Creating a career path

       The process of creating a career path implies plotting a course by a person for career advancement within an organisation. It entails comprehending the skills, expertise, individual qualities and experience essential for any working person to make career progress by way of promotions and raises. Such progress can also be a lateral movement. Therefore, it places upon an individual  immense responsibility to review career objectives and deliberate on what needs to be done to accomplish them. Creation of a career path is thus an inescapable constituent of your longterm career management.

In good organisations, a career path is a crucial factor in the performance development planning of an employee wherein the seniors deliberate and plan advancement avenues for an employee. The issue of performance development planning is significant because firstly it is in a written form and secondly, it is shared, tracked and periodically reviewed at different echelons. The annual performance review can also be used for creating a career path.

The career path includes an individual’s ultimate career objective and actions required to be taken to accomplish that. Drafted properly, it gives a sense of direction and purpose to the concerned individual besides providing him methods to evaluate the progress achieved at different stages. This thus, help in making midterm corrections, if required. It is not necessary that the career path be created by an organisation. As an individual and as an employee, it is your responsibility to make your own career path. How do you do that?

You can develop a career path by taking a look at your desired job or jobs in your company. Having done that, you should then chart a course through different jobs and departments. This can be undertaken with the help of your immediate boss or in conjunction with the HR department; in fact a career path arrived at in this manner will be the best.You need to acknowledge the fact that seizing any job that you have an eye on will necessitate move out from your current team to different sections altogether. And of course, a promotion at appropriate intervals is also essential for accomplishing your objectives. A mentor can be of immense help in this context.

Besides the above imperatives, there are three other actions required of you. They are:

• Formulating career objectives & deciding on aspired jobs: Coaching and mentoring may facilitate narrowing down on likely career options, however, it is your responsibility to explore them to your satisfaction. This will have to be done as an own time effort. You may also seek assistance of career professionals or carry out extensive research online for the purpose.
• Reduce your career path plan to writing. If you are working in a company where your performance appraisals are linked with career development opportunities, the career path plan will already be there in a documented form. But in most cases, you will have to make your own plan and then share it with your immediate boss or the concerned HR staff. You will need to enunciate your objectives clearly because unless you do so, accomplishing them will not be easy.
• Exercise full control over your career path plan: While help from others will be to your advantage, you need to understand than that no person other than you will be the only beneficiary of your career path plan. Your responsibilities will include taking initiatives to select a good mentor, applying for jobs that are there within your company and acquiring necessary skills to meet the qualitative requirements spelt out. It is only then that you will be able to achieve your goals. Remember that the impact of your career path will be only on you and hence the importance of being a master of it needs no emphasis. 

A thoughtful career path plan is a key factor for an employee to stick on in an organisation. That is why companies are increasingly taking the onus of developing career paths of their employees. Learning and developing activities planned by companies make it known to employees what skills are expected of them to hold higher responsibilities. Such information known, you can plan and prepare for different jobs and opportunities within your existing organisation. This is all the more important because today, no organisation will offer you a lifelong career because the focus will always be to safeguard organisational interests that could well be poles apart from your concerns. Therefore, if you understand the importance of planning your career path yourself, you will always have a roadmap to follow through out your career journey.