Creating your Middle East career plan

Businessman working at a desk with documents and a laptop.

It’s common to reach a crossroads at some point in your career, where you’re unsure of what your next step will be. Perhaps you’re looking for a totally new challenge or to progress quickly in your chosen field. You may even be considering an international move to broaden your career opportunities. The Middle East is currently attracting some of the world’s top talent, so if you’re planning to find work in this region – competition for roles can be tough. Creating a career plan could be helpful in working out your ultimate goal for the future and where you need to place emphasis in the short term.

Whatever stage you’re at, having a focused vision and clearly defined goals is a very good starting point.

A career plan is simply a way to formalise, in your own mind, where you are at the moment, where you want to be and how you’re going to get there. Putting a career plan together is not a complicated process, it simply requires a bit of thought and forward planning.

Here are a few steps to help you create your career plan:

1. Assess your current circumstances

Self-evaluate your current work situation, paying close attention to what you enjoy about your current role, what you value most and where you can see room for improvement. Try to assess your personality as objectively as possible to understand what really drives you.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

What motivates me and what do I enjoy doing?
What are my personal attributes and lifestyle priorities?
What are my strengths and weaknesses?
What do I look for in a job?

2. Where do you want to be?

Once you have evaluated your motivations, core interests, passions and current skills – you can begin to shape your ideal future role. What responsibilities do you want to have? Would you like to be managing people or overseeing particular projects?

Perhaps write a detailed job description for your perfect position. This should help you to focus on your priorities and understand what’s most important to you in a prospective role.

3. Consider the journey

You should now have a clearer idea of your career starting point and your ultimate, desired destination. There may be a very obvious path to take to get you where you want to be, but in other cases the next steps might not be as obvious. The journey from where you are now to where you want to be may look daunting, which is why you should try breaking it down into smaller, more manageable milestones.

Think about the following questions:

What do I want to achieve within the next six, twelve, eighteen months?
How and when will I achieve my training and education goals?
How and when will I gain the additional skills and experience I need?
How can I expand my network and by when?

Give yourself smaller, definite goals to achieve within realistic timeframes and try your best to meet them. Remember, it’s also okay to change direction when opportunities arise, re-evaluating your career plan based on changing economic and personal circumstances. Middle East jobs can be a competitive, so a clear, focused career plan could really make a difference to your future success.

For more help with your job search or hiring requirements, please contact us today to speak to one of our specialist consultants.