{"id":758,"date":"2016-11-23T11:44:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T11:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=758"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:57:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:57:23","slug":"should-you-leave-your-career-planning-to-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2016\/11\/23\/should-you-leave-your-career-planning-to-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you leave your career planning to chance?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been seeing a lot of finalists lately and broadly two <em>'types'<\/em> of students \u00a0emerge: those of you with a clear plan for what you\u2019re going to do after graduation and those of you <em>trying<\/em> to plan life after university. Traditional\u00a0career planning techniques focus on matching interests, skills and abilities to a particular job or laying out a career plan for the next 10, 20 or 70 years.\u00a0Unfortunately, there are times we become so\u00a0wrapped up in making the one right decision about our careers,\u00a0that we forget the importance of chance.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"irc_mi iW1N_TUyx96E-pQOPx8XEepE\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sfu.ca\/olc\/sites\/default\/files\/imagecache\/Blog_NP_Lead\/second-chance-checking-accounts.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for planned happenstance and your career\" width=\"246\" height=\"164\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is why I am a huge fan of\u00a0John Krumboltz; a leading career theorist who suggests that chance or unplanned events have a place in the career-planning process and has put forward the theory of <a href=\"http:\/\/plannedhappenstance.com\/aboutus.html\">Planned Happenstance<\/a>. In a nutshell, Krumboltz suggests that a career is something that will gradually unfold and encourages you to make the most of opportunities as they arise. Therefore,\u00a0if you are experiencing difficulty clarifying what you want to do, it could be you are trying too hard to rationalise your thinking. Instead, actively seek out and explore new career ideas and pursue interesting things as they arise.\u00a0For example the more people you\u00a0speak to, the more likely you\u00a0are to find out about jobs\u00a0you\u00a0might enjoy and opportunities which may not be advertised.<\/p>\n<p>According to Krumboltz, you can engage in five behaviours that can enable you to turn chance events into productive opportunities and these are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Curiosity:<\/strong> Explore new opportunities \u2013 Get on Twitter, talk to people, go to events, say \u201cyes\u201d to new experiences, research, explore the \u201cunknown\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Persistence:<\/strong> Exert effort despite setbacks<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flexibility:<\/strong> Be ready to change your attitude\/mindset when new information\/opportunity arises<\/li>\n<li><strong>Optimism:<\/strong> View new opportunities as possible and attainable<\/li>\n<li><strong>Risk-taking:<\/strong> Take action in the face of uncertain outcomes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are some practical actions you could take starting today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Meet new people and do new things. Join clubs, volunteer, play sports, go to careers events, talk to your peers, lecturers and alumni.<\/li>\n<li>Take an interest in the new (or investigate the very old!). Keep an open mind.<\/li>\n<li>Understand yourself and consider learning\u00a0skills which might lead to new opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Learn about the world: What\u2019s happening in technology? Industry? Society? What opportunities do these present?<\/li>\n<li>Expose yourself to different viewpoints: Study abroad, read papers you think you\u2019ll disagree with and engage in debates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been seeing a lot of finalists lately and broadly two 'types' of students \u00a0emerge: those of you with a clear plan for what you\u2019re going to do after graduation and those of you trying to plan life after...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[10,321],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-career-planning","tag-planned-happenstance"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}