The Need for Professional Development

My post yesterday discussed the need for work experience from a variety of sources, and evidence of skills that the job may require, citing my own experience of employment arising from my creative writing pursuits. At the end of the post, I mentioned the need to constantly develop one's progress throughout their chosen career and to reassess themselves every now and then. This post will explain the need for professional development and why not doing so could leave you behind in the profession.

So what is Professional Development? Professional development is the process through which we ensure our skill set is up-to-date and is constantly re-evaluated to meet the demands of the changing world, paraphrased from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI.) So to re-evaluate one's skills, what should be done?

Well firstly, you should examine the world in which you live and -if you are any good at your job- you will probably be aware of new technologies etc. that solve certain problems or have fostered a demographic shift on certain platforms. This means that you should learn about how to use new technologies to effectively optimise them within strategies. For example, when Internet marketing -SMM in particular- became much more popular post-2007, many marketers needed to get used to the new environment of social commerce and the ability to spread opinion far and wide through social media. There were and still are, some marketers who have not done this and as a result, their digital strategies will almost-certainly be lacklustre. This will be the same with the new Penguin Update. SEO marketers cannot keep rehashing the same old tactics from the late '90s, the playing field has moved and so should the players.

Examining the environment for new laws and technologies is a crucial step in Professional Development, but there is another important dimension that is much more personal, and that is the ability to evaluate your own progress. Identify problems with your working life, are you working too much? Not hard enough? Are you securing very high numbers in terms of whatever metric you are tasked with accumulating e.g. Click-throughs? If so, what can be done about that? These questions should lead to multiple tasks to complete long-term in order to facilitate the completion of your goal e.g. Have steps in place to aid the process and even give them time-frames if you want, such as 'by March end, organise 10 brainstorming meetings of 2 hours each',  as a goal for fostering greater campaign creativity by the end of the year.

Goals can either be very specific, or more arbitrary in terms of their tangibility. The salient point, is that you must take a step back and ask the question: What could improve my job performance? What am I missing? If the answer to these question is "Nothing" and "Nothing," then you aren't doing it right. Everyone needs to develop, whether you be a Marketing Assistant or a CMO, you all occupy the same world and it isn't going to stop for you. You have two choices: Evolve or die! In this instance 'die' refers to the deadly experience of under-performance and mediocrity, hopefully not a physical death, but you never know.

So in summary, why is PD important? Because it fosters reflective thinking on your professional life, which can -and most likely will- lead to a more insightful perception of the world around you.

LINKS:

- http://www.managers.org.uk/training-development-qualifications/personal-development/my-career/cpd CMI, on Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- http://jbwalkerwriting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/work-experience-update-advice.html
My Post Yesterday on the Importance of Work Experience
- http://www.palgrave.com/skills4study/pdp/
Professional Development for University Students & CPD in Future Careers (I used this for my course!)