An effective career plan is your roadmap to a professional life filled with success and satisfaction.  It’s a strategy crafted over time based on your experiences and evolving set of likes and dislikes.  Strong career planning will help you define your career goals clearly and achieve them in the shortest amount of time possible.

This guide will walk you through the key components of a strong career plan and explain how each of them serves you.  A strong plan includes your goals, a self-assessment, milestones, timeline, and custom strategies that accelerate your progress.  Each section builds on the previous to guide you to the career of your dreams.

1. Your Goals Are the Foundation

Your goals are the foundation that supports the rest of your career plan.  They could include income targets, specific companies you want to work for, publishing a book, or even retiring early.  They should answer the question: “What do you want from your career?”

In your first career planning session, start with a few basic goals and then add to them over time.

1. How much money do you want to make next year, 5 years out, 10 years, etc.
2. What is your dream job title?  Perhaps Vice President of a department, Chief Executive Officer, Dean of an institution, or Head of a division.  What job titles would you like to have along the way?
3. What is one achievement you want to accomplish in your career?  Maybe sit on a board of advisors, write a ground-breaking book in your industry, or achieve an award in your field.
4. What career goals do you want to achieve just because they would add to your satisfaction in life?

2. Assess What You Have to Offer

The next component is a targeted self-assessment.  Evaluate what specific skills and experience you can offer in your industry.  How many years of experience do you have with each and what is your level of mastery (beginner, advanced, etc.) Also, assess your interests and values relevant to your career. If you have ever been asked to do something you vowed you would never do again, it likely violated one of your values.  Keep a list of the skills, experience, interests, and values you identify in your career plan.  This is great information for your resume and interviews.

This list will also be helpful when you are evaluating future job openings.  Do your skills and experience align with the role? How interesting is it on a scale of 1-10. What questions will you ask in the interview to ensure it aligns with your most important values?  You’ll be glad you put in the extra thought when you realize that the big salary job offer requires you to micromanage your team, miss family time on nights and weekends, and scored a 10 out of 10 on the bore-me-to-death scale.

3. Milestones Every 3 to 5 Years

Your goals tell you where you are going and your self-assessment tells you where you are at.  The next step in career planning is to identify the milestones between today and your future.  Explore what job titles, experience, and other achievements will move you forward on your career path toward your goals.  Depending on the size of your organization you may start off as front line staff and work your way up through the management hierarchy (supervisor, manager, director, VP, etc.)  Or perhaps you work your way up through various levels of education and expertise to the highest level of mastery in your field.  The milestones should move you toward the overall career goals you defined earlier.

Plan on hitting a milestone every 3-5 years.  Then research what those milestones require to achieve them.  Some roles require a certain number of years of relevant experience.  A quick estimate is 3-5 years for managers, 5-10 years for directors, 10-15 years for executives.  Others require specific education, certification, and skillsets.  You can find these requirements by reviewing job postings within your own company, HR department, and services like ZipRecruiter, Monster, and Indeed.

4. Annual Career Timeline

The annual career timeline is the most important part of the career planning process.  It organizes your milestones and goals into a step by step roadmap for success.  Create a list of every year from now until you want to retire.  Then add the milestones and goals to the years you plan to achieve them.  This is a long-term plan that may span 30 years or more, so it’s ok if you don’t have major achievements in every year.

Now apply the requirements you researched earlier for your milestones and goals.  Plot additional education, experience, training, skillsets, etc. on your annual timeline to ensure they are completed before you need them.  You don’t want to set a goal to be a manager in 3 years if the job posting requires 5 years of additional experience.  Your timeline becomes a series of SMART goals that build on each other throughout your career. Every milestone should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to your career, and incorporated into your timeline.

5. Incorporate Custom Strategies

Customize your plan by incorporating additional strategies that move you forward.  One of the first I recommend in the coaching process is a growth strategy, also known as a personal development plan.  Countless people fall into the trap of having good intentions to take that one important class that would advance their careers. 10 years go by and they are in the exact same place they were a decade ago because regardless of their intentions, they never actually signed up for the class.  A little planning can turn those good intentions into action.

Create a growth strategy by listing out the skills, certifications, and other requirements you will need to obtain in the future to achieve your milestones. Identify how long they will take, what they cost, and how important they are. Then integrate them evenly into your career timeline based on when you need them for advancement. This will set you up to grow at a steady, affordable pace toward your goals. 

Imagine presenting your written personal development plan in an interview and discussing how you have been grooming yourself for that next big role. Extremely impressive! 

6. Plan For Action

The greatest plan ever created is still useless if it does not lead to action.  The final step is to transfer your career timeline objectives into your work schedule. Create appointments and reminders in your work calendar to complete the trainings, develop the skill sets, attend the networking events, etc. throughout the upcoming year.  Once the time is booked, all you need to do is show up.

The other half of taking action is deciding how often you are going to review your progress and make updates.  Birthdays and performance reviews are great times to reflect on where you are in life.  Look over your plan and be honest with yourself about the past year.  What new skills and experience can you add to your self-assessment (and resume)?  What adjustments do you need to make for next year?  Have any of your goals changed? Schedule a career planning session at least once per year to make updates and schedule reminders and appointments for the following year.

Related Article: 4 Career Plan Updates To Get A Better Job

Living the Dream

There is a saying that if you love your job you’ll never work a day in your life.  Yet most people focus on obtaining the bare minimum: get a job as quickly as possible, pay the bills, and stay sane. The key to obtaining the elusive love-my-job lifestyle is shifting your mindset.  Change your focus from avoiding the things you hate to targeting the things you love and build your plan accordingly.

If you want fame and prestige, what roles could actually make that a possibility?  If you want to be of service and help others, work in healthcare, a non-profit, or with a company that contributes to the community.  If you aren’t sure or just want some help with the process, make an appointment with your career coach to plan for future success.  It is possible to have a vastly fulfilling career that is aligned with your goals and honors your values.  It’s far more likely if you plan for it!