Career development

Do you have goals for your career?

I think it's really important that you enjoy the kind of work that you do. So I think you have to really understand your own personality and do something that suits you.

I'm the kind of person that's happy with what they have. So, unless I have a really big or good idea about what I want to do next, I usually just carry on with what I'm doing and don't think about the next thing.

Today we're talking about how to develop and grow at work.

Hello and welcome to Office English from BBC Learning English. Your podcast guide to the world of work. I'm Phil.

And I'm Pippa. Head to our website for a full transcript and subtitles for this

OK, so, Pippa, today we're talking about career development. What do we mean by this?

Well, career development is kind of how you get new experience, how you learn new things. So this can be the different jobs that you have across your career, getting promoted or changing jobs. But it can just be learning new skills or doing new things within your existing job.

Today we'll talk about a few different aspects of career development – that's improving your skills, applying for jobs, and building a network. Let's start with improving your skills. Let's imagine you want to get better at a certain aspect of your job, or learn a new skill, such as leadership to prepare for the future. How could you discuss this with your manager?

Well, I think it's useful to think about why you want to learn a new skill, why you want to improve a certain thing. Maybe it's that you don't think anyone in your team knows how to do something. If so, you can kind of say this to your line manager. So you could say, 'I think our team would benefit from more experience in...' Or if you have another reason why you want to do it, you can say that to your line manager. I think you need to think about what the benefit is for the workplace, for the team, as well as what the benefit is for you personally.

Yes. Um, and then you probably want to talk about specifics or things that you've planned to do. So it might be that you've been researching a course that will help you improve certain skills. It might be there are certain tasks or roles in your team that you don't do currently, but you might want to have a try at to see if you can develop your skills in them.

Yeah, and then what you want to do is basically see how your manager feels about these ideas. Um, we have this really nice expression in English, 'sound somebody out'. And if you sound somebody out, you basically just try to gently get them to say what they think or feel about something. So you might ask, 'how would you feel about me building these skills?' So that's not saying I must do this course or please can I do this course. It's just kind of getting their opinion. And they might say, oh, that's a great idea. You should do it. Or they may say, at the moment, we just don't have the time for you to be doing a course like this. So you'll get a better idea of things. OK, one aspect of career development is applying for jobs and promotions. How should you talk about this with your manager? Maybe let's start with promotions, Phil.

Yes. So if you're looking for a promotion, you're looking at something within your organisation. If it's in your team, it might actually be your line manager who decides who they're going to pick for the promotion. So you might want to go to them and say, 'look, are there any skills or experiences that you're particularly looking for in this role?' Because that's the kind of information that will then help you put a strong application together.

You can also say quite clearly, 'I'd like to apply for this promotion. What advice do you have for submitting a strong application?' Definitely talk to your manager before you apply for a promotion that they are deciding on. What about kind of a job within the organisation, but not in your team? So maybe an opportunity to get some more experience in a different department or a promotion elsewhere. Should someone tell their line manager about that, about that application, Phil?

Well, like so many things in the world of work, this is all about the relationship that you have with your manager and whether you feel that it's safe to talk about that, or whether you feel that it might not be in your best interest to let your manager know that you're thinking about that. That's going to vary from person to person, I think. Um, but if you do have that kind of relationship, then your manager is probably a really good person to give you an idea on what your strengths and weaknesses are and things that you could mention in an application for a promotion. So I think they are exactly the right person to talk to usually, but it will depend on how, how the relationship is where you work.

Mmm, yeah. They can help you prepare. They've probably been through the process of being promoted if they're your manager. So yeah, they might have a bit of, uh, what we'd call 'insider knowledge' on those kinds of things, but it will depend, of course.

And finally, a big part of career development is networking. And this is speaking to other people in your industry to build relationships that you might use in the future. We've talked about networking at conferences and events before on the podcast, but is there a way you can do this as part of your job?

Well, this will depend on the context of your workplace, but as you meet people as part of your job, you can try to keep a professional relationship with them and ask for advice. So, for example, if you work with someone on a particular project and that project is ending, you could say something like, 'I'd be really interested to work more with you in the future. Would there be any opportunities?' And that's a good way to keep the relationship going.

Yeah, what's really important is just try to remain professional, friendly and to, you know, keep up your good reputation. And let people know, you know, 'it's been great working with you. Let's keep in touch about future prospects.' And then you might want to send fairly regular emails, you know. 'Just wanted to check in with you. Wonder if you had any opportunities coming up.' Um, you know, remind people that you're there, I guess.

Mmm, yeah. You can also, if you've built a good relationship with someone who maybe is a bit more senior than you in your company, you can ask them for advice sort of more generally instead of a specific opportunity. So you could say something like, 'could I pick your brains about career options?' And if you pick someone's brains, you basically ask for their advice or for them to share some of their knowledge.

And that is it for this episode of Office English. If you're interested in leadership, try the Leaders series. There's a link to it in the notes below this programme.

Thanks for joining us and goodbye.

Bye.