Sync your Learning Plan with your Career Plan

To learn a skill, you need to know why you want it. Get clear on your goals first.

Questions:

1. What are your career goals?
2. What skills will you need to reach these goals?
3. What resources do you need to learn those skills?

Focus on both the technical and non-technical aspects of your career. Focus on multiple timespans such as:

• What are your career goals in 5 years
• What needs to happen in 3 years to meet your goals in 5 years?
• What needs to happen in 1 year to meet your goals in 3 years?
• What needs to happen in 6 months to meet your goals in 1 year?
• What needs to happen in 3 months to meet your goals in 6 months?
• What needs to happen in 1 month to meet your goals in 3 months?

You may need to learn a new programming language, leadership skills, presentation skills, software architecture, functional programming, acceptance testing with Selenium, or anything you know you will use soon.

Once you are ready with your list, answer the most important question of your learning plan. What is the first, most crucial step you should take? Make the next step clear to yourself, and start focusing on it.