ABZ Planning and Gambling on Risks. Chapter 5.
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ABZ planning is useful both to someone who is just starting their career,
to graduates, and even to those who are over 50. After all, a career
is a life-long journey without a beginning or an end.
No matter how old
you are, where you work and how far up the career ladder you are, you
always need to plan your next steps and adapt constantly. The ABZ
method involves both planning and adaptation.
What does ABZ even stand for? These letters represent components
of your global comprehensive plan for achieving your goals.
Plan A is your primary plan that represents what you are doing right
now. You can adjust plan A as you learn or advance in your search for
a job.
Plan B is what you will do if you decide to change your end goal or your
path to achieving it. That is why you can have more than one plan
B at the same time. For example, in case plan A fails,
or you discover
a new opportunity and change your priorities. Plan B involves making
all sorts of changes, so you do not need to think it through so carefully.
It is just an outline of your escape routes and alternatives.
As soon as you start realizing that your plan A is no longer valid and
move on to plan B, it becomes your new plan A.
Plan Z is your backup plan, your lifeline. After all, the show must go on,
even if you find yourself caught in insurmountable circumstances. This
plan helps you find a way out of your problems in business or your
personal life. For example, if you failed in your
new project or decided
to change your life dramatically. Cases like this are the reason for the
existence of plan Z, which gives you confidence in the future and helps
you take risks without fear of uncertainty.
During our career development, we cannot know which plan is best
for us until we try different options. Planning and adaptation are also
impossible without deciding how we want to see our future. If you
agree to the first job with a decent salary you find, you may not get
closer
to your real goal at all, even if it provides you with an immediate
reward. It is best to think and plan two steps ahead, which is why you
need three plans: A, B, and Z.
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If you do not know what your first step should be, take the one that
can open the most opportunities for you. For instance, if you are
interested in management, consulting is a logical place to start, since
the skills and experience you acquire working
as a consultant will
be useful at all stages of a career in this industry.
Therefore, a good plan A is the one that allows you to remain flexible
and switch to one of your plan B options if something goes wrong.
For example, if you complete an internship at a pharmaceutical
company only to realize that it is not the right job for you, you can
move on to your next option.
To create an ABZ plan, protecting yourself from possible risks and
preparing for any changes in the market or in your decisions, proceed
in the following stages:
▶
First, make a list of your current biggest doubts and problems you
may encounter while building a career. Also,
list any uncertainties
you have about it. How will you know that plan A does not work
and it is time to move on to plan B? On the other hand, what will
indicate that plan A is progressing the way it is supposed to?
▶
Write down your current plan A, then plan Z, which would
describe your way out of the most difficult problems and doubts
that you have identified. After that, outline some thoughts
on what
your plan B may be, based on the already existing A and
Z.
▶
Invite for a coffee your former colleague who also changed his job.
Alternatively, it could be a friend, who used to work in the same
professional niche as you, but left before you did. How did they
do it? Why? Did they fail at first? Have they had any success? How
did they know it was time for a change of plans and their career?
▶
Make a plan for the development of your universal skills, or,
in other words, the skills that can be applied to several differ-
ent fields. List all your skills that can be used at the same time
in several areas that interest you,
for instance, such areas
as management and video games. What skills are in demand
ABZ Planning and Gambling on Risks. Chapter 5.
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in both of them? Do you already have such skills? Or do you have
to learn them? Universal skills make it easier for you to switch from
one plan to another while avoiding unpleasant risks. Start devel-
oping the skills you have listed right now by signing up for courses
or at least a conference related to the topic.
▶
Start a pilot project that you can work on during the evenings after
work or on weekends. This project should be based on your skills
and experience that can be applied in a related field. This will
give
you a backup plan and, if your plan A does not work, you will
be able to switch to working on your project full-time.
▶
Contact five friends working in related areas and invite them
to meet with you. Compare your career plan with theirs. Keep
in regular touch with them so you can benefit from their experience
and information. This will also make it easier to make a plan B, and,
if necessary, try yourself at their area of activity.
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