A career plan is an important tool for anyone wishing to develop professionally. It enables you to define yourself and set clear job objectives, in a given sector of activity with a precise geographical location. If you don’t yet have a project for your professional life, now’s the time to think about it!

What is a professional life project?

The theme is made up of two words, project and professional. According to the dictionary, a project is a goal or objective that a person sets for him/herself and gives him/herself the means to achieve. As for the word professional, it refers to a person’s profession. A professional project can be defined as a document that defines your professional objective. It sets out the strategy, means and resources to be mobilized to achieve the objective, within a limited timeframe. In this context, the objective is nothing more than your dream job. The strategy is the plan of action to be implemented to achieve the objective.

The professional project is personal in the sense that it corresponds to the vision you have of your professional life. It is not a fixed document for the rest of your life. It’s constantly evolving, in harmony with the way you live your life, your environment and job market opportunities.

WHY DO YOU NEED A CAREER PLAN?
With such a document at hand, you can develop an effective search strategy. When it’s drawn up as soon as you enter university, it gives meaning to your training, motivates you and reassures you. It helps you to avoid wandering from one specialty to another and ending up doing nothing. It also helps you realize the value of your background and experience. Finally, once you’ve finished your studies, the career plan helps you to be effective in your job search by targeting the market segments and opportunities that best suit you.

In front of recruiters, it allows you to better talk about yourself and your professional values. For recruiters, it helps them understand the dynamic you’re part of. In this way, they can direct you towards a job that’s right for you. To sum up, the professional plan is useful in these three terms:

Helping you make your training choices and become aware of your professional value;
Knowing what you want to do as a job and in what environment;
Knowing how to talk about yourself to recruiters.

WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF A CAREER PLAN?
A career plan is a confrontation between your personality, your motivations, your values and the job market. After all, it’s all very well to want to practise a profession, but you also need to know the status of that profession in the job market. Each of these four parameters will be developed in the following paragraphs.

Skills assessment and personality test: explore who you are

An idea for a career plan is born of the way you see yourself and what you want to become.

What do I like about myself?

What don’t I like?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your personality?

What do I want to be in 5 or 10 years?

Who are the professionals I admire?

What skills do I have?

What experience do I have?

Take out a sheet of paper and a pencil and start answering these questions. If you can’t manage, ask the people around you what they think of you, or take a personality test.

THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN A CAREER PLAN
Here, you need to be able to find the pillars of your career plan. Everything starts with motivation. If you’re not motivated, the train can stop at any moment mid-trip.

Why do I admire this profession and not another?

What motivates me to aim for such a position? Power, money?

What’s important to me?

What values guide me? Justice, fairness, freedom, money, service to others?

Very often, values can define the kind of job you can do to be happy. A person who loves serving others knows, for example, that he or she should go into helping professions such as volunteering, teaching or ordering. A person who is driven by money knows that he can get involved in anything as long as there’s money in it. It’s important to define the values that define you in your career plan, otherwise you run the risk of being caught up in a sector that runs counter to your values later on.

WHAT DOES THE JOB MARKET SAY?
“Having goals is good, but goals that fit the job market are even better.”

Like any project, your career plan must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic and Time-bound). Don’t aim for a career you’ll never achieve. That would be like pretending to be a pilot when you’re blind. Your childhood dreams – “I want to be this”, “I want to be that” – are a thing of the past! Welcome to reality.

What’s the job market situation for this profession?

What’s the profile of the people we’re looking for?

Does my profile meet the job requirements?

What do I have to give up?

These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself to assess the feasibility of your career plan.

It’s up to you!