OK, career planning is hard, but so mission-critical to your career. Especially now.
This year has been bonkers so far, and it’s hard to say what things are going to look like in 2023 with the economy still volatile, a potential recession looming, and the world struggling with myriad other challenges … inflation, the war in Ukraine, energy, interest rates, to name a few.
It had been all about the “Great Resignation” and the “Great Reshuffle” until the end of summer. Now we are seeing scattered lay-offs and quite a few hiring freezes.
I have spoken with several job-seekers recently who were set to interview for roles only to have their interviews canceled indefinitely because of a hiring freeze or the elimination of the role due to cost-saving or re-organization.
The anecdotal reports were corroborated by a piece in the New York Times last week, which noted that “there have been lay-offs, hiring freezes, or plans for them at a number of firms including Goldman Sachs, Robinhood, Netflix, Amazon, and Meta.” Given all the uncertainty and externals factors that we are seeing the Fortune 500 reacting to, year-end 2022 isn’t the best time to be considering a job move unless you absolutely have to.
New hires are nearly always more vulnerable in lay-off and headcount reduction scenarios. And, making a move for money, where one is both the new hire and expensive, puts one at even more risk.
The strong play right now: Do that thing that we all put off because it seems like such a daunting task: Create a vision for your career. Create a plan – a manageable, actionable plan.
To sell you a bit more on this, a not-to-be-missed benefit of career planning is that in the process you learn how to think more strategically. If you are intent on leadership roles, strategic thinking is an essential skill to develop.
Creating your plan, piece by piece!
Chunk 1: Where are you driving to, your heart-of-heart’s destination?
You want the long-term, the big picture, the “What do I think I want to be when I grow up” (don’t self-censor too much here!) You want the short-term: What do I need to do this coming year to move my career a step or two closer down the road.
The long-term will ultimately take care of itself if you keep taking proactive steps in directions that align with your interests (training, certification, skill development, classes, a degree), and keep gaining experience that has value now and for the long-term. As Steve Jobs famously said, “… You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Critical Success Tip: This planning stuff must be written down. As a wise CISO once told me, “If it isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist.”
Chunk 2: Near-term career goals
Consulting, particularly public accounting IT advisory and in cybersecurity, is an industry where career paths are defined. These firms provide counseling, mentors, assessments and ongoing performance reviews for new staff. All that makes it much easier for early-career professionals to know what they have to do to move their careers forward.
Additionally, once inside a big consulting firm, there are so many avenues to potentially pursue. One is encouraged to network, and internal colleagues support these exploratory conversations. That doesn’t mean that everyone has the option to go anywhere their heart desires. The ability to move still depends on the needs of the business and the performance of the individual. BUT the mindset and support are there, and that makes it easier for early-career professionals to chart a course.
If you are in consulting, you are in an on-the-job grad course in career planning. Make the most of it. Be proactive. Learn all you can. As the saying goes, do all the things! This training will pay dividends for years to come.
The reality is that most of us work in companies that are far less structured when it comes to building a career. Particularly as an early-career professional, figuring out where one might go internally and how one might do that is a challenge. But even mid-career subject matter experts and managers can find that determining next career moves can be like looking into a murky pool.
Let’s bring some clarity to the process – taking a page out of the consulting playbook – to help you create your own career planning ecosystem.
First, ask yourself this: What do you really want right now??
When you reflect on what you want, what is your near-term goal with a projected accomplishment date of 2023 – or making big strides toward it in 2023? A job in a different area? A promotion? An opportunity to work on different projects? The chance to build leadership skills?
Along with your big picture dream or career goal, get this near-term, 2023 goal on your planning document.
One goal I didn’t mention is “more money.” It’s a goal, yes, but not a good one on its own. I have watched numerous candidates make a move for money, only to crash and burn before too long. Many have found it hard to recover from such a move.
IF the role paying the most money actually supports another career-related goal (adding technical skills; building leadership competency; gaining visibility within the organization; an opportunity to work with an outstanding boss, etc.), and your path toward your long-term goal – then, it could be a sound move.
If it doesn’t, look for options that better support your career – now and in the future.
An adage of many successful leaders is money follows passion and performance. If you are passionate about a role, and you give it your all, the money will follow – perhaps near-term, but most certainly in the future.
Chunk 3: Gap assessment and development plan
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. This is where you gather input, insights, and data that will help you determine what concrete steps you are going to take – now through year end, and in the year ahead.
Here’s a process you can try out – adapting it to your situation and your goal. Essentially this is a way to create for yourself the career planning benefits that accrue from working in a consulting environment, discussed above. And, this is what highly successful professionals do.
Let’s view this through the lens of an example. How about moving from one digital trust discipline to another? But which one? And what aspect of that new discipline?
Step 1: Research. Read up on the discipline you think interests you. Look at job descriptions and the titles of the roles, within your company and in other companies.
Step 2: Assess your skills for the role. From the job descriptions, create a master list of technical skills, soft skills, and leadership competencies for the target role. How do you stack up? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your transferrable skills and experience?
Step 3: Talk with professionals in that function or in those roles within your company, or at other companies. The easiest place to start is within your own company. Call or email and ask for a 10-15 minute chat; you’d like to hear about what they are doing in their role. If you are onsite, meet for a coffee or beverage; you’re buying. (Take notes or write up your notes immediately after the convo!)
Step 4: Talk with your mentors at your company, at ISACA, former colleagues, former bosses. Pick everyone’s brains. They know you. They can give you candid input about different specializations, and even how they might see you liking (or not liking!) the role. They can add perspective about how your skills match up, as well as gaps.
Step 5: Review all your notes and research. What do you think now? Is your focus clearer? Even if it’s still a bit fuzzy, jump off the cliff and decide where you think you want to go based on what you’ve learned. Look, most of us never know for sure for sure – you’ll always be operating with incomplete information.
Step 6: You have a target in mind. You know your gaps. Make a plan to work on those. Identify 2-5 actionable steps with timelines and targeted completion dates. (Don’t go crazy with these steps, the number and the timeline has to feel doable!) Put all of this in your planning document!
TIP: An easy and timely step to take now is to align your remaining CPE requirements with your short-term goal.
Step 7: Talk with your manager about your career goals for 2023 and beyond. Tell them about the development plan and action items you are creating. Get their input and feedback. Is the new certification you are thinking you need a match with departmental needs? Will your manager support you? Would they be able to staff you on projects that will help you build desired skills? Is there a way you might be able to support another team for a short-term project that will help you build skills and a relationship with that team? Be sure to document your conversation and add it to your planning document.
Step 8: Get a mentor or add a new mentor that can help you with a specific development area or skill.
(See the October @ISACA Careers column on how to find and build a relationship with mentors.)
It’s never done: Continuous monitoring and updating your plan
Your career plan is not set in stone. As you try things out, as you talk with mentors, bosses, friends and colleagues, as you gain new skills and experience, as the world – and technology – continues to evolve – which it will, you will have new insights.
Experiences and realizations will help you adjust your plan to help you drive more efficiently to your original goal or correct course if your goal has changed. And, it’s OK to change your goal with more information in hand!
Your plan is a work in progress, a part of your professional toolkit that benefits from continuous monitoring. That’s all the more reason for you to have it written down. As you watch your career unfold, and see the record of your progress and adjustments, you’ll be better able to see the connections between the dots along the way.