Brave New Workplace: 3 Strategies for Career Planning in 2012

It's a brand new year. Optimism and motivation are at an all-time high in January, and that makes it a good time to ride the wave of good feelings and dig in to do the hard work of mapping out a career strategy for 2012, and begin acting on it.

Here are 3 strategies that can help you craft a coherent plan to achieve your professional goals for this year.

1. Take a long hard look at yourself. When it comes to career management, focusing on yourself isn't narcissism or selfishness - it's common sense. If you've reviewed your 2011 accomplishments, you're probably ready to move on to the next step in the process, which is setting your expectations for yourself in 2012.

Wade Jones, the co-founder of online presentation site TruYuu, had several sage bits of advice on the self-examination process in a recent guest post on Career Rocketeer. He places a heavy emphasis on taking inventory of your personality, skills and interests. He encourages readers to brainstorm their "ideal" job, in part because he asserts there's a strong link between internal motivation at work and happiness. "It has been said that if you are working at something that doesn’t feel like work, then you have found a passion," he writes.

2. Assess your personal brand. Part of the self-examination process consists of how you see your place in the world of work; another key part involves understanding how others see you as a working professional, and cultivating a presence that represents you in the best possible light.

It used to be that "branding" was something that only marketing and sales people considered in terms of their career - now, thanks to social media and the Internet, everyone has a personal "brand." Dan Schawbel, author of Me 2.0, is one of the thought leaders in personal branding. He has a blog for career professionals, as well as one for college students just establishing a personal brand.

An article that Schawbel wrote for Mashable.com in 2008 about ways that personal branding can keep you from getting fired is still relevant almost four years later. One of the major benefits of being proactive with your brand, he says, is that you can position yourself as the go-to person when it comes to a particular skill:

"When it comes to branding, you want to own a word or phrase in the minds of others. It’s also beneficial to be someone that gets called upon when a specific need arises .... Start letting people know what you’re good at and you will increase your value, which will increase the chance you survive the recession."

3. Consider developing a portfolio career. One of the effects of the Great Recession we have been living through is to expose the inherent weakness of relying on just one stream of income from one employer. The concept of a "portfolio career," which blends multiple jobs, businesses, streams of income, etc., is becoming more popular, especially among those who never before considered freelancing or consulting work in their industry.

Executive career coach and trainer Kathleen Sullivan, writing on the Career Thought Leaders blog, notes that the current economic climate has turned the conventional wisdom about risk tolerance and full-time employment on its head:

"If you honestly evaluate the realities of the new job market, all of these aspects of a portfolio career are the norm:  essentially being self-employed, facing economic uncertainty, and manging frequent changes in jobs and employers.  Your security does not come from a job or an employer, but from your ability to uncover new opportunities and sell yourself as the best person for these opportunities."

She also mentions that a portfolio career can be constructed in a variety of ways:

• A core occupation blended with one or more additional occupations.
• A core occupation combined with one or several hobbies or personal interests.
• A core profession offering multiple services such as consulting, teaching, professional speaking, and writing.

One person who has made his portfolio career work quite well is UK journalist Adam Westbrook. He explains in a post on his adventures in portfolio management that one of the biggest challenges of such an approach is explaining all the things that you do.

He writes:

"The worst question for anyone with a portfolio career is ‘So, what do you do?’

"I still haven’t got this right, and at house parties end up stumbling through a vague description of my various roles in an utterly unconvincing way that leaves most people suspicious that I might actually be unemployed.

"So, find a compelling and memorable way to describe what you do. Even though you might have lots of various income streams, we usually find they are connected some way. ... Looking at my roles, there’s a common theme amongst all of them of storytelling, communication and education."

The question to you:
What new approaches to the job hunt or career management are you thinking about trying in 2012?

~Liz Massey
Managing Editor, ASU Alumni Association