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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A useful career development plan starts with your own reflection, then turns a conversation with your manager into a few specific goals, activities, support commitments, and follow-up dates. It can help you build skills and explore opportunities, but it cannot guarantee a promotion, raise, or particular role.
What to prepare before the meeting
You do not need a fixed five-year plan. Bring a short inventory that gives your manager something concrete to respond to:
- Recent accomplishments and work you feel proud of.
- Strengths you want to use more, plus skills or experiences you want to build.
- Tasks or projects you find engaging, and work you would like to do more or less often.
- One or two possible directions, such as a role, project, broader responsibility, or deeper expertise.
- Questions about what those directions require and what support might be available.
Employees should take the initiative, while managers contribute feedback and help identify feasible experiences. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) describes an individual development plan as a partnership between employee and supervisor, involving preparation and continuous feedback: OPM’s Individual Development Plans guidance. Antoinette Oglethorpe’s Harvard Business Review article on talking with your boss likewise emphasizes that the employee should initiate and drive development.
You can request a meeting with a simple note: “Could we set aside time to talk about my development? I’d like to discuss the skills I want to build, possible next experiences, and how we can make a practical plan.”
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How to use the conversation
Start with what growth means to you
Growth does not have to mean promotion. Explain which work feels meaningful, which strengths you want to use, what you want to learn, and what kind of change you have in mind. The University of Rochester’s Career Conversation Guide suggests discussing interests, strengths, skills to improve, satisfying assignments, possible roles, and needed support. Useful prompts include “Which new skills do you want to learn? Why?” and “What support do you need from me?”
Compare the aspiration with real requirements and opportunities
For a possible role, project, or responsibility, ask what skills and experience it calls for. Identify what you already demonstrate and what remains to develop. Consider organizational priorities and changes in your profession or industry, as SHRM recommends in its career-conversation guidance. Then discuss what you could try in your current role and what support your manager can realistically offer.
If neither of you knows an answer, write down the question, decide who will investigate it, and set a date to revisit it. SHRM advises managers to be honest when they do not know and to avoid promises they cannot keep; joint exploration is more useful than invented certainty.
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Write a focused plan you can act on
Keep the plan specific enough to guide action, but flexible enough to change as you learn. OPM says there is no single correct form; its suggested elements include career goals, development objectives, activities, dates, and employee and supervisor sign-off. The following practical template combines those elements with action-planning guidance from Rochester; it is not an official universal form.
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| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Direction | A role, project, broader responsibility, or skill area you want to explore. |
| Development goal | A specific capability or experience to build. |
| Action | An assignment, new responsibility, shadowing, mentoring conversation, course, self-study, or another suitable activity. |
| Support | Feedback, introductions, access, time, or resources your manager agrees to explore or provide. |
| Timing | Start date, target date, and planned check-in dates. |
| Evidence of progress | An observable sign, such as a work sample, feedback, completed responsibility, or demonstrated skill. |
| Status and next step | What happened, what changed, and the next action. |
Choose one or two goals to start. For each, state the action, a target date, and what progress will look like. Rochester’s guide presents a 70:20:10 framework—70% on-the-job experience, 20% learning from others, and 10% formal learning—as an organizing framework. It is not a proven rule or a required ratio; use activities that fit the goal and circumstances.
Choose activities that let you learn and practice
Development can take place through work, with other people, or through structured learning. OPM and Rochester list options including:
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- Practice in the work: special assignments, rotations, on-the-job learning, or new responsibilities.
- Learn with or from people: shadowing, mentoring, networking, coaching, or feedback from colleagues.
- Structured learning: classroom or web-based learning, self-study, conferences, seminars, or courses.
Choose by asking whether the activity builds the capability you identified, gives you a chance to practice, makes useful feedback possible, and is feasible with available time and support. Agree in advance on how you will recognize progress. The guidance lists activity types but does not establish that one format is inherently more effective than another.
Schedule check-ins and adjust the plan
Set a follow-up date when you write the plan. Rochester recommends informal career conversations at least quarterly; SHRM describes quarterly check-ins in a University of Arizona example. OPM says an individual development plan is not a one-time activity and notes that many agencies encourage annual updates. These are recommendations and examples, not a universal legal schedule.
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What to do when the conversation gets stuck
You are not sure what you want
Start with the work you enjoy, strengths you want to use, and skills you are curious about. Make exploration itself a near-term goal—for example, shadowing a colleague or taking on a small assignment—rather than forcing a fixed destination before you are ready.
You want a promotion soon
Ask what the target work requires, what evidence would demonstrate readiness, and what opportunities are available. Treat development actions as ways to build capability and learn; completing them does not guarantee a promotion.
There is no obvious opening on the team
Where feasible, explore a developmental assignment, cross-functional project, mentoring, or another skills-building experience. Such options depend on the organization’s needs and circumstances.
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Your manager does not know the answer
Agree on who will find out, what they will check, and when you will return to the question. A clear next step is more useful than a promise no one can substantiate.
The meeting feels like a performance review
Say that you want to focus on development—skills, experiences, and future possibilities—and ask how your organization separates career conversations from performance evaluation. OPM says an individual development plan is not a performance evaluation tool, though employers may combine or coordinate these discussions differently.
Federal IDP guidance is not a rule for every workplace
OPM notes that individual development plans are not generally required by federal regulation, although some programs require them and Senior Executive Service members have separate requirements. That qualification applies to federal policy; it should not be treated as a rule for all employers. Use your organization’s own process if it has one.
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