Is your long term career plan on track?

For many people a long term career plan is considered a thing of the past. Something that has become less and less important as the idea of a 'job for life' has diminished and more and more of us move around every few years.

So it was with great interest that I came across a recent survey conducted by recruitment specialist Robert Half. Although the survey itself was focused on careers in the finance sector it got me wondering if the same applied in other high level city jobs as well. The report indicates that more than one in four (27%) chief financial officers (CFOs) consider lack of long-term career plans the biggest mistake young accounting and finance professionals make in their careers.
CFOs were asked: â€œWhat is the biggest mistake, if any, young accounting and finance professionals make in their career?â€ The full list of responses were:

- Not considering their long-term career plans 27%
- Changing jobs too frequently 21%
- Not obtaining adequate educational/training credentials 19%
- Choosing the profession for the wrong reasons 14%
- Other 11%
- None/Donâ€™t know 9%

Clearly users of LinkHigher will be working hard on acquiring the adequate training and credentials, but what about the long term career planning and changing jobs too frequently? The problem is that within academia it is normal to move around every few years. Short term research contracts whilst budding academics try and find a tenured position is the way academia is currently structured and it seems that it will be a long time before that changes. Could it be that many postgraduates are taking this same attitude when exiting academia as well?

This report indicates that if you want to move outside of academia into a city job then you better start thinking long term. As a first step to this type of planning I suggest you take a trip to your local careers service and look closely at your options, both short and long term.