How to create a long-term career plan
If you are wondering why a career plan is so important, here is the answer — it saves resources — time, energy and money. Career plans can help you make decisions about what classes to take, and identify the extracurricular activities, research, and internships that will lead you to your goals. It is a critical task for any professional — young or experienced. Here is how to plan your path:
What a full career plan should have:
- A long-term vision and mission of the future state you want your career to be and how you achieve it, based on your professional values.
- A series of medium-term goals in support of that vision — the 3 to 5 year milestones and goals that serve as stepping stones to that vision
- Short-term “plateaus” — skills, experiences, or accomplishments you can seek in the 1.5 year timeframe to help you achieve the medium-term goals
Why it is better to start from the end
The answer is so simple — It is much easier to identify your next little step toward your goal when you have a clear vision about where you are actually going. Here is a great example for that — Have you ever played one of these logical maze games? Have you noticed that it is much easier to find the “START” when you start playing from the “FINISH”? Well, this method works in the same way when it comes to your career plan.
Medium-term
A common mistake among young professionals is thinking they can jump to their long-term vision in one step. Most likely, they are several steps away and need to understand and articulate the milestones in between. Use social media platforms like LinkedIn to find people who have achieved what you are trying to achieve, and either reach out to them to understand the steps they have taken, or study their profiles to figure out their stepping stones.
For some, these medium-term goals might include moving to a new industry to build experience, switching to a different company for more growth opportunities or a different environment, or trying out a new role to gain perspective. For example, if your objective is to be a CEO of a digital company, you might realize you need a Product Experience that you don’t have, or to be a Sales Leader, you need people management experience that you didn’t have. For others, it could be a trip back to school for a graduate degree or realizing you need to move to a city that has more opportunities where their interests are. The key concept is to understand the stepping stones to your long-term career vision and having clear goals in mind with each step.
Short-term
Once you’ve identified and started executing on your next medium-term (3 to 5 year) objective, you’ve probably landed in a new role, company, or set of responsibilities. What now? If you were clear about your medium-term goals, you can break
term goals, you can those down into a series of 1 to 1.5 year “plateaus” — specific skills and experiences you’d like to acquire that build upon your collective skill set and make you a more valuable professional. The reason we call these as “plateaus” is because, for many people, your capabilities in a new area will initially expand rapidly, but your growth in that area will taper off after about a year — at that time, you should identify and start focusing on the next skill or experience break you want to build.
If you feel you’ve succeeded — find the next plateau. If you can’t find your next plateau in your current situation, pull back and think about your next medium-term objective to guide your next move.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these ideas help you connect the dots between your current situation and your long-term career plan. Ultimately, it’s a matter of breaking down and understanding your long-term vision into 3 to 5 year stepping stones, and always seeking the next 1 to 1.5 year “plateau” to build your skills and experience.
If you want to grow and have the motivation, clear goal and mindset, GlobalizeIT is the right place for you. Contact us at hello@globalizeit.tech and join our big family!
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