Career Strategy for Millennials

Millennials might get bored too quickly, may not like routine work, may not like administrative or process job that's because most Millennials are explorers and would like to explore before finding the true purpose in what they do, well they have the luxury of doing so as the majority may not have any big commitments before they begin to work. This gives the flexibility to be an explorer, however, they still need a career strategy else there is a high probability of getting lost in today's global corporate jungle.

A survey of 2,000 of millennials found that one in five has two or more jobs, one in three millennials plan on changing industry within the next two years, 13 per cent intend to change industries within the next year and 45 per cent will be looking to move within three years. With so much career shifting, happening so quickly, how do you make sure your career moves are the right ones, ones that will get you to where you want to go in the future?

Based on my personal interaction with many millennials, the majority of them would like to venture on "start-up's". It's a great idea, however one of the key questions one needs to ask, "Am I ready?" Only a few startups succeed among thousands and those are the ones who have done careful planning, made themselves ready, have a right support structure and resources.

No matter what you would like to work or own a start-up, you need a clear strategy and here are three simple action steps to build and execute your career strategy.

1. Understand Yourself: It does take a while to understand yourself, very few people able to understand their full potential early on. This is one of the fundamental reason why millennials explore / job hop in search of the true self. Exploration could be one of the ways to find your passion, however, this path will slow you down. The most efficient way is not to drift from your role/career and use it to understand yourself. Firstly, Do a Personality Test - DISC,& Myers Briggs are good ones. It's important to know your personality. Secondly - Be conscious and capture it on paper especially when ever you have free time, what's the first thing come to your mind. What is that you don't have to push yourself and it's just driving you naturally. Which part of the Job you like the most and which part of the job you do not like. Take your time, don't complete this task in just one day, take about a month or two, your purpose is to find the pattern or theme. This way you will be able to discover what are your strengths? What are you good at and what do you enjoy? What motivates you? What are your values? By sitting down and really working this through you save yourself a lot of time and pain in future.

2. Research: Research your career options which will give you the chance to look at sectors are growing and are likely to offer long-term employment. Focus to match your strength to any role which will give you long-term prospects and meaningful work. Once you nail down a couple of roles which you believe will make the best use of your strength - Go down to further details. What are the skills required for those roles both Technical and Soft Skills? Again key is to have patience and not to speed up the research - remember the famous quote from Albert Einstein - "If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions"

3. Plan & Execute: This is the most important and challenging part. Career Strategy is thinking about a choice and choosing to stick with your thinking. There is a famous quote from Ram Charan (renowned management consultant) “Execution is a specific set of behaviours and techniques that one needs to master in order to have a competitive advantage. It’s a discipline of its own.” We understood ourselves, we have done all the research now next is to plan and execute. Instead of endlessly searching and applying for "Dream Job", which may take a long time, until then what? Normally we seek answers to this question, which job or role can best use my strength and passion, instead reframe your question what aspect of my current job I can best use my strength and passion. Identify the areas where you can best use your strengths and passion. Be vocal about your interest to your management, that way managers can able to help wherever possible. Focus on personal branding, and building skills set. There is a famous saying "Luck = Opportunity + Preparedness". When we see someone getting his/her dream job, we immediately call it "oh he/she is so Lucky", it is not because the person did get the opportunity at the same time he/she is well prepared to take on. Hence if you are not prepared, the probability is "Zero". In this formula, you have no control on "Opportunity", however, you have full control on "Preparedness". Have a Goal with respect to improving personal branding, building the skill set and expanding network - All needs to be specific, measurable, relevant and time bound. Regularly check on progress, ask for help to accelerate learning. Focus, Discipline and Execution are Key here.

To summarize, don't drift or keep changing jobs stay on longer, it may be painful initially (if it is not what you love to do) but you will accelerate your career in future if you apply this strategy. Use the time and experience to understand yourself, discover your purpose. Research extensively, identify the roles, skill sets needed to match your strength and passion. Lastly layout a clear plan to build your personal branding, gain key technical and soft skills and expanding the network. Have a written Goal and create a purpose for yourself, which will help you to self-motivate and stay on track. All the very best!

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