Get On With It: Active Career Management

By Kenneth Matthews

Active Career Planning is a series of steps, and conversations with respect to how you want your career to evolve. Targeting under 35s, tertiary educated and probably in their first or second professional role who have encountered significant professional and personal headwinds in their life.

Your vision must evolve and sustain change in the face of personal and business interruption. Without some form of direction for your career, you leave control up to others, and this may in the long term leave you unfulfilled. What could have been if you had focused earlier? You can influence your success through regular and detailed planning and this book is our attempt to assist you along your career path.

So get on with it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781923078079

Book preview

1.0 What is Active Corporate Career Planning for under 35’s?

Active Career Planning is a series of steps, and conversations with respect to how you want your career to evolve. It should be an active and dynamic vision for your career that can evolve, sustain in the face of interruption and has successes and failures.

It is your best plan today, of where you would like to progress tomorrow and in the near to long term future.

Without some form of direction for your career, you leave control up to others, this may in the long term leave you unfulfilled. What could have been if you had focused earlier? There is a low chance you could gain success with no planning at all, but more realistically you can influence your success through regular and detailed planning.

So, take control.

So, will this plan make me a CEO? --------absolutely not. But it increases the likelihood of your career following your own path. This may help you to realise your potential, be economically advantageous and lead to better work satisfaction.

The target audience for this book is under 35s, tertiary educated and probably in their first or second professional role. Although the principles are valid for other demographics.

This book has been written as it is clear, that the under 35s I mentor, are thinking of their career as something that happens to them. Something to endure. Not something they can influence and actively manage. This generation has a more complex journey.

Your generation has experienced.

◊Isolation during their early adult development

◊Been exposed to a global pandemic

◊Are globally visible via social media more than we could have ever imagined

◊May change careers up to three times

◊Are driven by making a difference in the world

◊Passive success teaching and parenting: winning student of the week, being told by your parents that you can do anything you want to, a participation medal for everyone no matter if they win or lose, and finally,

◊Active discrimination in favour of women.

The real world will not conform to you, your success and your job satisfaction must come from within the system which already exists.

This book tries to assist you in this journey, through the complexity, but while every path is different, it is rarely easy.

Some tips to start your journey:

◊Your career is your responsibility. There is no one else to blame.

◊Always have an active plan for your career. This positions you for the unexpected as well as success.

◊Everyone faces challenges along their path, it is how you react to these challenges that will differentiate you.

◊Be genuine and afford time to everyone above and below you. Supportive culturally aligned people do better in their careers.

◊Do not ever sacrifice your personal values.

◊And finally, don’t chase success at the expense of your relationships with family and friends. This is far to higher of a price to pay and you will eventually regret it.

This book is a start of your active journey. The more effort you put into it, the more you get out of it.

It’s over so quickly, so get on with it.

All comments and experiences are from my own experiences, no one has all the answers, so use some content, ignore some content, but hopefully the majority of the content will make sense and help.

Take control of your journey.

Note: during the remainder of the document, some of my real-life anecdotes have been included, this will be separated from the regular content via italic text. No references to specific persons or companies are made.

2.0 Our process

This process should be part of your working consciousness. It’s a very simple cycle that only ends