curricular activities, volunteering or paid work and by becoming engaged with your community.

Many students tend to discount the experiences they have had because they do not feel it is “directly related” to the career they are seeking. However, those seemingly unrelated experiences are often the ones through which so many applicable skills have been developed. Whatever skills you are looking to develop or build upon, we can help connect you to many skills building opportunities.

Check the Job Search, Volunteering and Experience pages on our site for more information on skills development.

The McMaster Students Union also posts work and volunteer opportunities on their website as well as a comprehensive clubs listing.