Career planning process
Steps to developing your own career plan.
There are a range of career planning models, which are based on four steps and can be summarised as:
Rushing through these four steps won't produce a good result. You need to work your way through these steps over time and should not make choices before thinking through 'knowing yourself' and 'exploring possibilities'.
You will need to have conversations at each stage of the process with the person who has the overall responsibility for assisting you with your career. This might be your manager or your professional or educational supervisor. You might also have conversations with others such as a person who with a little more experience than you, a career development specialist or people experienced in a particular field.
Whilst these people can help you with advice and insights, it’s your career so you will have to do most of the work on your career plan. Sometimes, your conversations with one or other of these people will be quite brief – just bouncing ideas or getting an insight. Sometimes, however, you might want to have a more formal or structured conversation - especially when you are wanting to look seriously into your future options, making choices and developing a plan to make things happen.
- Fill out the career plan template.
- See our career planning frequently asked questions.