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your five year plan?
i had lunch with a great contact yesterday in an attempt to start spreading the word i am looking for a new job. i honestly thought i would be here for awhile, but it is no longer the case. granted i am not leaving tomorrow but this puts a whole lot of things in flux.
she asked me to think about not just the next job but the job after that, as in what do i want 5-10 years from now. i blankly stared at her as i seriously had no answer. i am not a big planner as the last five years have certainly showed me the best laid plans can just go out the window. I'll be 34 next year so it's not like i am 20 but i am not exactly hitting 45 either. we have goals and ideas and things we want to do but not really a "plan." i felt like some sort of schmo last night that i have never really thought about this while all along i thought i was a pretty driven person.
i brought this up with DH last night that i would like to talk about this over the weeekend.
so my questions is do you have a 5 year plan? do you have specific steps you are taking to reach those goals?
i am going to make this a mix of personal and professional plans, b/c at least for me the two are very intertwined.
Re: your five year plan?
I am a big planner and thought I had a 5 year plan, but like you I am discovering that my plan might not be as laid out as I thought. Also DH and I have talked about looking at a completely new plan that could entail at some point moving across the country. Which scares me so much because I thought I had my whole life planned out, but as the nonplanner in DH says, what is the fun in life if you already know what is going to happen! So I write this to say that you are not alone!
Yeah, you're not alone.
My 5 year plan is pretty tangible, or so I thought. Looking back over the last 7 years, I still haven't fulfilled anything on that list.
I don't know if that makes me lazy or a failure. At least i'm having fun, I guess?
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
I'm not a huge planner, at all. Professionally speaking, 10 years after grad school, I now work in a field that is not at all related to my master's degree. Each job I've had, I think about what I like about it and what I don't like, and have used those as parameters when I search for my next position. This method has worked well for me.
For example, my boss left recently and it was strongly suggested to me that I would be a shoo-in if I applied for her job. But, thinking about it, long-term it is just not what I want to do, and I would not be satisfied in that particular career.
At the same time, I saw a need internally, and lobbied for a new position to be created to address that need. I've transitioned into that new position, and am very happy. If I had gone for my boss's position, I'd be making significantly more money than I am in my newly-created position, but this position has much greater prospects for me in the future. I was willing to sacrifice the short term monetary gain for better career prospects, and a job I am much happier in.
My plans tend to be loose and general. At this point, I'd say my five year plan involves continuing to grow and develop in my new career path, moving out of our neighborhood, and having a kid or two (I'm 35, so I know this needs to happen in the next 5 years.)
My older brother is a huge planner, I don't think that has always worked out well for him. It's made him less adaptable when things don't go according to his master plan. Without going into details, I think his personal life would be a lot happier and less stressful if he had been willing to stray from his life plan that he laid out in his early 20s.
I have some personal goals, but they're relatively small (run another marathon, do more international travel). We haven't decided if we're going to have more kids, so that's still up in the air. I'm just enjoying life for now.
I feel like we're on a never-ending 5-year plan.
I think this stems from HS/college/grad school and living my life in 4-5 year chunks at a time. When I first took my current job, I thought I would be here 5 years and then leave for more money in the private sector. 3 years in, turns out I love my job and the security it gives me in this crap economy. I thought we would move back to where we're from within 5-10 years and now, I just don't see us leaving this area (mostly bec of said love for my job).
I think the Type A control freak in me finds comfort in thinking we have a plan and that we are headed in a certain direction. I like feeling like we're working towards something. I've always struggled to just be. The things in our 5 year plan include paying off our debt, buying a house, having a baby (or 2), DH finishing law school and DH finding a new job, not necessarily in that order. In reality, our plan has to be, and usually is, fluid because things change (like my thoughts on only staying at my job for 5 years). And I'm ok with that.
Not much of a plan other than the fact that in 5 years I expect that we'll have recently returned from an overseas (or cool US city) assignment. I guess that plays into a plan for my career in that I have no plans to be at any job in DC in more than a year or so from now. But there are things that I think I might like to have some sort of something to do with in the future (fuzzy much??). So I do stuff now that would lend itself to being helpful down the road if I chose to pursue it. I'm also working to make as much money as I can now so I can take a lesser paying job wherever we move.
After being asked the 5-year plan question at so many interviews, 2-3 jobs ago I had the calming realization that I don't really have a specific plan, but more importantly, I don't NEED one. (And I boldly told the inveterivew such.) I think we all have a general idea of where we want to be, but we don't realize it because we think it's obvious. For example, you likely plan to still be married to your husband. You proabably plan to be in a job that challenges you, uses your skills, and whatever else is important to you. Is the actual job itself that relevant? It seems like a no brainer, but someone with absolutely no plan wouldn't have that plan.
