Set specific and measurable goals that are practical and realistic. Keep in mind that goals should directly relate to your performance or skill gaps.

Your career starts with expanding your skills and refining them so that you can identify the ones that will help move you forward.

  1. Core Competencies – The UC Core Competencies may help you in refining your career path. This model was based on the need to identify competencies that would serve as a foundational tool for the assessment and development of UC staff, managers and leaders.

  2. Expand Skills - Developing your skills begins with assessing which skills are important for your desired career development. Speak with your supervisor or manager and other career mentors to identify the types of skills that will help move you forward in your career.
     
    Your skill development should follow the 70-20-10 rule:
     
    • 70% of your development happens by doing. On-the-job activities and action learning, such as managing a project, serving on a cross-functional team, taking on a new task, job shadowing, job rotation, etc., all contribute to success at work.
    • 20% of your development comes from your relationship with others. This includes having a mentor, being a mentor, coaching, participating in communities of practice, serving as a leader in a staff organization, etc.
    • 10% of your development should come from training. This includes classes, seminars, webinars, podcasts, conferences, etc. (Courtesy of UC Berkeley)

  3. Expanding Within Your Current Position - Sometimes it can be a good idea to stay in your current position and speak to your manager about learning new skills to expand your knowledge. See if you can have a discussion about reaching out and taking on additional duties.

Performance management is an ongoing, collaborative process between managers and employees to build relationships, set expectations and goals, give and receive feedback and discuss professional development needs and career aspirations. The performance management process at UC consists of several steps: Setting expectations and individual performance goals; giving and receiving feedback; engaging and developing employees; conducting performance appraisals; motivating, recognizing and rewarding employees; coaching for performance; and managing corrective action.

At UC, performance management is a key piece of employee engagement, both from an individual employee perspective and from a broader organizational perspective. Employees who have regular and meaningful performance management discussions with their managers are more productive and have more opportunities to do challenging work and learn new skills. To learn more about performance management and your role in the process talk to your manager, contact your local HR representative or complete the Performance Management Series eCourses in the UC Learning Center. (Courtesy of UCNet)

  1. Performance Management - You and your direct supervisor should maintain on-going communication so that you understand the key expectations for your position, including the UC Core Competencies. Direct communication with your supervisor will help you perform to the best of your abilities, strive to improve, develop your skills, and collaborate well with your team members and coworkers. Understanding your performance management can also help you further refine your career path.

  2. Performance Evaluations - The Performance Evaluation process assists supervisors and employees in evaluating performance, assessing training and development needs, recommending merit increases (when applicable) and documenting individual performance.
  1. Career Awareness - In the Career Awareness phase of career development planning, your goal is to understand how your value applies to opportunities within your organization and the wider world of work. Developing your career awareness means gaining knowledge of career paths and job opportunities at UC Santa Barbara, and the skills and qualifications necessary to be successful in these positions. There is a lot of information available to you on the Internet, but it is crucial to seek out information from colleagues, supervisors and managers, and other UCSB employees as well. Pay attention to what you observe, feel, and experience in your day-to-day work life at UCSB. Ultimately, the fit of an organization’s culture with your personal goals, values, and work style is something you need to assess for yourself. (Courtesy of UC Berkeley)

  2. Trend Tracking - Career Awareness also means keeping abreast of the ever-changing directions your organization, industry, or profession is moving toward. Establish some habits, such as bookmarking websites that discuss your industry and checking them regularly to read content. Some examples would be the UC Berkeley News Center and industry journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education.
     
    As you read and speak to colleagues and contacts both at UC Berkeley and elsewhere, seek answers to the following information:
     
    1. What are the major industry, economic, political and social changes taking place that will affect UCSB?
    2. What are the opportunities and problems ahead?
    3. How will my profession be different in two years? In five years?
    4. What counts for success here? How will that change in the future? (Courtesy of UC Berkeley)

  3. Visit O*NET, a free career information system that provides comprehensive information on key attributes and characteristics of workers and occupations.

  4. Transferable Skills - Transferable skills deal with performing basic functions in the everyday workplace. These functional skills are transferable from one situation, activity, job or field to another and across time frames. These skills make up the action verbs that are often used to write resumes and are the skills that enable you to change careers or advance without necessarily retraining.
     
    Examples of transferable skills are:
     
    • Communicating
    • Managing
    • Helping
    • Organizing
    • Analyzing
    • Writing (Courtesy of UC Davis)

  5. Learn About the Industry – Find out as much as you can about the type of job as well as the industry you are interested in.
     
    1. Read newspapers
    2. Watch and listen to television and radio shows
    3. Do research online
    4. Attend industry seminars and exhibitions
    5. Stay abreast of current market conditions of the industry you are seeking out
    6. Learn more about the industry and/or department you are interested in working for
    7. Research and subscribe to professional or trade association websites