How to Create a Professional Development Plan

Having a professional development plan is an important part of career development. A development plan will lay out your career objectives and the path you will take towards achieving them. It will also set up clear expectations between you and your manager.

Instructions

1. Sit down by yourself and identify your career goals and objectives within your organization. Clearly write out your one-year and five-year career goals and what you need to do in order to achieve them. If you need additional support from your management and peers to achieve those goals, identify the people who will be keys in your career development.

2. Write down the type of additional work experience and skills you need in order for you to achieve your career objectives. Identify any additional continuing education classes you need, conferences that you would like to attend and projects you would like to work on.

3. Frame you career goals within the context of your current job. Your career objectives should fit in with your company's objectives. You should be able to define career objectives that will be beneficial for both you and your organization. If your goals are out of sync with what you can accomplish within your current organization, this should be a signal to you to look for change.

4. Set up a career accomplishment timeline. In order to accomplish your goals, you need to break down your goals into smaller tasks with well-defined timelines. Set up a calendar schedule with target dates for accomplishing each task.

5. Work with your manager to set up clear expectations. If you want to be promoted to a higher level within the next year, work with your manager to identify what is expected of you and how you can achieve that particular goal. If you are interested in working on a different project, make sure that you let your management know extremely early on so that you can ramp up on your new project in ample time. Always keep in mind that you need to project how your particular goal will benefit your work place.

6. Take the initiative. Once you have identified your career goals, it is your responsibility to be proactive and take the initiative to do what it takes to accomplish your goals. Be willing to adapt and modify your goals according to changing circumstances. Use feedback from your manager, colleagues and friends to constantly evolve your professional development plan. Sometimes external sources are better able to identify your strengths, weaknesses and areas for development.

References

• Educause: Creating a Professional Development Plan