It’s Fall of 2005 and this motivational speaker from that big software company M$ shows up at my school for to give away some goodies and give advice.

He is an old guy… not too old but has a wife and kids and travels for a living telling every super nerd in college to get a life and have a plan for the next 50 years of your life.

The main thing I got from his speach is that I need to have a career plan to advance myself. I need to have a goal and a timeline, I need to set up qualifications and stepping blocks so I can get to that goal. I wrote it on this little scrap of papper that I have filed away somewhere.

As of today it is still on my rtm to do list, above “ensure technology is always an aid, not an obstacle” and below Take work sponsored college advancment.

Still to this day I have nothing… I have a job, I know what I like(at the moment), I know what I am good at and I am fairly satisfied at where I am at for being a little over one year into my professional career.

The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career.

I like the whole Fight Club unimportance feel.

The second rule of career planning: Instead of planning your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities.

After that he kinda forgets about rules and just gives examples of measuring risk versus reward and that if you never risk you still may have a great career but will miss out on that one insane opportunity that you will love.

The issue is that without taking risk, you can’t exploit any opportunities.

He talks about being young and being old and having different responsibilities and thier risk profile(the things that could go wrong) associated with it.

My return/risk profile for future jobs are a little too secret for this blog and I have some opportunities that have presented itself and now I need to decide if I want to take the jump…

Read the original article for more on Career Planing.