Question of the week 9: Tentative

Hello everybody and welcome to this week’s ‘question of the week’! The word ‘tentative’ will be covered in the following question:

Question: Is it important to make a tentative career plan?

The term tentative can be defined as something that is not certain, that is not yet proven or lacks evidence, and that speculates on something that will happen in the future. When starting a career, usually these thoughts come into mind, feeling uncertain of what you will do, how you will achieve your goals, or who you will become. So does making a tentative career plan actually help?

Following a specific direction after graduating narrows down your career choices. It also makes you take a risk, as you may end up choosing a direction that you are not as happy with. It is however the only way for you to specialize yourself in the labor market and seem unique, which makes you more employable. Perhaps everybody can be a window cleaner, but not everybody can create an accounting report, or design a house. It is these specializations that come from narrowing down your career choices. Thus how do you combine the risk and reward of selecting your career path? By creating a tentative career plan.

Through researching careers that link your interests with what you have studied, you can create a plan to see what you want to achieve. It does not have to be written, or visualized, but even just by putting thought into your future will help you make better choices. Thus a tentative career plan would make you self reflect, spot opportunities, and see what you want to accomplish. This will also be to your benefit as you then have a direction to follow, and can do the necessary research and preparation to become successful in it. After all, companies want driven individuals that are interested in their work (i.e. that have done their prior research and match their choices to their personal interests and skills).

In short: The term tentative stands for something that is uncertain, not yet proven, and speculative. A tentative career plan is a plan that gives you a direction, linking your interests and skills with actual job opportunities, and makes you self reflect and create a picture of what you want to become. It is thus an important step for shaping your future, and for maximizing your potential.

If you have a different opinion towards a tentative career plan, or any questions, then please do not hesitate to comment!