A career plan is a list of steps you can take to help you reach your professional goals. It starts with knowing where your skills, talents and interests lie and figuring out what roles and industries these translate to. You can work with this information to work out what qualifications you need and work out what careers will meet your financial needs.

The process of making a career plan will help give you clarity. In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive jobs market it can help you make choices and identify opportunities when they arise. Having a goal helps to keep you motivated and interested in your job.

But what does a career plan look like? How do you implement it? We’ve put together a short article for you to get you started with some tips on how to work with it throughout your career.

How To Start Your Marketing Career Plan

Start by identifying your field, or fields, of interest. Are you looking to get into design, social or strategy for example? Then, identify your goals. This is not a fixed goal,  it is highly likely your interests will change over the course of your career, not to mention various life events potentially changing your perspective and needs. But, right now – what are your goals? Where do you want to be?

Next, assess your current position and figure out what you need to do to start moving in the right direction. These steps should be more detailed (consider using the S.M.A.R.T. system) at first but will be more generic the further ahead into the future you are looking.

Remember, marketing regularly adapts to changing market and customer needs so both you and your career plan need to be adaptable. There are so many different jobs in marketing and roles will vary between agencies and in-house teams depending on the size of the company and nature of the client.

Identify any obstacles and how you might solve them. For example, if you lack a qualification, can you achieve this? Is it time to change companies to expand your horizons? How can you gain more experience? Finally, Write down your plan and you are good to go!

How To Implement Your Marketing Career Plan

You’ve written it all down, so what’s next? Just move one step at a time, and be industry aware. Read books and articles, listen to podcasts and attend events related to your career plan and goals. Try to keep on to of new trends and technologies and take advantage of any opportunity you have to learn or improve your skills.

All industries change and evolve, none more so than media, digital, tech and marketing. If your role or area of expertise becomes more reliant on technology you may find it harder to advance if you have limited technical skills. Remain flexible and evaluate your career plan from time to time. You may find your goals shift or a new route becomes available to you. Change is  good.

It’s Your Career Plan, Design It Your Way

Your career plan it just that, yours. You can refer back to it to help start your career and inform your moves if you feel you are stuck or ready for a change. Share your goals with your employer and ask them for advice. They might be able to identify opportunities or obstacles you have overlooked.

Fore more on career progression and possible career paths, visit the Dotgap digital marketing blog for more!