How To Create A Development Plan For Your Career
Feeling stuck in your professional life? Take a look at our guide to learn how to create a development plan for your career.
Table of Contents
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- What is a Career Development Plan?
- Why Is It Important To Create A Career Development Plan?
- When Should You Create a Career Development Plan?
- What Does A Career Development Plan Typically Include?
- How To Create a Career Development Plan: A Step-By-Step Guide
- Examples of Career Development Plans
- So, You’ve Made Your Plan. Now What?
- Download Our Interactive Career Planning Workbook
What is a Career Development Plan?
Put simply, a career development plan is a document that lays out a roadmap for your career. It identifies short-term and long-term goals that will empower you to manage and advance your career. It allows you to create a personal action plan in which you outline the steps required to achieve these goals. To get started, why not download our Career Development Plan Workbook today?
Why Is It Important To Create A Career Development Plan?
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
If you want to take control of your career, then a career development plan is a must. Sitting down to write out a plan gives you the opportunity to reflect deeply on your goals and aspirations. Having clearly-defined goals will let you focus better so you can take active steps towards building the future you want for yourself. Always having one eye on the prize will help you to stay motivated in your everyday work life.
When Should You Create a Career Development Plan?
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” ~ Tony Robbins
Career planning is always a good idea – no matter what point you are at in your professional life.
That being said, it is a particularly beneficial exercise for those who have stalled in their careers. For this group, career planning can help you to pull your head out of the day-to-day and get a glimpse of a future you can work towards.
What Does A Career Development Plan Typically Include?
- A starting point i.e. where you are now in your career
- An end goal i.e. where you want to go in your career
- A list of the barriers you must overcome to achieve your end goal
- A realistic plan of how you will overcome these obstacles
How To Create a Career Development Plan: A Step-By-Step Guide
1. Starting Point
In this step, you will conduct an assessment of your current career situation. This involves a serious amount of self-examination during which you will need to reflect on the following:
- What do you like about your current job and previous roles?
- What do you dislike about your current job and previous roles?
- What kind of work environment do you thrive in?
- How do you feel about your current level of income?
- What motivates you in your career?
- How your current and previous roles do/don’t align with your values?
It can be tricky to come up with these answers on the spot, so you may want to consider keeping a work journal for a week so you can track your experiences and identify patterns. Alternatively, you could chat with a friend/mentor or book a session with a career coach to gain professional insight.
2. End Point
When it comes to forming a career plan, the easiest way to go about it is to work backwards from your end goal. Ask yourself what your dream job is – don’t be afraid to set aside your inhibitions and think big. If you’re still not sure about your dream job, then think about career goals in shorter increments (e.g. where do you want to be in two or five years).
3. Gap Analysis
A Gap Analysis is a helpful activity that allows you to identify the difference between where you currently are in your career and where you would like to be. A gap can refer to missing experience, qualifications, competencies, knowledge or skills. Performing a gap analysis lets you identify the actions you will need to take in order to overcome the barriers that are preventing you from meeting your goals.
To learn more about the obstacles in your professional life, try the following activities:
- Search on LinkedIn for people who have your dream job and peruse their profiles to learn more about their career journey.
- Look up job descriptions for your dream job and note down any frequently mentioned requirements e.g. skills, qualifications, experience etc.
- You could also seek advice from a seasoned Recruitment Consultant who specialises in your field of work.
4. Create a Roadmap
The next step is to figure out how you will overcome these barriers. In order to do this, you will need to research workarounds and set SMART Objectives. A SMART objective is one that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic (or relevant) and Time-bound.
Example of A SMART Objective
Long-term: “In five years time, I want to gain a new role as a Team Lead with an innovative start-up company.”
Medium-term: “In order to gain the requisite knowledge and skills to work in a management position, I will complete a professional diploma in management and leadership over the next two years.”
Short-Term: “In order to build my interpersonal skills, I will endevour to take on at least two additional projects in my current role over the coming year.”
Examples of Career Development Plans
Example 1: Des
Des is a recent BIS graduate and has just secured a role as a Business Analyst (BA) with a global FinTech company. As an ambitious young professional, he wants to make a plan that will help him to climb the corporate ladder.
Des has set a long-term career goal of becoming a Project Manager as this will allow him to earn more money and work on a wider variety of projects. However, in order to become a Project Manager he will need to gain more experience and get the relevant certification.
He hopes to build experience and knowledge by continuing to work in his current role for a further two years. During this time, he will try to gain exposure to different working methodologies such as Waterfall and Agile. After that, he will start applying for Senior Business Analyst roles either internally or with another company. Once he has secured a position that offers sufficient growth opportunities, he will start studying for a PRINCE2 certificate. With this certification, he can then start applying for Project Management Roles.
He wants to be flexible in his approach, so he has set a secondary goal of researching relevant career paths in the areas of banking and finance that will allow hin to leverage his FinTech experience.
Example 2: Alice
Alice works as a QC Lab Analyst with a multinational pharmaceutical company. Having reflected on her professional experiences so far, Alice has realised that she quite enjoys the social aspect of the job. As such, she has set a goal of landing a role in Management.
In order to do this, she will need to gain more hands-on testing experience as well as experience within projects and managing projects. By doing this, she will both improve her technical knowledge and develop soft skills in leadership, time management, attention to detail, and working under pressure.
To address her knowledge gaps, Alice will put herself forward for any upskilling opportunities offered by her current employer. Once she has gained at least two years of laboratory experience, Alice will start applying for Team Lead/Supervisor positions. After a few years, she will eventually be able to start applying for Lab Manager roles.
Considering that it is still quite early on in her career, Alice has decided to keep an open mind. To that end, she will also be looking to continuously upskill her qualifications by taking on additional courses related to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sector – these can be both distance-learning or fully online e.g. Sligo IT.
So, You’ve Made Your Plan. Now What?
Having dedicated the time to making a comprehensive development plan for your career, you now need to ensure that you follow through. Set a date in the future on which you will revisit the plan and reflect on your performance. Keep revisiting your career plan and note down your progress.
Remember, nothing in life is certain so don’t be too rigid in your plan. Be flexible, open-minded and cut yourself some slack. However, if you are consistently not meeting your goals then it may be time to reassess. Consider breaking down your goals into smaller baby steps that are easier to achieve. As the saying goes, if the plan doesn’t work, change the plan, not the goal.
Another way to stay on track is to create an “Accountabili-Buddy” system. Create a small group of people with similar goals and meet up regularly to discuss how you are getting on. Some people find that being accountable to others helps them to stay on track.
Once you have decided on your master plan, it’s time to start thinking about your next step. For more strategies and advice on this, read our dedicated guide “How to Plan Your Next Career Move“.
Download Our Interactive Career Planning Workbook
If you want to start planning your career but don’t know where to start, we recommend downloading our free interactive workbook. Our workbook will take you through all the stages of career planning including self-assessment, gap analysis and goal setting.
