Be Strategic About Your Career Choices: A Guide to Long-Term Success

Making smart and strategic career choices is crucial for long-term success and personal fulfillment. With numerous options and opportunities available, it's essential to approach your career decisions with careful consideration and strategic planning. In this article, we will explore key strategies and considerations to help you make informed career choices that align with your goals and aspirations.

Identify Your Goals and Values: Take time to reflect on your personal and professional goals, as well as your values. Understand what motivates and fulfills you in your career. This self-reflection will provide a foundation for making strategic choices that are in line with your aspirations and core values.

Conduct Thorough Research: Before making any career decision, conduct comprehensive research on the industries, job roles, and organizations that interest you. Explore the current and future demand for those roles, the skills and qualifications required, potential growth opportunities, and salary expectations. This research will help you make informed choices that align with your long-term objectives.

Assess Your Skills and Development Needs: Evaluate your existing skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. Identify any gaps between your current skill set and the requirements of your desired career path. Invest in continuous learning and development to bridge those gaps and stay relevant in your chosen field. This proactive approach will enhance your marketability and open doors to more promising career opportunities.

Seek Mentorship and Guidance: Connect with experienced professionals in your desired industry or field. Seek their advice, insights, and guidance regarding career progression, potential challenges, and growth opportunities. Mentors can provide valuable perspectives and help you navigate your career path more effectively.

Embrace Networking Opportunities: Build a strong professional network by actively engaging with colleagues, industry professionals, and alumni networks. Attend industry events, join professional associations, and participate in online communities. Networking can lead to new career opportunities, provide valuable insights, and enhance your professional reputation.

Embrace Change and Take Calculated Risks: Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and pursue new challenges. Embrace change and be open to taking calculated risks that align with your long-term goals. Sometimes, the most rewarding career choices involve stepping into the unknown and seizing opportunities for growth and advancement.

Regularly Evaluate and Adjust: Regularly assess your career progress and reassess your goals. Be willing to adjust your career path as needed to ensure it continues to align with your evolving aspirations. Flexibility and adaptability are key to staying on a strategic and fulfilling career trajectory.

Conclusion: Being strategic about your career choices involves careful planning, continuous learning, and self-reflection. By identifying your goals, conducting thorough research, and seeking guidance, you can make informed decisions that align with your aspirations. Embrace networking opportunities, be open to change, and regularly evaluate your progress. With a strategic approach, you can navigate your career path with confidence and work towards long-term success and personal fulfillment.

One Question That Will Change Your Life

If there is one question that can change your life, it will probably be whether you are passionate about whatever you are doing in life.  Steve Jobs sums it up real nicely in this short video.  People who succeed are those who are passionate in what they are doing.  Why else would they be able to keep doing things at their peak level on a sustained basis?  And therein lies the secret of success.

As he also sums up nicely in this quote:

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something..almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to dies is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."

For the past few days, I have been asking myself what am I really passionate about in life.  And I think I have drilled it down to three things : Travelling, reading and writing.

Travelling because this is the activity that makes me feel alive.  My sense are keener and more aware of my surroundings.  I feel excited about every single sight and sound that I experience.  It is only during my travels that I truly feel alive and living.

Reading because through reading, I get to experience the viewpoints of others.  I get lost in their world.  I learn from the experience of others.  I share their joy, mistakes, pain, etc.  Things that I will never have been able to experience for myself.

Writing because it is the only creative expression of myself.  I am not talented musically or with any other kind of handicraft.  Yet, I have always viewed myself as someone who likes to create things.  And writing is something that I enjoy doing.  It allows me to consolidate my thoughts, reflect on my innermost fears and desires.  And to express them into words concretises whatever I am thinking. 

Weekend is Ending, Great Things to Do, and Back to Office

The weekend is ending. Another restful 2 days is over and I am off to a brand new start to the week. It is almost the end of the year and I am still amazed at how little I have accomplished over the year 2011. It has not been a great year in terms of accomplishments but it has been fantastic nonetheless. After watching Steve Jobs 2005 Speech at Stanford Commencement, I try to look myself in the mirror each day and ask myself the same question: "If this is the last day of my life, will I want to be doing what I am going to do today?".

