ANNUAL career guidance provides one of the most critical sources of information that career managers apply in managing your career.

The career guidance interview provides the best opportunity to confirm personal details, seek your input and exchange information relative to your career.

Wherever possible, annual career guidance is best achieved through a face-to-face career interview between you and your career manager.

Telephone interviews are another means to achieve annual career guidance should you miss your career manager’s visit.
SCMA career managers use a standardised proforma to record interview results.

This proforma is provided here to show you the type of information that career managers will both seek from you and provide to you. Knowing this in advance allows you to prepare yourself for the interview.

Preparation by you should consist of, as a minimum; listing all personal circumstances that may impact upon your future postings.

Knowing your immediate and long-term career objectives – bounce them off some of the older hands to ensure the objectives are reasonable and can be achieved.

All components of the interview proforma are mandatory for the career manager to complete.

Career managers will invite you to provide or confirm important personal circumstances and career objectives.

They will provide you with an assessment of your competitiveness for further progression in view of your objectives. Such an assessment may be general in nature or quite specific.

Your career manager will explain the essential and/or desirable developmental requirements for your particular career.

Development is usually in the form of other postings (experience) and formal courses (training and education).

Finally, your career manager will map out a forecasted career path that should cover, at least, the next five years of your career.

Although this plan is not a guarantee of future postings, it provides a blueprint of how the career manager intends to balance service needs while providing you with career development and meeting your reasonable personal expectations over the medium term.

Both soldiers and unit commanders/personnel managers are encouraged to retain a copy of the completed interview proforma and your comments and feedback on the process are always welcome.

Remember, the purpose of the career guidance interview is to help SCMA to be better at managing your career while also meeting the service need. SCMA POCs are SO1 Career Management Group, Lt-Col Peter Short and SO2 Career Management, Maj Derek Kovacs.

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