If you want to have a successful career, it is never a good idea to leave everything to fate. Drafting a career development plan that you stick to can work wonders for your professional life. Whether you are just starting your career, or you are not satisfied with where you are right now and you want to completely change course, if you plan out the steps you have to take, it will be much easier for you to follow through and get everything you want. But what does a career development plan entail? We are here to answer that question. Today, we are going to explore everything you have to know in order to draft your own and organize your professional life. Let’s get started!

How to Create Your Own Career Development Plan in 10 Steps

Step 1: Where Am I Now?

The first thing you have to establish before deciding where to go next, is where you are right now. Maybe you are a recent college graduate and you have no professional experience. Or maybe you have years of experience working in a field, but you want to change your job because you don’t feel like it is the right one for you.

Another important thing you should establish in the first step of your career development plan is how you got where you are now. Which is to say, what are the skills that you have developed over the years and that have helped you in your professional life? Are they still useful for what you want to do next?

Step 2: Where Do I Want to Be?

The next step for you to focus on would be your dream job. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? How about 10? What is it that you want to do with your life? Is there something that you’ve always been good at and that you enjoy doing? If so, can you make a career out of it? If this is not the case, think if you can realistically learn the skills you need for your dream job. It is great to aim high and be confident that you will get the job you want, but it is also important to be realistic and objectively think whether your dream can be achieved or not.

Step 3: What Are My Career Options?

Now that you’ve established what your dream job might be, consider the actual career options you have. Look for jobs online, research companies that specialize in the field you’re interested in, and find out as many information as possible about the availability of the job you want. Consider that, most of the times, when you are starting a new career from scratch, you might have to take an unpaid internship or a poorly paid job. Everybody has to start somewhere, right? All that matters is that you find something in the field you want to build your career in. For instance, if you want to become an editor, try finding a job or internship at a publishing house and then go from there.

Step 4: Do I Have Any Skills for My Dream Job?

The next step in your career development plan should be to analyze your current skills. Let’s say you have decided to get a job at a publishing house, to continue with the same example. Which one of the skills you currently have are suitable for this job? How can you improve those skills? Or maybe you’ve never had any kind of experience in this type of environment. That doesn’t mean you should give up on your dream. Think: what can you do to get some experience in the field? If you already have some publishing and editing knowledge, all the better for you. It will help you advance mush faster, until you ultimately reach your dream job.

Step 5: What Other Skills Do I Need?

Especially if you find yourself with no experience in the field that you want to get hired in, you will have to work hard to get the job you like. Let’s say you are a recent graduate. Sure, that might recommend you for a publishing job, depending on the field you graduated in. But maybe your degree has nothing to do with being an editor. In that case, you will have to find other ways to build the skills that are required from you. Of course, you will definitely learn a lot of things at the job. But even if learning by doing is a real thing, if the competition is too high and a lot of people are fighting for the same job, you might get turned down in favor of somebody with more experience. That is why we advise you to work a little bit on your skills before applying for a new job.

Step 6: How Can I Develop My Skills?

Step 6 in your career development plan is to think of the resources that you can use to develop your skills. Here, you have more than one option. There are courses that you can take which will also certify your knowledge in the respective field, or there are internships that you can apply to in order to learn more about how the work environment is. Moreover, don’t be afraid to ask for help from people that you know have experience and could recommend you some useful resources or provide you with advice on how to succeed.

Step 7: What Are My Long-term Goals?

Now that you’ve established what you want to do and what skills you need to develop to get there, the next step in your career development plan should be to set one or more long-term goals. However, try not to choose too many long-term goals, and just focus on what you ultimately want to accomplish. For instance, one goal could be “I want to become an editor.” It is as simple as that. But you could also think of variations from this one and choose “I want to edit my first book.” It is important to have a clear goal in mind, because this works as a constant reminder of what you’re working to achieve.

Step 8: What Are My Short-term Goals?

Apart from having one or two long-term goals, it is important to include some short-term goals in your career development plan as well. These should be easier to accomplish, but equally important to your professional development as the long-term ones. Actually, they should act as steps towards the ultimate career goal. One such example could be “I want to get a promotion in a year.”

You might wonder why you need these short-term goals. Well, the answer is simple. Because sometimes, when you’re working hard, it is extremely helpful to see that you’ve achieved something on your list, or that you’re close to a short-term goal. If you only keep the long-term ones, your motivation might not be as high, because you can’t see any concrete advancement.

Step 9: What Are the Activities That Will Help Me Achieve My Goals?

Once the goals are established, think about at least one or two activities that will help you achieve each of them. Try to include as many details as possible, from how you think you will accomplish the tasks, to what resources you might need, how much time it will take, and so on. Time is a really important part of your career development plan. Of course, unexpected things can happen, be they good or bad, but you should still try to stick to the original timeframe as much as possible. For instance, if you want to get a promotion in one year, think of the activities you have to do in order to achieve your goal, and how much time you can afford to spend on each of them.

Step 10: Just Do It

Now that your career development plan is complete, we suggest you print it out and hang it someplace in your home where you can see it all the time. You can even bring a copy of it at your desk, for when you are really stressed and need a reminder that you are working towards your dream job. Otherwise, start looking for a job, and don’t forget to always have your plan and your goals in mind whenever you have to make a work related decision.

Another thing we advise you to do is to evaluate your progress every once in a while, depending on the length of your career development plan. You can choose to do so every 6 months, or once a year. Regardless, it is important to take a look at how you’ve progressed, and see if there are any changes that need to be made in your professional development plan.

Everything Summed up

It doesn’t matter if you’ve already been on the job market for a while, or if you’re just getting started with your professional life, if you want to be successful, you should consider a career development plan. If you follow the steps we have provided you with here, and are honest about what your skills are and what you want to achieve, we see no reason why you shouldn’t get the job of your dreams. All you need is patience, hard work, and tenacity. Good luck!