A few years ago, I was interviewing a senior engineer to join my team, and when I asked him the famous cliché question, “Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?”, he stopped for a full minute before answering, “I don’t know, I never really stopped to think about it…” I think just as he was surprised by the question, I was surprised by the answer. We were not talking about someone who had just started their career yesterday; it was a person with over a decade of experience and several large companies on their resume. He explained later that he had always focused on deliveries and becoming a senior engineer, so he never made a concrete plan for his career.

Over time, I realized that there are basically 2 types of IT professionals when it comes to career plans:

• Those who expect their boss or the company to create a career and growth plan for them.
• Those who believe they don’t need a career plan because they will always have a job.

What both have in common is that they outsource their growth, and that never works for several reasons. The first is undoubtedly the fact that the company where you work wants you there to follow their plan, which in most cases will not be beneficial to you in the medium/long term. The second reason is that depending on the fluctuation and demand of the market to stay updated or even employable can be very risky.

“But what do you mean by staying employable? I’m a senior, I always have a job!”

That may be true, but having a job does not mean you have the power to choose what is best for you. Take, for example, mainframe administrators, mythical beings capable of understanding virtualization and resource sharing on a large scale, who today have only a few positions in the market, and their growth has stalled since the technology they chose is being replaced by newer technologies.

So it’s important to understand that in your career, you always have to balance Vertical Growth and Horizontal Growth.

Vertical Growth

Vertical Growth is achieved through promotions to higher positions, such as when a junior becomes a senior engineer. In most companies, this happens when assuming more responsibilities, such as delivering more complex projects or mentoring other team members. Vertical growth always depends on the company having space and budget to promote people. In larger companies, there may be a very large group to be promoted, and there may not be enough space for everyone. In these cases, the personal growth plan should include the individual’s possibility of seeking growth outside the company after a certain time in the same position.

Horizontal Growth

Horizontal Growth is achieved through specialization in the technology in which you work, learning new technologies or methodologies that can help in the development of your career, such as Agile, Product Management, Testing…

It’s very common for professionals at the beginning of their careers to focus too much on horizontal growth, expecting vertical growth and recognition to come. Still, it’s worth remembering that this depends too much on the culture of the company where you’re inserted and the company’s needs.

The perfect (growth) plan

Creating a growth plan is a challenging task to do for the first time, so seek help, whether from an external mentor or within your company. Ideally, the growth plan should have short-term (1 year), medium-term (2 years), and long-term (3+ years) goals. The idea behind this is to be able to modify the plan without having to create it from scratch every time something changes.

What makes the plan a success is that it is constantly reassessed, so each goal should have a delivery date and a period in which it should be evaluated. There is no rule, but a good practice to follow is:

• If your goal is for 1 year, make sure you evaluate your progress on it every month.
• If your goal is for 2 years, evaluate every 3 months.
• For long-term goals, remember to always evaluate annually.

This way, the annual evaluation helps you create better medium-term goals and break them down into smaller short-term goals. You will notice that by doing this, it will be much easier to see your progress or any changes in plans that need to be made.

To make it easier, I will share the link to my growth plan template.

It is important to remember that your career growth is your responsibility, and if you have grown more than your current job can support, your plan will make it clear that it’s time to change. Don’t waste time letting other people decide your career for you.