Career Development Plan

Career Development Plan

Career Development Plan

Introduction

A Career Development Plan (CDP) is a development tool that identifies activities that will help you enhance your knowledge, skills, and abilities. The CDP process provides an opportunity for you to share with your supervisor your goals as well as communicate your strengths and developmental needs. You work together to develop realistic goals and activities to achieve them and your supervisor assists by providing feedback and suggestions.

The process of making an effective CDP first involves you asking yourself the following questions:

/ What direction is my organization going and what will the organization need from
its employees in the future?
/ What are my goals over the next five years? (This question is crucial to providing
a motivational focus for everything you do.)
/ What are my greatest strengths and how can I build on them more effectively?
/ Do I have any serious weaknesses that make it difficult to do my job or will prevent
me from reaching my goals?

After answering these questions, you should try to identify developmental opportunities that will help you build on your strengths in such a way that you can better serve the needs of the organization and reach your goals.

Completing an CDP should be a joint effort between your supervisor and you. It should consider the organization's needs, technology changes, expected turnover, program plans, etc. The CDP should not be a "wish list," but a realistic working document. An individual development plan reflects your personal and career development needs and interests in the context of departmental needs and your job.

·  Analyze Your Needs
The first step in analyzing your needs is to do a self-assessment of your interests, preferences, values, and skills.

·  Talk with Your Supervisor
As you review your needs, think about your current position and the positions to which you aspire. Talk with your supervisor and decide on the goals that are the best fit for you, your supervisor, and the organization. Your supervisor should be able to pinpoint the needs of your position, your strengths and weaknesses, and then help you apply your new knowledge back on the job. You can also discuss your mid-long range career goals and how you can work towards those goals within your current job.

·  Look into strategies for your development (see section 3)

·  Find Ways to Measure Your Success
This is the most important step. In order to develop a skill or improve your competency in a certain area, you have to practice what you have learned and have an opportunity to build your competence. Talk with your supervisor about the skills you have acquired and about the ways in which those skills have enhanced your job performance and can be used to help you grow in the future.

COMPLETING THE CDP

Section 1: GOALS

Short-Term Goals
What areas do you want to develop over the next year? Perhaps you want to learn more about a particular unit in your department, or further develop a skill or area of knowledge.

Mid-Term Goals
This is a statement of what you hope to achieve within the next 2-5 years. Examples could be managing a particular project, adding a new responsibility to your job, or developing a new skill or area of knowledge.

Long-Term Career Goals
This is a statement of what you hope to achieve 5 or more years out, and may include enhancing your skills in a current area of your responsibility, making a lateral transfer, moving into a new type of work, or taking on greater responsibilities in your current job.

As you develop this section: Consider Your Career Goals

An important component of the individual development plan is your development for the future. Identify career development strategies that will prepare you for the future:

·  Review your career development goals (where do you want to be in 5-10 years

·  Consider feedback received from others

·  Review your self-assessment

Section 2: Skills and competencies

What particular skills, competencies or areas of knowledge do you want to develop in relation to your goals? Consider the competencies required in your current role and identify areas for development. A starting point may be to collect information about the competencies you need to achieve results.

·  Review any information you have about competencies required for your current job.

·  Review other sources of information on competencies, including those listed in the Resources section

·  Review your department business plan, work unit goals and individual performance plan. Understanding how your job relates to your work unit and departmental goals will help you focus your plan.

·  Do a self-assessment considering what's required of you in terms of skill, knowledge and competencies and how you are currently performing

·  Consider feedback received from others (such as performance assessments, multi-rater feedback)

[ About CDP ] [ top ]

IDENTIFY YOUR LEARNING PRIORITIES

Once you have identified the skills, knowledge and competencies required, set your learning priorities based on the areas you feel you need to develop.

Consider:
·  Technical/job specific knowledge and skills needed now and in the future
·  Which developmental area will have the greatest impact on your performance
·  Which barriers may arise to prevent you from reaching your goals and how you might overcome them
·  What strengths, talents, experiences, and passions you want to use more
·  What support (e.g. dollars, time) you will need
·  Learning on the job and formal learning options
·  How you best learn / Tips:
·  Include the actions you are going
to take to increase knowledge
and skills to do your current job
and meet your performance plan goals. For example, if you are
new to your role, your learning
and development plan may
include orientation
·  Consider both job specific
(technical) expertise and overall competency development
·  Consider the strategic direction
of your area or department. Ask
yourself if there are any changes
taking place within the organization
that may impact your learning and development priorities
·  Gather feedback and discuss options with your supervisor

Section 3: Activities

This is a list of the strategies you will use to achieve your development objectives.

Consider:

·  What development options will best meet my needs?

·  What other strategies may be relevant? For example, if you plan to retire soon, your development plan may include ways in which you can transfer knowledge (such as coaching and mentoring).

Developmental opportunities can take many forms, and a mix of training and experiential learning should be included on the CDP. Besides formal training in a classroom setting (the most common-and costly-option), other excellent developmental opportunities include shadowing of senior executives, mentoring, distance learning through the internet or intranet, assignment to a project team, cross-training, exposure to supervisory responsibilities, involvement in outreach efforts, and temporary assignments in other offices or posts.

Examples could be "attend a public speaking course" and "join Toastmasters International public speaking group," or “cross train with two other areas in the dept” and “volunteer to facilitate staff meetings”.

Section 4: Timeframe

This is your action plan with deadlines for accomplishing your activities. Set realistic time frames for each goal and don't try to complete multiple action items in the same timeframe.

Section 5: Results

Meet regularly with your supervisor or manager to track your progress. / Some key points to remember about the CDP:
·  It is designed to be a blueprint for your success
·  It is designed to be a working document - it should change as time goes on
·  As priorities and needs change, update your CDP and change it, too
·  The planning and talking between a supervisor and employee is the most important and beneficial aspect of creating an CDP
·  If you don't accomplish everything on your CDP it doesn't mean you failed - priorities and resources change throughout the year

TRAINING & PROGRAMS

·  Add the training programs required to achieve your development goals. / Training Description Here

Training Program #2

Training Program #3

Community Organizations

·  List the organizations in your community that provide training and certification to meet your development goals. Organizations can include schools, trade groups and local PMI chapters.

CAREER COACHING

Find and work closely with a mentor and coach for guidance and accountability.

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