Personal career development advances professionals with possibilities for progression. But getting there requires establishing goals and a clear plan.
Development is key in any successful career. To ensure an individual is heading in the right direction, you need to follow these three points:
- Define personal career goals with the right ambition and vision for the future
- Create a clear plan of action
- Adopt the correct approach to learning
In this article, we explore these three crucial elements in greater detail. We also show you how to write a personal career development plan and set tangible goals to accelerate personal growth.
What Is Personal Career Development and Why Is It Important?
Personal career development focuses on an individual’s vision, goals and motivation. It allows the professional to expand beyond their existing role. Instead, they can afford to dream bigger by reassessing their possibilities of a fulfilling career full of progression and development.
This process can be achieved on an individual level and within a business.
A company can adopt a culture of personal career development with their own staff. Employees can be trained and given guidance by their employer through clear expectations of the business and the employee themselves.
Personal career development can play an integral role in staff retention and fostering innovation. It’s the very reason why Apple launched their “Blue Sky” project. The scheme encourages Apple’s engineers to pursue personal projects during work hours to encourage creativity.
However, a vast majority of companies aren’t following suit. It’s particularly worrying when you consider that 70% of employees are likely to leave their current job to work for another company known for investing in personal career development and learning. Factor this in with 59% of employees claiming they received no workplace training, there’s a big gap waiting to be explored.
The result of effective personal career development, independently or inside a company, adds much greater value to the professional within their industry.
Once realised, a person’s career can develop by reaching clearly defined goals. The question is, how do you develop personal career goals?
How to Develop Personal Career Goals?
Developing personal career goals brings a mix of both long-term and short-term goals. Typically, you’ll have one main long-term goal and many smaller short-term goals that will help you reach it.
This leads us to step 1:
- Define Your Main (Long-Term) Goal
Most professionals have a final destination they want to reach before retiring. With training, productivity, confidence and understanding, anything is possible.
You might want to run your own business or just become a better manager or leader. You might just want to improve your communication skills or time management. Nothing is off-limits. Everyone’s goals are unique and specific to them. Establishing this main goal is the first objective.
- Identify Short-Term Goals
After establishing the main goal, there will be short-term goals you can reach to help you get there. Consider what tasks are required to advance these short-term goals for personal career development.
For example, if you want to be a better communicator, you need to understand how to communicate. This will require you to hire a professional in communication who can assess the way you communicate and advise you on where you can improve.
- Use the SMARTER Method
A way to help you define your career goals will be using the S.M.A.R.T.E.R method. Created in 1981 by George Doran, Arthur Miller and James Cunningham, the S.M.A.R.T method has since developed to become S.M.A.R.T.E.R.
Here is what it entails:
- S – Specific – be as crystal clear as possible with each goal
- M – Measure – Specify what you wish to achieve
- A – Achievable – Be ambitious but stay motivated in keeping your goal setting reachable
- R – Realistic – Focus on attainable goals that will reward your efforts
- T – Timely – Give yourself deadlines to meet targets
- E – Empowering – Focus solely on goals specific to you
- R – Reviewable – Review your progress and be adaptable to changing industries
Whether it’s completing a professional degree, course or achieving a promotion, establishing short and long-term goals are key to success. One of the most effective ways to keep you on track is to develop a well-constructed personal career development plan.
What Is a Personal Career Development Plan?
A personal career development plan helps a professional map out what they want to achieve from their career. It involves assessing your previously established goals. The starting point is where you currently are in your career and the destination is your long-term goal.
The short-term goals you need to reach before getting to the main goal represent the stops on the way. Think of the plan as the map for your career development journey. If you take the time to design the map as clearly as possible, you won’t get lost and lose faith on the way to your long-term goal.
How to Write a Personal Career Development Plan?
You should have already identified your main career interest when establishing your career goals. These are the three elements you will use to begin when writing your career development plan.
- Identify your main career interest
- Establish your long-term goal
- Define your short-term goals
After these three elements are structured, you may begin to write the rest of your personal career development plan. Beginning with activities to advance each goal.
Activities to Advance Each Goal
Activities advance goals and show proof of achievement. This can come in the form of a certificate or qualification. Achieving these qualifications come through learning and training activities provided by professional organisations.
Find education from a trusted provider and begin activities that advance you to achieve your goals.
Additional Skills and Experience
During the journey to achieving your long-term goal, you may realise you have to improve certain additional skills. These skills might require certain experience. Identify what these additional skills and experience are so you can achieve your personal career development.
Don’t try and cut corners. To achieve your personal career development, you must embrace every challenge that comes your way. Especially challenges you weren’t expecting.
Evaluate Your Progress
Set a timeline during your personal career development journey as a way of evaluating your progress so far. It’s important to recognise each achievement and to avoid getting overwhelmed by the big picture. Recognise each goal as a way of motivation.
Any good mentor will consistently evaluate their student’s progress. So, make sure you have regular meetings with your mentor where you can discuss your progression.
Identify the Right Approach to Learning
Personal career development is achievable through a variety of different learning styles. Reports show that the business world isn’t doing enough to encourage personal career development, with 74% of employees feeling they are not reaching their full potential.
It’s no surprise then that so many professionals are taking matters into their own hands. Although personal career development can be achieved independently, professionals find more success when they are taught within a professional environment. Students can access expert advice from proven sources. Such tutoring is unrivalled by any other form of personal career development learning.
At the UKCPD, we offer a range of award-winning personal career development courses, from building resilience to public speaking. Our courses are designed to help take you to the next stage in your career.
If you require any advice on what course to choose to help your personal career development, get in touch with UKCPD, and we’ll provide free impartial advice. Your journey to the top starts here.
