To be successful in any aspect of life, whether it’s at home or work, you need to take steps to move forward and make sure you’re consistently improving regularly. The concept of creating an effective career development plan seems daunting if you don’t have experience with the subject, but it’s quite simple when you break it down into its key components. This guide will walk you through how to create an effective career development plan in easy steps. Ready? Let’s get started
Table of Contents
Identify yourself
Begin by asking yourself the following questions: Who am I? What do I want my career to look like? Is this a decision I can make now or is it something that will evolve? Who are my trusted advisors and what do they think about my goals and aspirations? Once you have thought about these questions, decide on how you would like your career development plan to take shape. Do you want it to be high-level and strategic, or more tactical with implementation steps laid out for each month?
Define your skills
Writing a business plan helps formalize your idea and can streamline the business creation process by getting you to sit down and think things through. Plus, having a plan will help you feel prepared when the unexpected happens.
To create an effective career development plan, first, identify your strengths and weaknesses. This might include skill sets like research analysis, communication skills, or leadership abilities. Listing these will give you a good foundation for developing an effective plan of action later on that is tailored toward your skillset. For example, if one of your strengths is public speaking, then taking a public speaking course might be something worth exploring. If you don’t have any clear strengths yet, just take some time to do some soul-searching before deciding what direction to go into.
Find the intersection
This is where it helps to have a network of friends and family who will be honest with you. Entrepreneurship tends to bring out the best and worst qualities in people, so you want to work hard at keeping your guard up around those who are not invested in your success. The nice thing about starting as a freelancer is that you’ll know very quickly whether or not they have ulterior motives. If someone starts asking for favors right away, like asking for payment to introduce you to new clients or help with setting up meetings – this should set off some alarms. It’s okay if they’re just trying to do something nice for you because maybe there’s something in it for them too (ie: more exposure), but if there isn’t anything else on the table then I would say proceed with caution.
Target companies
Now that you have a better idea of your skills and interests, you can create a list of companies that are looking for people with your skill set. If you don’t know what type of companies might be interested in your services, there are two ways you can find out: talk to people inside the company and ask them what they do and what they’re looking for or go online and research the job postings on their website. Continue the blog post
Think outside the box
It can be easy to get bogged down by all the potential career paths at your disposal and understand so. Not only is there a vast number of options available, but each path has numerous possible occupations and lines of work within them. The easiest way to navigate this complex landscape is by throwing out preconceived notions about what jobs you think you would like and instead focusing on what interests you. Look for careers that align with your passions and don’t worry about how much money they might make or whether or not they will pay off in the long run. Remember: if you are following your passion then any job will be fulfilling, even if it doesn’t pay well or allow for a comfortable lifestyle.
Qualify yourself for them
Engage with them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and any other site they use. Be real and make it clear you are there because you are genuinely interested in hearing what they have to say. Comment on their articles or posts that resonate with you.
This will help them get a feel for your qualifications and work style. It might lead to more collaboration opportunities down the road because they’ll already be familiar with your work when opportunities arise. If you can’t find anything relevant to comment on, ask them about themselves – What’s their background? What are they working on now?
Follow up when you get home
After a job interview, do some research and follow up with the interviewer. Find out if you were still being considered for the position and express your continued interest. You never know when one simple phone call could lead to a job offer If they tell you that they are no longer considering you or that they found someone else, don’t take it personally- use this opportunity to ask them what areas of improvement they would suggest. If they’re too busy or not answering their phone, leave a message asking if there is anything you can do to improve your chances of getting an offer from them next time around.
Monitor progress, self-evaluate, and repeat
No matter how methodical you are with your plan, you should always be mindful of where it’s going. While taking this important step, don’t be afraid to adjust your strategy as needed based on new information or personal growth. By all means, do not get discouraged if things don’t go as planned, and know that all of these steps will lead you somewhere