I think rigid plans are a thing of the past, if they truly ever existed except for a select driven few. The world is continually presenting new options. Why insist that you would only pursue one?
I'm at the very end of my current 5 year plan and am starting to develop my next one.
The one I'm on was pretty easy to figure out- graduate from college, go to law school, pass your bar, get married, get a job.
The one I'm working on is harder- where do I want to go (a constant and continuous question) in my company? kids? no kids? dog farm?
So far I've got this: I want to double my salary in the next 5 years (reasonable because I took a job below my skill and education level and am working to transition out to something on my level which should include a significant raise), I want to buy a house, and I want to make the kids decision and if it is yes, have one.
Stand up for something you believe in.
I have a general 5 year plan.
Career: I really enjoy my job, so have no intention of leaving. I would like a promotion next year, and think that I'm on track for that. After that, career wise, I would like to go to 33-35 hours a week if we have a kid.
Personal Goals: In the next five years I would like one kid, if not two. I want to travel more (currently working on this before kids). I would like to remodel our bathroom and continue fixing up our yard.
When we got married I had a list of 'before kids' things I wanted to do. We are working through that list and almost there, so I haven't really thought about the next steps.
I was actually thinking a lot about this a few months ago when we had our 5-year wedding anniversary and wondering what life will be like when we celebrate our 10th. Obviously, I still want to be married and I hope our kids are happy and healthy. I am fervently hoping to be consistently sleeping thru the night in 5 years, that's at the top of the list, right up there with being happily married LOL
On our 10th anniversary, our kids will be almost 6 and 7.5 and I hope traveling is back in our lives. In an ideal world, I'd love to do one family-friendly vacation and one just-us-2 vacation per year. I hope all the grandparents are around to enjoy the kids and continue to be an active part of our lives.
Professionally, I've been with my company for 7 years and DH, almost 6, and neither of us plan to leave. Not to say, if the right opportunity didn't present itself, that we would not, but it's not in the plan. In my wildest fantasy, one of us gets a job overseas and we move for 2-3 yrs to some awesome place and expose the kids to other cultures and amazing experiences, but this is not very likely. We'll just have to travel.
We do not plan to move houses but in 5 years, I see us making some renovations, repainting, putting in hardwood on the 2nd floor, maybe upgrading appliances, etc., depending on finances.
5 years ago I never would've thought I'd be here. Sure, I planned to have this type of a job and kids but the day-to-day care of kids is exhausting. I think I look a lot older than 5yrs since my wedding day.
I hope I don't look like I'm in my 40s in 5 years, I hope I still look like I'm in my 30s
although I'll be 42 then
My plan has always been easy to articulate but hard work to achieve: house, spouse, kids, job(s), and possibly an animal.
It's hard for me to admit that I'd like to stay at my current level professionally for awhile. (Gasp! No ambition!) If I move, it would be laterally. It's important to me to have kids, though, and working a little less for a few years should even out over the course of a career. The five year plan is maintain and enjoy - and hopefully flex if a layoff or shift comes along.
My five year plan includes staying at my current job (although it's slowly killing me) and waiting for my ideal position to open up (clinic coordinator of our local infectious disease clinic). I may go back for my Master's - I am not sure yet. I could be waiting on nothing, however, but the physicians that head up the clinic have said that when the current coordinator retires, they would be interested in having me back.
This also works well with our plan of possibly having another (and probably last) kiddo around 2013.
Now, to throw the whole plan off, I recently proposed to DH that in 5 years I may leave nursing and start my own business. Surprisingly, he is on board but it could eventually intersect with his current career path (he is a land developer/designer for an up and coming civil engineering firm). At least, that is my vision of grandeur (well, my idea, not his current job!)
This is tough for me because of the stupid economy. If things had gone as planned and we had built some equity in our condo, our plan would be:
Sell condo
Buy bigger house
Have another kid (maybe two by the end of five years)
DH find a job that he likes more
But as it stands, I think we're going to try to:
Sell this place
Rent a bigger house while we re-build our down payment
Maybe have another kid
Look for other jobs, possibly in a lower COL area away from family (sad!)
Professionally . . . DH definitely wants to find another job (but looking in this economy is scary). I'm not sure he's cut out for government work - too much red tape and clearance and coddling for him. I think I'd be comfortable continuing in my job or a similar one, even though it's only tangentially-related to my degrees. But I feel like it's too late to go back to my education since I haven't done that in so long.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
I just finished what I would classify as a very successful 5 year chunk of time. I got married 5 years ago, and 1 year after that got a big promotion and have been very happy at my job since then. And we bought a house and had a baby.
