Outplacement Guide
The right career strategy
Goals can only be achieved by those who have goals.
For the right career strategy, it is therefore crucial to first become clear about your own strengths and competencies (self-analysis) and to carry out a professional assessment in order to derive meaningful and realistic goals. Since your professional goals will always have a considerable influence on your private life, you should always include your family, spouse or partner in your considerations.
The design of your own career path should avoid mistakes from the outset that will lead to critical questions later on. Those who change too often are often accused of lacking stamina and loyalty. Those who are still with the same company after ten years are quickly seen as inflexible. Changing industries too often speaks of a lack of orientation, but also bears witness to a pronounced willingness to learn.
At the same time, many biographies are often determined to a considerable extent by coincidence.
One's willingness to change jobs, for example, depends to a large extent on the chemistry with the current boss and the internal development opportunities. The next job can be determined by the coincidence of a headhunter call... The key to long-term success is not to be driven by coincidences, but to follow your own "red thread" - but without closing your eyes to any one-off opportunities that may arise. After all, career development always depends to a certain extent on luck and chance.
In your past lies the key to your future.
Basic rule number one for executive applications is the targeted clarification of your specific starting position and from this the perfect preparation for the application situation. Make it clear to yourself that every step, every activity in the application process is at the same time a kind of work rehearsal. First of all, an elementary stocktaking, your personal location determination is in the foreground with questions such as:
What educational and professional experience do you have behind you?
Review the stages of your career and try to understand why you chose a certain path or direction at each stage. In most cases, such decisions were linked to concrete expectations, expectations regarding your work content, opportunities for advancement, scope for responsibility, etc.. Some of these expectations were probably met, others not. How did you deal with them? Did you come to terms with it? Did you go other ways to see your expectations met after all? Were your expectations perhaps excessive?
"Not only did I find a new job with Karent's support, but I also got to know myself better (through the two personality tests and valuable feedback). "
What has shaped your professional decisions in the past?
Consider how the decisions about your path ultimately came about. Were they the logical consequence of your own red thread, or were you more randomly driven? Were professional things like industry, function, and company reputation important to you, or did you primarily want to keep your circle of friends and not move? Did you want to make a lot of money and achieve high status in the short term, or was it about a particularly exciting job? Be ruthless and open with yourself here. This is about your life and your future. How you present yourself later on the job market is another matter altogether.
How do you rate yourself and your abilities?
You have certainly received a lot of feedback about your personal strengths and weaknesses in the course of your career. Summarize this picture both from someone else's point of view and from your own. A good framework can give you, for example, the Meyer Briggs Type Test or the KARENT Strengthfinder. Typical questions you should answer: Are you more analytical? Accurate? Strategic? Strong in decision-making? Do you like to work very independently or do you appreciate clear rules...?
What are your expectations for your professional and private future?
To answer the question "What do I want?", you should take enough time. Your result will help you to find a new employer in a targeted manner. At first glance, the answer seems easy. On reflection, you will find that you are much more likely to know what you don't want than to be able to positively articulate what you do want. Certainly, you are looking for an employer where you will not again encounter the problems that are causing you distress in your current job. So think about which conditions are absolutely important to you, what you could do without, what compromises you would be prepared to make, etc.
Probably everyone tends to underestimate their room for manoeuvre and their creative possibilities in a personal and professional transition or crisis situation. We advise you on your career options.
What is possible?
We ourselves inhibit our activities in such an important situation. Yet what is at stake is something as important as the realization of individual professional identity. Bring the findings from the previous analyses to the point. Do not only take your own sense of reality as a yardstick, but also include other people (life partners, friends, acquaintances) in your considerations (networking). Avoid the often encountered attitude "I'll do anything just to get a job again quickly...". This attitude will not convince any potential employer, because they want employees who know what they want and are self-confident.