What is Career Development and How Can You Drive Your Career

What do you want to be when you grow up? When we were kids, we used to get asked this question all the time. As adults, who are more established in our careers, we often stop asking ourselves this question. Life happens. We get busy and start reacting to the opportunities or challenges that get thrown our way instead of creating the opportunities or challenges that align with our dreams and goals. And that's what career development is all about. Taking ownership of your career path so that you can create the career you want. Here's a short introduction to what career development is and how you can take control of creating a rewarding and successful career. First, career development is a continuous process of professional growth, learning, and development. It begins with understanding who you are and choosing a career path that aligns with your strengths, interests, and values. Then, it's about setting goals, creating a plan, and putting that plan into action. Taking control of your career development means that you are actively deciding what next step you want to take in your career and how you want to grow or develop as a professional, which leads to our next question. What different directions might you consider taking in your career? In most companies, career development is more like a climbing wall than a corporate ladder. You may need to move vertically or laterally and sometimes even take a step back from the wall and develop a new strategy to progress in your career. Let's break this idea down. You can move laterally to advance your career by learning new or cross-functional skills in your current role, deepening your industry knowledge, or advancing your current skills. You can move vertically by pursuing a promotion, expanding your job responsibilities, or taking on a higher level of control and authority in your work. Finally, you might even decide to take a step back from your career to change fields or invest in educational opportunities that will allow you to advance at a later date. Remember, no one is more invested in your future than you, so take the time to reflect on your unique strengths, interests, and values to determine whether it makes sense to advance laterally or vertically or take a step back. Talk to a trusted manager or mentor to bounce off ideas and get their perspective, too. Most importantly, keep in mind that career development is a lifelong journey. Make career development a regular practice to nurture a career that continues to challenge you, excite you, and give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment. I'm going to introduce you to two people, Jacqueline and Ayesha. Jacqueline sees her job as just that, a job. She works 40 hours a week, but doesn't put any more thought or effort into her career outside of that. She's been in the same position for years. It's not bad, but it's not great either. She's not moving anywhere fast. Ayesha, on the other hand, sees her job as a stepping stone along her greater career path. One day, she hopes to open her own consulting business. In the meantime, she knows she needs to gain more experience with business operations and earn leadership skills. She's actively pursuing opportunities to get the skills and experience she needs to advance her career. Now, who would you rather be? Jacqueline or Ayesha? Most of us want to be more like Ayesha. We want to be actively growing our skills and building a career that leverages our unique talents and aligns with our passions. To do that, it's essential to create a career development plan. Here's what it is and how to make one. A career development plan is a document that outlines your career goals, as well as what it will take to achieve them. It identifies practical action steps you can take to work towards your aspirations. Don't let your career happen to you. Take the lead in setting your career direction and gaining the experience, developing the skills, or pursuing the opportunities that will get you where you want to be. Creating a career development plan will help you do just that. It's also relatively simple to make. The first step is to clarify your career goals. You need to envision what you want your career to look like and establish clear milestones, achievements, or titles you hope to hit. Ask yourself probing questions like, where do I see myself in one to three years? What experiences do I want to have as a professional? What skills do I want to learn? And, what do I want to do or achieve? Once you've identified your goals, you can then develop an action plan, which can be broken down into three steps. First, make a list of requirements. Requirements include the knowledge, skills, and abilities you need to achieve your career goals or vision. Second, identify the gaps. As you review your list of requirements, ask yourself, what knowledge, skills, and experiences am I missing? Finally, brainstorm action steps you can take to fill those gaps. Action steps might include things like pursuing cross-functional training or tasks, gaining experience through volunteer or extracurricular activities, or attending workshops or educational classes. Write down and summarize your career goals, list of requirements, skill gaps, and action steps in a single document. Share it with a trusted manager or mentor to ask for their input or to see if there's anything you're missing. Creating a career development plan is about setting goals and identifying practical steps you can take to reach them. By creating a career development plan and keeping it up to date, you increase your chances of building the career you envision. Imagine you're in a one-on-one meeting with your boss when she asks, is there anything you'd like to talk about? Do you have any questions or concerns for me? Do you typically have a response to this or how likely are you to say, no, I'm good and move on with your day? Most employees aren't making the most of their one-on-ones. We treat one-on-ones like obligatory meetings and in turn, fail to take advantage of their real value to our professional