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While many people make annual resolutions about their career and map out a career plan for the year, few ever think about an annual "career budget".
Though most textbooks and published literature on careers do not even mention or discuss the topic, everyone should have a written career budget. It is a guide that tells you whether you are investing sufficiently in your career development.
You may have a career vision and goals, but you also need to set up guidelines for investing time, money, effort and energy to reach them. If you do not measure your progress, you may end up going very far in the wrong direction.
Having a career budget lets you - rather than your employer, family members or friends - control your career destiny. A career budget represents a documented mechanism to ensure that you are putting in an appropriate level of time, effort, energy and fiscal investment in attaining your career goals.
To keep your career on track, you should expect to spend a specific number of hours on reading books and magazines in a particular field every month. In your career plan, you would then plot out the specific times each day you will do this. As part of your strategy to achieve this would be techniques such as speed reading.
So every month, your career budget may include for example, a total of 10 hours each month and an expense of, certain amount per month for career exploration. This may include two hours surfing the Internet, two hours researching at the library etc, You should also use your career budget to track your networking activities, such as attending talks and seminars.
A career budget should not be confused with career strategy or a career plan. A strategy is how something gets done, not just what you do. It is your approach, your smart way of reaching the goal with the least amount of wasted effort or cost. A plan is what you develop in order to identify, organise and schedule resources and energy. A plan is only a blueprint or map that tells you what needs doing.
A career budget puts you in a better position to adjust your career strategy and career plan so that at the end of the year you would have attained most, if not all, items on your career agenda.
A career budget may appear a complex concept but it is a simple and very effective tool to help you take personal responsibility in developing and effectively managing your career. Isn't it time you got started?
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