Business plans. House plans. Vacation plans. Planning is just one of life’s necessities. But for whatever reason, few people forecast something that impacts every list, calendar and schedule they care to dream up:

Career.

“Organizationally, we understand the principle of planning. But individually, it’s not in the pattern for the majority of professionals,” says Alan Kearns, a leading career coach and founder of CareerJoy.

According to Kearns, many tech professionals don’t plan their career because they’re caught in the three ‘m’ effect – money, market and momentum.

Kearns suggests that people are so wrapped up in their daily work/life routines that they forget to think about what they want out of their careers and don’t invest the time to get started.

But Kearns says that a career plan doesn’t have to be extremely detailed.

“It doesn’t have to be a 100-page document,” says Kearns. “It can be a one page document”.

What’s in a plan?

Kearns defines career planning as considering five key elements:
• Your talents
• Your values
• Your passions
• Desired ecosystem or work environment
• Desired lifestyle

By evaluating these five factors, Kearns says that your career plan should help you to determine what you need (income), what you want (emotional rewards) and where you want to be (future goals).

Naturally, everyone’s career plan will be different; it can be as generic or as specific as necessary. Kearns says that you can even write down the name of the company you hope to work for.

Where are you going?

The point of a career plan is to assess whether your job brings you fulfillment. If it doesn’t, Kearns says that you need to make changes, and having a plan makes it easier to do so.

“It helps to reduce risk and increase the likeliness of success,”
—Kearns

For tech professionals in particular, unplanned changes such as layoffs and acquisitions are inevitable. Having a career plan can help soften the blow – or even help you see the writing on the wall.

That’s why a plan is useful for professionals at any seniority level and at any stage in life.

“People should be thinking about this all the time, when you’re a new grad and when you’re 55-years old,” says Kearns. “Early in your career, you’re looking for success and later on in your career, you’re looking for significance.”

“Once you have a family, you need to think about their needs too,” says Kearns.

In other words, your focus and life circumstances change, so you need a career plan that reflects those changes.

Ultimately, your career plan forces you to decide what you want out of your job – it’s often the hardest, but most important question to answer.

Read more about career planning on Alan Kearns’ blog