How to Achieve Career Growth: The First Steps

Chances are, if you’ve ever had a job interview of any kind, you’ve probably heard this question at least once: Where do you see yourself in five years?

As much as it might make you roll your eyes when it comes up in a job interview, this question is asking you about your career growth goals. If you’ve never thought deeply about your overall career path and where you want it to lead in the next five, ten, or twenty years, this may be the guide for you.

What Is Career Growth?

Career growth is the lifelong journey you take in your professional life. It’s marked by the way you move from your first job in the workforce to roles with more responsibilities and seniority.

Career growth goals look different for everyone, even between two people with similar career paths. It also doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a manager after a certain point in your career—after all, management is a very specialized skill set. Instead, there are multiple stages involved in career growth that you progress through.

The 6 Stages of Career Growth

1. Follower: This is often the first step after you’ve started your first job or completed your training certification. At this point, you might not fully understand the skills you have or may still be developing them.
2. Collaborator: You’ve learned how to work with teams and contribute to their overall goals with the skills you’re still developing.
3. Instructor: By this point, you’ve likely started teaching others on your team how to do certain things. In some cases, you may even be leading special projects in a managerial capacity.
4. Manager: As your team takes on larger goals and objectives, you may end up having a team of direct reports who can handle some of the day-to-day tasks you may have done earlier in the career cycle. However, there are many facets to what a manager can do, such as focusing on strategic goals and managing resources.
5. Influencer: Wielding influence goes a step beyond the typical managerial role by allowing you to change and develop your organization at large. Depending on your role, this stage could look more like a consulting position, or it may end up being more directorial.
6. Leader: As one of the last stages in your career growth journey, you may end up spending much of your time empowering others, like influencers and managers. Leadership also comes in many forms—for example, if you’re not inclined to manage, you can still be a leader by inspiring others and providing your perspective and experience.

7 Tips to Start Growing Your Career

Career growth is not a linear experience where you spend equal amounts of time on each rung in the ladder. You might spend more time in one phase than the others, or you may even find that you stop somewhere in the middle. 

No matter what your path looks like, following these tips will kickstart your growth.

1. Understand Your Strengths

You might already know where your skills and passions lie. However, if you aren’t sure what your strengths are or feel like you might be missing some perspective, using self-assessment tools can help you find your areas of competency, as well as areas where you can improve.

Tools like SkillUp’s work styles quiz can help you understand your preferences and strengths so you can set out on a career growth journey that’s designed for your success.

2. Assess Your Current Position (and What You Want to Change with It)

Take a look at your current role and how it aligns with your career goals. Does it allow you to develop the skills that you need to become a manager or even a senior individual contributor? If it doesn’t, what needs to change about your job to let that happen?

This can look different for everyone. For some, it could mean taking a few courses after hours or taking on special projects with more responsibility to cultivate your management skills—or even making a lateral move within your organization.

3. Set Goals and Align Values with Objectives

This can be a very personal experience that warrants self-reflection. Be realistic about the career goals you want for yourself, and focus on what will make you feel fulfilled, rather than relying solely on external expectations and validation.

Your values can also help you define these goals. For example, if you chose graphic design because you love the process of designing, you may find it more fulfilling to become a senior graphic designer and work as an individual contributor rather than managing a team. By understanding what you want from your career, it becomes that much easier to feel fulfilled once you reach those goals.

4. Explore Organizational Support…

Many employers know the value of having a strong performer in their organization and will present opportunities that let them grow, even if it means letting them move to other departments. Some will even arrange for you to work with a mentor in your organization or industry to encourage growth.

These types of lateral moves and cross-training opportunities can help you accelerate career growth by fostering your talents or goals without having to start over at a new company.

5. …But Know When to Make a Career Transition

Sometimes, making a full career change is the best way to grow. These are some of the signs that you may be due to look for new opportunities outside your current organization:

• Not feeling challenged in healthy ways
• Experiencing burnout
• Not having opportunities to learn new skills
• Feeling unfulfilled or disconnected from your work
• Reaching a point of stagnation or another type of plateau in your current role

Not every organization is as diligent about letting its employees grow as it should be. However, if you find yourself eager to grow, there are plenty of organizations that are—and they’ll be happy to have someone who also values growth

6. Strike a Balance Between Professional and Personal Goals

As the old saying goes, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” In this case, it’s also a perfect way for Jack to burn out.

Setting personal goals for yourself helps you maintain a healthy work-life balance. It also lets you enrich yourself and feel accomplished in both spheres of your life so one doesn’t overtake the other. Even if it involves taking up a new hobby, reading a certain number of books in a year, or finally planning that dream vacation, personal goals can carry over into your professional life by helping you feel more fulfilled or satisfied at work.

7. Celebrate Your Successes and Learn from Setbacks

Even the smallest successes—like the end of a two-week micro project you handled as a project manager—are worth celebrating. That little hit of dopamine can keep you moving toward your overarching goals.

You might also encounter some minor setbacks or make some mistakes on the path to your career growth goals, and that’s okay! A single mistake won’t put your entire career in jeopardy, and you can learn from it to become a more well-rounded professional.

Looking for Training to Help Your Growth Opportunities?

SkillUp’s professional development and training courses can help you achieve career growth at all levels! You’ll also find free career coaching that helps you identify your goals and ways to reach them, either through.