5 Effective Steps To Create Your Professional Development Plan
What do you think of when you hear the term “professional development?” If you graduated recently you might be cringing. You may be thinking that you’ve just spent the past 4+ years developing your professional skills; however, the achievement of your PharmD represents the start of your journey, not the end.
Pharmacists all know the importance of being life-long learners – new drug approvals can be a challenge to keep up with, let alone the legal, regulatory, and institutional changes that impact our practice areas. For a long time, I considered my professional development to be tied to my employer. After all, that’s where I spent the most hours honing my craft of oncology pharmacy practice. That’s where I needed the information about new drugs, new indications, newly reported toxicities, and that’s where I discussed with my team newly published study results.
During my residency training, I was required to present my research projects at regional or national meetings, so those costs were covered. Post-residency, my employer paid for conferences I attended when I presented in some fashion; if I didn’t present, I didn’t attend. They also provided a yearly stipend towards annual dues for professional organizations, so I could reap the benefits of those groups. I am very fortunate to have had these opportunities as budgetary constraints are making them less commonplace.
It wasn’t until I entered a non-traditional pharmacist role that I began to consider what my professional development journey means to me and how to manage it. Since I was suddenly financially responsible for my own career trajectory, I had to decide where I saw value and then budget for these often-pricey expenditures. I quickly realized which organizations I valued being a member of and which conferences I wanted to attend. I also began waking up to the idea of self-learning outside these traditional boxes. I was new to the for-profit sector and needed to learn new skills about business, project management, negotiation, and communication. The picture of what my career could be started crossing lines I didn’t expect which drove me to learn about even more new areas.
The pharmacy profession is ripe for disruption and the now frequent news of layoffs in the retail sector illustrates this. Our professional landscape is evolving and although we need national change, we also need personal change. We need to cultivate our future opportunities by building a strong professional foundation that can be leveraged into many different areas. This is why it’s vitally important to take charge of your own professional development! Do not delegate that responsibility to your employer. Here are steps I encourage you to consider on this journey.
Assess your current state and future state professional goals
1. Take inventory of where your professional development is today.
What organizations, activities, initiatives have you found helpful? Are you taking advantage of all the benefits and opportunities in your current memberships? What has not brought value to you?
Download a Professional Development Inventory here to get started!
2. Document your goals for the future – be specific and audacious! For example, do you want to:
Have one-on-one time with patients;
Present at local/regional/national meetings;
Be involved in research; precept students/residents;
Be on a board of directors;
Become an officer of a professional organization;
Work remotely;
Increase your salary;
Move out of state/country;
Be known as an expert in your niche;
Get an additional degree/certification;
Pivot into a different specialty?
And here’s the super important part – why do you want to do these things? What is it, specifically, about these things that light you up? Knowing the “why” can help lead you to other activities to get similar outcomes. For example, I love patient counseling; it has always been my favorite part of being a pharmacist. When I really think about why I love it, I realize I love explaining and teaching complex topics to a non-expert audience. Funny thing, I do that today, but not for patients. That is the definition of transferable skills.
Develop a plan to meet your professional goals
1. Create a calendar and break up your big, audacious goal(s) into monthly “macro goals” and weekly “micro goals”. Be specific as this will drive momentum!
2. Develop tasks needed to complete the macro and micro goals.
3. Define what external resources are needed to achieve these goals.
4. Call your accountant – tax laws have changed but you may be able to deduct professional expenses, so consult a professional and document everything.
5. Determine a communication strategy – do you need an accountability partner? Do you want to share your goals with your network before and/or after you achieve them?
6. Create a budget.
Add up the costs of achieving these goals on a 6 or 12-month basis, divide by 6 or 12, and save that amount each month in a dedicated “Professional Development” savings account. It is not easy to come up with $600 for annual dues right before the holidays if you haven’t already budgeted for it so plan ahead!
If you have a goal that involves traveling for a conference, consider the travel expenses (flight, parking, ground transportation, lodging, etc.) plus onsite expenses like meals. The government per diem rates can give you an estimate of what to expect in the city you will be in. Know when early bird registration rates end and plan accordingly.
If your goal involves finding a remote opportunity, consider expenses related to a home office (new computer, second monitor, adjustable desk [highly recommend!], faster internet, etc.)
