“... for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life— the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.”
Hunter S. Thomson
Is there any greater question than what we will do with our lives? You’d think that PMs of all people would care deeply about what they want out of their careers. And yet many product managers who have robust strategies and enviable records of shipping on their products lack even the vaguest sense of direction in their careers.
Given how much time we spend at work, this is nuts.
Time is the one truly finite resource. What’s the point of grinding out a job we don’t care for, or being anything other than very deliberate about how we spend our precious days? We should carpe them diems, and make the most of the time we have.
Of course, you don’t need to swim for a goal - you can always float with the tide. But if you want to be intentional with your time, if you want to define your purpose, and live a life to your full potential, we humbly present our guide to creating a career development plan - a rather bland description for an existential task.
Career Development Plan
A career development plan is a powerful tool designed to help you identify your career goals, and chart a path towards success. It's a roadmap for professional growth that enables you to intentionally build your network, skills, and experiences to forge a meaningful and fulfilling career.
Creating a career development plan offers a number of benefits:
- Motivation - it can increase your motivation and engagement with your job by giving you clarity about where you’re trying to get to, and framing your current work in a larger context.
- Achievable - it can make it clear whether your aspirations are achievable, and help you create a credible pathway to reaching them. This not only makes it clear what you should be doing right now, but also provides a way of tracking your progress over time.
- Control - a career development plan focuses you on the actions that you can take to achieve your goals, and creates personal accountability. This increases the chances of you following through on your plans and achieving your goals, as well as giving you a sense of control that can improve your mental health.
Hustle Badger career development plan The template that we’ve created breaks down your career development plan similarly to how you’d create a strategy for a product, and includes the following sections:
- Vision - where you are trying to get to
- Edge - unique value you offer the world
- Stakeholders - who will support you along the way
- Roadmap - the high level timeline for reaching your goal
- Skills - analysis of the skills you need to develop to get there
- Backlog - the immediate actions you’ll take to make progress
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