Your career development plan
Personalized career development plan
With a personal career development plan, you are in the driver’s seat on a journey - to set goals, identify actions you need to take and needed resources, and prepare for challenges you inevitably encounter along the way. Instead of exclusively relying on an employer’s career development plan, we recommend you create your own.
There are 3 parts to our personal career development plan.
Goals - long and short term
Actions and resources needed to achieve those goals
Strategies to overcome barriers
As you work through them in today’s uncertain economy, public health restrictions, and job market, perspectives like these can help:
Accept a significant lack of control. Whatever plans you make will change and adjust over time due to forces outside your control. Obviously this has always been true, but should be clearer now.
Acknowledge what you do have control over - list them. (Example: actions you can take, people you can ask for help, your mindset and way of thinking)
Keep an open mind. There may be options you don’t know about, a support system you can develop. You may need to look in different places, talk to different people.
There is no right or wrong way to make a career action plan so make it your own! You can return to this process again and again to adapt to your journey.
1. Set goals in your career development plan
Once you’ve made a career or education choice using our 4 step decision making process, you want to make it happen. Making plans is the 4th step, which starts by finalizing your goals based on the choice you made. The decision balance sheet you filled out will help.
Goals are desired results you want to occur. Depending on the timeline you set, these can be long-term or short-term. Generally, it’s best to break a long-term career goal (like being able to work in a desired occupation) into shorter term goals.
List your long-term goal and break it into smaller goals. And with each smaller goal, write out:
Timeline
Actions needed
Resources needed
Potential barriers
Alternatives (Plan B, C…)
Example
Long-term goal
Become a trial lawyer or prosecutor
Timeline: 4 years of college, 3 years of law school
Shorter-term goals
Get a bachelor’s degree
Get a law degree
Get a job in a prosecutor’s office
Get a bachelor’s degree
Actions needed:
Graduate on time with good grades
Take classes related to law and criminal justice to help me decide if this is the right path
Get a job, internship or volunteer position in a prosecutor’s office or non-profit
Take preparation class for taking law school admissions test (LSAT)
Resources needed:
tuition and student loans to finish school
Potential barriers:
I run out of money to finish college
I don’t get a good enough score on the LSAT (law school admissions test)
I don’t get into a law school I want
I get sick or need to care of a loved one who is
I have a child
Alternatives (Plans B, C…)
Transfer to lower-cost college alternative to get my bachelor’s degree; or get an associate’s degree I can transfer to a more expensive four year university
I retake the LSAT after more preparation
Consider law schools that are cheaper, less selective, offer part-time night classes - at what point does too much debt outweigh a prosecutor’s government salary?
Consider other career alternatives to law school where I can make a difference in the criminal justice area - that are compatible with my Enterprising-Social personality, interests and skills. Alternatives: legal advisor authorized in my state that doesn’t require a law degree, paralegal, social worker, victims’ advocate, administrator in a non-profit or government department, probation officer.
In the above example, money is a big concern. So looking closely at less expensive options to reach the long term goal is crucial. And you may need to adjust the long term goal. That’s not to say you shouldn’t pursue your dream job - you may get there a little later and a little differently than you imagined at the beginning. Your family, financial, and health circumstances necessarily have a big impact on your journey.