Mistakes To Avoid In Creating Career Development Plans

When putting career development plan ideas together, it’s easy to imagine that people will follow a linear path that’s easy to predict. It could be a simple matter of following an organizational chart to plan advancement or looking at the basic qualifications for a specific dream job. 

Locking into a rigid career path, however, might make it difficult to identify unexpected opportunities, making it one of the career mistakes to avoid.

Planning to take on a higher job role in a specific company, for instance, could be a recipe for disappointment if the company goes out of business before that happens. Focusing instead on ascending to a job position in an industry, however, leaves the door open to many possibilities that could accomplish this goal.

Lack Of Career Development Focus

At the other extreme, jobseekers often make the mistake of not being focused enough when formulating their career development plan. They may list too many things to work and fail to prioritize anything. Choosing a few specific goals with clear steps for achieving them is a good best practice to avoid this problem. When goals are not clearly identified, it can be hard to determine when they’re close to being achieved.

A good career development plan should always have mechanisms in place to assess progress, whether through quantifiable or observable methods. Researching career development goals can help to dispel any misconceptions about roles or positions, keeping development focused on skills, competencies, and experience that will help professionals to succeed when they actually reach those milestones. 

Over-Idealizing Your Career Goals

There is a difference between identifying career development plan goals that will be fulfilling professionally and fantasizing about the “perfect” job. It’s important to have a realistic view of what a future position will be like ahead of time; otherwise, leaders could be setting themselves up for disappointment and frustration.

The world will not stop just because they’ve reached their goal, so they need to be sure to focus on the implications of the goal and not simply on achieving it.

Failing to Emphasize Your Skills And Experiences

While technical skills and experience are often prerequisites to step into many positions, at a certain point career advancement becomes less about specific competencies and more about your skills, such as one’s ability to influence others, manage conflict, and communicate effectively. 

Developing emotional intelligence and active listening skills is crucial to becoming a successful person, but it’s easy to forget about these qualities when looking at the technical skills that might be expected of more high-level positions.

A good career development plan should place special emphasis on identifying potential mentors and coaches in a chosen field.

Building a relationship with a a professional career coach can also help to reinforce your skills that are so essential to bring you success.

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