Career Plan Development in 5 Steps
Career plan development is an ongoing process where you carve out a path to help you reach your long-term professional goals. Here are five steps to help you develop a plan for career success.
1. Start now!
Planning your long-term career from day one is critical to your professional development. Even though it’s difficult to land the perfect job right after you graduate from college, each position you accept should help you take baby steps (or hopefully leaps and bounds) to where you want to go. The sooner you start thinking about long-term career development, the better off you’ll be!
2. Decide where you’d eventually like your career to take you
Before you can develop your career plan, you must do some internal soul searching and exploration. Understanding what your skills, interests, and values are helps you figure out what types of industries, companies, and specific roles you should pursue.
Spend some time thinking about what’s important to you. What do you like to do in your free time? What types of work or problems excite you so much that you want to dive right in? Think back to examples from your previous work or classroom experiences, and make a note of what you liked or didn’t like about major projects you worked on.
While there is no magic test that tells you which career is perfect for you, there are tons of resources to help you assess what careers could be a good fit based on your preferences and skills. O-Net Online offers a free skill assessment that allows you to select a number of skills that describe you, and then you’ll receive some interesting career suggestions.
3. Write down and research your career development goals
It’s true…plans and goals become a reality more often when they’re written down.
By now, you should have a list of your values, interests, and skills and a list of potential careers that are a match for these. The next step is to do some research.
Look at job postings for your dream job, even if you know you’d need ten years of experience before you can apply. Check out what specific credentials you’d need to land the job. Sometimes years of work experience isn’t enough to get your foot in to the door at your dream company or job. And it’s much easier to further your education, study for professional tests, and get certifications when you’re in your twenties or thirties versus later in life.
4. Use your current role as a springboard
You may have a long way to go to reach your long-term career goals, but each role you have can be taken advantage of. In addition to making money (duh), make sure you do these things no matter what your current role is:
- Network, network, network! Create meaningful relationships with people from multiple departments in the company where you work. Learn about who they are, what makes them tick, and what they want to accomplish in their careers. Stay in touch with these people, even if you leave the company!
- Learn something. Each job comes with unique learning opportunities, ranging from problem solving skills to specific task mastery. Ask questions of your manager and others at work, and make sure you take advantage of company-sponsored internal and external development opportunities.
- Do something valuable! Seek out projects and responsibilities that stretch your current experience. Think about ways you can improve your resume, and make it a priority to accomplish a few things that would impress the next employer. Accomplishments that you can quantify – such as $1 million in cost savings or $500,000 in additional client revenue – are especially important.
5. Adjust your career plan as necessary
It’s inevitable – your goals may change over time. Be aware that this may happen, and continue to tweak or overhaul your career development plan when needed.
If you thought you always wanted to be a high profile investment banker, but you hate working long hours year after year, you may need to switch gears to save your sanity.
Plus, new industries and opportunities pop up all the time. Who would have thought that there would be millions of jobs in online marketing and social media? Who knows what will be next?
The most important thing is to make sure your current gig is worthwhile in getting you at least one step closer to where you want to go. If it’s not, LEAVE! As long as you’re heading in the right direction as you’re working towards your long-term goals, you’ll eventually get there.
By: Gale Bowman
3-24-2010
After graduating from Notre Dame, Gale realized that young professionals need a source of reliable information as they face “real world” challenges. Gale manages WhatCollegeForgot.com and is pursuing an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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