I have been doing that the past couple of days and I realised that the answer is a vague NO. It isn't a strong NO-NO. But neither is it a resolute YES.

On another totally unrelated topic, I have been thinking of great things to do in Singapore. This is whether be it in terms of killing time, new places to eat, etc. I know there are lots of things to do in Singapore but I just find my weekends kind of dull.

So the weekend ends. And I will be back to work tomorrow. But an exciting idea has just popped into my head and I can feel the adrenaline rushing back into my blood. It was just a simple thought on what I should be doing with my life, and how I ought to really follow my passion and my dreams. And something just struck me that I know I ought to be doing but haven't really been doing much. I am so excited about this new idea and hopefully it will bear some "fruit" in due time.

Have a great week ahead!

Getting Lost in Books and Work

Apologies for the super long "blackout" in terms of blogging. I have been too consumed with reading that I did not get a chance to sit down and write anything for sometime.

I have been reading Homer's Iliad - a book that I never thought I would or could read. But surprisingly, the translation that I am reading seems fairly simple and apart from Googling here and there for the various terms/names that I wasn't familiar with, I managed to finish the book in roughly 1.5 weeks. I don't declare to understand everything that Homer is saying but I do appreciate the story and its account of events about the Trojan War. It makes me realise the number of deviations that the movie Troy has from the actual book!

Work has also been busy and it does not help that I have had little free time to read. So all my free time that I had was spent reading. Somehow, reading seems to be a great way to relax after a stressful day at work.

I have been contemplating lately about what it means to have an education and be educated. This thoughts and reflection led me to read a book titled "How to Read a Book". Though not entirely convinced by the list of Great Books that was suggested by the author, I still decided that life is too short to leave my reading list by chance/whim/fancy. I thus decided to at least read some of the more well known classics and books that have been recognised as Great Books. Homer's Iliad is one of these great books. Now that I have read it finish, I hope to read through the next book on my list soon.

Red Wine and Reflections for the Day

Opened a bottle of red wine yesterday to have with my food. And there was still quite a bit left over in the bottle so I am sipping some right now. Apparently, Robert Parker gave this vintage of wine 90 points. And that is perhaps the only reason why I bought the bottle of wine.

Today was quite a wretched day. I was suffering from some kind of flu but still went to office nonetheless. And time just seemed to whiz past while I was at work. Before I knew it, it was time to go back home. And I wasn't even sure what I had accomplished the entire day.

Flipped through the papers to catch up on election news and other trivia. Logged on to facebook to check on the latest status of all my friends and adding the random comment or "like" to the 1001 statuses.

Life is almost blissful and simple. And reading up on the latest new about the person who commented about heartlanders in Holland Village suddenly made me realise that I am very much one of those heartlanders. I live in a HDB flat, take the MRT to work, eat at hawker centres, and wear my flip flops to Holland Village. Drats, I have slowly transformed into a heartlander without knowing it. Of course, I don't speak vulgarities. But I guess I am one of those persons the higher rungs of society do not want to associate with. Thanks for the wake up call whoever you are. Just the other day, I drove up to get my car valet park and the guy manning the valet stall looked at me increduously and asked whether I was looking for the public carpark which was just ahead. Classic!!!!! My car small means cannot valet park issit??? It reminds me that there is still much to strive for in my life, career and personal growth (i.e. anger management and not comparing with others). Good thing I was in a hurry and did not give him a good dressing down (which I would not have done given how timid I really am).

Reminds me that I have not written about personal finance for some time which I probably should. But right now, personal finance matters seem so distant from my mind. I mean, I earn so much and spend so much. Is anyone really interested in that when Japan has suffered a terrible earthquake and is now facing like radioactive problems? I over heard a guy speaking to his Japanese colleague the other day how Japan should explore other forms of energy. My mind was going: Give your Jap friend a break! With people dying out there, it is just too easy for us to analyse the situation from afar and say what Japan should or should not be doing. That being said, I am definitely against Indonesia building a nuclear plant anywhere near us. If they want a nuclear plant, build it in Antartica please. If Japan is having problems dealing with this situation, everyone should re-think their nuclear strategy. Especially if you are situated so close to a fault line. But who cares? Noone cares about what I think.

