How to develop a career plan in 5 simple steps

You may have read about The Great Resignation’ which is an informal name for the widespread trend of a significant number of workers leaving their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are job seeking right now or have found yourself re-evaluating your career, it is essential you have a career plan. Developing a career plan will allow you to manage all aspects of your career helping you to focus on what is important to you, where you are now and how to get there in 2022!

This article will help you to develop a career plan in 5 simple steps!

Visualise the future

The key to successful career planning is having a long term vision. Having a clear idea of where you want to get to and visualising it, is the best place to start. Ask yourself what is your long term vision? It might be anything from, changing industry, starting your own business or simply getting back into employment. When you begin with the end in mind you gain clarity, which will naturally help you become more efficient. You'll be able to plan and strategize for the best route to your goals.

Self reflect

Whether you are contemplating leaving your current role or have been made redundant, you need to take the time to reflect on the important factors of your next role to ensure you are moving in the right direction. Self-reflecting will help you understand your core values, strengths and career priorities. Conduct a self-analysis and take the time to consider:

• Values & Culture - What are your values? Are they aligned to an industry or company you would like to work for or a service they offer? What type of company culture motivates you?
• Strengths & Skills - What are your strengths? What skills would you like to use in your next role? What motivates you at work? What responsibilities energize you?
• Career Priorities - What other aspects of your career are important to you? Salary, permanent or self-employed, job title, industry, hours of work?

You may find it useful to reflect on your career to date to understand which aspects you enjoyed the most and what you least enjoyed. You could also complete psychometric profiling tools which measures certain aspects of your personality, assessing everything from motivation to working preferences.

Consider your options

Once you have identified your values, strengths and career priorities, the next step is to research the job market. You may find it useful to start looking at some job boards such as indeed.co.uk or LinkedIn to understand market conditions, what jobs are in demand and to identify buoyant industries. Researching basic information through job descriptions will also help you to understand how you meet the requirements of the current job market and any gaps in experience.

Set your goals

As soon as the vision you have for yourself is clear, set yourself short and long term goals to help you get there. Use short term goals to help you break your plan down into manageable actions. Your Goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based.

Ensure that you consider challenges or obstacles in your plan and how you intend to overcome them. This may be anything from the need to undertake training, qualifications or building a network within new industries. You may find yourself ‘side stepping’ by taking on a temporary role or interim contract that allows you to use your transferable skills in the short term whilst you determine where you want to be longer term.

Write it down!

Finally, by making a plan and writing it down with key actions and timeframes will help you stay motivated, chart your progress and celebrate your smaller goals as and when you achieve them. Remember that market conditions can impact on how quickly and to what extent you can achieve your plan, so you may want to keep your options open.

Renovo is one of the UK’s leading providers of outplacement and career transition support. We work with both organisations and individuals to support all their career transition requirements. If you would like to understand how Renovo can help you please call 0800 612 2011 or email info@renovo.co.uk