Career planning

What is career planning?

Career planning is conscious structuring of your potential and from a working-life perspective, the intentional organization of your opportunities and aspirations as well as the exploration of your future. The goal should be meaningful employment. It does not have to be an upward-moving career or planning for career advancement, although career planning can include that too!

The starting point for career planning is always self-knowledge: Who you are? What are your goals? What motivates you? What skills do you have? You also need an understanding of the labour market: What does the modern day job market looks like? What kinds of jobs and tasks are available? Which channels are used for recruitment? Finally, you need the ability to combine this information and make your own choises based on it.

Your first step toward working life already happened when you chose your field of study. During your studies, you have a great opportunity to clarify your goals after graduation. Career planning does not have to end when you find a job. You can continue it throughout your life and it is also a skill that can be developed.

Why it is important to do career planning?

Career planning improves self-awareness, clarifies your interests and helps you set goals in working life. From a student´s perspective, career planning increases study motivation and makes it easier to make choices related to your studies when the perspective of working-life is included.

In working life, change is more common than stability. Therefore, career planning helps in times of transition and career shifts, whether they originate from your own decisions or external circumstances. Career planning also strengthens confidence and your sense of capability.

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Additional sources for career planning

• Self‑knowledge tools: VIA Character strengths survey, Paths to the future -toolkit, Tulevaisuuden taidot – Skills of the Future – Framtidens kunskaper, Skills mirror exercise | The Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment and My strengths – individual exercise | The Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment   
• TEK workbook exercise for identifying and articulating your competencies 
• Career skills -pages, Hyria: many tools to reflect on self-knowledge and worklife
• My Career Management Skills Workbook, Hyria
• Information about future worklife competence needs can be found, for example Competence Card Deck 2035 or Skills Needs Compass  
• You can find information about graduate employment and labour market on the Worklife and employment -page

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