What does Career Planning mean?
Career Planning is the process of deciding what you want to achieve in the short and long term future and contrasting that with where you are at the moment. From that gap you develop a plan that will get you from where you are to where you want to be.
Some long term goals may need you to do something now to ever achieve them. For example if your career development goal requires you to have a certain qualification that will take a few years to get, then you need to plan for that now.
It’s up to you
With the current recession, budgets for training and development are getting cut and less career development activities are paid for by your organisation. That doesn’t mean that current and future line managers don’t expect you to develop anymore. In lean times you have to use all the possible development activities that are available both inside and outside of the organisation.
Career Development Plan
Writing a personal Career Development Plan is not the only way to the career you want – but it helps. I find it is useful to put things into writing – to see it, to check it, to test it. Also when it’s out of your head, there’s more room for other things.
If you fill in your own career development plan, you can be much more honest and include goals that may take you outside of the organisation or are around dealing with your boss.
How to use a plan
If you like or hate planning you need a way to define where you want to go and how you are going to get there. A plan is like the directions to get from your house to your destination. The goals are the destination, your house is the current situation, the roads are the different activities to get you there. The map shows you possible alternatives.
A plan is NEVER set in stone. You adapt it according to the progress you are making. Maybe there’s a traffic jam, so you need to consider alternative routes and decide if to stay on the planned route or chose a new route to your destination. So a Career Development Plan should be a living document for YOU to check and adapt.