advancement and growth. So, here's what you need to know about one-on-ones, including the single biggest thing you can do to get the most value from them. First, let's start with the basics. What is a one-on-one and what purpose does it serve? A one-on-one is a regularly scheduled meeting between just you and your boss. It typically lasts around 30 minutes. The purpose of a one-on-one is to check in, talk about how things are going, give or receive feedback and discuss anything that's on your mind or important to you. Did you hear that? One-on-ones are your best opportunity to talk about what's important to you, your ideas, aspirations, suggestions or challenges and have your boss's undivided attention. They're designed for your benefit. So, the first step to getting the most out of one-on-ones is to treat them as your time, not just another mandatory meeting. This leads to the single biggest thing you can do to maximize your one-on-one time. Reflect on and prepare what you want to talk about in advance. The topics covered in a one-on-one are largely up to you. While your manager may provide structure and add to the conversation, they'll be looking to you to help shape and drive it. You determine the direction. So, what direction might you take? Here are a few options. First, one-on-ones are a great time to ask questions, bring up concerns or talk about challenges that you're facing. Your manager can help. You can also use one-on-ones to seek feedback from your manager for self-improvement. Try asking a direct question, such as, what's one thing that I could improve on this month? Or, how could I have done that differently? Or, you might use one-on-ones to give feedback, ideas or suggestions of your own. Think about the ideas you have for team improvement. Consider ways that your manager could better support you. Or, bring up suggestions you have for improving the company as a whole. But perhaps the best way you can maximize your time in one-on-ones is to talk about your professional growth. Talk about your career interests, development and goals. What energizes you at work? What skills would you like to develop? Where do you hope to be within the company in one year, two years or three? Tell your manager about your work interests and goals. Your manager can help by delegating work that aligns with your goals, identifying development opportunities, mentoring you or helping you create a career development plan. One-on-ones aren't just meetings to touch base. They carve out valuable time to share ideas, give and receive feedback, set goals, advance your career and brainstorm ways to improve your working situation overall. So, take advantage of the opportunity. Prepare what topics you want to talk about before every one-on-one with your manager to maximize your time together and take control of your professional development. There is truth to the saying that you only get what you give, especially when it comes to your career opportunities and compensation. And that's a good thing because it means that you have some level of control over them. If you want to be the highest earning employee, then you have to be the highest contributing employee. In other words, you need to show your company that you're worth the investment. And how exactly might you do that? You can use the four P's to find new ways to bring more value to your team and company. Let's break them down. The first P stands for profits. Look for opportunities to increase your company's profits directly. For example, you might increase sales, save costs or reduce waste, grow your customer base, or increase customer satisfaction and reduce customer churn. An indirect way to increase your company's profits is to improve your business product, which is our second P. You might do this by meeting and exceeding your performance goals, brainstorming ideas to improve your business product or service, or leading and executing valuable product features or updates. Even if you aren't a product developer, think about how your work outcomes contribute to the end product that the customer receives. For example, imagine you're a human resources specialist at a software company. Sure, you don't directly work on your company's software products. However, your impact on employee satisfaction rates will influence the quality of your software developer's work, including the end product that the user receives. The third P stands for processes. You can add more value to your company by improving company processes. That includes creating new processes that save the team time and increase efficiency, streamlining processes or making them easier and more effective, removing bottlenecks or roadblocks from company processes, and documenting processes so that you can share them with the team. Finally, the last P stands for people. Never forget that people are one of your company's most valuable assets. There are plenty of opportunities to increase your value at work by contributing more to its people. For example, you can train, develop or mentor others, improve team communication, make connections or develop relationships and a positive rapport between team members, enhance the company culture or increase employee satisfaction, or even motivate and bring out the best in others. It's a good idea to meet with your manager and ask for their help when identifying the most relevant ways that you can contribute more to your specific role, company and team. By making your intentions to your manager known, you're also increasing the likelihood that your extra efforts will be noticed and potentially recognized and rewarded. Altogether, the best way to supercharge your career and grow your compensation is to bring more value to your work through the four P's. Your company's profits, product, processes or people. You reap what you sow. So make an effort to expand your contribution and offer something more to your team every day. How do I get a raise? It's only natural that you want to be paid fairly for your efforts and contributions to your company. You want to be valued for your work. But how do you know when you deserve a raise