How to Create a Five-Year Career Development Plan that Will Make You the Boss of your Career

Why is Having a Career Development Plan Important?

  • You take charge of your life's direction
  • You align your career with your values
  • You set yourself up to earn more money

How To Develop a 5-Year Career Plan

  1. Define Your Goals
  • First, think about the big goal! What do you want to do and be in 5 years?
  1. Ask yourself these questions:
  • What type of organization would have this role?
  • Where would you live?
  • What kind of work environment?
  • Are you going to be an entrepreneur?
  • Add all the details most important to you.
  1. Once the big picture is defined, work on short-term goals
  • Start by looking at job descriptions for that role.
  • See how closely you match the skills and requirements.
  • Make a note of commonalities.
  • Using this information, you can create short-term goals to build certain skills, obtain advanced education, and plan networking efforts.
  1. Identify Milestones
  • For every goal you have, identify key actions and a timeline to achieve it.
  • It will help you hold yourself accountable
  1. Find Mentors
  • Mentors are great at building our strengths and identifying areas of development.
  1. Pursue Professional Training
  • To be successful in any career, you never stop learning and growing.
  • Here are some resources to help you get started with training in your field
  • Coursera
  • LinkedIn Learning
  • Industry Association

Recap:

How to Develop a 5-Year Career Plan:

  1. Define your goals
  2. Identify milestones to achieve those goals
  3. Find Mentors to help guide your journey
  4. Pursue Professional Training to acquire the Skills