Building a Professional Development Plan (Step 3)

Read Building a Professional Development Plan (Step 2)!

Your objective in this final step is to create an action plan that will enhance your strengths, improve your weaknesses, and get your professional profile from step 1 looking more like the job description you created in step 2.

To get started, you will need to research professional development options and opportunities. Your choices should be accessible to you within the next 6 months. Internships and volunteering are very accessible options to gain experience and work on skills; in growing cases, internships and volunteer jobs can even be 100% telecommute. Volunteermatch.org is a great place to start looking for virtual opportunities.

Below is a list of other options you can look into. Letters in the parenthesis represent the four professional development categories of your professional profile (knowledge, skills, experience, connections) that are affected.

Non-inclusive List of Professional Development Options

·         Read and understand a book (Ks)

·         Attend a learning event (KsC)

·         Take an online course (Ks)

·         Have regular meetings with a mentor (Kc)

·         Start a blog (kSEc)

·         Volunteer (SEc)

·         Take courses AT a local college (Ksc)

·         Become a direct sales consultant (KSEC)

·         Research a topic/subject of interest formally or informally (K)

·         Write and contribute articles to online publications (ksEc)

·         Join and participate in networking and professional groups (kC)

·         Intern (kSEc)

·         Plan and follow through on your own small project (ksec)

Take your time and be very selective. You want to make sure you are choosing options that will have a relevant impact on your professional value (your contribution to the growth and success of your business).

Once you feel you have found yourself a variety of options, it’s time to create your action plan. Below are the categories I recommend including in your action plan via a screen clip of how I’ve laid out my plan in Excel.

Click for a better view!

I would suggest your first item be something you can complete within the next 30 days so you don’t get discouraged working on a harder goal; alternate between hard and easy tasks when constructing your plan for the same reason.

Finally, creating your professional development plan in a spreadsheet and keeping it on your desktop makes for easy editing and retrieval.

Tell us your thoughts on our Building a Professional Development Plan series. Did we miss anything you think should be included? Comment below or send us an email!

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Building a Professional Development Plan (Step 2)

Read Building a Professional Development Plan (Step 1)!

Step 2 is…a bit more involved than step 1, but it’s worth having it down on paper then seeing your vision materialize. In this step, you’ll essentially be designing a job description — a job description containing the knowledge, skills, experience, and connections you’ll need to excel at the role you ultimately envision yourself in.

This post will take you through finding the right job ads, dissecting the job description, and tying it all into step 1.

Finding the right job ads

Using the right job ads will set a good base for the rest of your professional development plan, so it’s important to use the ones best suited for your needs. The first thing to consider is where the ad was found. Popular sites are Monster.com and Indeed.com Craigslist is ok for when you’re looking for a job, but for your PDP you may want to stick to the most credible sources. Another great site, especially for alternative and creative roles is TalentZoo.com.

Other things to keep in mind are: the industry (is it an industry you see yourself in), type of company (is it a startup, nonprofit, small business, etc), and your attraction to the overall role described (how similar is it to the role you envision yourself in). You want to match all these things as closely as possible to your interests and ideals.

Dissecting the job description

Don’t just read the job description, understand it. Review it line by line and determine the non-negotiables. Non-negotiables are the minimum requirements needed to qualify for the job. When determining the non-negotiables, make note of placement and repetition. The closer to the top a requirement is placed, the higher its priority. The more important a requirement, the more times it is repeated — this holds true when analyzing a description in isolation or analyzing a group of descriptions.

While dissecting and analyzing the job descriptions, you will be sorting the information into the four categories from step 1 (knowledge, skills, experience, and connections). The following chart highlights what to look out for to identify each category.

Click for a better view!

Tying it into step 1

Once you’ve completed the job description, you’ll need to compare it to the profile you created in step 1. What you are looking for is your primary areas of improvement. Your primary areas of improvement are your weaknesses from step 1 that are non-negotiables in your job description. Also, make note of items in your job description that do not appear at all (as a strength or weakness) on your professional state profile from step 1.

To finish this step, you’ll be setting goals, both short term (6-12months) and long term (3-5years). Make sure all your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound.

In the final step that will be published next week, you’ll be creating an action plan to improve your weaknesses and enhance your strengths.

OAN: Keeping Up…

If you’ve been keeping up with this series, give us your feedback. How are you following along so far? Have you benefited thus far?

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Building a Professional Development Plan (Step 1)

Read the Building a Professional Development Plan introduction post!

In step 1, you’ll be identifying what professional knowledge, skills, experience, and connections add to or subtract from your professional value. Strengths add to your value, weaknesses subtract from it.

What is professional value? Professional value is what differentiates you from other professionals. It is an objective perception. It may sound like an oxymoron because perception in itself is subjective, but the same strengths and weaknesses that made you seem invaluable can make you seem less than the standard depending on the situation and the people involved. However, this assessment is for yourself and your business, so as you go through brainstorming and creating your lists, think about the needs of your business. How valuable are you to your own business?

To get an idea of your professional value, you will be listing your strengths and weaknesses for each of these professional categories: knowledge, skills, experience, and connections. You will then assess yourself based on your lists. Let’s call this assessment your professional profile and each category a section.

NOTE: As you go through each section in your profile, think in terms of business management, leadership, as well as industry and profession specific topics.

The rest of this post has descriptions and examples to help you better understand each section and get your thoughts flowing.  

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Knowledge

Knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience or education, but knowledge does not assume understanding. With that in mind, knowledge is a strength if you have and understand it. Knowledge can also be a strength if you have more information on a particular subject than the average person in the related field. Additionally, possessing knowledge that is rare or not easily accessible can also be a strength. To determine if something in this category is a weakness, you have to think about what you don’t know. Consider this proverb: “She who knows what she does not know is wise. She he who knows not what she does not know is a fool.”

Skills

Skills are something you can put into practice; you can also measure the results you produce. If you can effectively and confidently teach and demonstrate a skill, it is a strength. It is also a strength if you produce results that are consistently above the standard. A weak skill is something you have trouble putting into practice.

Experience

Experience comes in many forms. When you are putting your list together, don’t forget things like volunteer jobs and small projects including ones for friends, family, and school. Experience is a strength if it was a unique or uncommon experience or if you have 5+ years of firsthand experience in a particular area. If an experience negatively impacts your credentials, it is a weakness. Refer to your completed knowledge and skills lists if you have trouble brainstorming for this section; think about what experiences had a significant impact on acquiring or improving your skills and knowledge.

Connections

This section is all about the people in your network, the people that should be in your network, and your level of influence within your network. If you have significant influence over a particular network or influence over someone who does, that connection is a strength. If you have a bad/negative reputation within a network, that is a weakness. If you do not belong to common and easily accessible networks that are in line with your goals and professional persona, that is also a weakness.

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How'd you do?

Your completed profile will serve as your starting point for your professional development, so it is important that you are thorough and honest. If you don’t have many strengths, it could be an indication that you lack focus or direction in your career. Many weaknesses can indicate that your approach may need adjustment.

In step 2, you will be completing a similar exercise and thinking about your goals. Goals should be SMART so a good plan can be made to achieve them. Think about that while you wait to see what’s in store for the next step.

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