Career development tips

Career development is the process of choosing a career, improving your skills, and advancing along a career path. It's a lifelong process of learning and decision-making that brings you closer to your ideal job, skillset, and lifestyle.
Improving your career development will help you stay competitive when it's time to seek a promotion or apply for a new opportunity. The tips below will help you improve your career development so you can succeed in your chosen career path.

Every employee working in an organization is looking for a career development which moves in the right direction. Career path taken by an employee determines the growth. Career should be planned in a way that it moves forward.
Career development provides the framework with skills, goals, awareness, assessment and performance which helps an individual to move in the right direction and achieve the goals one has in one's career. Careful career planning is always useful for individuals to succeed professionally and also helps to boost employee motivation in the organization.

The development of an individual's career is driven by several factors. Strategies to improve someone's career can be driven either by the company through organization development or by the individual himself or herself. Some strategies of career development are as following.
By Companies:
Training and development by companies can help in employees learn new skills. Companies help in providing leadership development, management development etc. This is all done through employee training sessions or developmental counselling. Employee development in the long run helps in career development.
By Employees:
Individuals can themselves boost their own career. This is done through constant evaluation of their skills using techniques like continuing professional development.
Continuous and repetitive efforts can help in the career development for an employee.

Following a series of steps, you can create a road map for professional growth and achieve your career goals.

Before you can begin working on your career development, it helps to know your options. This includes what industries might be the best fit for you, as well as the jobs and companies available within those industries. It's also a good idea to reflect on your own particular strengths and weaknesses so you can identify what to work on as you prepare your personal career path.
You can begin this exploration by job shadowing other employees in your company to learn about different jobs. This can also help broaden your skills at your current job and increase your ability to add value.
Explore lateral moves to other departments or companies to broaden and deepen your experience. Such moves can open doors, not to mention expand your network of colleagues. You can also seek out informational interviews to learn more from successful people in your field.

After getting an idea of your desired career, start by brainstorming and researching what skills, competencies and years of experience the people in your dream job have. Ask yourself: How can you gain them? Can you talk to someone already doing the work about how they got there?
As an example, imagine you are currently working as an entry-level software engineer at a tech company and want to eventually become a mid-level software engineer. In this case, a steady progression on the career ladder is needed.
Let’s say you researched what you need to make it to the mid-level engineering role within your company. Your research shows you need proficiency in up to three programming languages and to be more proactive within your role. Ask yourself how to boost these areas of expertise — maybe it involves learning another coding language, or maybe it involves leading more projects within your team. Necessary skills will change for each new role, so this process must be repeated in each rung of the career ladder.

Though everyone’s career development path is different, conducting this kind of research one role at a time for each role in your path gets you slightly closer to your conclusive goal or dream role. Compile your research on requirements for each role within your path to keep track of career progress and measure any skill gaps that may need filling.

Leaning on someone else's experience is a great way to gain knowledge and introduce yourself to other opportunities. You can seek a mentor at work, perhaps from a different department you'd like to explore.
Your boss might also be a perfect mentor, since they should be able to show you what you need to learn in order to develop in your current and future roles. They can help you manage your career at your current company. You can discuss your career path during periodic meetings with your boss.
Some companies firmly commit to their employees by supporting their career development with time and dollars. If yours doesn't, you might find mentorship from another person in your industry or a coach who can offer advice as you learn and grow.

Once you've explored your options and secured a mentor, you should have enough information to be able to set specific, measurable goals that will help you in developing your career, this is the most important step in career development because this is where one defines clear short term and long term goals to meet the career one aspires. Both short term and long term goals need to be defined to begin with.
Short term goals would be more actionable but long term goals can be changed or tweaked as per the growth.

Making a plan for your career development provides the structure necessary for achieving your goals. Without a plan, you can feel rudderless and you have no benchmark against which you can measure your progress.
Some companies have formal programs to help employees develop their careers. Companies with programs generally focus energy on helping employees develop and follow a career path. Such programs have clearly marked milestones to reach in order for the employee to progress along the career path.
If your company doesn't have such a program, you will need to pursue your career development more informally. Create your own career plan: what does success look like for you? How will you know you've achieved your goals? Don't forget to include the "stepping stones" that will get you from where you are today to where you want to be.
Planning involves breaking down your career aspirations into manageable, achievable tasks and developing a timeline for completing them.
Three examples of what your action plan can look like:
Skills development
If you want to acquire a new skill, your action plan may include researching training programs over the next week, enrolling in courses by the end of the month, and implementing the new skill in your career within the next quarter.
Career advancement
Your plan may include networking at the next business event, volunteering for a specific upcoming leadership opportunity, hiring a business coach next month, or seeking feedback from leadership once a week over the next quarter.
Career change
Your plan could include taking a month to research careers that align with your values, enrolling in certification courses or classes to gain skills in the new field over the next several months, networking with businesses, applying for positions in the new field over the next six to nine months, and transitioning to the new career field by next year.
By breaking down your aspirations into small tasks, you can stay focused, track milestones, and increase your chances of success.

Now it’s time to seek out opportunities to build the skills necessary for your desired path. Some hard skills like programming can be learned through classes or reading books, while some soft skills like interpersonal communication and collaboration are best learned on the job and by volunteering to take on additional responsibilities as they come up.
Keep an eye out for opportunities to show you’re capable and enthusiastic about moving to the next role level in your career. Additionally, don’t be afraid to seek guidance from mentors, managers or colleagues you encounter along the way, as they can be a great avenue for gaining such opportunities or just passing down industry knowledge.