So for the next 5 years:
Personally:
Decide on whether we'll have kid #2; if yes, have kid
Continue a strong, healthy marriage
House:
Kitchen remodel
Job:
I'll be happy at my current job for awhile. I would eventually like a promotion/title upgrade/raise, but there are so many positives to my workplace that lack of those things won't drive me away for a long time.
Personally: Buy a home, have a kid (yes, that's singular because I don't think I'll have more than one in 5 years), get a pet (hopefully that will come in the next year or two), travel back to Spain.
Professionally: Not sure. Maybe go back to school to get a master's or a certificate. I really need to work on this one.
Planning Bio
personally: finish basement, have another kid & re-evaluate how long we want to stay in our house. In that order. If staying in the house, then upgrading kitchen.
professionally: get a job as a landscape designer at design-build firm, complete certificate program on sustainable landscapes, and then evaluate everything. i want to have a few years of being a landscape designer to feel out the field. I'm also considering a future in being a plant buyer or running a specialty herb & edible nursery.
My 5 year plan: find a job that I love, that I can realistically stay at for more than my typical stint of 2-3 years. This job is the longest I've held the same position, but of course it's at an agency that has mandatory time limits, so I HAVE to leave. Bummer. So my goal for my next position is to find a place I love almost as much as this one, if not more.
I also plan to have another baby, our final kid (we're done at 2).
That's it
That's my big "plan". Otherwise, I'm pretty happy where we are house-wise (with home improvements, of course) and pretty happy salary-wise. My 10 year plan might be a move into management, but I'd also be fairly content (for now at least) to stay at my current level. Once our family is "complete" I'll feel pretty happy!
* blog * first baby blog * baby 2.0 blog * twitter *
My 5 year plan is to basically have everything stay the same. I want to live in my current house until I am too old and feeble to get up and down the stairs. I want to work at my current company until I retire. Career-wise, I want to keep my job (or a similar role) for the next 10 years or so while the kids are small. It's not high stress and I don't have to manage people which I like.
I guess the only change I want in the next 5 years is that I want another kid. And maybe one day I hope to get a tablet style computer and probably a new cell phone (since mine is from 2007).
There is no way I would have thought 5 years ago I would be in the job I am in but I really like it, they think I am good at it, and I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. So, professionally- I don't have a 5 year plan. I work for a great company and will take any opportunity they give. Now that DH does not completely hate his job, we are both in really good places work wise.
5 year on a personal level- we are planning to sell our current place (and possibly my place in Bethesda) in early 2012, buy a new place in NoVa and hopefully stay there until we retire. Otherwise, start to travel more again and show DD some cool places.
Gosh... I'm feeling the lack of a solid proven plan because my plans I make fall through! Or so I think.
The biggest issue is finances. People ask me, was your divorce expensive? Heck no it was so cheap! But the aftermath of it, oh wow... triple my wedding budget (wasn't very $$ anyway). I dug a hole deeper, as I kept the house after the divorce and the mortgage is for 2 people. Gah. Due to my age, I am also feeling VERY anxious on when will we have kids (me and purse boy). He is so laidback that it hadn't occurred to him that the timeline he didn't exactly think of but just the goal with no date in mind wasn't going to jive with my lady parts due to my family's history. Even though we don't have a ring or exact wedding date yet, we are now merging our budgets (on paper) and aggressively paying down the debt between us, saving money for a wedding for next September, hopefully, and to start paying off the 2nd mortgage in order to meet my ambition of rolling over equity and having an actual down payment for a sfh house by 2015. Pretty backwards, eh? I discovered he had no plans on saving for a ring, just one day bam buy.. umm with what money? I told him, my last wedding and ring were paid in cash and I would like to do the same. He gulped, and now is saving for it the old fashioned way! The $ issue is the biggest thorn, it causes me so much stress, yet it is partly my fault I ended up in this position. No more!
Job wise, oh boy.... I wasn't given a promotion by my director which upset me. I'm thankful because it became apparent his idea and my idea of my career plan did not match one bit. So I'm glad to be where I am for now but I am definitely forcing myself to look at other agencies even though I love my boss but it is our director who makes the final call . My old boss wanted me back and then she didn't give me one of the slots in her office! wtf! I feel like I have overspecialized myself that I actually don't know what position to apply for anymore because I feel like I don't have proof on paper (even though I sorta do). I just feel like I am unable to shout and prove that I can do this and that without the hard evidence, or to tell them to look at my private life and realize what a gem I am... Sighs... That's kind of my rant. I have no intentions of getting a masters, I am too far up the ladder it is kind of pointless. I am more than pretty sure that job wise, I will be doing something else I didn't imagine doing...
