Choosing the Right Industry, Personal Branding, Protecting Your Dreams

Hello friends! Welcome once more to this wonderful journey of career planning in which we continue discussing the vital steps in building a dream career. In our previous article, we discussed the first three steps in this journey: self-conquering, passion, and vision.

Besides understanding your inner passion, it is essential to be in tune with the outside world around you as it will ultimately assist you in executing your dream career.

In this article, we will be discussing the next three steps that are all linked to external factors that can influence and shape your career ahead. We shall be taking you through this path and detailing the major challenges ahead in this journey.

Step 4: Choosing the Right Industry

Being driven by your passion is most definitely a good thing. However, making informed decisions about your career is more important.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

Preparing and planning are the first steps to success. So how does one go about preparing and exactly what information would they need to evaluate before heading towards career planning?

1. A good, comprehensive understanding of the job market as well as potential growth sectors are important. Explore all active industries in the job market, their growth trends, demands and prospects.

2. The industry you choose should have sustainability. This means that it not only survives in the present but also has a bright future. What if the service or product that it provides has a demand today but will become obsolete in the next 10 years? A consistent and growing industry should be one that

3. Can your chosen industry survive the changing dynamics of business? New technology, trade policies and changing corporate laws are altering the ways and methods of doing business. Today business is not limited to a specific region or state, it has crossed borders and is going global with digital outreach. Does your chosen industry have the potential to adapt with the lightning speed of evolution of business?

4. Study, study, study. Collect as much information about your target industry as possible. Subscribe to good magazines, journals, watch YouTube channels/podcasts, and talk to people involved in that industry. This will give you valuable insight into the working style and challenges faced.

5. Consider whether your chosen industry matches your lifestyle of the future. Ask yourself - “Which industry would suit my lifestyle and daily regime?”. For instance, if you are the nocturnal type, then the hospitality industry would be a good place for you to build your career. Similarly, if you enjoy conversing with people and socializing, then perhaps the silent working nature of coding is not ideal for you. Try matching your personality traits and lifestyle with your target industry.

6. Prepare a ‘company watch list’ in which you prefer a list of the ‘Best Places to Work’ or the ‘Top 5 Businesses’/ ‘Top 5 Growing Companies’. Gather information about these entities from a variety of sources and keep a track of their growth. Then, see if your chosen industry is part of the list.

Step 5: Personal Branding

In a world of advertising and marketing, the influence of brands and their power of advertising has been shown to be more enticing than the products itself. This logic holds the same for YOU too.

“Your most important sale in life is to sell YOURSELF to YOURSELF.” - Maxwell Maltz

Personal Branding is your ability to promote yourself.

How well can you sell yourself to others? It is making yourself stand out in a crowd and differentiating yourself from others. It is all about marketing your skills, talents and experience in a way that others give credibility and value to you.

In a previous age of technology, your biggest tool in personal branding was perhaps your business card. However, today is a different world entirely. From your accounts on social media to your virtual feedback in terms of likes and comments, your personal branding is about the way you carry yourself and everything associated with you.

So, the next time you like a post or drop a comment on a picture online, be very mindful of the brand that you are trying to create for yourself.

This can also include micro aspects of your methods and communications, such as your choice of words, font size and type used in your online correspondences, to your choice of wardrobe at a formal or informal gathering.

Pay close attention to all of these nuances for they will inadvertently define your brand.

It also includes small aspects of your methods of communication-like the choice of your words, the font size and type used in your correspondences and your choice of wardrobe at a formal or informal gathering. Pay heed to all these nuances for they define your brand.

A survey says, on average, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes. Of those candidates, 4 to 6 will get called for an interview and only ONE will get the job.

Is your brand strong enough to make you the lucky one?

Step 6: Protect Your Dreams

Your dreams are your BRAINCHILD.

Protect your dreams from the harsh criticism and cynical opinions of this world. Sharing your plans, goals, and visions about life with others especially those who are not on the same wavelength as you can perhaps be a bad idea.

Yes, you heard me right: keep your dreams to yourself.

Often people pass on their pessimism and negativity to others deterring even the most passionate souls and shaking their determination to reach their goals. Be careful of those that may not be sure about their own life and may spill the same uncertainty in yours.

When you are learning to fly, your dreams are in the infancy stage and you don’t want skeptical people to clip your wings even before your first flight.

In this context, a beautiful dialogue from the famous film Pursuit of Happiness comes to my mind: “You got a dream…You gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it.”

Don’t let others bring you down before you learn to climb the ladder of success. Guard your dreams and share them only with people who lift you, not the ones who pull you down.

To wrap on this week’s continuation of three steps for successful career planning, remember this following quote:

“The future depends on what you do TODAY.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Are you doing the right things that will take you ahead in your journey to a successful career? Take your time to think this over.

In our next session, we will take you through the final four steps that will conclude your journey to your dream career.

Till we meet again, this is Nan Samy, your Life Coach and trusted friend in this journey signing off for now.

Stay happy and Stay positive!