The first step in career planning is to

The first step in career planning should be to gather information about yourself to assist in making a decision about a career. The second step in career planning is to explore and research your options.

The first step in Career Planning is Self Assessment.

Explanation:

Career Planning is an enduring process. In this process, a person explores and finds out his abilities and area of interest, Plans his career goals and then make action plans to achieve his goals. There are four main stages of Career Planning. First is Self Assessment, in which a person assesses his talents and abilities and interests and sees what he is capable of doing. Second stage is Career Information, in which he gathers information about the area he chose in the first step. Third step in Decision making, in which he makes decision about what to chose based on the information gathered in step three. And in last step, which is career planning, he makes plans about the Career he is going to choose