Career planning is one of the most important aspects of an individual’s life. It determines what a person pursues in their professional life, and influences a person’s status in society. Identifying the right career and constantly developing plans are the right beginning that you need to build a sustainable and growth oriented career.

The next step is to execute the plans that have been formulated. However, planning is not a one-time activity. It is a continuous process and therefore must have the required flexibility to be modified according to the requirements of the time. Young students make career choices based on the parental expectations and peer pressure. Instead, what is needed is to develop the right skills, at the right time and keep an open mindset towards one’s career.

Career planning must begin early right from the time a child is in school. It, however, does not mean that the future goals need to be set at this stage, especially in our times when things change very fast and newer technology is developed every day. Instead, the focus at this stage should be on developing skills that are general in nature and will help a child to adapt better to the situations that he or she would face in future. It will help a child to have several options to choose from right from the time of college admission to professional choices.

Once you complete your education and enter the professional world, it will be helpful to have skills that can be useful in multiple domains. This helps in migrating from one organisation to another, one function to another and even from one industry to another. This allows you to have varied career choices and, therefore ensure that you have more opportunities than those who follow a unilateral approach to developing their skills.

Another important aspect of ensuring that you have the right career path charted out for you, is to have the right networking skills. Knowing the right people helps immensely in developing your career. This helps in getting better opportunities and the people who know you would prefer hiring you over others. Networking also helps in getting the right information about the various career options.