Career pathing involves understanding what knowledge, skills, personal characteristics, and experience are required for you to progress your career laterally, or through access to promotions and/or departmental transfers. Career pathing requires you to take an honest look at his or her career goals, skills, needed knowledge, experience, and personal characteristics. Making a career path plan requires you to obtain what is necessary for each of these areas to carry out your career path.
You Owe Yourself a Career Path Plan
Are you reaping the benefits of a thoughtfully developed, written, employer-supported career path plan? Creating a career path is an essential component of your lifelong career management and success. The performance appraisal, in some organizations, is also an opportunity for career pathing. Career pathing is also perceived, in organizations with a formal process, as having institutional support. The career path encompasses both your desired destination and the steps, experience, and development you will need to make progress on the journey. A career path gives you a sense of direction, a way to assess career progress, and an opportunity to achieve career goals and milestones along the way. Developing a career path is easier, and more supported, in an organization that has a PDP process, or an effective performance appraisal or career planning process. You can, however, as an individual employee, make your own career path plan. You are the individual for whom the career path is the most important. You deserve a thoughtful career path plan.
How To Develop a Career Path
You can develop a career path by taking a look at your desired job/jobs within your organization. Then, chart a course through jobs and departments, with the help of your supervisor or manager and human resources staff, that is the most likely career path that will let you achieve your goal. Recognize that obtaining the job you desire may require lateral moves, departmental transfers, and job promotions along the way if you are to achieve your goal. For example, if you would like to be a director, but your current department doesn’t have that role, you may want to switch teams laterally now so that you can work hard to earn promotions and grow into a director in the future. Attaining your desired goal will also require that you develop skills, pursue employee development opportunities, and obtain certain experiences—like people management, presentations, strategy, and project management—as you progress along your career path through your organization.
3 Additional Things To Consider When Developing a Career Path Plan
You Need To Decide on Your Career Goals and Desired Jobs
While coaching and mentoring may help you arrive at several possible career options, completing career exploration is your own task outside of work. You can contact career professionals at your college career services offices, local community colleges, or research online where career information and career tests and quizzes abound.
Put Your Career Path Plan in Writing
If you are lucky enough to work within an organization that has an employee performance and/or career development process, the written plan is an integral component. If not, put your own plan in writing and share it with your supervisor, human resources, and involved others. Writing down your goals is an integral part of achieving them.
You Own Your Career Path Plan
You can seek assistance from others, but you are the fundamental recipient of the rewards earned by following a planned career path. You are responsible for seeking a mentor, applying for internal job openings, and developing the skills and experience necessary for you to achieve your goals. Never forget this significant fact: you own your career path plan. No one will ever care as much as you do.
How To Support Effective Career Path Planning and Development
If you’re a manager, your employees want to see and understand the next opportunities within their company. This is especially important for ambitious employees who want and expect to see career development opportunities to be satisfied and motivated at work. A thoughtful career path plan is a key factor in employee engagement and employee retention. An organization contributes to an employee’s ability to develop a career path by making the knowledge, skills, experience, and job requirements for each position within the company transparent. With this information, the employee can plan and prepare for various jobs and opportunities. The organization supports employees in developing and pursuing a career path by providing access to opportunities and information such as job descriptions, an internal job application process, mentoring, promotions, and more. With access to these processes and systems, every employee should have the opportunity to pursue a career path.
