How to Jumpstart Your Career Development

Working on your career development is essential as you progress in your profession. It consists of everything from networking to mentorship and fine-tuning and developing your skills. In this post, we break down the best ways to enhance your career development with steps to help you obtain the job you want.

By Brandi Fowler

Career development is a process in which you take steps to manage and advance your career through several methods, including self-assessment, mentorship, networking and developing new skill sets.?

When dealing with everything your full-time job entails, it can be easy to brush aside aspirations and not take time to focus on your strategy to climb the proverbial ladder.

Consider this your reminder to switch that up. Creating a game plan to take control of your career can help your progression, and it is important to put energy into that when you’re looking for a new job and also while you’re in your current role.?

Knowing where to begin and the best way to enhance your career development can be overwhelming, so I chatted with career coaches Rob Kim , Tania Mendes , and Carla Carstens to break down the steps to handle it in the strongest way.

They said the process should start with self-reflection to pinpoint how you want the next step of your career to look.

“I'm very big on doing the internal work and then doing the external work,” Mendes said. “The first thing that I think is really important is getting clear on what you want.”

Start Your Career Development With a Self Check-In?

A helpful way to start your self-assessment is to focus on four things Mendes said most people are motivated by when they're shifting into a new career or role: Life, impact, income and feel.?

1. Delve into what you want your life to look like. If you want children soon or prefer to work from home are two questions you can ask yourself to determine the work/life balance that will be a good fit.
2. Determine the type of impact you want to have at work and within the industry. “A lot of people are motivated by switching jobs because they just don't feel like they're making an impact in their current environment,” Mendes said. “So the question that you would ask yourself there is, how do you want to drive change?”
3. Ask yourself questions about how much money you want to make. What is the base salary you would need to bring in to maintain the life you want to live? What salary range are you targeting for your next role??
4. Break down how you want to feel every day when you go to work. “A lot of us spend on average 40 hours a week at work,” Mendes said. “If you don't feel good going to work, you're constantly going to be misaligned and not fulfilled in your job.”?

Take time to write down your thoughts for each. Making notes before starting a job search will help you develop a clear picture of a position that is a good fit for you.?

“That's going to be your guide of where you need to shift in finding a career or a role or a company that's most in alignment with you in this next chapter that you're going into,” Mendes said.?

Identify the Elements You Need to for Career Growth and Development

After you determine what you want the next step in your career to look like, identify what you need to get there, whether that is training, special skills or education.

Looking at job descriptions can be helpful too. That way you can see the requirements and skills needed for positions that you’re interested in and align your career development strategy with them.?

It is also key, Kim said, to identify “the three Ps: people, places and positions” when looking for a new job.?

“Who are the people that are doing things that I can learn from, what are the places i.e. companies that need me or would value my interests and skills, and what jobs fit my values, skills and interest,” Kim said.

Take Advantage of Where You Are Now: Network and Strengthen Your Skills

While you’re in your current role, take advantage of all that is being offered to you to advance your skills, and remember to network within your workplace, too.?

“Career development not only happens when you're trying to get a job, but you're also developing your career within the work you have,” Carstens said.?

You can do that by going to workshops that the company offers that help you develop or strengthen your skills or use any funding your company has set aside for you for educational training.

“I think it's easy in our job to be like, oh, I don't want to be here, this is not where I want to be,” Kim said. “It's like, hey, you're getting paid. Why not get paid to learn how to get closer to where you want to go?”?

Another helpful exercise to practice at work is asking for feedback, which can help you identify weaknesses to strengthen.?

“People view yearly reviews as something worth dreading. I view them as opportunities,” Carstens said. “We love a review because we are getting feedback straight from the horse's mouth on what you need to do to be a top performer. And what do top performers get? They get raises and promotions.”

There is no need to wait until a yearly review to check in, though. You can touch base when you’re wrapping a project or ask your old supervisors for feedback.?

“You can say, I know I never asked you this before, but, as I go into the next phase of my career, I was curious if you could remember anything that I could have improved on when I was working with you,” Carstens said.

That is also a great way to open up a conversation with an ex-colleague or potential mentor, she said, who might be able to help you in the next step of your career.?

In addition to those tactics, one of the best things you can do to help your career development is to network.?

“Instead of looking at it as reaching out to a stranger, I always tell people to look at it from a lens of community building,” Mendes said. “LinkedIn makes it very easy to network compared to how it was years prior. Conferences, industry meetups, seminars, and virtual coffees are great, too.”

Capitalize on that. Research who works at the companies you are interested in and see if you have a connection with them via LinkedIn. Whether you do or not, when you message someone, always be clear about why you’re contacting them instead of just sending a connection request.?

Finally, use the steps above as a strategy guide to map out your career development. When you take time to work on yourself and explore what you want your next work chapter to look like, it can help prevent getting stuck in a role that isn’t right for you.

(Editing by Todd Dybas )