Assessing

Exploring

Deciding

Planning

A Foundation for a Sucessful Future

The building of a career is quite as difficult a problem as the building of a house, yet few ever sit down with pencil and paper, with expert information and counsel, to plan a working career and deal with the life problem scientifically, as they would deal with the problem of building a house, taking the advice of an architect to help them.

- Frank Parsons, 1909

As Parsons implies in the above quotation, the building of a career -- the process of career development -- is a difficult, but important task during oneÕs lifetime, yet he also suggests that few individuals adequately prepare for their careers in a thoughtful, careful, and deliberate manner.  Instead, many often "fall into" a career while others make career choices that are often random and show little commitment to their occupations, often leading to worker dissatisfaction.

You may argue that a career is not something you create or plan, but rather simply just happens.  However, like architectural projects, careers must be carefully planned.  In many ways, designing your own career is parallel to designing a building.  Programming, schematic design, design development, working drawings, and construction are replaced in the career development process with assessing, exploring, decision-making, planning, and job-searching.

ASSESSING

When an architect designs a project, what is typically the first step in the process?  Most likely, programming would be the answer. As William Pena points out in Problem Seeking, the main idea behind programming is the search for sufficient information, to clarify, to understand, to state the problem.  In a similar manner, when designing your career, assessing begins the process.

Assessing is the process of learning more about your self. Assess where you want to be: analyze what is important to you, your abilities, the work you would like to do and your strengths and weaknesses.  Just as programming assists the architect understand a particular design problem, assessment helps determine what you desire from your career.  It is an ongoing process that needs to be conducted throughout your entire career.  In more detail, assessing includes examining your values, interests, and skills.  But what exactly are values, interests, and skills and how do you determine them.

Values

helping others	improving society	creativity
excitement	working alone/with others	monetary reward
competition	change and variety	independence
intellectual challenge	physical challenge	fast pace
security	responsibility	making decisions
power and authority	gaining knowledge	recognition

EXPLORING

Given your career, are you laying bricks, building a wall or building a cathedral? Regardless of your answer, designing your career is one of the most important tasks during your lifetime with minor exception.  Yet if it is so important, why do we spend such little time on it?  Think about it!

After programming, schematic design is the next phase of the design process.  Schematic design is that part of the process that generates a variety of alternative solutions; its goal is to establish general characteristics of the design including scale, form, estimated costs, and the general image of the building, the size and organization of spaces.  According to the AIA Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice, the goal of schematic design is to establish general characteristics of the building design, such as the scale used to satisfy the basic program requirements and estimated costs.⁴ Additionally, schematic design identifies major issues and makes initial decisions that serve as the basis of subsequent stages.

In the career development process, 'exploring' is equal to schematic design.  The process of exploring develops alternatives or career choices.  Career exploration is the process of accumulating information about the world of work.⁵  Its goal is to obtain career information on a plethora of careers or specializations within a particular career.  For those of you that have chosen architecture as a profession, exploring is still a necessary stage.  Instead of exploring for a profession, you can explore firms, the various career paths of an architect, and other areas that impact your career as an architect.

How do you "explore?"  As outlined in Career Planning Today, the author speaks of a systematic process that includes a) collecting, b) evaluating, c) integrating, and d) deciding.⁶  As presented, these four steps will guarantee the highest possible level of career awareness.

Where do you begin?  First, you must collect career information from a variety of sources, both people and publications. With respect to people, the most popular tool is called "information interviewing."  As the name implies, you are interviewing someone for information, not a job.  You could do this with a senior partners in a firm, a faculty member, a colleague at another firm, or even a classmate.  Other ways to 'explore' involving people include the following: a) attend lectures sponsored by the local AIA chapter or your nearby university, b) volunteer your time through local AIA committee or other organizations of interest, c) become involved with a mentor program and d) observe or shadow someone for a day.

