5 steps to creating a career roadmap for yourself

Setting specific and measurable career development goals can help you take the next step in your career. While developing a career plan can take a significant amount of work, it will pay off because it will help you understand where you want to go in your career and what you need to do to get there.

Creating and implementing a career development plan helps you feel motivated at work, even if you haven’t found your dream job yet, because it helps you make concrete plans to get there.

Here we define a career development plan template and describe five steps to easily and effectively create an individual development plan for yourself.

What is a career planning tool?

A career progression plan is a personal action plan that you can use to create a roadmap for your career. A typical career development plan includes the following components

The beginning point: Where you are in your career
Destination: Where you want to go in your career
The Gap: The obstacles you must overcome to reach the destination
The Journey: How to close the gap to reach your intended destination
Your personalized development plan will help you identify specific, achievable career goals and then design and implement strategies to reach the destination

How to make a career development plan

1. Identify your current position

The first step in any career development plan is to identify where you are currently in your career. This step also gives you an opportunity to reflect on your current skills and strengths.

At this stage, you should ask yourself questions such as:

What experiences have I had in the past?
What do I enjoy doing?
What natural skills and talents do I have?
What do I do when I feel most excited or motivated at work?
Do I prefer to lead a group, collaborate with colleagues, or work alone?
What gives me energy? What saps my energy?
Do I have a specific calling in life?
What about my job motivates me to get up in the morning and go to work?
Take some time to write down the answers to these questions. Write down your current position in your field, including whether you have completed your education or would like to continue your education and where you are on the career ladder.

2. Determine your goal

Next, figure out where you want to go with your career by doing the following:

Brainstorm your goal
Put aside any obstacles or inhibitions that may be holding you back. What is your dream career? Where would you like to be in five to ten years, with nothing holding you back? Also, name your ultimate career goal. If you dream of becoming the CEO of a mid-sized company, include that in your plan.

Develop more specific goals in the form of concise statements
It can be helpful to define where you want to go in smaller steps. Based on where you are now and your skills, where do you want to be professionally in two years? This time frame is close enough to your current routine that you can visualize it more easily.

Consider next five to 10 years
Next, consider where you want to be in five to 10 years. This is a more comprehensive step and requires you to imagine opportunities that might arise two or three steps further in the future. Do you still want to work at your current company, but in a more senior position? Would you like to take a position with another company? Or might you even want to change careers altogether? Make sure your stated goals align with what motivates you most.

Once you’ve completed these first two steps, you should have a better understanding of your skills and the career options available to you. Now you can start thinking about how you can achieve your goal.

3. Perform a gap analysis

At this stage, you are ready to conduct a gap analysis where you determine where you are now and where you want to go. Conduct a gap analysis by doing the following:

Research your target career
Based on the goals you have set for your two- or five-year career, search for job openings for the job you want. Make sure the descriptions match your skills and experience and that the requirements are consistent with your goals.

Consult experienced professionals
Also, take the time to consult with your supervisor, mentor, and work colleagues to see if there are any important items you should add to the list. While you may not want to tell your supervisor that you’re pursuing a higher-paying position at another company, you can still let them know the specific skills you’d like to bring to your current position.

Since this type of professional development would not only benefit you as a person but also your team and the company, your supervisor will likely be happy to help you make contacts or assign you relevant tasks.

Evaluate your qualifications
Once you’ve compiled this list of skills and experience, go through it line by line and rate your current skills, education, and experience against the requirements. Create a simple rating system from 1 to 5, where 1 means you don’t meet the requirements and 5 means you meet the requirements perfectly. With this system, the lower the rating, the more time and energy you will need to invest in improving.

Identify gaps and determine patterns
Once you have completed this exercise, identify any areas where you have a development gap. Look for common skills and experiences and group them together. You will likely see patterns in which skills or experiences you are good at and which you need to develop further. Check to see if there are items that need to be done in a certain order. For example, before you take on additional tasks related to a particular software at work, you need to learn how to use it. This is the list of skills, education, and experience you need to focus on.

4.Create a plan for your professional development.

Now that you know what skills you need to develop to advance your career, you can create a plan to do so. In this step, you’ll take the list of skills, education, and experience you’d like to acquire over the next few years and create a concrete plan to achieve your career goals. What you should do:

Set small task-oriented goals
For each item on the list, set a series of tasks that will help you achieve those goals. For example, if one of the skills you want to learn is how to use particular software, your plan might be to sign up for a class to learn more about it, practice with a colleague, and ask your supervisor to allow you to work with that software as part of your job duties.

Organize with a timeline
Organize the plan like a timeline according to the logical progression of your goals. Start with short-term goals that you can accomplish relatively quickly, such as reading a book, and then move on to longer-term goals, such as earning a master’s degree.

Think SMART
The SMART goal template can help you set achievable goals. SMART stands for Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, a SMART goal is to improve your understanding of your company’s payroll system by having a one-on-one discussion with your supervisor. By writing your goals using the SMART template, you can ensure that your goals are tangible and achievable within specified time frames.

Create deadlines for tasks
The best way to stick to the plan is to set deadlines for yourself for each task. Give yourself a “start date” by which you should work on a task. Also, schedule any preparatory steps for each task. For example, before you enroll in a continuing education course, you may need to apply and purchase the required textbooks. At this stage, have a plan for your professional development.

5. Measure your progress and be prepared to reevaluate it.

Your career development plan doesn’t end once you create it. Now the implementation phase begins with the following steps:

Keep track
Track the extent to which actual implementation aligns with the deadlines you set in step four to keep yourself accountable. Review the list at least twice a year to ensure you are meeting the established schedule.

Consider milestones
Once you’ve started working through your list of skills, education, and experience, consider how you’ll measure progress in your career. A positive performance review, a new job, a promotion, making useful professional contacts, or winning an award could be benchmarks for career success.

Update goals accordingly
Unexpected events will occur. A job offer could take your career in a surprising direction, or you could move across the country. A variety of factors can throw your plan off track. Remember that it’s okay to change direction as long as you can remain flexible. The plan is not concrete, and it makes sense to review it periodically to adjust your goals to your life circumstances. Plan not only to track your progress regularly but also to re-evaluate the plan itself every six months or so to adjust it to your current goals.