Having a plan gives me comfort, yet I think I am being too conservative which hurts me in the long run...
So, I think like for me, a risk/shake up/change is what the doctor just ordered.
Sorry if I wasn?t much help, but if we could all have shared our frustrations, you won?t feel as alone. And even by my reading others? stories, I actually feel the inspiration to take initiative to knock on a different door, no matter how terrified I am.
You can do it!
Personally: Have 1-2 more children. Continue working on a great marriage with DH. Upgrade counters in kitchen, set up office for DH, and clean out porch so we can actually use it. Take a more active role in my children's education and work on cherishing my time with them.
Professionally: Transition to part time work, hopefully right where I am. I like my office, my boss and while my job is a little dull, it pays well and gives me the luxury of a flexible schedule without ever working more than 7.5 hour days It's a great match to motherhood.
I've really tried to give some thought to a five-year plan, at least from the professional perspective. With my job, opportunities for growth are pretty limited, so you basically either have to take whatever opportunities come along (which are few and far between) or really fight to make something happen on your own. Right now, any of the positions that I would be interested in fighting for would involve long hours and a lot of stress - assuming I could even get those jobs. DH would like to start TTC by the end of this year (I'm still on the fence), so the sorts of jobs I'd be interested in really aren't ideal if I am pregnant or have a little one at home. I'm currently on a one-year rotation, so I am committed to my current position through next July (at which point I am supposed to go back to my old job), so I guess I will wait and see how things look at that point.
From the personal standpoint, I imagine within the next five years we'll have a kid or two. We're in the process of refinancing yet again, so we'll be in our house at least that long (hopefully longer).
Baby248 - ETA 1/10/13
Haven't read all the responses yet, but I will later... for now, three thoughts:
1) excellent use of the word schmo - I thought I was the only one keeping that word alive
2) personal life - I'm just about done - this is it - if I do what I'm doing with my family and my chorus and my friends for the rest of my life, I'd be happy. Later, when the kids are older, I want to travel more internationally.
3) work life - in the next five years I want to get into a position where I'm a supervisor. Try my hand at that. I think I'd be good at it, and I could make a few more shekels, which would be nice. DH would like to work a part time or 3/4 time schedule someday - to be home when the kids get home from school.
For me the point of having a 5-year plan is to have an idea of what you want for yourself so that you can consciously work toward it, even if you know you'll have twists and turns along the way.
It's easy to get caught up the day-to-day of what you currently do (job, family, fun), but if it becomes unsatisfying, it may help to move on when you know the bigger goals you're working toward in your life.
I think I have my LIFE plan boiled down to 1) be a good wife, 2) be a good mother (hopefully we'll get to experience that), 3) live what I love, 4) inspire others to live what they love. Playing with the details by imagining life in 20, 10, 5, or 1 year from now just makes the dream more vivid.
If anyone would like to ask themselves generally what they want in different areas of their lives, go visit my "Dynamo Divas" posts from last year, linked below too. There's some step-by-step stuff you can do. I can also help one-on-one (though I'm sorry I can't offer it for free right now), and/or if anyone ever wants to have a "life goals" kind of get-together, I'd be happy to host and lead as your friendly neighborhood certified life coach (this I CAN do free of charge - would love to!).
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/39772427.aspx
i've thought about it myself over the past few years, DH and i have talked about it together, and this economy has unfortunately thrown us some serious curveballs.
i (of course) want to still be married to DH five years from now. i kinda like the guy.
we're thinking we'll probably stay in DC one more year. as much as we love our apartment, being near some of our oldest friends, and walking to work, this has move has been a career backslides/stall for me and hasn't improved anything for DH either.
after years of hating my job, i'd be happy with a job i like most days that pays well enough for us to live comfortably, save money, and take at least one big trip each year. for me, traveling is one of the things that makes life worth living and not having had a proper vacation since 2009 is really taking its toll on me.
hopefully find an opportunity to live/work abroad. that may involve one or both of us going back to school. either way, i think it would be something great to experience together (i've lived abroad three times but that was pre-DH).
i definitely want to get/have my sh*t more together creatively in the next five years too. perhaps even be lucky enough to only have to work part-time and have an etsy site.
is it bad that i focus on smaller intervals like 1 -2 years...i had a plan when i was younger but ditched it and so glad I did..since I was able to meet hubby:)
I have no desire to get to the next level in my co since it would require 100% travel and responsible for HR over several states--no thanks no thanks!!
I love working in healthcare and wish I could volunteer all day but for now inspite of how crazy things become I' ve settled on being the best chair I can be to my volunteer group.