Career Development Checklist

1. Defining your future field of activities

• Identify and evaluate your talents, abilities, interests, skills and values
• Use a variety of methods to your personality, for example, brainstorm method or aptitude test s
• Look for useful information using careers books or leaflets in the learning resources centre, libraries, careers courses, etc.
• Join a mentoring programmes and trainings
• Read articles about career development
• Visit any careers fairs, higher education fairs, careers meetings to be well aware about current job proposals
• Use personal organizer like VIP Organizer to keep your progress file always updated

2. Seeking new employment and working opportunities

Using all possible methods of employment seeking

• Fair of vacancies
• Employment agencies
• Web resources: forums, job seeking sites, corporative sites, etc.
• Mass media (newspapers, television, radio, etc.)
• Friends and relatives

Composing the competent curriculum vitae and writing the covering letter

• Carefully learn new vacancy requirements you pretend to
• Highlight main functions and obligations of new vacancy
• Start to compose CV underlining your working experience, professional skills and personal advantages, awards, achievements, etc.
• Compose covering letter
• Enclose reference letters, certificates and diploma

Preparing yourself carefully to pass the interview

• Learn about the employer as much as possible
• Think over employer's potential questions
• Try to set priorities and future plans for 1, 3 and 5 years ahead on new position
• Be at the employer office in time, do not be late

3. Is my current job the best choice?

• Ask yourself these questions. If you have at least one reply "Yes", then probably you should quit your current job
• The idea of necessity to work oppresses
• There is no a hint on my promotion
• My work became routine and boring
• I quite often think of quitting
• Since I have started to work, my self-confidence was reduced
• My working hours hang too heavy
• I feel the chief/colleagues do not treat me with respect

4. Promotion

• Define whether you want to be promoted horizontally or vertically
• Image you have been promoted. Then try to predict possible issues on new position and to find ways to solve them
• Set short-term and long-term goals
• Think over what salary you expect to get
• Be always success oriented
• Discuss promotion possibility with the management
• Find out whether the company where you are working now has the corporate career plan
• Always think of further study to deepen your knowledge and skills