Post No. 1 for The Career Project

Today I’m excited to introduce Cori, who is using her own A5 Finsbury as a Career Set Up binder!

Today I would like to introduce you to my set-up for my Career project and explain a bit more about how I will be using my A5 Finsbury for this project.

The Filofax:

My A5 Finsbury has been repurposed for this project as I love my A5 Finsbury so much I could not bear not to use it. So why is this one the perfect binder for this project? I thought of purchasing the Yellow Finsbury in Compact for this project, but I feared it would not be big enough, with an A5 I can pack it full with useful and relevant information and it won’t matter if it is overstuffed as it will be a desk fax rather than a daily (on the go) one.

As a desk fax one of the great things about this binder is that it lies perfectly flat. I can leave it open on my desk while researching or job hunting online or while typing up this blog post for example. No issues with trying to prop it down to read or write.

If you read my regular blog (http://www.planningwithprintedportal.wordpress.com) you may have noted that I usually use this Filofax for my writing fax – so what have I changed? I have changed and reorganised my sections in my Filofax (see below) and I have changed the pens and bits and bobs that I store in the Filofax.

For the pens I have chosen I blue and pink colour theme. The pens that have earned the right to be placed in the two pen loops are the Pilot Frixion Point in Blue and the Pilot V Pen in Pink which is a fountain pen (the colour of which matches the binder nicely).

In the front cover I am keeping my business cards and in the full length front pocket I keep my Pocket Career Development Notebook. At the moment I have nothing in the zipped pocket.

The Sections

The Filofax will be broken down into the following sections:

1. Planner

No project planner would be complete without a planner however I don’t need a weekly planner for this project so that left me with the choice of a yearly planner or a monthly one. At the moment I am using my Q4 Weekly Planner (download available here (http://planningwithprintedportal.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/q4-weekly-planner-free-download/) together with the standard year planner from Filofax.

2. Goals / Plan

I used my Career Development Notebook to record and track my goals. However, I keep straightforward list and my 5 year plan in my Filofax.

3. Career Journal (including Celebrations and Achievements)

This is a free style writing section for all my career-relating ramblings, thoughts and inspiration. I intend to try and do a weekly entry. I have decided to use fun and creative notepaper to try and brighten this section up. (Photographed above).

4. Work History

This section is pretty self- explanatory. I aim to build this up into a full work history, this section is currently a work in progress and homemade inserts will be available soon.  

5. CPD/Skills Development

This section relates to my training, continued professional development and my soft skills development. The first part of this section will be a professional training record and the second part will be for skills that I have chosen to develop such as soft skills.

6. Job Hunting

The last section will be for job hunting records and notes on the job market. Just because you love your job does not mean you should be ignoring the market. Again this section is a work in progress and homemade inserts will be available later in the project.

Thanks for reading.