“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” -Lewis Carroll
Where are you going in your career? What is your plan? Nobody cares more about your career growth than YOU. You company may be great at providing career growth opportunities but the impetus is still on you to figure out where you want to go. If you don’t decide, someone will implicitly decide for you and you may not end up where you want to be.
Consider becoming something a few rungs up on the growth ladder. You may not be ready today, but you can start early and keep working on it. Even as a new hire, you can start as follows:
- Be awesome at what you do
- Expand what you do and your reach
- Go to step 1.
Work with a mentor further ahead in your field who can give you guidance along the way. Iterate that 3-step cycle enough times and you’ll be closer to your end target.
Whatever your target is, you should do a gap analysis. Write down the names of three people in that role and look at their strengths. Think about what you could do to get to their level and set reasonable improvement goals. At the same time, don’t be so consumed by the gaps that you start suffering from Impostor Syndrome. Each of these people is a unique blend of skills and you will have your own unique blend of strengths and weaknesses. Focus on improving every single day.
Find out what the requirements are for your target position and write down your progress towards them. I recommend tracking with a simple spreadsheet with tabs for each of the major focus areas. The point of this tracker is to give you a reminder of your accomplishments towards your target. After you use it, you should start to feel a drumbeat such as “it’s about time to do X”, where X may be “write a blog” or “give a talk” or whatever is important in your field.
It’s up to you to decide what you want your career to be. You are in the driver’s seat and need to take the initiative. Regardless of what your goal is in your profession, it behooves you to keep track of your progress against your distant goals and to focus on improving every day.
