By: Emma Evans, NCcareers Communications & Strategy Intern
If you’re in middle or high school in North Carolina, chances are someone has told you that you need to complete a Career Development Plan (CDP). But why? And where do you start? Good news: you don’t need it all figured out right now. Creating a CDP can make exploring your options and planning your next steps easier, and that’s what NCcareers is here for.
What is a Career Development Plan?
A Career Development Plan helps you to explore your interests, align education with your career goals, and prepares you for career success. Think of it as a guide you can return to as you grow throughout your career journey.
To put it simply: it’s a way to track what you like, what you’ve accomplished, and where that can lead you in your career.
How to get started
This is a quick snapshot of how to build your CDP. For a detailed walkthrough, check out our step-by-step guide.
Start by visiting NCcareers.org and creating an account. Before we get to the final roadmap there are a few steps to complete.
1. Take the career interest assessments
To figure out your interests, NCcareers has several assessments to help you identify your work personality, career interests, skills, and values. These tools help you learn about yourself and what kind of career might be a fit for you.
2. Explore matching occupations
After completing the assessments, you’ll see suggested occupations based on your results. You can explore options that match your interests and maybe even discover other paths that you haven’t considered. You can find information on each occupation profile like duties, wages, job openings and more.
3. Identify education & training
In the occupation profile you can also identify specific education and training that employers typically look for in the career you’re interested in. Whether that’s on-the-job training or pursuing higher education, you can find affiliated programs and trainings in North Carolina that align.
4. Build your Career Development Plan
Once you have explored careers, fill out the different sections of your CDP. To do this, head to the Plan My Career section and find the Career Plan Builder, which breaks down building your CDP. This includes sections like goals, education, achievements, and training that can help you to reach your future career aspirations.
5. Save, share & revisit later
Your CDP is not set in stone. Come back anytime to update your plan, track your progress, or adjust your goals as you grow.
I find it most helpful to use mine as a living record of my experiences over time. This helps me to get a clearer picture of where I might be headed in my career pathway.
Wherever you are in your career journey, the Career Development Plan can help you pull everything together and figure out your next steps. Head to NCcareers.org to get started.