{"id":64544,"date":"2014-03-13T13:45:57","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T18:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64544"},"modified":"2014-03-13T16:01:19","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T21:01:19","slug":"keeping-a-career-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64544","title":{"rendered":"Keeping a Career Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Hawaii<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Keeping a Career Journal<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"veda.darby.soberman\"<\/a>We often get caught up in our busy lives. Do you ever have those weeks which\u00a0zip by, but by the week\u2019s end you can\u2019t even remember what you did? Surely, you\u00a0must have done something because you are completely exhausted. Keeping a career\u00a0journal, like other types of journaling practice, allows the opportunity for one to\u00a0record and reflect. Just taking the time to stop and think about your professional life\u00a0can be invaluable. A career journal can be a powerful tool no matter if you are a job\u00a0seeker, student, career changer, or working professional. To get you started with a\u00a0career journal here are a few of my favorite entry ideas:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Analyze your current professional situation<\/strong>. Get some perspective on where\u00a0you are on your career path. This is a fantastic first journal entry.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Record your career goals<\/strong>. Refer back to these goals often, and revise them as\u00a0your situation evolves.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There is no need for journal entries to be literary masterpieces, or for each\u00a0to trigger an epiphany<\/strong>. My favorite career journal topic is simply a log of\u00a0daily career progress or achievements. Depending on your job status, this\u00a0could be a record of what you did to progress your job search, or what you\u00a0were able to get done while at work. Through regular logging, you are able to\u00a0monitor your productivity and efficiency over time. Such entries could also\u00a0be used as a brainstorming exercise for a more in-depth exploration. After\u00a0you\u2019ve written your list you may ask yourself a few questions to encourage\u00a0reflection. Did you accomplish your goals? Or was your day run by constant\u00a0interruptions and distractions? What did you do to make your day a\u00a0productive, or unproductive, one? What could you do next time around? What still needs to be accomplished in the future? How is your work-life\u00a0balance?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Record any new ideas you may have<\/strong>. Whether it sounds genius or silly, write\u00a0your idea down. Your thoughts on serving homeless patrons, or how to\u00a0better arrange a library\u2019s reference collection are both journal worthy. You\u00a0never know what could prove useful now or in the future.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Another great use for a career journal is for what I call Job Description Tracking<\/em><\/strong>. One aspect of job description tracking is looking at the job description of a position you want, and recording those skills and experiences you have which align with the description. If there are areas where what you have to offer is lacking, journal about what you could do to improve. If you are an intern, student, or even temporary hire, job description tracking in a journal allows you to tick off those tasks you complete which are on a professional job description. When it comes time to write your resume, go on an interview, or pursue a promotion, you will have a list of concrete achievements which you know are valued in the professional world because they were included in a job description.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make note of any sage advice, useful tidbits, compliments or criticisms<\/strong>. Write an entry reflecting on why you value the information shared. How can it be useful to you as you move ahead?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Simply express yoursel<\/strong>f. Whether privately in bound book, or publicly on a blog, career journals allow one to express good and bad feelings on any aspect of your career. Journaling your negative emotions could be just what you need to relieve the stress of a job search, or unhappy work situation. Through journaling you may find that you can be your own inspiration. An entry where you logged your positive feelings as they relate to your career could very well be the one you will reread to keep you motivated on your career journey.<\/p>\n

Finally, don\u2019t forget to have fun with it. Keeping a career journal should not feel like work.
\nGood luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Hawaii Keeping a Career Journal We often get caught up in our busy lives. Do you ever have those weeks which\u00a0zip by, but by the week\u2019s end you can\u2019t even remember what you did? Surely, you\u00a0must have done something because you are completely exhausted. Keeping a career\u00a0journal, like other…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":58834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,6043,3607,6044,6008,6007,3941],"class_list":["post-64544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-career-journal","tag-inalj-hawaii","tag-keeping-a-career-journal","tag-self-assessment","tag-self-evaluation","tag-veda-darby-soberman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/veda.darby_.soberman1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-gN2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}