Chapter 20 Preparing for Your Career 587 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. A career plan is not a static strategy. It can grow and change with you. By identifying a general type of career that interests you, you can ensure that when the time comes to choose, you will have everything you need. You will be prepared to pursue any career that interests you. Your career plan should be suited to your individual needs. It may not look at all like your best friend’s career plan. However, all career plans begin with career goals. A goal is a statement of what you want to accomplish. Some goals are short-term goals—goals you can achieve in a year or two. Others are long-term goals. These goals may take many years to accomplish. An example of a short-term goal might be to acquire the food preparation skills that help you become a chef. An example of a long-term goal is, “Work in the health care industry.” This is a very broad goal that includes many different types of careers. Your long-term goal can be fl exible. It will change along the way as you develop new interests and skills. You can make it more specifi c or even change your mind completely and decide to pursue another goal instead. After you specify your long-term career goal, think about steps you can take to accomplish it. One of the very fi rst steps is usually to fi nd out more about the career or type of career. What education will you need to work in this area? What classes can you take now that will make it easier to enter into this career? List the steps you will take to begin preparing yourself for this career. Figure 20-8 is an example of a career plan created by a student interested in agricultural technology. If you do not have any idea of what career you might want, consider making not one, but several career plans. Create one career plan for each type of career you think you might be interested in. Find out more information about all of them. Then you can compare them to see which ones you want to pursue. Career Plan Goal: Goal: Career in agricultural technology. Short-Term Goal: Short-Term Goal: Find out everything I can about agriculture and the people who work in agricultural technology. Long-Term Goal: Long-Term Goal: Obtain a fun, satisfying job in agricultural technology that pays well. Step 1: Step 1: Research to fi nd all the different types of jobs available in agricultural technology. Step 2: Step 2: Find out more about each type of job identifi ed in Step 1, including education and experience needed. Step 3: Step 3: Talk to people who currently work in agricultural technology to get fi rst-hand information about their jobs. Step 4: Step 4: Identify and take courses that will help me reach my goals. Step 5: Step 5: Review my goals to see how much progress I have made. Step 6: Step 6: Determine whether my goals are still valid, and revise them if necessary. Goodheart-Willcox Publisher Figure 20-8. Notice in this example that the student does not identify a specific career. She is still exploring options and her career plan reflects that.