How to Create a Career Plan

A career plan is a valuable tool that can help outline the things you need to succeed in your chosen career path. You can start and develop a career plan at any age or stage of your career, and it can be focused on short or long-term development. Below, we outline the key steps to developing a career plan to allow you to achieve your career goals. 

What is a career plan?

A career plan is a map of your career that highlights the goals and steps you need to achieve to succeed. It identifies both short-term and long-term actions and highlights the steps necessary to take to move through those pathways.

Not only can a career plan help you achieve your goals, but it will also expedite your decision-making process throughout your career.

Why is it important to have a career plan?

Whilst many succeed in their careers without a career plan, a career plan can have many benefits. These include:

Clarity on direction throughout your career

A career plan can help you understand not only where you want to end up but how to get there. Each decision you make as you navigate your career will enable you to move closer to that end goal, and having a clear idea of what that end goal is will help you get there.

Staying motivated

As we move through different phases of life, it can be difficult to always be focusing on your career. Having a career plan can help keep you motivated to achieve your goals even when you have other priorities to focus on.

Better career decision making

At many points in your career, you will face a crossroads that will require you to make a decision that will have lasting impacts on your career. A career plan not only helps you envision an end goal but allows you to see the pathways to get there. Your decision-making throughout your career will become easier as you can see how each choice works with or against your goals.

How to create a successful career plan?

There are many steps to take to developing a career plan that suits you. How in depth you want to be, can influence your research, and outcome phases.

A career plan should not create barriers for your work life, instead it should open up and identify pathways for you to lead a fulfilling and successful career.

Furthermore, a career plan doesn’t have to cover your entire career. It can be broken into a 5 or 10-year plan that should be reevaluated as you move through it.

1. Start your career plan with a self-assessment

What do you value?

What skills do you have?

What environments do you thrive in?

Knowing and understanding who you are is a crucial first step to developing your career plan. If your dream job doesn’t suit your personal needs, then you should evaluate what makes your dream job.

If you value flexibility, then your career choices should reflect that. If you thrive in collaborative environments, then a job working alone wouldn’t suit you.

A simple way to help identify these things would be an aptitude or personality test (like the Myers-Brigg personality test for example).

2. Identify your career options & decide on a pathway

Every industry has hundreds of different jobs and career paths available. Once you pick the industry you want to work in, it is time to identify the different career options you want to go into.

For example, if you want to be a lawyer, what area of law do you want to work in? What kind of firm do you want to work in? Boutique? Top-Tier? Is there anyone specifically you want to work for?

There is no right or wrong answer, but once you decide on this, everything else should fall into place.

Once you know your end goal, it is best to research how to get to that place.

3. Identify your skill and knowledge gaps for your ideal career

Once you decide where you want to go, it’s good to think about what skills you need to get there. Do you need leadership skills? Do you need a degree? Conflict management?

Once you have a list of the things you need to achieve your career goals, you can build out your career plan.

Throughout your career, you should be finding opportunities to gain these skills and experiences. If your dream job requires 10 years of experience in a specific role, that should be in your career plan, etc.

What if I am struggling with developing or sticking to my career plan?

A career plan, whilst a valuable tool, isn’t always the easiest to develop. If you are struggling to understand where and what you should be doing, it is worthwhile reaching out to a recruiter.

Recruiters are highly specialised individuals who work in a singular industry. This means they understand not only the career paths people take but have likely already helped many people achieve their career goals.

Reaching out directly to one can result in free professional assistance in developing and eventually achieving your career goals.

Start your career planning today with empire group. Find your dream job with empire group.

empire group are a specialist recruitment agency with offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. We help professionals to advance their careers across legal support jobs, legal professional jobs, technology jobs, corporate jobs, risk and governance jobs, eDiscovery jobs, within both the temporary employment and permanent employment market.

If you are looking to make your next career or business decision reach out to empire group today at 07 3231 1200, or email administration@empiregroup.com.au, or visit: https://www.empiregroup.com.au/contact-us/ to be connected with one of our great recruiters.