How to Develop Career Pathways

Charting a career pathway

A career is a set of interrelated jobs with increasing responsibility and expanding scope. A career pathway shows the logical links between related jobs that serve to develop a person's capabilities and career. A few companies design career ladders and pathways for their employees, but in most situations career development is the employee's responsibility.

To promote you own career growth, you need to design a career pathway and gain the experience needed to qualify for the jobs within your pathway. With proper planning, initiative and some luck, you can take charge of your career, earning promotions where you are or seeking better opportunities elsewhere. (The Resources section has a link to the Province of Nova Scotia (Canada) website that outlines a sophisticated approach to personal career management.)

Instructions

1. 

   Current capabilities

   Compare your education, skills and accomplishments to those of others in jobs similar to your own. Make a list of your educational credentials, job skills and work achievements. Use this information to establish your own baseline for monitoring your career progress.

2. 

   How do you stack up?

   Compare your baseline credentials, skills and achievements to your peers, rating yourself as above average, average or below average in each area. If your performance is clearly better than that of others performing similar work, you are ready to identify higher positions for which you are qualified. As a well-qualified, high-performing cashier, you may set your immediate sights on a lead cashier position. If you are a school teacher who has just completed a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction, your career path may point toward the job of school principal.

3. After you have identified a more challenging job related to your current position, broaden your options by locating additional positions that may be available to you based your current qualifications. These jobs also belong on your career pathway as potential opportunities. (Reference 1 provides a link to the Commonwealth of Virginia website for evaluating careers and linking jobs into career paths.)

4. 

   Linking job to job

   Continue discovering progressively more challenging jobs that build on your background, strengths and accomplishments. Each of these jobs may become a stepping stone on your career pathway. For a cashier, the stepping stones might include cashier, lead cashier, staff accountant, senior accountant, assistant controller, controller and vice president for finance. A school teacher's stepping stones might include assistant principal, principal, director of curriculum and instruction, assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools.

5. 

   Additional education?

   For each position in your career pathway, list the additional experience and education you would need to qualify for that position. By identifying these developmental needs, you have created a checklist to monitor your progress along your career pathway.

6. Seek jobs with other employers if your career dead-ends within your own company. Remember, few people can fulfill a complete career path inside a single organization.

Tips & Warnings

• Join professional organizations where you can make contacts with other professionals outside your own company.

• Look for opportunities for additional training and education to enhance your skills.

• Don't trumpet your plans to co-workers, as this may stir up envy and jealousy.

References

• Commonwealth of Virginia Career Path Guide

Resources

• Developing a Personal Career Plan