and how can you present your case to your manager effectively? Asking for a raise requires justification, preparation and tact. Here's everything you need to know to earn and ask for a raise successfully. The first question to tackle is, are you ready for a raise? The reality is that your company is a business. The company's goal is to make a profit and its resources are limited. That means you are not necessarily entitled to a raise just because you've worked at the company for a certain number of years. Instead, the most surefire way to earn a raise is to increase your value or contribution to the company. Here's what we mean by that. You can increase your value or contribution to the company in three main ways. You can take on a bigger role or a greater level of responsibility. You can perform at a consistently higher level than you did previously. Or you can significantly increase your company's profitability. So, before you seek a raise, make sure to ask yourself, has my role expanded? Am I consistently performing at a higher level than I was previously? And how have my efforts added financial value to my company? If you have clear answers to these questions, then you may be ready to ask for a raise. Now, let's move on to how to prepare for and what to say during that conversation. There are three steps to ask for a raise effectively. The first step is to prepare your case. Why do you deserve a raise? Your goal is to prepare data and evidence of your increased value to the company. For example, you can document your recent achievements, gather data about your performance outcomes, and outline your expanded role or added responsibilities. Think of yourself as a lawyer who's collecting evidence to support your case. The more objective evidence that you have to present to the judge, the more compelling your case will be. So, it's worthwhile to prepare before your meeting, which leads us to the next step. The next step is to schedule a meeting with your manager. Compensation conversations should take place face-to-face, not over email or direct messaging. Schedule 30 to 60 minutes with your manager and give them a heads up that you want to discuss your value and contribution to the company. Here's a word of advice when scheduling your meeting. Don't ask for a raise when your manager is really busy or stressed. Do ask for a raise after a big accomplishment. Finally, it's time to present your case. Here are a few tips to help you. Present your main arguments in a clear and logical way. Share any documentation or data that you have with your manager so that they can follow along. Also, cite specific examples of how you've added value to your team or company and why a raise is merited. Raises are earned, not guaranteed. So, if you want a raise, you need to increase your value or contribution to the company and then present evidence of your case to your manager in a clear and logical way. By following these tips, you can show your manager how your contributions have paid for themselves and get the raise that you deserve. Whether you're aware of it or not, all of us have a personal brand at work. And if you don't define it, others will define it for you. Your personal brand is your reputation or how you show up at work. It's a collection of other people's experiences with and perceptions of you. Here's an example of what we mean by that. Say you're a person who always takes the time to ask co-workers how their weekend was or how their projects are going. If someone asks you for help, you immediately drop what you're doing to support them, regardless of what's on your own plate. Your co-workers and boss likely notice these habits and attributes of your personality and they may use words like helpful, supportive, and team-oriented to describe you. These impressions and perceptions of you form part of your personal brand. Now, can you imagine why your personal brand might be important? Well, imagine if you wanted to ask for a raise, pursue a promotion, or ask a co-worker for a favor, or even a recommendation. If you have a positive personal brand or if others have good experiences and perceptions of you, then you're more likely to get what you want. And you'll have more development or advancement opportunities available to you. So, what can you do to take control of your personal brand at work? Here are four steps. The first step is to assess your current personal brand. In other words, what's your current reputation? Ask yourself questions like, what words do others use to describe me? How do my manager and co-workers currently perceive me? On what kinds of projects or problems do others ask for my help? And, what am I known for at work? And here's another tip. Enlist the help of your manager, mentor, or a trusted co-worker to get an outside perspective and more accurate representation of how others perceive you. Now that you've identified your starting line, it's time to define your finish line. The second step is to define what you want your personal brand to be. There are many factors to consider when answering this question. Make sure to reflect on your ambitions. Do you want to take on more leadership responsibilities? What are your passions or career interests? Consider your values. What's important to you at work? Is it freedom and autonomy, achievement, or doing work that's meaningful? Identify your work priorities and what you stand for. Finally, assess your contributions. What are the unique skills and strengths that you bring to your team? Where do you add the most value to the business? Remember that your personal brand isn't a persona. It shouldn't be false or misleading. Instead, look inward to identify and bring out the ambitions, values, strengths, and skills that are true to you. The third step is to monitor your interactions at work and look for opportunities to better demonstrate your defined personal brand. Identify all of the different places where you show up at work. Where do people experience your personal brand? So, you might consider how you conduct yourself in team and company meetings, private conversations, work emails and