Designing a Career Plan

Writing your career goals on the destroyed sniper tower in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina may not count as a career plan, but researching and putting pen to paper to set some objectives can help your career plan substantially.

Regardless of your current career stage, hopefully you will enjoy some quieter time at work at some point in the summer months to reflect about your career and where you would like it to go.  When I had a career, I made time for this kind of reflection multiple times a year to keep me in a good position to direct my career as I wanted.  This led to job hops and promotions, but it also led to more interesting and fulfilling work along the way.  Designing a career plan helped me know when I was on track and whether I wanted to strive for the next career achievement or move.

As workplaces continuously push for faster results, it is easy to forget to reflect on where you are in your career.  It is often the commitment that gets pushed back days, weeks, or months until we realize we have been grinding out unenjoyable work for years out of routine.  Make time for the reflection so you can design a career plan that works for you.  It will improve your day-to-day happiness, will almost certainly get you paid more, and may even open your eyes to a path you had not considered previously.

Emulate the Experiences of People Who Have the Jobs You Want

Especially when you are early in your career or still in school, emulate the experiences of individuals who have the job you want.  As I prepared to move from teaching in Las Vegas, NV (my first job after college) to Washington, DC, I researched individuals who had jobs that interested me.  I looked at their bios and CVs and wrote down all the internships and early career experiences they had to look for common themes.  This culminated with me identifying what experiences I wanted to gain during my two years of graduate school.  I gave myself the flexibility of order when gaining these experiences, but at the end of graduate school I managed to gain experience working at a think tank focused on national security issues and defense spending, conducting quantitative research on terrorism, traveling abroad for a course on Non-State Actors, working in the office of a U.S. Senator, and experiencing the day-to-day chaos in the Security Assistance field at the State Department.  The experience in security assistance would define my career as I moved to the Defense Department side of the equation, developed an expertise in security cooperation processes, and eventually led security cooperation data and knowledge management.

I initially was particularly interested in the defense budget, but I learned over time that I was indirectly seeking the intersection of national security/defense issues and the opportunity to work with numbers for some true data analysis.  Despite writing about security assistance to Israel (negatively, which is part of why I ended up in security cooperation efforts assisting countries with greater need instead) back in 2013, it took years to realize this specialized area of interest was the one where my interests met my skill set.

Emulating the experiences of those with jobs you dream of having someday does two things.  First, it may let you follow the path of someone else if that path does truly make you happy.  More likely, making sure you provide yourself with a handful of experiences that others had early in their careers will increase the probability that something will click with you.  You will find an area of work that interests you and that you excel at simultaneously.  If you only seek out a few experiences, you are less likely to find that ideal fit.

While designing experiences for yourself, also remain open to the insights those experiences provide.  We all have a tendency to ignore moments of career path enlightenment if we already have a specific dream job in mind.  This happened to me.  I had a dream job in college that I thought would be the best job in the world, the only one I could ever want.  In 2020, I got that job.  In January 2021, I gave it a try even though I was happily working in security cooperation with no intention of moving.  It took me less than four months to realize that my “dream job” had been extremely glamorized, and I went back to security cooperation in May 2021.

Designing a career plan starts by listing out all the early career experiences you want to live.  Be relentless in prioritizing having as many of these experiences as possible.  However, give yourself the flexibility to learn what you do not expect from these experiences.  In hindsight, security cooperation called to me from the time I was studying for the B.A. in International Relations that I earned in 2013.  But it took me until 2021 to fully embrace it as the place I belonged, even after I had been working in the field for a couple of years.  An initial career plan is not a straight path up a ladder, but rather a smattering of experiences you are committed to living to find what career engages you.

Double Down on What You Enjoy Learning

Some of you probably learned what work makes you happy more quickly than I did, and that is wonderful!  Whether you have already found that space or are still searching, pay attention to what you enjoy learning.  This may not change the field in which you work, but it may offer insights into what career trajectory you want to pursue.

Particularly early in your career, notice what pieces of your job give you joy and what parts you dread.  Your aim should be to make the parts of your job that give you joy a greater part of your responsibilities while decreasing responsibilities that you dread.  Accomplish this by bolstering your expertise in the areas that excite you.  If you like giving presentations, join a Toastmasters group to perfect the skill so you become the best presenter at your company.  If you like working with large data sets like me, take online courses to improve your data analysis skills further.

Your niche may be incongruous with your degree.  That incongruity is perfectly okay.  You do not need a whole new credential as long as you already have your foot in the door in a career that uses or could use the area in which you enjoy learning.  While I would recommend taking courses or working on the area you enjoy so you can become an expert, that expertise does not need to come with a slip of paper.  Just show your expertise at work.

Showing off your expertise means asking for more of the type of work you want.  Ask to lead the next presentation or deliver the data analytics for your superior.   Over time, you will build your niche, become more of an expert, and increase your value in the workplace.  Career plans are not just about how to move to the next level.  Career plans help you enjoy yourself more at work and increase your value while you feel like you are having fun.

Outline the Different Career Experiences You Want to Have Early

Particularly if you plan to have a long career, reflect on what experiences you want to have within that career.  Similar to defining what experiences you want to have while in school or your early career, this is a narrower version that assumes you have already picked a specific career field but now need to define what you do within that field.