As the quote from Professor Albert Shapero implies, use the research skills to access any and all information you need.  Visit your local library and inquire about resources available to you. Become friends with the librarians at the reference desk and ask for any of the following publications: a) The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), b) Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), c) Guide to Occupational Exploration (GOE). d) What Color is Your Parachute? or any other resource that you might find valuable.  In addition, investigate resources at your local AIA chapter or the library/resource center at a school of architecture. Two resources to explore include Profile, and the AIAArchitects Handbook of Professional Practice.

After completing the 'exploring' process, your next step is 'deciding'.

DECIDING

The heart of the design process is design development. Similarly 'deciding' is the heart of the career development process.  Design development describes the specific character and intent of the entire project; it further refines the schematic design and futher defines the alternatives.  Selecting alternatives and evaluating them against a predetermined set of criteria is deciding.

How do you make decisions?  When making decisions do you let others decide for you?, do you relay on "gut-level" reactions?, or do you follow a planned strategy of weighing the alternatives in making a decision.  Whatever your method of deciding, you need to be aware of it.  While some decisions can be made at the drop of a hat, other decisions, including designing your career, require more and thought.

For demonstration purposes, review this architectural application to the "deciding" process:

Deciding can be difficult and time-consuming, but realizing that the quality of decisions can be affected by the information used to make them, we quickly learn that making informed decisions is an important skill to learn.

As you can see, both 'exploring' and 'deciding' are critical steps to successful career designing.  Do not wait to begin this important process, rather take the information from this series of articles and "build your future with career designing."

PLANNING

"If you do not have plans for your life, someone else does."  

-  Anthony Robbins

 

"Planning is bringing the future into the present so that we can do something about it now." 

      "I don't much care where------" said Alice.

      "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

-  Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland

On the surface, you may wonder why I am quoting from a popular children's book, however, if you look closer, you will come to realize that half of reaching where you want is knowing the direction that you are headed.  As you will see, planning is key to fulfilling your career goals.

After a design for a potential building has been decided upon by the owner/client and architect, the next step is the development of plans.  These plans -- construction documents, specifications, and construction schedules -- all play an important role in realizing the design.  In a similar way, planning, as part of the career development process, ensures that a successful career will be realized.

In its simplest form, planning is the bridge from dreams to action; it is merely an intention to take an action by a certain time.  At its most, planning is creating a mission statement, developing career goals and preparing action plans.

Action Plans

Career Goals

Mission Statement

But what is a mission statement, goals, or action plans? The above model is a simple illustration.

In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey states that a mission statement focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based. To start the whole process of planning, consider your mission statement by asking yourself:  What do I want to be?  What do I want to do?  What are my career aspirations?  Review the example below:

After you have crafted your mission statement, the next step is to develop goals which will lead you to your mission statement. Goals are future-oriented statements of purpose and direction accomplishable within a definite time frame.  They are used for long-range aims and should be specific and measurable.  Write your goals down in an attempt to realize them.  It has been said that the difference between a "wish" and a "goal" is that a goal is written down.

Once you have established your goals, you are ready to develop your action plan that is designed to help you accomplish your goals.  Action plans are the necessary steps which you need to take to achieve your goals; they are used for related short-range intentions.  Look at the goals you have established; what steps do you need to take to accomplish them?  As with career goals, write down your action plan and create specific completion dates.

The final step in planning is to review your action plans and goals regularly.  Cross out those goals you have accomplished and revise, add to, or delete others.  Be honest with yourself; are you still committed to achieving your goals?   You can change your goals, but remember that the magic word for achieving them is persistence. Rule of thumb -- abandon goals only if they have lost meaning for your -- never because they are to tough or you have had a setback.

Now, you have been exposed to the entire career/life planning process:  assessing, exploring, deciding, and planning; as you progress through your career, you will learn that this process is never-ending and cyclical.  As soon as you have secured an ideal position, you will wish to assess your new life situation and make adjustments to your career design accordingly.