How to build a long-term career plan

Research shows that 39% of British workers don't plan ahead in terms of their career goals. If you feel daunted by the idea of planning ahead, here's a step-by-step guide to help you

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• Penny de Valk
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 November 2012 09.30 GMT
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Knowing which direction to take your career in is difficult, but breaking it down into manageable stepping stones can help. Photograph: Alamy

How would you describe your relationship with your employer? Are you new to the role and still in the honeymoon phase? Happily committed to a long-term partner? Or are you settled, but not satisfied, keen for new challenges but not quite sure how to move forward and so sleepwalking through the nine-to-five instead?

If the last option applies to you, you're not alone. Recent research found that 39% of British workers don't plan ahead in terms of their career goals and 25% have no long-term career plan at all. Those who do plan their career goals take a relatively short-term approach, looking on average less than three years into the future.

If you don't look ahead you could find yourself stuck without a sense of direction and at risk of being left behind. The research also demonstrated that only 16% of us feel our current job fits well with our long-term career goals. Fortunately, if you are stuck in a career rut, it is possible to plan your way out.

The notion of a job for life feels outdated these days; it's becoming more usual to move around, with each role and each organisation adding to your CV and facilitating your next move. We are also continuing our careers into later life, which means we need to plan all the more.

Career planning means thinking big while also being prepared for slow-burn development. First, clarify your career objectives by identifying what you are good at and what you enjoy; you can then build upon this to thrive in your career. Ask yourself what specific achievements you are proudest of, and what elements of everyday work bring you the greatest satisfaction. Many people find it difficult to examine themselves in this way so ask friends and family to remind you of tasks you've talked about with enthusiasm. Your career objectives should centre around finding a role with similarly enjoyable and interesting elements.

Next, identify transferable skills that will make you attractive to a new employer. These are generic skills that are needed in many roles, for example, working under pressure or interacting with people to negotiate and persuade. To identify these, consider any feedback you have received from others, perhaps as part of a performance appraisal. It will be important in competency-based interviews to explain how you have applied these skills and the outcome achieved. Think of describing and demonstrating the skill using a STAR structure – situation, task, achievement, result.

Then consider which industries or organisations you are interested in. You have two options here in terms of how you balance priorities. Some people will begin by looking at what they most enjoy in their current job and finding ways to make that a bigger part of their career. Others, however, might look at the industries they feel most passionate about and work out how their skills set could fit in.

What's important is to remember that each job is a stepping stone in your career progression. You may have to make some compromises as you work towards your dream job. There are a variety of resources online to help you work out what your motivators and skills are – companies such as SHL offer sample tests for free.

Once you have an idea of what you'd like to do next, ask friends for their thoughts and explain why you would like to work in a particular role as this will help you rehearse for interviewers' questions. Some people are also lucky enough to have a line manager who has the time, know-how and desire to provide career coaching advice. If you don't feel comfortable approaching your line manager, however, don't be afraid to seek advice elsewhere. There may be someone approachable higher up in your organisation, or someone whom you know personally and whose career you have admired.

Once you have a clear idea where you'd like to go and the skills you'll need to develop, start looking out for opportunities to expand your experience. This doesn't necessarily mean changing jobs; with your new sense of direction and motivation you may see fresh opportunities within your current role. If you are able, book time with your manager to discuss the skills you're looking to develop and why you'd like to work on specific projects. A good manager will welcome your desire to enrich yourself professionally – if you're not getting this support, it may be time to look elsewhere for volunteering opportunities or an organisation where you can take on new challenges.

Making long-term plans for your career can be daunting but breaking it into a series of stepping stones, and asking yourself where you want to be in five years' time, is a good way to keep focussed on your goals and get the best out of each job in terms of its contribution to your overall career.

Penny de Valk is the chief executive of Fairplace

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/how-to-build-long-term-career-plan

Career calendar: what students should be doing now

Getting ahead with your career has never been so important. HereJames Uffindell gives a quick insight into what students should be doing now to secure their future

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James Uffindell shares his insights into what students should be doing at this point in the year about their career. Photograph: Alamy

First years – 2015 graduates and for those on four year courses

Now you've settled into university life, it's time to think about what career might suit you best. Use this year as research year – talk to as many people as you can about what they do. You don't need to make any decisions just yet but getting some form of work experience or an internship can really help you stand out later down the line and understand more about what the sector involves.

Some organisations offer insight experiences to give you a little more information. For example, if you're interested in finance you could have a look at the schemes at Nomura and Ernst and Young, or for investment banking you'll need to apply for a 'spring week' by the end of December.