I have also realised how stupid I am. It seems that everyone around me are all so clever. Actually, I used to think that I was above average in intelligence and looks. Then slowly over the years, I realised that everyone thinks the same way. Most people think that they are above average. Problem is: If everyone is above average, who is average and who is below average?

I have concluded that I am actually a below average Singaporean with a below average intelligence and below average looks living with a below average salary. But who cares? What is important is being happy. And I do not mind being below average. Okay, at least not for the salary part

Hello, Bye Bye

When I started working, I realised that how most friendships in the workplace don't really last very long.

While you are working together, you eat together, suffer together, get angry with one another. You enter the office and sit around people who might or might not talk to you for days or even weeks. Some of them you might have lunch with. Others, they are just acquaintances.

Then people come and go. Some quit. Some retire. And eventually, it comes to your turn and you leave too.

And you realise that the people whom you spent huge amounts of time with previously just suddenly disappear from your life. You see them around on facebook but that is it. You hardly meet up with them anymore.

It is truly amazing how we can spend so much time with colleagues but once somebody moves on, it is usually the "end" of the relationship as we know it. Amazing ...

Reflections for Today

Email is not work. Many people spend alot of time emailing thinking that it is work. But it really isn't. Your work should not be quantified by the number of emails that you manage to churn out each day. It is highly unproductive to be sending out emails. For every email that you send out, you probably get 5 in return.

Alot of work is actually not work. Stop acting busy. Just being busy the whole day does not mean that you are doing real work. You can be very busy but not be getting any real work done.

Most work can get done when we talk. If we talk, we can actually get much more work done rather than emailing.

You are probably uglier and stupider than you think you really are. Most people think that they are above average in intelligence and looks. That surely cannot be the case.

If you are employed, you are most probably being paid for your time. We all are paid differently for our time. The high income earner works probably the same amount as a normal person. But his relative income is much higher. Does your boss pour in more hours than you? Unlikely. He probably works the same number of hours as you. Why is he paid more? Food for thought....

Do you really want to climb the corporate ladder and have less time for your family?

Curriculum Vitae or Resume

I have wondered about the differences between a C.V. (Curriculum Vitae) and a resume.

In fact, many people use it interchangeably and when people refer to C.V. nowadays, it seems like they are talking about the same thing as a resume.

Is there any significant difference between the two? Which should you use for your job search in Singapore?

I got a template from somebody close when I was deciding to do up my C.V. a few years back. It was then that I realised that the template used involved putting up all my education details upfront while my work experience was located slightly to the back. I never questioned the logic of such a layout but used it anyway.

Whether such a format was effective still remains unknown to me. Another issue was it was pretty long (5 pages). I read elsewhere in the internet that a resume should only be 2 pages long at most.

I am not sure what format or template most people out there use. But I would like to think that a resume/CV in Singapore is as important as it is anywhere else in the world. A resume / CV could be the factor that helps you nail an interview with a potential employer. It is the first thing that a potential employer actually sees and whether you get called up for a job interview at the end of the day probably depends on how you arrange all your personal information in the most effective way in that few pieces of paper.

Another way the CV or resume helps is that it helps you develop a clear understanding of what your key selling points are to the potential employer. Should you get the interview, you will know how to effectively sell yourself according to how you have arranged the details in your resume/CV. So giving proper thought of what to include in it is probably a good use of your time if you are thinking of a career switch or looking for a job.

So the following questions are going through my head right now when I look at my C.V.:

1. Should I condense the 5 pages into 2 pages.

2. Should I put my employment history right up front instead of focusing on my academic qualifications?

3. What other skills or certification should I strive for to make my C.V. look more impressive.

Food for thought for the weekend!