–An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin

For many successful people, routine is a fundamental part of their lives. For most of them, the morning routine is vital since, in this part of the day, they can establish their framework, do breathing exercises, perform visualization practices, and plan the day.

Regarding a professional career, the story is not different. Successful people identify their growth opportunities and plan any career change in their early stages when they’re fresh. Something that connects successful people is that they all have a professional development plan. In this article, we’ll show you how to structure one.

A professional development plan, AKA PDP, is a trace that contains a series of steps you must follow to achieve your professional interests and goals. 

There are as many professional development plans as many people exist because they are personal and unique. 

A professional development plan helps you gain insight into how you can assess your career and reach your aspirations, such as getting a new position in the company or earning a new certification.

A professional development plan is handy when applying for a new job or searching for a unique opportunity. Defining your professional goals will make your goals clear and how to navigate the search process.

A professional development plan can adopt multiple forms. There is no single format or template for a professional development plan, so you can use those you find on the web or create your own. 

This document can adopt the form of a simple typed copy or a well-structured table with columns and rows. 

Still, using a proper template can help you plan your professional future methodically and the goals you need to complete to achieve your vision.

It would help if you kept your own PDP updated all the time or at least every time you accomplish relevant milestones. Besides, with continuing updates, you can refresh and set new goals to help you grow professionally.

The best tool to build a PDP project is the Microsoft Office suite. As you may know, some Microsoft applications, such as Word, and Excel, provide excellent solutions and several features to structure a good plan. 

If you do not have Microsoft Office on your computer, be happy to know that here, on RoyalCDKeys, you can acquire a Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global CD Key for €11,55.

Creating your PDP involves following an action plan and a well-built structure. As a rule, a good PDP can be divided into six actionable steps. These are: 

• Perform a self-assessment.
• Set realistic goals.
• Develop strategies.
• Gather resources.
• Create a timeline.
• Track progress and check it.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Where are you currently in your professional career?
• What is your current job?
• How do you feel about your current position?

Evaluate your professional interests, current skills, and knowledge. This process allows you to determine your positions regarding the professional and personal goals you want to achieve. This way, you can identify areas or needed skills you want to improve.  You can also determine your transferable skills. 

What are transferable skills?

These are marketable skills that recruiters and employers seek in candidates. Some examples are teamwork, leadership, and communication skills. 

We also recommend you list the software you are proficient with. Be honest with yourself and note every career change you need in your professional growth. Remember that successful people need to be clear about their current situation.

Once you finish the previous step, you need to clarify your objectives. The goals you’ll include in your individual professional development plans should be SMART goals, i.e.,

• Specific;
• Measurable;
• Achievable;
• Relevant;
• Timely.

If your goals meet these characteristics, you’ll be able to track their progress. This way, you can regularly update the PDP and your goals occasionally when you complete essential milestones.

When you structure your goals, do it so that you can achieve them by completing them step by step. Professional associations tend to organize the objectives in order of priority and categorize them as long-, mid, and short-term.

• Long-term goals. You can wait for an excellent job proposal and quit your current job. Of course, a good job may take time to find. 
• Mid-term goals. For example, you can apply for five jobs in which you’re interested. 
• Short-term goals. Find five job proposals at the end of the week.

Every good plan needs a strategy to be carried out. Your mission defines your planning to face challenges from the beginning. 

How can I expand my knowledge? How can I develop new abilities and get a promotion in my job? 

The first step is to evaluate your current skills and the necessary skills you require to change in your career. Also, analyze your career goals, and trace a career path to reach these objectives.  

The relevance is to define how you’ll get your career goals. 

The best practice is to make a list with several approaches, such as practical learning, exposure, reflection, and education. 

Your practical strategies will give you valuable hands-on experience when you develop additional skills and take on new responsibilities.

Below are some tips you should consider when you define and develop your strategy:

• If you desire or need a career change, consider online courses and the education certifications you need to complete the change.
• Find a mentor, or a professional contact, who can provide you with a piece of advice about the change you want to make. 
• If you’re interested in improving and learning new skills, you can ask your manager for opportunities at your current organization. Further responsibilities will help you gain new skills for new projects.  
• Attend conferences or be part of a workshop to improve your abilities.

