Coincidentally caught up with the project director, on lunch.

I was talking about my goals and how we can insure I have enough experience to learn while on this project.

It got me thinking about having a professional development plan either for myself or with my program manager.

I am not sure how open she is to this yet, since I haven't talked to her.

Have you ever approached your management on something like this?

How did they receive you?

I don't want this to look like it is more work for them, when really I want to learn more and be visible to them .

I'd like them to know what I am capable of and that I am willing to tackle more responsibility.

I am brain storming on how I am going to write up a development plan; I am frozen with the possibility of rejection from my supervisor.

Back to my diagram....

I know where I am at professionally

Where I want to be in a year and a half

How do I get there and what do I need to know is where I am stuck.

I'm getting ready to try to have a similar conversation with my boss. I, too, am a bit apprehensive. Good luck, fantasma!

At the company where I work, everyone used to have to prepare a professional development plan. But it was a lot of work and very few people stuck to their plans so the idea was abandoned quickly. Now, however, we all are required to establish performance goals each year, and those goals could be thought of as interim milestones toward your own professional development.

We have goals that are related to revenue, but we also set personal goals for things we want to accomplish in our work. For example I have to manage a lot of budgets but I've never had any training in financial management of projects. So one of my goals this year is to take two training sessions on budgeting and financial management.

If you're uncertain how your boss would react to something as large and potentially complex as a personal development plan, maybe you could break it down into more manageable bits as annual goals. You yourself could create your own personal development plan privately, but you wouldn't share it with your boss, you'd just say that you would like to keep developing your professional skills and offer some annual goals that you'd like to work toward, along with ideas for how to achieve those annual goals. That might be easier for your boss to consider managing and approving than a full-fledged development plan.

If I had an employee that was as proactive as you an put together their own professional development plan, I would be thrilled.

But, my ability to do anything about it might be limited. If you need company supported training or opportunities, those might not be available.

I would hope that your boss will at least use that opportunity to talk with you and possibly help you refine your plan into something that fits with the company's plans as well as you capabilities. I'm not saying that yours isn't a good plan, there just might be things the company has planned that you are unaware of.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I am waiting to hear, before I give the full development plan as opposed to the high level one I sent.

In the mean time I am doing a lot of learning and wearing many hats. I just want to see if they are willing to work with me and possibly guide me or provide feedback and I can go from there.


Thank you all.

Justus: how are you mapping your plan out?

At my company, we meet individually with the team director every couple of months over a casual lunch to catch up and discuss your work, where you could use some improvement and where you personally would like to grow in the company. It's a very casual setting which makes it easy to speak frankly and get any issues or concerns out. It's great that we do this pretty regularly the director will do what they can to help you get to where you want to be in the company.

In my company where I work there are team building activities and some presentations or we i.e. employee give presentation about any related topic only to improve professionalism and for skill development.

When she got a chance to talk to me, nothing can be done.

Really sounds like it's not the place for you and its time to move on.

My conversation with my boss didn't go as well as I'd have liked. While there are a lot of professional development courses that are available, I'm not sure which ones would be appropriate for my situation.

Have you at least been given the opportunity to attend?

I have not. At my last 1-1 with my boss, he suggested that I take a look at the course offerings and then pick one or two to attend. I plan on meeting with my boss next week to discuss my selection and reasoning.

I hope you go after something that makes you happy and thrive this is a hard balance.