Career development planning

Career development planning is important if you want to ensure that your career goes in the direction that you wish it to go.


The days seem to be gone where you got a job after leaving school or university and stayed with this until the day you retired; hopefully getting a promotion along the way. In this current climate there are few jobs for life and it is now more and more becoming the employees’ responsibility to produce their own career development planning. Like many other things in life your career will likely benefit from a bit of planning; if you don’t plan then this could mean decades of aimless wandering from one job to another.

The first step in any career development planning will involve a bit of assessment. Where would you like to go in life and what are your overall goals. You need to match these goals to your current capabilities and to those that you might obtain through some further training. You want to be realistic here, but you must avoid selling yourself short – you can achieve a lot if you are willing to put the effort into it. You will need to decide here if you will be able to reach your goals in your current organization or will you need to move to a new job with more prospects.

Once assessment is out of the way then it is on the actual career development planning. A goal is far more easily achieved if it is broken down into tiny goals which will eventually lead you to the main one. You should set targets for yourself and be prepared for it all to take time. So long as your goal is realistic then you most definitely will reach it so long as you remain committed. Your plan should be used as a constant source of reference to judge your progress. It may also occur that you may need to adapt your plan to meet changing circumstances in your life.

Waste no time in putting your career development plan into action. It will likely take years to reach your goals but the sooner you start the better. Remember to congratulate yourself for reaching any of the targets you set for yourself along the path to your goal. It is also important to remain 100% convinced that you will reach your goal as this will prevent you from ever getting discouraged along the way; regularly remind yourself of why you want to reach this goal and what the benefits will be if you do.

Sources
http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~rouda/T4_CD.html
http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Do-You-Have-a-Career-Development-Plan-/521271