Second years (2014 graduates)

Over half of recruiters warn that graduates with no previous work experience are unlikely to be successful during the selection process. In many instances, this means an internship in the summer of your second year.

Although summer 2013 may seem a long time off, the deadlines for most of the internships are end of November/early December. This means you need to be applying now. The major industries that offer internships are: consulting, investment banking, law and professional services. The big corporates aren't necessarily for everyone – there are smaller firms and more diverse career options out there but they may have less structured schemes.

If big corporates aren't for you, use the web to find smaller, interesting and relevant organisations to target in the sectors you're interested in. These organisations will likely have shorter time frames in terms of their hiring arrangements so offering your services for a couple of weeks before or after Christmas may be a good idea. Make a list and research the chief executive, managing directors or HR directors.

Bear in mind that it can be time consuming for a company to offer work experience (they need a desk, someone to look after them etc), so you may want to come up with a discrete research project that will catch their eye and minimise the management time they need to allocate for you. For example, if you want to get some third sector work experience, you could approach a local charity and offer to put together a social media fundraising campaign. This would be immediately useful to them and will help your chances because the benefit for the organisation is clear.

Third years – 2013 graduates

You will be faced with one of three situations. Firstly you may have done an internship this summer (as per above) and this could have resulted in a permanent job offer. This means (often dependent on your degree result) you will have a full-time role to start at the firm you interned with in.

Secondly you may not have a job offer (having interned or not) and want to apply for graduate schemes to start summer 2013. If this is the case you will need to get a shifty on and make sure you meet the application deadlines. The two months of October and November are known as 'milkround' and the major recruiters will be on campus talking about the jobs they have on offer.

Finally you may want to leave the whole job hunt until you graduate and focus on your exams. This is completely normal but be aware you will miss the main recruiter deadlines and when you start looking for a job next summer your options may be limited.

Lots of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) use recruitment consultants so registering with a range of these can be a good idea to get access to 'hidden' jobs. Other firms will take direct applications so looking at job boards will be useful. Finally sending in speculative CVs can work and really help you stand out, as they show initiative and drive. Remember – there lots of jobs out there, in fact we now have record employment, but you need to persevere to get the job you want.

James Uffindell is chief executive of Bright Network

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/career-calendar-students-doing-now

How to future-proof your career

Being ahead of the career curve is essential to ensure you're protected in the long and short term. Rhymer Rigby explains how to embrace change, rather than fear it

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Rhymer Rigby shares his advice on how to ensure you are ready for whatever the future has in store for your career. Photograph: Joe Pepler / Rex Features

Future proofing your career and being ahead of the curve are two sides of the same coin. If you're doing one correctly, you should also be doing the other. But they're not quite the same thing.

Future-proofing your career means ensuring you are as employable in the future as you are now. You need to stand back and think about your job strategically, rather than just letting it happen to you. Look at the bigger picture: what's happening in your sector; where's the growth; which jobs are vulnerable; how do you measure up?

Think about what you know

As the world speeds up, your technical skills will have an ever shorter lifespan and you need to learn constantly. Don't just confine yourself to your field, either. Read up on fields adjacent to yours, the idea being that if your role disappears, you have other options. You don't want to be the workplace equivalent of an animal that can live only in one species of tree. Rewrite your CV every year; if you can't think of something new to put on it, you need to think about where you're going.

Look at your sector and organisation

You should be working in an organisation that's facing the future head on rather than one whose best years are behind it. The same is true of your sector. You want an industry which is driving change, rather than one that is being pummelled by it.

Work on your relationships

People often view building working relationships as a luxury when times are tough. But being liked and trusted can be more of a differentiator than being competent. Keep in touch with your network and ensure you're visible and easy to find. A network that extends beyond your workplace and includes clients, headhunters and competitors is a good insurance policy if things go bad.

Aim to be agile and adaptable

Rather than having the mindset of someone who is happy to serve out their time, be psychologically ready to move and the kind of person who lands on their feet; a realistic idea of your abilities and what they're worth will help. Focus on the positives be optimistic; when companies look at making redundancies, those who have an upbeat, can-do attitude are very rarely first in line.

If future proofing your career is dealing with bigger picture and long term, staying ahead of the curve is more immediate. It's the kind of thing you can work on when you have 15 minutes to spare.

Broadly speaking there are two aspects to being ahead of the curve. One is informational. At its most basic, this is simply keeping up with the news that affects your industry. But those who truly want to be ahead will also keep abreast of areas that are either general or tangentially affect their industry. Being up to speed on general current affairs and areas beyond your immediate role is a good thing in itself, but is also likely to give you greater insights and vision.

