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Most of us go through life without any plan. We simply rise or tumble depending on the ups and downs of circumstances. This is no way to live. 

To succeed in your career and life, you must have a plan. It is simply a written statement in which you describe:

- What you like to have (a good-paying job, a thriving business, marrying someone beautiful and talented, acquiring an MBA degree, whatever) – your goal

- How you intend to get it – the steps

- When you can get it – your timeline  

This means you write out your Goal, the Steps to achieve your goal, and the Timeline to reach it. 

When you have written it all down, that is your Plan A. Of course you will have to spend time, effort and lots of leg work doing research on your Goal: Is it realistic for me to want it? Are the Steps that I have outlined sufficient, or are there more things to do? Who can help me to reach my Goal? Is the Timeline too long, too short?  

Don’t spend too much time tweaking Plan A, though. Consider it a work in progress. Just implement it and continue making adjustment along the way.  

Now, proceed to write out Plan B. 

Disasters will hit you, guaranteed! For example, given the mindless eating habit of affluent, urban Americans, there is a high chance that you will be hit by colon cancer, diabetes, stroke or heart disease. These are no laughing matter – if any one of them happened to you, it’s a disaster! 

Then there is financial disaster. Many people live from pay check to pay check. Losing your job and finding yourself permanently unemployable is highly probable in these recession-prone and unstable times.  

We all have a simple life programme – our present job, mortgage, bits of investments – to manage for the present. This is more or less our Plan A. But we need a fallback Plan B when things go wrong. 

Each responsible individual (teenagers and adults) needs to draw up a practical Plan B. The three most important tasks to include in Plan B are: 

1. Boost your financial reserves. Why do you think China get so much respect nowadays? Even tiny Singapore gets lots of respect on the world stage. The reason – people there work like mad and save like mad, and so both countries have huge financial reserves. 

Spend on your savings, not spend from your savings. Just as you spend on rent, utilities, dining out with your mistress (or wife), pocket money for your kids, and vacation, you also set aside money to put into your savings. As long as you regard savings as a necessary expenditure, you will not have any mental difficulty doing it. 

2. Boost your qualification. If you have only a college certification, you must set aside money and time to get an advanced trade certification or a Bachelor’s degree. 

Work experience is important, but when 30 people with similar experience apply for the same job opening, only those with better qualifications will be considered. 

3. Boost your health. Eat less, run more, lift weights, to increase your stamina and strength. 

If you have cash, qualifications and robust health, you can recover from any disaster.

If you have just completed your studies, it is time to sit down and think of jobs and a long-term career strategy, we have some tips to help.

1. Your first career plan-of-action is to identify jobs where locals are preferred. Such jobs usually combine some technical expertise (known in HR jargon as “domain knowledge”) and lots of leadership and people-relationship skill.

An example is IT Project Management, such as upgrading all the computers in institutions or building a Web portal for a shopping mall. For that matter, any project management career is highly desirable.

Other areas where it would be much preferable to hire locals include:

• Managing IT security, Web and social media and computer-based creative tasks
• Working in the creative and media industries – publishing, Web content design writing and production, mass media communication, and of course good old fashion journalism
• Training and teaching, counselling, human resource development and social work.

2. Next, identify your own skills and inclinations, which would include those outside of your current school studies. Think of all the things you would dearly love to do even if you have no idea how to do them.

3. Do research on those skill sets that you don’t have, but like to, and find out where you can acquire them. Set out a timeline on how and when you intend to accomplish it.

Note that your timeline is not cast in concrete. It is an evolving plan, and it will have to be amended continually after you’ve graduated and started on your first job.

There are many more tasks and challenges ahead in your career strategy planning. The one key message you must remember is to avoid setting out on a career path where the available jobs are often outsourced to foreign talents who may be asking only a fraction of what you expect.