Career planning

I would like to say I have been productive recently. That I have achieved high levels of work and done more than before. I would love to be able to give you a 10-step list with something that will help you out today.

I can’t do that unfortunately.

What I have been thinking of recently – between my slightly melancholy moods – is about what I should do with after I am done with university, and why I have not enjoyed it. Perhaps my last post regarding university was written in a moment of undeserved frustration.

I believe I have discovered two things:

1. Don’t plan too much.
2. Don’t take things too seriously.
   

The fallacy of planning
I came across a psychology study regarding how people choose things in advance. It was regarding sandwiches.

The study involved two groups of people and their lunches. One group had to choose their lunch menu for the week. The other group chose whatever they wanted on the day. What the study found out was that for the people who chose in advance, they assumed they wanted variety. For the people who chose on the day, they tended to stick with the same sandwich every time over the week.

And guess which group were the least happy? The variety group!

The same could be said with planning a career. Perhaps it is better to take it as it comes as opposed to trying to figure out some grand plan.

I think not following the above is likely to result in general unhappiness. So I have a new ‘plan’, which is in essence, a plan not to plan.

Devil’s Advocate – planning skills
What I do think is useful however is to plan to learn new skills and new experiences. The new skills should be learnt through the new experiences – in essence, the skills gained should be a welcome side effect to the things you tried out.
As a result, I think I will try and seek out the following experiences over the next year:

• Learn skydiving – not just one jump, but a series of jumps.
• Get back into scuba diving – take a holiday somewhere cool.
• Get my motorcycle licence – and maybe go touring round Europe.
• Set something up and let it grow on its own – I have no idea what yet, but it could be anything from a business venture to social entrepreneurship.

If you’ve got any suggestions as to what I should add to this list, do let me know!