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(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

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Embarking On A Planning Career!

4 replies [Last post]
Tue, 2008-08-26 12:35
Iweka Otigbah
User offline. Last seen 12 years 18 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Posts: 5
Groups: None
Hello folks, this is my first post here.
I am a graduate Automotive Designer with a Masters Degree in Engineering and Project Management. I wish to try a planning career.
The reason being that i gave up a promising military career to go into further education in pursuit of an automotive design degree, which I attained. I took another year to get a masters degree in engineering/Project Management. After all this, I been unable to gain any meaningfull employment in design. LACK OF EXPERIENCE seems to be the main response or reason for refusals. So here i am knocking on the planning career door.
With regards to planning experience, all I have is academic experience. I am sure i do have some transferable skills.
How do I break into planning (as a junior planner i would imagine)???
Any comments most welcome..!
Sorry for the long post!!

Iweka.
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Replies

Wed, 2008-08-27 09:56
#1
Iweka Otigbah
User offline. Last seen 12 years 18 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Posts: 5
Groups: None
Hello Ken,

That’s just the sort of break I am hoping for.
Putting out resumes almost took over my life - something of a fulltime job plus overtime!
Haven taken a spell away from applying, I have since resumed my efforts in the direction of planning.
Thanks for the encouraging post.

Best Regards

Iweka.
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Wed, 2008-08-27 09:09
#2
Ken Barrett
User offline. Last seen 13 years 12 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 14 May 2007
Posts: 37
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Hello Iweka,

My planning career actually came about because of my lack of experience. When I graduated as a mechanical engineer, I obtained employment at a materials engineering and testing lab. I was not happy with the job so I started putting a ton of resumes out. When I interviewed for the company I am currently employed with, they told me they were looking for a Junior Planner with little to no experience so that their Sr Planners can mold them into what they want. I accepted the job, and now a few years later with my mentors all now retired, I have become the main planner. So just keep your nose to the grind stone and get those resumes out. Be enthusiastic if you get an interview and things will fall into place!

Best of luck

Ken
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Wed, 2008-08-27 08:49
#3
Iweka Otigbah
User offline. Last seen 12 years 18 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Posts: 5
Groups: None
Hi Chris,

Thanks for your response and constructive comments. I’ll keep at it and see what ensues.

I’ll post some sort of update in due course.


Iweka.
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Wed, 2008-08-27 03:00
#4
Chris Oggham
User offline. Last seen 9 years 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 605
Groups: None
Hi Iweka,

If you haven’t done so already, go to the Job Page on this site and register with Anderson Young and Project Resource. This will get them working on your behalf to find that break you need. You may very well find that you get the ’Lack of Experience’ response when you try for planning jobs as well, but it’s a case of just plugging away at it and following opportunities.

Chase job opportunities, not just the ones listed on the Planning Planet pages, but look at the ones on PM Hut as well. Another good source is Jobsearch. Type in planning and you’ll be surprised what will come up.

Chris Oggham
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