Career planning always starts with a pre-plan, starting now.

by Chris Tang in Blog

DatePosted on September 24, 2015 at 04:15 PM
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The mid-Autumn festival is almost upon us with the public holiday in Hong Kong falling on Monday 28 September. Following that, there will be a week's public holiday on mainland China with national day (from 1-7  October, the so called Golden Week), so don’t expect much business in the region to be done then!  

Yes, folks, although it doesn't feel it (namely because it's so darn hot still!), the summer holiday season is truly over. Schools are now settled nicely into their first term, and many businesses in September will be feeling an upturn in their activities after a relative lull during the July and August months.  

In fact, 'word on the street' is that corporate teams in various Hong Kong law firm's have had an exceptionally busy summer preparing for a raft of IPOs and other corporate activity in the run up to this year's final quarter, notwithstanding the fallout globally from the summer devaluation of the Yuan. Some IPO deals have indeed been put on hold, as the current uncertainty has taken a grip on certain companies' executive boards, yet other companies are feeling bullish and still plan to go ahead with their listing. 

With that in mind, now is a good time to reflect on the year-to-date and to appraise the direction in your career and personal life. How has 2015 treated you so far?  Is it how you expected? Has the year so far fallen below your expectations or has it exceeded it?  In what way?  What needs to change? 

"But why reflect now? It's not even the year end!" some of you may be thinking. 

Well, if you treat your new year resolutions as your plan, you have to 'pre-plan'. And by that, I mean you need to conduct a mini self-assessment of your 2015 resolutions or goals. Call it a mid-year (or just over mid-year) mini appraisal.

Using this mini-appraisal method, you can start to sow the seeds for next year's goals. I'm not suggesting a full blown matrix being written down of every single goal you can think of and how you would go about achieving those goals. Rather, when you have a moment sitting in your local cha chaang teng having breakfast and drinking your Hong Kong milk tea, or at the balcony bar of Sevva sipping on a glass of wine as dusk starts to settle in, start to conceptualise what positive changes or outcomes you would like to see in the future. No time frames are set, no lengthy details need to be scribbled down.  Just have a moment to yourself to think. This is the pre-plan, after all. 

Regardless of what industry you're in or what profession you belong to, now is a good time to conduct this exercise. After all, why start your self-reflection in January when you can do so now, one full quarter ahead of everyone else?  Get your new year’s resolutions shaped now, 'dust off' the CV and give it a good 'Autumn brush up' and you’ll be well ahead of the curve come 1st of Jan.  

Happy mid-autumn festival to one and all!  

 

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About the Author

Chris Tang

Chris is a co-Managing Director of Star Anise and a former practising corporate lawyer. He is a regular post contributor on LinkedIn and you can connect with him here: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tangchris/

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