18 month plan

GreenHell

Hi guys,

Started a new job recently and I have been asked to outline an 18 month plan for myself. Never came across this before and google has provided me with zero information. Anyone have any experience with these?

is_that_so

Can you say what the job is?

This usually involves things like

Training courses I want to do
What I would like to learn from the job
Particular professional interests
Professional expectations

GreenHell

Working in IT, brought in as a graduate. I think my manager wants to know where I see myself in 18th months but I'm not really sure yet, because I've only been here a week and half.

is_that_so

Sounds like an IT type of thing all right. Mostly they look for what you want to learn or be able to do in 18 months or so?
Consider

OS ( If relevant)
Programming(If relevant)
Networking(If relevant)
Hardware( if relevant)
Soft Skills(They love this kind of thing) such as Communications, Telephoning,Meetings,Teamwork etc.
Mentoring Support

They won't hold you to it exactly. IMO half the time it's just to keep HR happy and at the same time work out the types of courses you might need to do.

Saint_Mel

You could say that you hope to work towards
microsoft/sun/cisco etc certifications.

GreenHell

Running the place isn't a viable option so. Cheers guys.

MonkeyWrench

Sounds like talk towards an appraisel of some sort in a year and a half and whether you will or won't meet the objectives you have agreed with your boss. It will probably involve you choosing what courses you want to do and successful completion of those, process improvements relating to your area and your ability to stick to deadlines etc.

seamus

Yeah, generally an 18 month plan for a graduate is all about what skills you want to learn, and what areas you really want to be the dogs bits in.

Supercell

Make sure the goals you put down are realistic and achievable.

My place does something similar and after that timeframe is over they sit you down and go through how much you have done /achieved in the intirim.
Setting lofty impossible goals doesnt look good when 18 months later your boss says..so you haven't done any of these have you?

Aoife-FM104

Say what they want to hear, i.e. you will still be working there, developing a career, happy, working well in the team, etc.

damnyanks

It may also be used to determine your bonus / salary upgrade yada yada.

i.e when it comes to review time they will view what is on your list to determine if your year has been a success.

Ideally you should be honest about what you'd like to achieve. Do you have any idea on how you would like your career to progress. Are you happy in the area you are currently in ?

dudara

I similarly had to do one of these recently for the first time ever. However I did get lots of advice from colleagues and my counsellor. It's really all about what you think you need to learn, as well as outlining some definite goals to achieve.

yop

Aye, tell them what they want to hear, that you are hoping to learn X and Y and that you would hope to be able to work on X and Y.

GreenHell

damnyanks wrote:

It may also be used to determine your bonus / salary upgrade yada yada.

i.e when it comes to review time they will view what is on your list to determine if your year has been a success.

Ideally you should be honest about what you'd like to achieve. Do you have any idea on how you would like your career to progress. Are you happy in the area you are currently in ?

Ya, I like my job and I'm moving into an area that I want to be in, at the same time I would like to be moving up in the world in the next 1 - 2 years, specializing in a particular area in IT.

rebel.ranter

Hi,
I work as a people manager in a Telecomms company. We have a similar structure, it's a development plan that your manager is looking for.
Previous posters are right. It is a mixture of the technical training courses you hope to complete, soft skills you want to develop (e.g. presentation skills, technical writng, etc.).
Other good things to have in your development plans include job shadowing, this is where you set yourself a task to work with an experienced person to "learn the ropes". This is even relevant for experienced people, say for example, someone in one specialist area learning about another area "on the job" e.g. a software test engineer finding out how a software developer works. This helps on 2 levels, one it might be that you will get a better idea if you would like to be a devloper, r two it may be that it would jut help you better understand their job to help you do your job better, or interact with a different department better. By understanding how someone else likes to work it should help you work through problems better in the future.
As a graduate another good thing you could put in your 18 month plan is some sort of project you would like to complete, e.g. documenting process (doesn't have to be rocket science level seeing as you were new). Or it could be just to learn the processes.

Make sure all you have in the plan is reasnably achieveable, that you do actually want to do these things too. I see it in my team, people draw up a plan & don't look at it until a few weeks before the end of year review. It should be something that will help you to be better at your job, help you get promoted, give you something to work on outside the normal hum drum routine of the job.
Hope this helps, think of it as something for you, not for your boss or the company. The reason he wants you to think about it is so he/she can help you get where you want to get. I wouldn't be afraid to ask your manager what he/she expects in the plan either.

damnyanks

GreenHell wrote:

Ya, I like my job and I'm moving into an area that I want to be in, at the same time I would like to be moving up in the world in the next 1 - 2 years, specializing in a particular area in IT.

Well its good you are doing something you want to do.

You can look at the whole process in a variety of ways. Do you have any form of 5 - 10 year plan i.e an idea of where / how you want to go?

Is there any reason you want to be specialist in a certain area? Is it something thats useful for your asperations in hte long term?

Think of it as the kick start to your career. While it won't necessarily shape how things happen in the next 2 - 3 years it allows you to tell the compnay what you want to achieve and what they should be doing to help you achieve those goals.