Free eBook: CAREER SUCCESS RECIPE FOR NEWBIES – Planning Your Career Success Dish (Part 3 of 5)

Is there a recipe for career success? Well, the answer to that question is both “yes” and “no”. Yes, because there are steps you can take that can increase your chances of success. No, mainly because very often when people start asking questions like that they seek a shortcut rather than the actual hardworking way to success. If you are sincere in getting off to a great start in your career and need to be pointed in the right direction, then this book is for you. It has the career success recipe that you need.
Career Success Recipe For Newbies is a compilation of 5 articles:
Part 1. Career Success Recipe – What Do You Want To Cook?
Part 2. The Key Ingredients For Your Career Success
Part 3. Planning Your Career Success Dish
Part 4. Enjoying the Process of Career Success
Part 5. Pushing for Career Success

Planning Your Career Success Dish
Your career success recipe is made out of many steps. The first step is for you to know what success dish you want to cook. The second would be the key ingredients needed in this success recipe for you to pursue career success. Once you know these two, let’s move on to the third step. Planning to cook this career success recipe.
As with all good dishes, knowing what you want to cook and having the right ingredients is only part of the story. Your career success recipe has higher chances of being successfully cooked if you have a plan. This plan ensures that the right equipments are in place just as you prepare the other components to your career success recipe.
Include These in Your Career Success Recipe
A SMART Plan
A career success recipe is never complete without a SMART plan. What is a SMART plan? Quite simply, a SMART plan is one that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound. What does it mean? It basically means you need to know what is your goal; you can quantify this goal; you can reach it; it centers itself on the outcome and there is a time limit to when it should be achieved.
A SMART plan should be part of any good career success evaluation. Even if it does not appear as it is, elements of it should be part of the evaluation.
The most common mistake career newbies make is that they seemingly know what they want and have a plan. However, if one were to probe further you would realize that these are merely what I call ‘floating plans’ (if you can even call it a plan). For example, they say they like to own their own business in the next few years. But they do not know what business they would like to be in. They do not know where to raise capital. Just to name a few examples.
Ask yourself, what do you want to achieve in the next year in your career. Do you have a SMART plan? If you want to make manager level in the next year – what is your Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound goals that will lead you to attaining this bigger objective? Just saying that you would work hard and are willing to learn is not good enough. Start thinking about your SMART plan if you want to increase your chances at career success.
Skills and Knowledge
Yes, you would like to cook your dish of success. But do you have the necessary skills and knowledge to cook this success recipe? In planning your career success, assess your skills and knowledge. Imagine someone who doesn’t know how to cook saying he/she wants to cook a 10-course dinner at the first try and make it a success.
Once you have assessed the level of skills and knowledge for cooking this dish of career success – take steps to strengthen your weak parts. What are some of the knowledge gaps? Do you have any skills that need polishing?
When you know your weaknesses – commit to strengthening them. Being aware of your weaknesses is just the first step. Commit to doing something about it is even more important. Unless you commit to working hard in order to improve, you will forever carry those weaknesses with you.
Sometimes it helps to know someone who can point you in the right direction. Someone who has been down that road before. Know someone who has cooked this dish before?
Look for a Mentor
Think of yourself as an apprentice in the kitchen. There are bound to be people who have cooked the dish that you plan to cook. Learn from their mistakes and emulate their steps. Appropriate them to your character and personality. Some companies have formal and informal mentorship programs. You could always seek out your own mentor.
A mentor could guide you in cooking this success recipe. A mentor’s primary role is to teach and advice. You should accept your mentor’s advice with openness and respect although sometimes these can be a little hurtful. For as long as your mentor is professional and delivers the advice with tact, remember in the long run it benefits your pursuit of career success. In this example, the realization of your career success recipe into a career success dish.
Let’s Summarize
You have now read that it is important to know what is that success recipe you want to cook. Then you read what are the key ingredients in a career success recipe. In the next segment you find out that having both of those components are not enough. You need to plan it in order to increase the chances of success.