Sunday, February 11, 2007

Why Today's Technical Careers Need Planning

If you are paid to do the things that you love..Wow .this is called Job satisfaction.

Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow .. The idea was that the best way to build a successful career was to follow your gut instinct, seeking work best suited to your needs and talents. In the past, many engineers built their careers doing just that, and nothing else. But times have changed and those same engineers are now saying that technical careers require careful planning. True, you should do what you love, and love what you do. But in today's marketplace and today's technological landscape, love will take you only so far.

Recent years have seen many changes -- changes that are influencing the way companies does business, and changes that are influencing your career. Some engineers might be tricked into thinking that since our environment is changing so rapidly, it's impossible to plan a career. In reality, it's more important to plan now than it ever has been. You just have to plan for change.
Technology has changed and work has changed. When planning your career, you're better off not trying to fix on a particular technology or job description, because what exists now may not exist just a few years in the future, and new jobs and opportunities are being invented all the time. Instead, plan to learn. Choose the jobs that will teach you something that is new and valuable. Build learning into the way that you approach your everyday work. What you learn on the job, and your ability to learn quickly, will keep your career on track.

Employees are now expected to have a much wider variety of skills than they used to have, and that has caused a major shift in career pathing strategy. Pathing used to be vertical. You could remain within the same technology field year after year and if you wanted to predict your career trajectory you had only to look at your manager and your manager's manager. Nowadays, lateral movement is sometimes more useful. Moving sideways enables you to learn more about the business as a whole and build a much wider and more powerful network

Are you convinced yet that you need to plan your career? If so, it's time to get started. A good way to begin is by identifying the primary motivator that drives you
what it is that gets you up in the morning. For example:
I want to follow my curiosity.
I want to find out about the newest and most innovative technologies.
I want to be able to see that I'm making a difference.
I want to find what's broken and fix it.
Once you understand what's most important to you, you'll be able to make sure that you'll be doing what you love -- in a planned way.

Abstract ..In the past, engineers often took a somewhat passive approach to career development. Today's engineers, who face an ever-changing marketplace and technological landscape, need to plan their careers carefully.

Wish you All the best for carrier planning .

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