A Simple Way to Map Out Your Career Ambitions
It’s easy to be confused about how to grow in your career. Even the most successful global companies are vague about the most effective development options. So it’s up to you to take charge of your own growth.
Grow Yourself Faster
Roughly 70% of your professional growth will come from the work experiences you have, 20% will come from your interactions with others, and 10% will come from formal education.
Think of growth as a cycle — successfully perform, get feedback, and perform again even better. Experiences power that growth cycle, so you’ll want to understand which experiences matter most and gain as many of them as quickly as possible.
Interview experts in your field
- The best and brightest in your field can help you understand which experiences will get you into the top 10% and become an expert
- Identify experts inside and outside your company. Interview the best in your field
- The interviews will provide you with the raw material to create your personal experience map
Build your map
- Review your interview notes and list the experiences that your interviewees described
- Your goal is to sort through this information to find the few experiences that will most accelerate your career
- Select four to seven functional experiences and three to four management experiences you believe will benefit you most and list them on your personal experience map
Determine Your From/To
If you want driving directions from Google Maps, your app asks you for two pieces of information: your current and desired locations. The more precisely you enter each coordinate, the more likely you’ll get where you want to go using the fastest possible route.
Your growth process should follow the exact same path, clearly specifying where you are today and your preferred destination. To get accurate from/to, you’ll need to check your ego at the door and ask some trusted superiors and colleagues for their extremely candid views of your origin and destination.
Create Your Personal Experience Map
- A regularly updated personal experience map will help you chart your path
- A personal experience map shows which experience you want to acquire in the next two to five years to grow your career
- It’s a practical planning document describing how to produce the highest-performing you