The Ultimate Career Plan: Step-by-Step Guide to Advancing Your Career
Do you want to advance your career, but are not sure how? In this episode, I'm sharing a step-by-step guide to build the ultimate career plan to advance your career. With actionable tips and insights, you’ll be able to build a career plan to achieve your short-term and long-term goals.
After this episode, you'll be able to...
Discover what motivates you
Create a short-term and long-term career plan
Advance your career by identifying your strengths
Free Resources: Thank you for taking the time to write a review and for sharing the podcast with your friends. To claim your free Career Accelerator Workbook, please send a screenshot of your review to dreamjob@daniellecobo.com. We appreciate your support!
Want to work with Danielle? Schedule your call today: https://bit.ly/3OnuLLO
Let's Connect!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MsDanielleCobo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellecobo/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanielleCobo
Website: www.DanielleCobo.com
Book Recommendations: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-de49157c/list/2W8I8NWS6N4CJ
Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts
"Danielle is so Uplifting." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more women -- just like you -- accelerate their careers. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dream-job-with-danielle-cobo/id1571797640
Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. I’m adding a bunch of special release episodes and, if you’re not following, there’s a chance you may miss out. Follow now!
Step 1: Gain Self-Awareness
Reflect on your career goals, aspirations, and your core values. Understand what truly motivates you and what kind of impact you want to have in your professional life.
One exercise is to grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the center on one side. Write down the roles and responsibilities that you currently have in your job.
On one side, you're gonna write down what you love about the roles and responsibilities in your current role, and on the other side, you're gonna write some of the unfavorable roles and responsibilities that you have in your role.
Make a list that's gonna help you gain clarity. You can also grab your resume as a reference and go through step by step each of the roles that you've had throughout your career.
That's also gonna help you gain clarity and self-awareness of what motivates you.
Step 2: Assess Your Skills and Identify Areas of Improvement.
Take stock of your strengths and your opportunities for growth, both technically in terms of leadership and strata strategic thinking.
It's important to always look and identify where your strengths are, so you continue to leverage those strengths.
Those are also your motivators. Also, identify the areas that you can improve. We all have areas that we can improve. I know firsthand that there are areas that I need to improve on, and I constantly am taking courses, listening to podcasts, and reading books to develop the skills that I want to succeed, and you can do the same.
Step 3: Explore Different Career Paths, Gather Information, and Reach Out to Colleagues, Mentors, and Professionals in Various Roles.
Seek their insights and learn from their experiences. This will help you understand the expectations and challenges of different career paths. Research the different departments within your company and network with people in those departments to gain a better sense of what they do.
So if you want to step into a marketing role, reach out to the marketing director. Ask if you can schedule time with them. Perhaps it's shadowing them for a day or scheduling a one-on-one call and exploring some questions that can help you gain a better understanding of your role.
You'd be surprised at what information you could really gather by taking the time to speak to your colleagues and ask them about their roles.
That will also help you gain some clarity on whether that role excites you and whether it's maybe something that you wanna explore or maybe not.
Step 4: Align Your Values, Aspirations, and Research.
Take into account what you've learned through your conversations, the research that you've taken about yourself, and the options available to you.
Consider the pros and cons of each path and evaluate how they align with your personal and professional goals.
One example might be when I took the leap into a leadership role, I realized that I was going to be on the road a lot more than I was now. When I started my role in leadership, I was okay with it. I didn't have kids, I didn't have necessarily any obligations to be home by a certain time, and I enjoyed traveling.
I enjoyed being on the road. Now when I stepped in when had expanded my family. And definitely, through the pandemic, I realized how much I enjoyed being able to tuck my kids in every night and read them bedtime stories. I realized that being on the road every single week, spending the night in hotels for the current phase in life wasn't necessarily what I wanted to do.
But that's okay because I started a business and yes, I still travel, but a lot of the time I bring my family with me when I have speaking engagements.
So as you're exploring these different roles that you possibly might be pursuing, understand what the roles and responsibilities are, how they align with your strengths, the skills that you wanna develop, and the professional goals that you have.
Also, look at how that aligns with your current phase in life and what you want your lifestyle to be. Some roles don't require as much travel, but they do require working on the weekends that may or may not be important to you.
What are your long-term goals, and how do the different various roles that you're doing research on align with your core values and what you want your lifestyle to look like?
Step 5: Align Yourself with Mentors, Sponsors, And Coaches.
Align yourself with people that are gonna help guide you and who have had similar success and will guide you on what steps to take, and what steps not to take. Being able to ask exploratory questions, is going to help provide some clarity on what you want or don't want to do.
Somebody that can provide some perspectives on the various rules that are out there. Also, somebody that can advocate for you, and hold some accountability for you. I know that a lot of times when I'm working with my clients, there are some clients when they're looking for a new job, and we may have just a couple of sessions.
For the initial compensation package, they're so excited to have the role, but then they realize they just maybe could have asked for more, or they find out eventually that their peers are making more than them. Their colleagues are for the same role. I just had a client who had accepted a role, which was very exciting, and we were celebrating her success.
But through the process, there was an opportunity and I knew there was an opportunity to negotiate her compensation package and we were actually able to increase her salary by $20,000.
These conversations are crucial to the long-term success of your career. But even if you're not in that position right now where you're possibly looking to promote into a new role or you're looking for a new job, having somebody that can help guide you, um, throughout your journey and your long-term career is extremely valuable.
Step 6: Set Long-Term and Short-Term Goals to Develop New Skills
Whether you are setting goals professionally or personally. It breaks down step by step how to set and achieve your goals. Most importantly, to break through the seven roadblocks that stand in our way of achieving our goals.
Step 7: Get Involved in Special Projects.
So if there's a particular role that you are exploring, possibly wanting to pursue, get involved in special projects, you've taken that time to meet with somebody who's in that role.
That the roles and responsibilities for that particular role, now take it a step further and ask, “Hey, are there any special projects that you can get involved in to help me develop the skills that you want?” For that role, not only is it gonna help you develop the skills you're gonna get exposure to some of the roles and responsibilities of that.
Also, because you're working on this special project, you are going to be working side by side with the people that are in that role, who then can eventually be your sponsor and advocate for you when that role opens up.
But getting involved in special projects is not only gonna help you with developing new skills, but it's also going to get you exposure to various departments.
Step 8: Develop Your Brand
By developing a personal brand strategy, you'll be able to clearly communicate what your skills are and also be able to engage in conversations whether you are commenting on their posts or you are posting something that is engaging in a conversation.
Prioritize what matters to you most, and choose a career path that excites you, that challenges you, and allows you to make a positive impact in a way that aligns with your values and an aspirations.
When you understand what motivates you and what your values are and what excites you, you can absolutely choose a career, a job that you enjoy.
Don't settle for anything less.
Career as a Process
Building a career development plan is not a one-time event. It's an ongoing process of growth and self-discovery.
So stay open to new opportunities, continue to learn and develop new skills and reassess your goals periodically to ensure that they still resonate.
With who you are, where you want to go, and what phase of life that you are in.
When I'm working with my clients, a lot of times maybe they have found that new job or they've achieved the goals that they wanted. They've been promoted into these new roles, but they still wanna work together because they realize that the success that they've had in working with each other has propelled them to a higher level.
And they're like, why stop now? Let's keep going. So remember that as you're working towards your goal, it's not a one-time event. It's something you do consistently. And by applying these steps and taking action, you have the power to shape your career and create a path, a career path that brings fulfillment and success.
