Career Development Plan
What is a Career Development Plan
Also known as a professional development plan, a career development roadmap is a document that describes your career goals and the path you’ll take to achieve them. In the past, human resource departments and management teams used career development plans to support their employees’ growth. These days, however, more and more individuals are creating their own career development plans.
As you develop your career development plan, you’ll need to consider the current state of your career, your goals and what you need to do to move forward. While career development plans vary greatly, many of them include a variety of sections, such as a summary statement, short-term and long-term goals, current skills, developing skills and resources.
With a detailed, thoughtful career development plan, you’ll have a clear idea of the steps that will allow you to grow your career and meet (or even exceed) your goals. It can set you up for success in your current role and/or future positions.
Benefits of a Career Development Plan
There are several noteworthy advantages of a career development plan, including:
Provides a Roadmap for the Future: if you take the time to create a career development plan, you’ll know exactly what your end goals are and how you can achieve them. Without one, you’ll be more tempted to just “go with the flow” and make random career decisions that may or may not propel you toward your definition of success.
Identifies Skills Gaps: While you likely have many strengths, there’s a good chance you have some weaknesses as well. A career development plan may help you turn those weaknesses into opportunities by encouraging you to fill skills gaps and become a more well-rounded employee. For example, your plan may reveal that while you’re a pro at written communication, your oral communication skills could use some work.
Inspires Motivation: Once you have a career development plan you’re happy with, you’ll be more motivated to work hard and push yourself professionally. If you lack one, you may find it easier to get discouraged and give up. Motivation is key regardless of how realistic or far-fetched your career goals might be.
How to create a Career Development Plan
Identify Job Profiles & Requirements, Categorise the Skills Needed: as you are new in the web development field, we recommend you understand for yourself what career you'd like to go towards, in which conditions you'd like to work and map out the skills you need for a job profile you are interested in.
Assess Current Skill Level: identify which skills you already have and which you might want to develop to get to the job position you aspire to.
Carry out a SWOT Analysis: understanding internal and external factors that can impact success to formulate strategies for improvement and growth.
Set Specific Goals and Create a Learning Plan: Create a clear learning roadmap for post-bootcamp skill development for further professional growth.
1. Identify Job Profiles & Requirements, Categorise the Skills Needed
Research Job Listings: gather and analyse job listings you aspire to. You should look for common requirements and skills listed in these postings.
Review Company Websites: look at the career sections of companies you aspire to work for to understand their specific requirements and preferred qualifications. To find companies you consider applying to you can research fields/branches that you want to work in. Resources:
Check out the 2024 Guide Developer Hiring Trends in Europe
Links of companies aggregators with the filters by industry branches, as well as criteria for your desired way of working (remote, hybrid, on-site, part-time, full-time). Depending on your situation, with these filters you might afford more flexibility in your search and look for ad hoc opportunities.
For Sweden: Blocket Jobb, Jobbsafari, Thu Hub, Glassdoor
2. Assess Current Skills Level
The template provided will automatically copy all the skills listed in sheet 1.a to sheet 2. Now that you have an overview of the skills needed, it is time to run a self-assessment on each of the required skills. You can do this in column B for the technical skills, and column F for the soft skills.
If you are unsure on how to self-assess your skills, you can follow the following paths:
Get Feedback from Instructors or your mentor: Instructors can provide a realistic assessment of the student's strengths and weaknesses.
Peer Review: Peer feedback can also be valuable in understanding areas that need improvement
You can also use this Template for Technical Skills Self-Assessment if you find it useful
Once you have assessed your level, you can already start the self-reflection and note down how you can develop more some of your existing skills. Note that down in sheet 2 as well.
Your Career Development Plan can include things such as:
online courses, tutorials, and bootcamps that can help fill the skill gaps
relevant books and articles on the topics of desire
you can work on projects as you learn those skills, and include them in your portfolio
Pro-tips 🤘
participate in relevant online communities or local meet ups to enrich your opportunities related to your learning plan!
exchange with your colleagues in the P2P session and find out how they are planning to complementing some of their skills
3. Carry out a SWOT analysis
By completing a SWOT analysis you can strategically position yourself as a competitive and well-prepared UX/UI designer, ready to enter the job market. Steps:
Identifying Your Strengths and Weaknesses: Identify your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, and use this information to develop a plan for personal growth.
Recognising Opportunities and Threats: Opportunities can be leveraged to help you achieve your goals, while threats should be mitigated to avoid negative outcomes. Understanding the external factors that influence your personal brand can help you develop a more comprehensive and effective branding strategy.
Here's a breakdown of each component:
Strengths: Internal attributes and resources that support a successful outcome.
Weaknesses: Internal factors that could hinder success or put you at a disadvantage
Opportunities: External factors that you can leverage to achieve your goals.
Threats: External factors that could cause trouble or harm your chances of success.
SWOT Analysis Examples
Strengths: Strong brand reputation, skilled workforce, proprietary technology, financial stability.
Weaknesses: Limited resources, lack of expertise, poor location, outdated technology.
Opportunities: Market growth, emerging trends, technological advancements, regulatory changes.
Threats: Economic downturns, increasing competition, changing customer preferences, legal issues.
* See a SWOT analysis example for a web developer professional here
A SWOT analysis directly informs a career development roadmap by highlighting:
Focus Areas for Skill Development (Weaknesses and Strengths),
Career Growth Opportunities (Opportunities), and
Risk Management (Threats).
This structured analysis ensures that your career development plan is customised, actionable, and aligned with the your strengths and industry conditions, maximizing both short- and long-term success.
4. Set Specific Goals and Create a Professional Development Roadmap!
Use sheet 3 to organise your action points in a timeline. We encourage you to divide and prioritise your plan as follows:
Short-Term Goals: Skills to develop within 0-3 months.
Medium-Term Goals: Skills to develop within 3-6 months.
Long-Term Goals: Skills and experiences to acquire over 6-12 months.
5. Work on your plan!
For effective work with your learning plan, we recommend to:
Track your progress
Review regularly your progress (weekly or biweekly)
Seek feedback from peers
Adjust your plan (durations, priorities, goals) based on your progress
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