A Better Way to Plan Your Career.

In today’s rapidly changing job market, one thing is clear. That you simply cannot control the trajectory of your career. There are just too many factors beyond your control that will shape your job options--global economic trends, political elections, and technological changes, just to name a few. So don't commit the hubris of thinking that you can determine your professional glide path.

On the other hand, you can increase your probability of success by approaching your career with the right mind-set--one that recognizes that career planning is a continuous process that has to be actively managed. At each step in your career, you need to ask yourself: What can I do next that will maximize my options in the future?

Gain Transferable Knowledge
This process begins with the choices you make at school. You want your education to provide you with the necessary skills and expertise to succeed in a wide variety of jobs. This means that you need to make smart choice about the courses you will follow. I favor those that involve extensive writing, rigorous analysis, or quantitative skills.

Once you have finished your formal education, search for jobs that will allow you to further expand your transferable knowledge — to help you find your next job. Let's say you take a job putting together airplane leases. Within a few years, you could become the world's expert on the subject; however, this narrow expertise probably won't help you in any other line of work. By contrast, if you take a job that will expand your communication, writing or computer programming skills, you can greatly boost your options for later steps in your career.

Gaining experience outside your home town is another way to develop transferable knowledge. By working in various towns- Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa, or even regionally and internationally if you work in a fairly big company, you will gain tremendous experience that will make you a top candidate for a managerial position. Even if you will not rise to the level of a manager, those skills, contacts, and networks could help you start your own successful business.

Similarly, you can make yourself more attractive to more employers by working in different types of organizations during your career. You may be a prime candidate for a government or a parastatal job if you’ve worked in private companies, for instance.

Grow Your Network

As you gain transferable knowledge, remember that that is only one piece of the puzzle: your next step should also help you expand your web of personal relationships with peers. To paraphrase a slogan,
"Organizations don't hire people. People hire people." The more people you know, the more people will think of you when a job pops open — even when it is not publicly advertised.

Of course, you can build your network to some degree without changing jobs: you can attend conferences or participate in committees at trade associations. But this sort of event-driven networking pales in comparison with the deep bonds you can develop with your colleagues by working, conversing, and traveling with them.
As you ponder your next career step, then, think about the networking advantages you might gain from it. If you're ambitious, you can expand your network by moving to a new company, or even a new industry; obviously, that would be a momentous decision. More modestly, you can grow your network by accepting a job in another department of the same company or by heading an interdisciplinary project staffed by people from multiple departments.

In this tough economy and ever-changing world, it is more important than ever to smartly evaluate each step in your career. To prepare for whatever surprises lie ahead, try to make choices today that will maximize your options in the future. Gain transferable expertise — in the classroom or at work — and form close bonds with your peers and colleagues.

This article has been adapted from the HBR blog network.

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