The internet has made this far easier to do this. Look up TED talks that interest you, set up Google alerts for yourself and customers and follow influential people on Twitter. You do need to be selective, though.

The personal side involves identifying who and what can help you move forward in your career and working on these relationships; an example might be knowing what is important to not just your boss, but also your boss's boss. Don't forget office gossip either: it is often a better guide to what will be happening in three months time than the official channels.

Of course, there's no point in being ahead of the curve, if you're the only one who knows it. Demonstrate what you know, for example by emailing your boss interesting articles you've come cross across. Make yourself the go-to person in the office for your area and speak up in meetings. Put yourself forward, rather than hanging back. And spend some time around the watercooler immersing yourself in the organisation's less formal sources of news.

Although all this might seem a lot, the trick is to make many of these actions habitual – and this is really where staying ahead of the curve segues seamlessly into future-proofing. On one hand, you read The Economist every week on the train and on the other, you do a gap-analysis on your career every six months. It's about covering yourself in both the long and the short term and ensuring you're the kind of person who looks forward to change, rather than fearing it.

Rhymer Rigby is the author of a new book, The Careerist

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/how-to-future-proof-your-career

How to get noticed by headhunters

Being visible to headhunters is a great way of ensuring you don't miss out on the best career opportunities. Here are three top tips on how to ensure you're firmly on their radar

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• Robert Wright
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 November 2012 09.30 GMT
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Even when you’re not looking for a job, it's important to be contactable. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

The mechanics of headhunting are more firmly based in the prosaic than the clandestine. More often than not, a successful headhunt project will be founded upon the use of internet search engines, network recommendations and candidate databases.

Because of this, ambitious professionals can take a number of practical steps to ensure that they are firmly on the radar of headhunters and don't miss the best career opportunities as they come on to the market.

Here are three top tips on how to be headhunted:

Be visibly good at your job

Companies don't hire headhunters to find them also-rans; they want a shortlist of the very best talent available. Thhe first step to being headhunted is being good at your job; but just as importantly is that you need to be seen to being doing a good job too.

Headhunters will often ask reliable industry sources for recommendations of who's good, who's a rising star and who's being talked about, so hiding your light under a bushel is a no-no.

Build a credible reputation in your sector, find some industry awards you can win and get someone to nominate you. Always ensure you push yourself forward when it comes to profile in the company and industry journals; shy bairns get nowt, as they say in the north.

Be connected

The old maxim, "it's not what you know but who you know" needs updating. In today's market "it's what you know and who you know", or rather who you tweet, like, poke or follow as social media plays a massive role in how headhunters operate.

Sites such as Linkedin is a boon for our researchers as they can mine the data according to industry, qualifications, seniority, company names etc and create useful lists of potential targets extremely quickly depending upon the client brief. But researchers will also use less formal sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and FourSquare to locate candidates with specific skills and knowledge, or discussing certain topics.

It's also important that you combine this online networking with more traditional networking activity such as attending conferences, industry forums and working groups. Headhunters will often buy attendance lists or search meeting minutes to see who has been to specific meetings or events and cross reference this with other data to build target lists.

Be contactable

It's all well and good that you're the best in the business and everyone knows it, but if the headhunter can't get to you then you run the risk of being passed over for a more contactable candidate.

Even when you're not looking for a job, take time out to have a regular coffee or two with the best headhunters in the sector. This helps you place yourself on their radar for future opportunities, find out what's happening in the market (ie specific skills or qualifications seen as must-haves) and swap contact details.

Having an online profile is also a useful way to make yourself contactable. Use the social networks mentioned above and perhaps start a blog to give headhunters a way of seeing who you are, what you do and how they can contact you.

Also, if you have a secretary or PA that screens your calls and emails (what the industry call a gatekeeper), make sure you brief them on the types of approaches you are willing to accept. For example, if the email or call is professional, relevant and specific in what it requires as an action (e.g. email reply or scheduled telephone call) you may want to take note. Also explain the approaches you are not willing to consider, ie rude, aggressive, sly, irrelevant, vague or spammy.

In conclusion, when the headhunters call and the approach feels right, take time out to respond positively and professionally. Note what the headhunter is hoping to discuss and schedule a time to properly assess the opportunity being offered. Sometimes the approach will go no further as one or both parties will conclude this isn't going to be the right fit, but at least a connection has been made and can be of use in the future. Of course, it may well also transpire that the approach is the right one, at the right time and an unlooked for opportunity presents itself and leads to a new chapter in your career.

Robert Wright is a recruitment consultant for NRG Executive. You can follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/how-to-get-noticed-headhunters