messages, professional or social events, and work projects or collaborative assignments. For example, if you want others to see you as confident, then you might find ways to demonstrate confidence in your everyday interactions at work. Perhaps you'll make a point to be the first person to speak up in meetings and display confident body language. Finally, the last step is to check your online presence. Don't forget to sweep your personal webpage, blog, social media accounts, or profiles on professional networking sites. Make your personal brand consistent both online and offline. So, you might update your profile descriptions, be mindful of what you post, or even use these platforms to share articles that reflect your professional interests and make professional connections. In the end, managing your personal brand at work is pretty straightforward. First, you have to define what you want to be known for. And second, you have to align your words and actions accordingly. Make sure that everything you do or say is consistent with who you want to be and where you want to go in your career. So, you can increase your chances of getting there. Performance reviews can be intimidating. You're put on the spot, and it can feel as if your work is being examined under a microscope. Will your supervisor see your contributions in progress? Or, will your faults and shortcomings be magnified? You can create better outcomes from your performance reviews by arriving prepared. Preparing for your performance review isn't about ignoring or covering up your weaknesses. It's about using your performance review as a platform to discuss career aspirations and advancement, identify opportunities for growth, and discuss where you are and how your supervisor can better help you. Here are three ways to prepare and get the most from your performance review. The first tip is to conduct a self-evaluation of your performance so that you can compare notes with your supervisor. Use your self-evaluation to reflect on and identify your top priorities and your top three strengths and top three weaknesses. Also, try to brainstorm your biggest accomplishment and biggest missed opportunity in your role. What did you do well, and what could you have done differently? Try to base your self-evaluation on data, such as performance metrics or project outcomes, to keep yourself honest. Also, compare your performance to your job description and previous feedback or evaluations from your supervisor. Another great way to prepare for your performance review is to identify your goals. Consider both your short-term and long-term goals, your goals in your role, and your goals at the company, as well as your big-picture aspirations for your career. What do you want to learn? What skills do you want to develop? What kind of projects do you want to work on? What do you want to do, accomplish, or create? Where do you hope to be in five years? Prioritize your top three goals and bring them to your performance review meeting. Finally, you should also prepare to both give and receive feedback. You heard that right. A performance review isn't one-sided. It's a dialogue between you and your supervisor. Accept constructive feedback from your supervisor professionally. Approach constructive feedback as an opportunity for growth, not an attack on your skills or character. Don't get defensive or upset. Also, prepare to offer your own feedback to your supervisor. Feedback can come in the form of concerns or suggestions, but it can also be structured as positive feedback, ideas, or questions. The best ways to prepare for your performance review are to conduct a self-evaluation, identify your goals, accept constructive feedback professionally, and prepare to contribute feedback of your own. Remember that performance reviews aren't meant to criticize you or your work. They're an opportunity to get a recognition for your accomplishments and identify how you can grow and advance your career. Imagine that your company announces that it's opening a new branch in a different city or state. They'll need people who can set up the branch and build it from the ground up. You've been working as a supply chain manager for the past five years. You're happy with your job, but you can't remember the last time you stepped outside of your comfort zone. So, you decide to put in requests to be transferred. The job will be the same, but there's a real opportunity to test your leadership skills and create new systems from scratch. Where do you start? How do you present your case? And what can you do to maximize your chances of getting the transfer request approved? Let's explore the answers to these questions and others up next. In this example, you knew about the opportunity because your company announced it. But what should you do if you're seeking a new challenge or different role in your company, but don't know what internal opportunities are available? Most companies will post job vacancies on their website. And some companies may even have systems to post positions internally before opening up their search to external candidates. If you're not sure what specific systems and processes your business uses to post job vacancies, ask your human resources department. You also might network with other teams and departments. Building a good rapport with the people you want to work with can help you win advocates for your cause and be among the first to hear about a job that becomes available. Another way to find out about internal opportunities may be to get insider knowledge from your manager. And that brings up the bigger question. Should I tell my manager that I want to transfer jobs? The short answer is yes. You should try to talk to your manager about your ambitions. It may sound awkward, but your manager should hear the news from you directly instead of feeling like you've been sneaking around behind their back. Just handle the conversation with delicacy and diplomacy. For example, keep your reasons for transferring positive. A good manager will understand if you want to take on a new challenge. However, they may become offended if you