1.
Media Career Check-up
Lekan Otufodunrin, Media Career Development Network

2.
What is a career?
The progress and actions taken by a person
throughout a lifetime, especially those related to that
person's occupations. A career is often composed of
the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished
over a long period of time, rather than just referring
to one position.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/career.html

3.
What is your career mission statement?

4.
Why you need a mission statement
 Writing a personal mission statement according to means crafting a couple of
paragraphs about your life's purpose that can drive what you do as a journalist. ‘It
should include what's truly important to you and what you'd like to contribute to
the people around you.
 Without a roadmap ahead of us, we keep driving in any direction that seems to
lead to where we think we are headed. Once in a while, like a driver who has
missed his or her way, we have to do a U-turn, reverse and make other manoeuvres
with the risk of not getting to our destination on schedule, or be overtaken by
other drivers who are sure of where they are headed.

5.
Media career development consultation

6.
Why you need a career check-up
 Check-up is usually associated with health.
Doctors recommend regular medical
check-up to be sure we are healthy as we
should be.
 Early diagnosis and treatment of any
ailment is necessary to ensure one does
not suddenly die of ‘brief’ illnesses.
 However, just as lack of medical check-up
can endanger our lives, lack of regular
career check-up can also be a major risk
you cannot afford if you intend to succeed
in whatever you are doing.

7.
Do you feel fulfilled by your work?

8.
Fulfilment
 Fulfilment according to Wikipedia has to do with the
achievement of something you desire. Cambridge dictionary
puts it more succinctly: a feeling of happiness because you are
doing what you intend to do in life. Congratulations if your
feel fulfilled, but if you not, decide if what you are doing is
what you should be doing or what better way you should be
doing.
 It’s never late to get it right. If you have to think of something
else to do in the media, so be it.

9.
Do you feel optimistic about where your
current career is heading?

10.
Can you see the light?
Are you hopeful and confident about the future of
what you are doing now? Based on all indicators to
succeed in your career, are you sure you all will be
really well? Can you see a light at the end of the
tunnel? Be sure of the basis of your optimism if you
are or take necessary steps to ensure you are not on
a fruitless journey.

11.
Do you know what your next career step is?

12.
Next career step
 Success according to a definition is succeeding in succession. There is always a
time to step up your career game instead of remaining stagnant.
 We live in a time of constant change and you need to know what your next
career step should be at every point in time.
 Is there an additional skill you should learn? Will you be better of changing
your location? What is the new thing in your career you should be doing?
 Someone said, if you don’t know where you are going, everywhere you get to
will seem like your destination.
 You must have a career progression plan and know when to make the next
move.

13.
Does your career support your preferred
lifestyle?

14.
Lifestyle
 If your career does not support your preferred lifestyle, you
are not likely to be happy with what you are doing and cannot
definitely feel fulfilled.
 Your career should be able to guarantee you the basic things
of life and a standard of living commensurate with your
status.
 While you need to cut your coat according to your cloth, not
your size, you must take conscious steps to ensure that your
career can guarantee the life you want and deserve.

15.
Are you learning and growing in your current
role?

16.
Learning and growing
 Apart from cash, the currency of this age is knowledge
and you need to keep learning to ensure growth in
whatever you do. Put bluntly, someone said, if you are not
learning, you are dying in instalment!
 To learn, you need to desire new knowledge and be
willing to unlearn some of the old stuff that can be a clog
in your wheel of progress.
 Your growth in whatever you are doing should at least be
steady if it is not rapid for you to know you are making
progress.

17.
Have you taken steps to develop your skills in
the past 12 months?

18.
Skill development
 Progress or success is not what you only wish, but what you
work hard at. What steps are you taking to develop your
skills? What don’t you know that you should know? Where
can you learn it?
 Which conference, workshop and seminar should you be
attending?
 What professional body or network should you belong to
learn from others in your field?

19.
Are you clear about what you want from your
career?

20.
Career desire
 What do you really want from your career? If you are not
clear about what you want you will just be counting years
and will not know if you are succeeding or failing.
 Know what you want and do what you need to have it.
 You need to have a very clear and articulated career
mission statement which you have to consciously check to
ensure that you get what you want from your career.

21.
Check and jump if you must. Thanks for
listening