This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Most careers are not planned. They are a sequence of reasonable reactions to whatever was offered, and after fifteen years the shape of it is a surprise even to the person who lived it.

That works until it stops, usually at the point where the next obvious step is not obvious.

Why career planning fails as an exercise

It starts with the wrong question. "What do I want to be" produces either a job title borrowed from someone else or a blank, because the answer requires information you have not gathered about yourself.

Then the plan becomes a list of courses, because a course is a thing you can put in a calendar and a capability is not. And the gap between where you are and the role you want is never described precisely enough to close, so effort goes into whatever is available to learn rather than whatever is actually missing.

Finding the direction, then reading yourself

Thirty-seven lessons. Ten of career coaching first, which is the most practical block here: the dream career model, identifying talents, a questionnaire for finding what fits, working with values and calling, impostor syndrome with the career cube, a skills audit with a balance wheel, soft skills assessment, search strategy, applications, personal financial planning, burnout diagnosis and staged recovery, and an audit of what separates strong performers.

Then six on personality instruments used properly rather than as entertainment: MBTI and its origins, DISC, PAEI including recognising a type in conversation, Belbin and Hogan for team roles, the Big Five, and 16 Personalities — with an honest account of what each can and cannot tell you.

Capability as employers define it, and the search

Then eight on competencies, which is how organisations actually decide who is ready: what a competency is, why observable behaviour is the unit, the competency pyramid, describing capability through critical incidents, rating scales and their validity, ready-made libraries, and how competency models drive hiring, promotion and pay. Learn the vocabulary employers assess you in and your development plan stops being guesswork.

Then seven working through a career inside one profession as a running example — goals, development plan, personal brand, CVs, transitions, mentors, and adapting when the profession itself changes. The profession is specific, the structure is not.

And six on the mechanics: recruiter logic, CV structure, phone screens, burnout during a search, salary negotiation, and finding hidden roles on LinkedIn.

Who is teaching this

Mike, the number one HR instructor on Udemy. More than 1.6 million course enrolments, over 150,000 professionals trained, PHRi and SHRM-CP certified, HRCI representative in more than 10 countries. I built the people function of the unicorn Preply and worked at Wargaming, Alfa-Bank and iDeals, deciding which people were ready for the next role and which were not, which is the view this course is written from.

What is included

• Lifetime access to all course materials

• Active instructor support in the Q&A section

• Udemy Certificate of Completion

• Practical assignments and real business cases

• A section with additional courses, tools and resources

Start with the gap, not the goal

Name the role you think you want, then write the three capabilities someone in it demonstrates that you currently do not. If you cannot fill in all three, you do not yet know enough about the role to be aiming at it, and that is a research problem rather than an ambition problem. Enrol now and start the first lesson today.