If your goal involves board certification, consider the cost of study materials, exam fees, ongoing maintenance fees, certification upkeep (how much will CE credits cost versus retaking exam), participation in a study group, working with a coach.
Download an example calendar here to get started!
Consider mentoring and/or coaching
Do you have a colleague who is doing things you want to do? Mentoring is focused around a relationship with the intent to foster long term development of the mentee; its emphasis is on the future. It requires a significant time commitment by both parties and has less specific outcomes compared to coaching.
Coaching is focused on tasks – getting that interview, passing that exam, pivoting into a different specialty; its emphasis is on the present. Coaching can help you accelerate your learning curve by leveraging others’ knowledge and skills to more efficiently reach your goal. Coaching can be 1-on-1, group coaching, membership communities, and Masterminds. Masterminds have been around in the business world for a long time but have yet to make it into mainstream healthcare. They are groups of highly motivated, goal-oriented professionals that learn from each other, brainstorm paths to success, and find personal accountability to get the work done. The idea is that multiple minds working together make a “master mind”. How are you holding yourself accountable?
Take risks!
I cannot emphasize this enough! Our profession is risk-averse for obvious reasons – we are in the business of healthcare and risk and healthcare do not jibe. We don’t take risky moves with the health of patients, but we should be more willing to take risks for the health of our careers. When I accepted my first non-traditional role as a clinical liaison, I was terrified. I considered the leap a huge risk as it was a non-permanent position and came with a minimal traditional benefits package. After much calculating and quantifying, I considered the move worth the risk because I thought it would open other career doors for me. And it did. In fact, looking back 2+ years later, I realize staying in my “safe” clinical specialist role was even riskier. No risk no reward, right? Be bold, be brave, be courageous. Think of the learning you’ll get out of it! You either win or you learn, you never lose. I think taking risk is so important, I dedicated an entire blog post to it.
Network like your career depends upon it because it does
If you haven’t heard the importance of networking, you are not paying attention.
Professional networking is the process of interacting with others to develop professional contacts and exchange information.
Sounds simple, right? Of course, understanding the value of networking and executing a strategy to capture that value is definitely very different. I’ve heard from many pharmacists who do not like to network, but frankly, it doesn’t matter whether they like it since it is a necessary part of being a successful professional. Some may view networking as talking with people they have nothing in common with and don’t enjoy talking to – it can be quite the opposite in my opinion!
Networking is the act of finding people you can learn from and leveraging that into a meaningful, mutually beneficial relationship.
For example, at the 2019 HOPA Annual Conference I met Amy Pick, PharmD, MS, BCOP, then professor at Creighton University, when I moderated her session. She was speaking on leadership and something she said during the talk really resonated with me. She was talking about authenticity and that we should each be “us” inside and outside of work. To me, that means networking should NOT be about “putting on your game face” but instead about genuinely seeking out people with whom you have something in common and who have a unique view of a topic.
Once you connect with these people, don’t just be a business card collector! Do something with that information – first, immediately connect with them on LinkedIn. Business cards should be the emergency back up when your phone is dead. If you hit it off, have a phone call, then consider what type of regular follow-up works best. Amy and I have a monthly phone call or Zoom video conference to catch up on what the other is doing and be a sounding board for ideas. I find these relationships invaluable. Consider if I wanted to make a career pivot into academia. Who would be first on my list to get the inside scoop? Probably Amy! Since we can’t predict the future, networking can be our door into a vast amount of information when the time is right.
Learning is the desired end game of your efforts, and when you think of it in those terms, I hope you can see that networking is not just a synonym for job searching. Network like your career depends upon it, because it does. Without continuous learning your career path could very well be disrupted.
Self-reflection is the most important skill any of us can have, and we can all learn it. Being in the driver seat of your professional path is the key to a fulfilling career that is tailored to your goals, skills, and knowledge.
Assess, plan, execute.
How will you take ownership of your career?
About The Author
Kelley is a board-certified oncology pharmacist that strongly believes oncology is the best specialty for pharmacists and that anyone can learn it. She founded the ELO (Enjoy Learning Oncology) Program, the only private member network exclusively for oncology pharmacists. Want to get instruction and personalized support to take your oncology knowledge and career to the next level?
