March 5, 2015
A career development plan is used to help the employees improve their career outlook, move-up in the company, and increase their marketable skills. In case you’re new to the work force or you’re contemplating on switching your career, a career development-plan may be invaluable when determining the next step on your path to obtaining a properly challenging, well paying career. You may create a proper plan by consulting a career advisor, and the plan can be easily redesigned in case your goals or your current situation changes.
A career development plan may be looked at as-an outline which helps an individual figure out the next steps needed to take so as to achieve career goals and objectives. The plan basically contains an organized list-of the person’s work related experiences, education, the preferences and various other groundwork so as to illustrate career choices and help develop a proper career action-plan.The plan can be described as the written list of short and long term goals which employees have regarding their current and future jobs, and a planned sequence of formal and informal experiences so as to assist in obtaining their goals.
These plans are essentially intended to help the employees reach their full career potential-by considering both their strengths and limitations, (the central components whenever it comes to actually identifying a specific job and career route that’s the best match). These factors basically detect overall success and satisfaction an individual will have in a specific career or job. The plan is typically created after an individual has completed various career aptitude tests, certain interest inventories, some personality tests, various work values inventories and skills assessments. The aforementioned are all great resources which may be employed so as to discover the careers that directly correlate-to the person’s skills, traits, preferences, and overall objectives and goals. Self assessments are used so as to help in illustrating the specific career and work environments an individual is most likely-to thrive in. These plans are usually created so as to map-out a proper career path for employees. The plans can also include information-on how to move the employee farther along the career path via developmental activities and programs.
Career coaches and advisors can assist an individual with creating both simple and complex plans, goals and objectives. In addition, the career coaches and advisors can help with the development of the plan, test various options and also do a clarification of goals and strategies. Furthermore, the counselors, coaches and advisors can provide some really helpful insight to the assessment results and diverse career options which incorporate a person’s skills and strengths.
Tips for developing a career plan:
- Determine all your strengths, your weaknesses and your interests. This will basically help you in narrowing down possible career options which you might be interested in.
- Narrow your career choices down to 1 job which you really want/desire. This makes it easier when determining steps you will need to take so as to land the job.
- Determine the education or the certifications your career will require.
- Map out your short term and long term goals and post the list in a prominent-place in your home. The short term goals are the things that you’ll accomplish in the next year or so while the long term goals are the things that you’ll accomplish in the next 5 to 10 years.
- Be flexible. At times life can take an unplanned detour, and it might change your plan. Do not get discouraged in case your goals happen to change or be adjusted. You just need to keep working towards your goals and tweak the plan as necessary.