say you're transferring to get away from them or because you hate your job or dislike your team. Finally, the million-dollar question is, how do I increase my chances of getting a request to transfer approved? Here are our top two tips. First, make a clear business case for your transfer. Highlight why the move would benefit the business. Try to identify how the transfer overlaps with your company's needs or interests. And the second tip is to act like you're an external candidate who's applying for the position. Never assume that you're guaranteed or entitled to get the role that you request. Do your homework, stay professional, and be prepared to demonstrate in a formal application and interview process why you're the best candidate for the position. Transferring roles or moving to another team, department, or location at your company can be a great way to develop your skills, expand your influence, and reignite your interest or passion for your career. By following these tips, you'll be better prepared to make a compelling case for your transfer, and you'll be on your way to starting a new work adventure. Do you want to become a manager? It's a difficult decision to make. While some people find management richly rewarding, others feel a world of frustration in that role. Simply put, management isn't for everyone. So, how do you know if it's right for you? To help you choose a career track, let's take a look at the difference between managers and individual contributors, as well as how to choose the right role for you. Managers support and develop others. They're responsible for a group's performance and act as leaders and mentors. If you're a manager, you'll feel ownership over your team's successes. Individual contributors work independently. They're responsible for themselves and their own actions. If you're an individual contributor, you'll feel ownership over your own successes. While managers take a big-picture approach, individual contributors work in the weeds of a project. Both of these roles are necessary, and neither is better or worse than the other. The right career simply depends on what you need personally. To help you with that decision, let's take a look at a checklist for managers and individual contributors. On the manager checklist, you'll focus on supporting others. How many of the following activities would you enjoy? First, are you okay taking accountability for others? Managers take ownership of a group's performance. Next, do you enjoy helping others set goals? Managers help employees set actionable goals and evaluate results. Third, are you good at fixing problems? If there's an obstacle, managers will implement a solution and get others on board. Fourth, are you skilled at seeing the potential in everyone? What about encouraging others to see that in themselves? Both of these are a must for effective managers. Next, are you okay with sacrificing some personal time so that you can help others achieve their best work? That often comes with the territory of managing others. Of course, you can't be a manager without strong communication skills. Let's take a look at the final five items on the manager checklist, paying close attention to how they all involve connecting with others. Do you enjoy communicating? Managers need to listen to employee concerns, offer advice, and resolve conflicts. Next, are you comfortable acting as a liaison? Managers often initiate contact between people and communicate company decisions to a team. Do you also like giving advice? Managers give their team guidance so that they can reach beneficial outcomes. Next, do you enjoy being a mentor? Alongside giving advice, managers support employees with mentorship so that their team can grow and succeed. Finally, are you comfortable giving feedback? Managers often need to provide feedback to redirect poor performance. Management requires making a switch from yourself to others. But that type of career isn't for everyone. If you'd rather focus on your own development, you might prefer the individual contributor track. Let's take a look. On the individual contributor checklist, you'll focus on supporting yourself. How many of the following tasks would you enjoy? First, do you prefer stretching your own skills? Individual contributors often work on challenging projects that help them grow their industry knowledge and experience. Do you also aim to become an expert in your chosen field? Because individual contributors stretch their skills, they follow a path that allows them to advance their expertise. Third, do you prefer to do things a certain way? Individual contributors often struggle to work with those who follow a different strategy from their own. Next, individual contributors prefer not to coach others as they find that to be a distraction from other more critical tasks. Fifth, do you like to follow your own interests? Individual contributors enjoy working on tasks that relate to their interests rather than someone else's. Individual contributors emphasize their independence. Let's take a look at how that's reflected in the final five checklist items. The next checklist item is about working independently. Rather than supporting a group, individual contributors prefer working solo on their own projects. Next, do you also take pride in your individual achievements? Individual contributors feel most proud of their individual rather than group successes. Do you prefer not to be in charge? Individual contributors are often uncomfortable having others report to them. Do you also have a tendency to get frustrated by the mistakes of others? Individual contributors often don't like dealing with another person's shortcomings. Finally, do you like being held accountable for your own work? Individual contributors prefer being responsible for their personal goals and achievements, not someone else's. As you can tell, managers and individual contributors follow two very different career tracks. So, remember those checklist items, think about where you fit in the best, and then follow that path, as that decision will likely bring you the most career satisfaction.