Ideally, these experiences should emphasize whatever you enjoy learning, but they also may push you out of your comfort zone.  Experiences may include working at your company’s office in another country for a few years, cross-training in another department, or taking advantage of a mentorship program.  Examine what experiences your industry offers, and identify which ones appeal to you.  As you design your career plan, pinpoint when you would value those experiences.  Which ones should happen early in your career as opposed to later down the road?  Push for those early ones to happen as soon as you can, and make sure you prioritize later ones when the time is right.

Every industry is different, but all of them have opportunities to make you a more valuable employee through new experiences.  In the consulting industry, this may mean participating in part of business development, attending events showing innovative solutions, or electing to be the person meeting with potential clients.  In the public sector where mobility is common, this may mean deciding you want to work in a different division for a short-term project, work as the surge coverage for a timely issue, or pursue an educational program for government leaders.  At a nonprofit, this may mean speaking on a panel, hosting a conference, or leading the production of a publication.  Reflection is key to discovering what experiences entice you.

Prepare to Ask for a Promotion at Any Time

Even before you bolster an area of interest with additional education or seek extra experiences within your workplace, you should have a brag sheet or folder.  A brag sheet or folder starts as a simple list of compliments from your coworkers and supervisors raving about your work.  Receive an email praising your work during your second week on the job?  Save it in a folder where you will continue to save any similar praise over the weeks and months to come.

In addition to collecting praise, you should also list out your accomplishments on a regular basis.  Some people like to do this weekly, but I always found a monthly summary worked well for me.  That said, keep a running account on a day-to-day basis so you make sure you do not forget anything.  This could just be checking off boxes in Microsoft Planner or Asana, or you could jot a note in a Word doc where you will eventually write your monthly recap so that you have everything when you need it.

Write out those accomplishments each month and then review how impressive they are after six months or a year.  You can summarize them annually if you want or let these monthly recaps stand alone.  Either way, having them ready to go makes it easier for you to ask for a promotion at any point.  You have already put in the work to organize your accomplishments on the job.

Having this ready is not to surprise your supervisor with a promotion request outside of normal promotion season.  You have this list ready in case an interesting job opening at a higher level becomes available or you see a gap in work that needs to be filled and could be filled by your area of expertise.  Openings are sometimes unpredictable, and being able to advocate for yourself immediately may be the difference in landing a new position you love.  Even if no openings appear, you are still prepared when annual reviews come around so you can request a raise and promotion!

Identify the Highest Promotion You Want

While you definitely want to seek promotions in your early career, an important part of designing a career plan is identifying the highest promotion you would like.  Corporate culture pushes you to always be seeking a promotion until you land a job in the C-suite of a major company.  But if the part of work that makes you happiest is graphic design for publications, you probably do not want a C-suite job that would prevent you from directly doing that work.

I knew when I secured my final title promotion because it was the last promotion I sought.  I wanted to be a Senior Consultant but had no ambition to rise beyond that because I knew the schedules of people above that level were consumed by meetings rather than actually accomplishing work.  I would rather accomplish something real than talk at people all day.  Fortunately, I did receive one major ($20k+ is my definition of major) raise before leaving the workforce, but I kept the same title with that raise.

It is okay to decide you want to run your company in ten years, and it is okay to decide you only want one more promotion before the responsibilities of the job do not align with your ideal day.  Either way, include that in your career plan.  Your career plan should be honest.  Honest career plans acknowledge when you would rather not seek the promotion because the job description would diminish your energy.

Let Yourself Dream About What Comes Next

We sometimes focus our career plan entirely on our current place of work, assuming we will rise through the ranks to eventually obtain a leadership role (if we decide we want one, according to the previous section).  However, career planning should also allow for dreaming beyond the typical career trajectory.

When designing a career plan, also reflect on all the experiences you would like to have in the future.  These can be ones that are obviously career-focused or slightly less focused.  If you let yourself dream about living in Southeast Asia for a couple of years now, you feel more confident immediately responding that you are interested when your company announces that it wants to open a new office in Bangkok next year.  Life goals sometimes correspond with career developments, and you have to take advantage when they do.

You should also dream beyond the career space because it may help you decide how long you want to work and in what capacity.  When I was honest about what work I would do if money were no object, I wanted to coach rugby.  I started my unpaid coaching career in 2023, and its growth played a part in leaving my full-time paid job when I did.  I had reached the point where I could not give the energy I needed to continue improving as a rugby coach, and that was more important to me than my day job.  Sometimes the jobs we love most do not offer sustainable incomes.  Luckily, I invested a lot from the $175,000 job I did not keep to sustain myself during the $0 job I love.

Your reality is almost certainly different, but there is probably at least one person reading this thinking they want to design a career path that prioritizes their desire to keep playing rugby.  There is probably someone else working to make the jump from a 9-to-5 to entrepreneurship.  There may be someone interested in becoming a digital nomad with the freedom to travel the world all year.  Someone else may want to take years off to raise children before those kids reach school age.  All of these dreams are part of a career plan.  Your career plan is not separate from your life plan.  It should fit into your life.  Designing a career plan is just figuring out how to be happiest while earning enough money to live the life of your dreams.  The sooner you prioritize your happiness, the sooner your career will feel fulfilling as your focus becomes your ideal life.