Step 4: Taking Action

Now that you have explored the many different career options that are available to you, it is time to make a decision about which career you are going to pursue and develop an action plan to enable you to achieve your goals.

Write down your career objective and how long you believe it will take to achieve it . If you require some help in pinpointing exactly which career you want most, we recommend reading the University of Waterloo's Career Development Manual again as it contains an excellent exercise to facilitate the decision making process.

In addition to having one specific career objective, we also recommend that you list two or three additional objectives that can serve as back up plans.

The next thing that you need to do is develop an action plan based on your primary career objective. Some of the things you may need are:

• Further education

• A special training course

• A specific type of work experience

• Contacts with individuals who have the power to get you hired

If you require additional education and would like to find out about programs offered at various schools across Canada, SchoolFinder.com is an excellent place to search for this type of information.

Helpful Services

If you prefer a more structured, convenient way of charting your career path, you can try these helpful, commercial services:

• Apollo Consulting: Unsure about your career path? Hate your current job? Find out what career is right for YOU.
• Testing Room: instruments are validated, reliable and research based. They are developed by psychologists and follow the stringent development guidelines of the American Psychological Association.