The ABC of creating a career development plan

Do you think, occasionally or frequently, how to go about to be at your aspired career position? If yes, there are few easy methods by which you can create a career development plan to suit you. The word easy, though apparently meaning uncomplicated, can be baffling too. Occasionally, the easiest of methods and ideas can prove to be knotty for the simple reason that they call for some contemplation and exertion. But you need not be baffled at all. After all, the time that you spend pondering and the work that you put in are an investment for better times to come.

Here is what you should do:

· Envision your endpoint: You ought to be crystal clear about the course you are going to take. That is the maiden step in planning your career journey, as is the case when you travel anywhere. Envisioning your career terminus need not be a complex affair. You need to visualise the stage at which you would like your career to be in the immediate, intermediate and distant future. Looking into two years hence is rather close to your present existence and thus is easy to envisage. The two year timeframe is more or less a general move forward, but will facilitate characterising an objective still ahead. So, if you think of five years from now, you may not be able to have a clear picture and hence may require you to modify your plans. Nevertheless, thinking ahead is always good. When you set objectives, they are for specific purpose. They should inspire you and put you in a dynamic mode. When you are clear about your course, it implies that you comprehend the impelling factors that prompt you to move along it too.

· Appreciate additional qualifications that you need: Today, your existing qualifications may suffice, but a couple of years from now when you are pitched in a competitive environment, will they be sufficient to take you forward. What are the additional qualifications that you will need to have then? You can get a fairly accurate understanding if you study the qualitative requirements of various positions as they exist today within your current organisation and others. You can thus infer where you stand vis-à-vis your aspired position; it is essential that you record all such requirements for ready reference. If you categorise the requirements, you will realise that there will be specific subject matters and premises to your gaps. You should guard against being unnecessarily driven if you get to know that a position is not your cup of tea but nevertheless, you are qualified for it. In case you do possess the requisite qualifications, you will be better contender and hence may not need more than routine and ordinary focus to improve yourself. In other words, you are now well-equipped with a catalogue of all growth inevitabilities.

· Create your own growth strategy:  Having a clear picture of your objectives and with all the information related to areas that you need to focus on, you are all set to move towards achieving your intents. A discussion with a career guide or even your manager will add potency to your plan because they can advise you on how to go about acquiring additional qualifications. You may have to prioritise the process so that you add profundity to your skills. Additionally, you may also be required to hunt for ways and means to acquire additional skills without impacting your current functioning; and once you devise appropriate methods, you will hit new thoughts and concepts on how to inch forward towards them. Creation of a development strategy calls for sticking to deadlines. You have to adhere to the time schedules that you set for yourself and the only way to ensure it is by nominating a flag-off date. While you cannot prognosticate on the duration and quantum of your efforts for acquiring a particular skill, but definitely, you will have a good domination over yourself in getting initiated. All the foregoing notwithstanding, you will have to indulge in active monitoring; perhaps a bi-annual self-appraisal is what will be necessary to ensure that you do not lose out on your focus and prompt you of what you need to do next. 

Career development is an activity that you tend to relegate to the background but get to realise its significance one fine day when an awakening dawns on you that you are where you were and that life is fast coming to a full-stop. Remember that your career is your bay and that you have to be at the wheels. And if you plan well, you indeed can attain great heights.