Career Advice - Professional Development - ICErecruit

Professional Development is one of the cornerstones of our working lives. It is the process which keeps us interested in our work, gives us the drive to progress our careers, keeps industry competitive and, ultimately, makes us employable throughout our lives. What's more, professional development is something we do every day of our lives without even thinking about it.

If you are to maximise your potential for lifetime employability, it is essential that you maintain high levels of professional competence by continually improving your knowledge and skills.

The job market is forever changing. You may no longer be able to rely on your employer to identify and satisfy your development needs. Or you may move jobs frequently during your working life. You need to take ownership of your career and its continuing professional development.

The effect of these changes has increased the demands on people to maintain documentary evidence of their continued competence; and nowhere is this more important than in engineering, where technology is advancing so swiftly. In your own best interests, you should be developing a personal portfolio of your professional activities and their relevance to your current job and your continued career as well as your future ambitions.

By taking ownership of your career and focusing on your professional development you will:

be better able to recognise opportunities
be more aware of the trends and directions in engineering and society
become increasingly effective in the workplace
be able to help, influence and lead others by your example
be confident of your future employability
have a fulfilling and rewarding career

By taking a structured approach to your professional development you will able to demonstrate continuing commitment to your profession. What's more, the good practice of regularly reviewing your needs, and selecting appropriate learning activities to help you fulfil them, will give your career focus and meaning.

Focus on your professionalism... and your career

It is vital if your career is to be fulfilling and successful that you focus on maintaining and building upon your current competences. It is imperative that you work at ensuring you continue to benefit from the standing and recognition you have already achieved.

Maintaining records of your development will help you to focus on your career plan. You should start simply and keep it under revision. As you progress with the process of planning, and recording, you will find it easier to review and amend as new options become available.

Professional Development is broken down into a cycle of four main activities:

Planning

Step 1	Think about your goals Think about your goals. Jot down where you want to be and the things you want to achieve next year (short term), in two-five years (medium term), and in ten years (long term).
Step 2	Starting with your short-term list Think about what actual things you will need to do in order to make those goals happen. It might be that you need to learn a new skill, gain some experience of a different area/role, take on more responsibility, or many other things. You might also like to look at your medium term plan, to see if there are any things which you could include in your short-term plan, to form the first steps in realising those goals too. You will end up with a list of things to do over the next year or so.
Step 3	Prioritise Look at your list and consider which things need to be done before you can start on others, or which items are more important. You can then put your list in order of importance, and it might help you establish some time frames.
Step 4	Set objectives Look at the first 3-4 items on your list (you will work on these first). Examine them thoroughly so that you can turn them into SMART objectives. To do this each one must have a Specific target, be Measurable, be Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (have a deadline).
Step 5	Write it down Committing your plan to paper will make you more committed to making it happen. Finish by setting a date when you will review your plan - and putting it in your diary!

Doing

Step 1	Look at the items on your plan and consider how they might be achieved. Do they require formal learning (such as a training course) or will you need to access some materials (e.g. books or CDs)? Will you need to rely on someone else to help you - for example asking a colleague to teach you new skills? For each of your goals work out a plan of action.
Step 2	Know yourself! If you can, try to learn in ways that suit you. Some people like to understand the theory before attempting something - so they would read a book, and then try it out. Others like to experiment and learn in a more practical way. If you adopt an approach that suits the way you learn, then you are more likely to pick it up quickly.
Step 3	Make time to make it happen. If you are really committed to developing yourself then you will have no problem finding the time to learn. Once you know how you are going to tackle each goal, make time in your diary to do it.
Step 4	Gain support. It is always nice to be asked for help, and people are usually more than willing to help. When asking for support, be concise about what you want, and give feedback on the results.

Recording

Step 1	Keep a log of your learning. Jot down things that you learn - not just from formal occasions, but also from everyday events and on-the-job experiences.
Step 2	Review your learning to aid consolidation and implementation When you learn something new think about how that knowledge will affect your performance. How can you use it to make you better at your job? What behaviours will you change in light of what you now know? Talking to your manager or mentor can help you with this.
If you are using competences
Step 3	Decide which competence each piece of your learning is linked to. As your learning leads to increased and improved performance (competence) you can record your new level and chart your progress.
Step 4	Collect evidence to prove your levels of competence. Make sure it is cross-referenced and indexed so you can easily find each piece. Update your portfolio with new evidence as your competence increases further, and you will always have an excellent record of your abilities.

Reviewing

Step 1	Time to review When it is time to review take out your action plan and your learning log and set aside an hour.
Step 2	Consider each item on your plan. Have you achieved it? If so, then tick it off. If not, then consider why - the answer you come up with will help you to decide whether to remove the item (because it's not realistic now), forward it onto your plan for the next period, or change the goal.
Step 3	Overall, consider how well you have got on, and what has helped or hindered you. This will inform your planning for the next period. If you are continually sticking for the same reason, then maybe you need to consider your approach. Perhaps a complete change in the way you tackle things will improve your success rate. Be honest - if you're not, the only person you will let down is yourself.
Step 4	Make sure you review both your short and medium term goals regularly - and your long term goals every 5 years or so. Over time you will find that items from your longer-term plans will slide down into your short-term plans and get ticked off as you progress.
Step 5	Get planning again! Bring items down from your medium term plan to become part of your short-term plan for the next period.

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Made up of the professional development teams from several professional institutions within the engineering field, their aim is to bring a unified approach for professional development to their members, their organisations and the industry as a whole.

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