Career progression – mapping your progress

If you are just starting your career in HSEQ you may be looking at a career spanning almost 50 years. Or you may be further on but still looking at another decade or more. You will be one of many who have the ability, the desire and the ambition to develop your career further. If so, then it makes sense to plan your career so that you can decide which experiences will help you to develop and how you can gain them.

Simply defined, planning your career helps you to answer 4 essential questions: -

• Where am I now?

• Where do I want to be?

• How will I close the gap?

• How long will it take?

Of course it's easy to define where you are now and relatively simple to define where you would like to be. Closing the gap is the tricky part. Fortunately the career map enables you to close the gap more objectively.

The career map helps you to better understand yourself. When reviewed with an independent third party it helps you to be honest, realistic and objective about how you will pursue your career ambitions.

The career map will help you to understand your career by analysing changes - changes that have happened to you so far and potential changes that need to happen in the future. The map covers: -

• The main drivers and influencers in your life which have happened to take you where you are now

• The main drivers and influencers in your life which will drive change in the future

• The identification of those changes that need to happen to enable you to pursue your ambitions.

Fundamental questions are also posed, for instance "Do I want to change jobs and take the best of what's available, or do I want my next move to be something that I'm sure will be right for me?"

Having analysed the drivers and influencing factors and having decided what changes need to happen, The Map helps you to plan how and when you will make those changes. Of course not all changes will be feasible and elements of research and testing (which can be quite overhead intensive) need to take place. This is where a career partner or dedicated agent can help.

To illustrate how career mapping can help; we describe some selected details below. This is followed by an extract from an exercise completed recently by one of our applicants wishing to pursue a job change.

Where do I want to be?

The Ambitions section directs the thinking towards short medium and long term ambitions and goals. The user decides the timeframes which apply to those three periods. Clear ambitions & interim goals form a good basis for discussion with you career agent or prospective employer

What is driving my desires for change?

The Change drivers section is a scoring section. It asks some standard questions and asks the user to score on a 1-10 scale which things need to change and also which things should be preserved. This section introduces greater objectivity into the change process and frequently eliminates some of the knee jerk activities that can result from a sudden desire for change.

What are my constraints and influencing factors?

This section helps to scope the desired role and range of prospective employers (if a change of employer is needed) more closely. It covers family, social professional and other considerations felt to be important to the user. It also helps to focus the research activities that will be required and also helps with the prequalification of prospective employers.

Where am I now and how did I get here?

The employment history section helps the user to reflect on past employment and how valuable each term was to career progression. The duration with each employer and reasons for change also helps focus attention of the user and future employers on what would make a good match.

Making change happen

Other elements of the map include research activities and initiatives to enable change to happen more successfully. The full map can be obtained from the link shown below.

The career mapping process is a simple concept designed to develop a better understanding of all elements of change. As well as helping job seekers to plan their careers it can also help prospective employers with their selection processes. The ultimate aim of the map is to help make better matches when people want to change jobs.