In PDPs, professionals can develop their skill sets in resources, places, programs, and institutions. 

The next step is thinking about how to develop your professional growth for success. Next, you can find some examples of resources that might help your career development.

• Webinars. The best thing about web conferences is that you can attend them anywhere. Take part in webinars that evaluate industry trends or where you can learn about new tools in your field.
• Workshops and seminars. These resources can help you to develop new skills.
• Continuing Education Institutions. These institutions offer conferences and courses about specific topics, so they can help you advance in your field. Most of the education courses lead to a degree or certification.  
• Online courses. Some crucial institutions offer you the opportunity to take an online course to help you expand your knowledge about a specific topic. You can take some brief courses focused on a particular benefit for your profession or goals. 
• Professional media. Some professional channels represent an excellent alternative to connect with colleagues and mentors and get feedback from them.  
• Social media. Social media such as Facebook and Linkedin allow you to be part of specialized groups in which members are developing a specific topic of your interest. You can discuss and learn every point the group touches and even begin a discussion. You can participate alone or with other employees or members of your team.

It would help if you considered your PDP a work in progress. With this in mind, you should be willing to change the focus and make your PDP grow. Besides, it should reflect your current situation and your position in the timeline.  

A timeline should include defined deadlines for your professional development goals. Defined timelines are also one of the characteristics of the SMART objectives.

Your timeline should include every single task your PDP contains. Since every job is time-bound, you need to be clear in configuring and calendaring dates and deadlines for each.

You can propose weekly, monthly, and yearly intervals to discover a balance between finding enough time to achieve your goals and challenges by yourself.

Finally, updates are fundamental to keeping the timeline alive and fresh. The best moment is when you reach a milestone, update strategies, or make a relevant investment to achieve your goals.

With your timeline and SMART objectives defined, it should be easy to track your progress and evaluate where you are standing. This practice is also helpful to identify the benefits you got, the goals you’ve reached, and if the improvement is fulfilling your expectations.

Tracking your progress will lead you to the beginning of the process because a PDP is not a linear plan but a life cycle. Sometimes it’s time to review what was built and check if you achieved the long-term goal. If you notice things not going the way you trace, you can modify the following steps and aim for a new destination. 

Do not be scared of changing or achieving a new objective. On the road, we’re discovering new skills, interests, or maybe a person who changes our perspective.

Each professional development plan is unique and personal. Still, we can share examples of what to include in your professional development plan template. 

Auto-evaluation.

• You can write about your current situation. For example, you started to work in the company six months ago.
• I’m very comfortable in my new job, but I still feel distant from my colleagues.

Goals. 

• Create a network of three friends with whom I can talk about professional life and diverse topics.

Strategies. 

• Talk and interact during meetings.
• Attend conferences, workshops, and recreational activities after work.
• Connect with colleagues on LinkedIn.

Resources.

• Network inside and outside the company.
• Individual meetings with my mentor. 

Timeline.

• For the next week. Add colleagues to your networks and be part of at least one activity after the day.
• For the next month. Find a mentor and schedule fortnightly meetings,
• For the next year. Find two or three colleagues with whom I feel comfortable interacting outside of work.

A Couple of Professional Development Plan Template Examples

With MS Office templates, you don’t have to write everything from scratch. Just download one of the templates below and adjust them to your needs.

Template #1

This first template is elementary. It contains essential information, such as your current situation, career goals, the skills gap, actions, and a final evaluation. This template is a good starting point if it’s your first time planning a professional development plan.  

You can download this simple professional development plan template from Templatelab.

Template #2

This template is a more advanced version of the template, as mentioned above. Here, the sections are subdivided; thus, you can be more specific. For example, you can describe several skills gaps and establish strategies to bridge these gaps. 

You can download this more advanced version of the previous professional development plan template from Templatelab.

Writing a Professional Development Plan is mandatory to level up your expectations and expertise regarding careers and reach new levels of satisfaction. A PDP will support your subsequent movements in the business world, providing a good map of which actions you must perform and develop over time.