4 Easy Steps In Creating A Career Development Plan

To create a career development plan, start by defining your results and motivation. Next, determine the required skills, perform a self-assessment and identify one area that needs attention. Finally, you can develop an action plan using the “SMART” goal-setting method.

A career development are seen as distinct avenues of self-improvement, but the two go hand in hand. If you’re interested in creating a personal and career development plan or working towards personal and career growth, you’re likely to experience a pleasant side effect of learning new skills or strengthening abilities you already have – achieving your personal goals for work.

It is important to focus on you, knowing your potential will accelerate your career growth. Having the initiative to be proactive and rising to a leadership position requires you as an employee to distinguish your blind spots and aspire to do better in order to continue your career rise.  Do not limit yourself and your ability. Knowing what works for you and what you want to achieve will allow a more natural career development prospect.

1. Identify your current position and career options

The first step in creating a career development plan is to assess your current position with regard to your past experiences, your strengths, specific skills, and values. Taking note of your success metrics will help you identify how the current projects and responsibilities map to your ultimate goal. 

Identifying your current job position also helps you to narrow your options so that you are not overwhelmed along the way. Take into consideration factors such as your current position in your field and academic ambitions, as they provide a basis for your potential. 

2. Identify your career destination 

The whole point of a career development plan is to design a strategy to help you reach your ultimate career objectives. Take time to understand where you want to be in, say, the next ten years, and compartmentalise your career within that timeline.

For example, if your dream is to be a senior project manager in a midsize energy company, be sure to incorporate it into your plan. 

Ideally, it is advisable to establish where you want to be in small increments; take into account where you are and what you want to do in the next two years. It is easier to visualise and achieve the ultimate goal if you work on it in smaller portions. 

3. Create your career development plan

Now that you have identified the skills and experiences you need to achieve your career goal, you can proceed to create a concrete plan on how to achieve it. Here is what you need to do:

Set small, task-oriented goals as part of your action plan — Create a set of tasks and identify means of accomplishing them. For instance, if one of the needed skills is to learn how to operate certain software, take a course to polish on it. 

Organise — Organise your goals around a reasonable timeline and start with short-term goals that you can achieve quickly before moving to long-term goals. It’s also important to track your progress as you go along.

Think SMART — The SMART goal template (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound) helps you to design your goals, ensuring they are tangible and realistic, and therefore achievable. 

Create task deadlines — Working with deadlines is a sure way to complete your tasks within the set timeline. 

4. Measure your progress and be ready to evaluate

Implementing your career goals and evaluating them along the way ensures you are on the right path from beginning to end. For guaranteed success, you need to keep track of every activity to make sure you are doing everything in the correct order. Equally important, consider milestones and update your goals as circumstances change and more opportunities present themselves. 

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