Thinking through what you really want out of a career is a great way to decide whether to move on or stay put says Simon Howard

I don’t know about you, but Christmas seems long gone and no doubt most of the retailers among you don’t feel you had quite enough over the festive period… enough holiday, that is.
Yes, it’s something that ‘comes with the territory’. While the rest of us are impatient to part with our hard-earned loot, we hardly ever spare a thought for the long hours worked by retailers.
Well, there you are, there’s one appreciative spare thought for you.
What’s more, it’s probably not a good time to remind you that there are now three months of continuous slog until we can enjoy another bank holiday - when, rather like a No 9 bus, two will come along together (Good Friday and Easter Monday).
It’s sad to say but I’m afraid that, when it comes to time off, we really are the mean old man of Europe.
Along with the Dutch, we languish at the bottom of the public holidays table with a measly eight, trailing the Spanish and Portuguese with an impressive 14 and a surprising distance behind those sensible Austrians who manage to rack up a total of 13.
Closer to home, and perhaps more contentiously, Northern Ireland gets our eight plus an further two - managing to hedge its bets and celebrate both St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Boyne.
Anyway, enough of the moaning. What if you are sitting there wondering how you’re going to get through 2004 and whether you should look for a change in career? Well, try following these simple steps.
Get a sheet of paper and a pen (old-fashioned I know, but it works) and make a list of at least three achievements which took your career forward in 2003 (could be big things, could be little).
Identify and write down what is holding your career back or blocking further progress.
There might well be nothing, but on the other hand there could be a bad boss or you could be a victim of dead man’s shoes syndrome - whatever, it all counts.
Make a list of what - as an absolute minimum - your career must provide in job terms and the lifestyle it should lead to ideally.
Don’t be coy. Money, status, power, a life in the country - they are all valid.
And after you have listed the bare minimum, go wild and compile a dossier on everything you really aspire to…again taking into account both the job and the lifestyle you want to lead.
Now review what you have written. Are you winning? Is what you see in this mirror something you’re proud of?
If it is, then read no further because the last thing you want to do is waste time looking for a new job because you’ve got a great one already.
But if that mirror is looking a little dark and tarnished then you really should read on to the end of the column. So, find your CV and read it thoroughly. Consider how current it is? Is it a brochure for you and your skills? The chances are, it’s not. So set yourself some objectives for your next job and include both essentials and desirables.
Decide on your job-hunting strategy: how are you going to network? Where are you going to look for advertisements? Newspapers, trade magazines, the internet?
Conduct an audit on your skills and achievements and create a new CV. It is probably best to buy a book providing sound and up to date advice which you take careful note of.
Something many people forget is that job hunting can be a lonely and demoralising process.
Rejection can bring you low quickly, so don’t be fooled into unrealistic expectations. The vast majority of those people who have told you they’ve been given every job they went for just ain’t telling the truth
And you must stick with the discipline of making plenty of applications and talking to a string of consultants (because no one consultant has a monopoly on all the good jobs that are available).
It’s also a good idea to find someone to whom you can talk and share all the ups and downs of the whole job-seeking process.
But make that focused effort and commitment and stick at it…and who knows?
By the next bank holiday your future could be looking a whole lot rosier.
n Simon Howard is a founder of Work Communications and writes the Jobfile column for the Sunday Times.