Five-Year Career Development Plan for New Graduates

Introduction: Planning in an Uncertain Economy

An unstable economy might cause a recent college graduate to throw up his or her hands in despair at the idea of planning for the next five months, much less for professional development over the course of the next five years. However, the very instability that produces such negative and self-defeating thinking makes it all the more necessary to have a clear career development plan in mind upon graduation, rather than simply leaving one's life up to economic whims. When recent job creation and retention statistics were released to the media, the main focus was on how such figures would affect an upcoming election from the candidates' points of view — but what of the job seeker's perspective? The possibility of significant political and economic shifts makes it critical to keep an eye on the many possibilities and potentialities of how America's economic future may change over the course of the next five years.

What are a job seeker's goals and objectives? The first, instinctual response might be to make money — and to make more of it. But this initial impulse, despite the presence of student loans and the desire to simply pay the bills, is not always the best first goal to define. Most individuals just starting out have fewer financial obligations than they will carry later in adult life. Recent college graduates are less likely to be encumbered with a spouse, children, and mortgage payments than those who graduated in earlier generations. They might even have recourse to temporarily living with parents, relatives, or fellow recent graduates. This initial stage may therefore be an excellent time to experiment with one's career path and to choose a job that offers possibilities for long-term advancement rather than short-term profit.

Setting Goals and Objectives in the First Year

This does not mean that one should press blindly ahead. Operating on a limited salary means that a future careerist must measure his or her objectives in a clear and definable fashion. Despite the above caveat regarding salary, one must still have a firm idea of how much money will be needed for rent, living expenses (from food to transportation), and outstanding obligations such as personal and student loans. One must also ensure that any job taken has genuine advancement potential — either in terms of moving up a stable corporate ladder or in terms of making connections with key individuals within the industry.

For an individual in a coherently structured profession, such as engineering, working at a sound company might be an excellent choice, providing a stable and secure path of ascension within a corporate structure. For an individual in a less hierarchically defined profession — such as advertising or public relations — joining the right boutique firm that grants access to the right people and accounts might be the better career path. If one's college education is not from a highly prestigious institution, focusing on potential connections rather than strictly on internal promotion opportunities may be a necessary, rather than a chosen, risk when beginning a vocational path in today's workforce.

Even if one did not attend Harvard University — the institution of American intellectual Ralph Waldo Emerson — one must follow his dictates and know oneself. Research on personality and career choice supports this imperative. Boone, van Olffen, and Roijakkers (2004) "found strong support" for the hypothesis that personality predicts specific study choices and that personality predicts different levels of rationality in the choice process. Their findings also suggest that more compatible matches between personality and study programs are observed among students who make rational choices based on accurate perceptions of their own personalities, as well as on financially related considerations.

Knowing Yourself: Personality, Work Ethic, and Work-Life Balance

This is not meant in a purely transcendentalist sense. In practical terms, one must know one's personal work ethic and one's needs for a healthy work-life balance. If one plans on marrying — or is already married — one must choose a career path or occupation that allows for sufficient income yet an adequate amount of time with one's spouse. If and when children arrive, that balance must also accommodate agreed-upon childcare responsibilities. Individuals in arduous professions such as medicine or law must be prepared to make significant personal sacrifices. Accounting may be more manageable, except around tax season, when one may find oneself mortgaged entirely to the office. Those in the arts, such as aspiring actors or writers, may prefer to work in low-demand jobs that can be set aside at a moment's notice in pursuit of a larger vocation. Some artistic pursuits, such as painting, can be balanced relatively easily with part-time teaching or tutoring; others, such as stand-up comedy — which demands late hours and frequent travel — require work arrangements flexible enough to accommodate that lifestyle.

Job-hopping and a lack of job stability have been characteristic of human resource management across almost all professional spheres. One must be aware that, as the saying goes, "God laughs when people make plans" — even though a plan is necessary and desirable. This reality means that all individuals, even those outside the human resources profession itself, must stay aware of current trends within their industry. Such trends have included an increased emphasis on telecommuting since the 1990s, greater fluidity of job-seeking even among professionals who would previously have remained within a single corporate structure for their entire working lives, and an increased demand for women and minority representation within some industries — all of which can meaningfully affect one's choice of career and employer.