Reignite Your Passion: Activities for Career Development
Career Discovery, Career Enrichment
Engaging in activities for career development can be the key to unlocking your potential and boosting satisfaction at every stage of your career. Whether you’re exploring career paths, aiming for a promotion, or seeking fresh motivation, incorporating intentional development activities is a powerful way to stay on track and grow professionally.
In this article, we’ll dive into a variety of practical activities for career development, from fun career exploration activities that allow you to learn about different professions to thought-provoking questions that help you uncover your transferable skills.
Whether you’re after new challenges, need clarity in your path, or just want to rediscover your passions, these career development activities will set you on the path to success.
Read on to reignite your passion and take tangible steps towards a fulfilling career!
What is Career Development?
Career development is a dynamic process of exploring and refining your professional path and includes any of the work you do to advance your career: learning a new skill, meeting with a career coach, or researching potential paths. It’s an ongoing journey of continuous growth that aligns your decisions with your career goals.
As your life circumstances change over time, so do your interests and values. These changes can influence your professional choices, which is why career development is a lifelong process. And because you have different priorities at each point in your career, it can help to team up with a Career Coach to find the right activities and career options for you.
Activities for Career Awareness and Exploration
Career exploration activities lay the foundation for effective planning and decision making. This work helps you identify the professions and career pathways that are available to you, explore different industries and roles, and consider various potential career alternatives.
Why is Career Exploration Important?
Career exploration activities allow you to gain valuable insights and awareness to make informed decisions about your career path and future. They can also enrich your professional experience by helping you develop a sense of direction and purpose in your career journey.
The activities for career development in this section encourage you to explore different careers, roles, and industries to gain valuable insights into paths aligned with your strengths, interests, and values.
Self-Assessments: Discover Your Potential and Build Self-Awareness
Jumpstart your self-discovery with a range of assessment tools, whether on your own or in partnership with a career coach. Options range from free tools like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), The Princeton Review Career Quiz, and O*Net Interest Profiler which help identify transferable skills and narrow down career options, to in-depth assessments available through a certified Ama La Vida career coach.
With expert guidance, you can explore assessments that delve into key aspects of your personality, strengths, and leadership potential. These assessments add an extra layer to coaching by providing ideas about different occupations and helping you identify career options that align with your strengths across various industries.
Here are a few assessments available through Ama La Vida coaches:
CliftonStrengths – Recognize and leverage your core strengths and growth opportunities. This assessment builds confidence in your unique contributions and comes with a personalized report to guide your development.
Enneagram – Discover your primary Enneagram type to gain insight into your motivations, worldview, and interpersonal dynamics, enhancing both self-awareness and relational understanding.
DiSC – Understand your communication and behavioral styles, helping you build more effective relationships and identify workplace cultures that support your well-being and productivity.
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership – Evaluate your emotional intelligence across six key areas to enhance your leadership effectiveness and drive team performance.
Mind Map Your Career: Connecting Passions to Professions
Career mind mapping is a visual brainstorming activity that allows you to map out your interests, skills, and values in relation to potential career paths. A mind map starts with a central idea—your career aspirations—and branches out into different concepts, such as your passions, strengths, and the industries that resonate with you. This technique not only enhances creativity but also helps organize your thoughts in a structured way.
By creating a career mind map, you can gain a clearer understanding of your valuable assets and how they align with various professions. This process encourages you to explore different paths you may not have considered and reveals connections between your personal values and potential positions. As you visualize the links between your skills and industries of interest, you can identify many opportunities that truly excite you.
You can use a free tool, like Canva, to create your mind map, empowering you to take ownership of your potential career path.
Informational Interviews: Gain Insights from Professionals
Informational interviews are an invaluable tool for career exploration, offering you the chance for hands-on research through meaningful conversations with professionals in your field of interest. These discussions can provide insider insights into various roles and industries to clarify specific job functions, industry trends, and the skills required to succeed.
This process not only helps you gather crucial information but also allows you to build your professional network. You can connect with professionals through platforms like LinkedIn, attend networking events, leverage your school’s alumni network, or engage with contacts from your social or family circles.
Expanding your network in this way can uncover hidden opportunities and provide guidance on potential career transitions, making it easier to decide if a new job or going back to school is the right move for you.
For a deeper dive into how to prepare for and conduct informational interviews, check out our article, Informational Interviewing: The Hidden Secret of Effective Job Searching.
Activities for Career Planning and Goal Setting
Once you have an idea of what you want your career to look like, it’s time to consider your long-term career pathway and goals. You can think of career planning as a road map to navigate towards your career success while staying on track and measuring your progress.
Visualize Your Future: Create a Career Vision Board
Having a visual representation of your career goals can be both motivating and informative, reminding you on a regular basis of where you are and where you want to end up. Creating a career vision board will reinforce what’s important to you professionally.
There is no artistic skill required, and your vision board can be as high- or low-tech as you’d like. Whether you prefer paper and scissors, or digital tools like Canva, you’ll bring together photos, quotes, and images to represent your career path and the milestones along the way.
Leverage Ama La Vida’s Free Career Plan Worksheet
Be sure to take advantage of free tools like Ama La Vida’s free Career Plan Worksheet! It walks you through the career planning process by organizing your career goals, mapping out actionable steps, and measuring your progress towards those goals.
Start by brainstorming a list of actionable steps to reach your career goals. For any of the steps you can take on your own, like researching potential career paths or attending a class or workshop, go ahead and schedule those activities on your calendar to keep you moving forward.
The worksheet serves as a critical tool at any stage of your career journey—whether you’re exploring new opportunities or advancing in your field, this worksheet will keep you moving forward. You can use it to document all of your career development activities and to envision goals and plans for the future.
Download our comprehensive step-by-step guide to design and land a job you love!
Activities for Career Growth and Skill Development
There are opportunities for skill development and professional growth at every stage of your career. There is such a broad range of options that nearly every professional should be able to find some skill development activities that suit them.
Read on to find the right activities for your current circumstances.
Expand Your Knowledge with Online Courses and Workshops
Classes and workshops within your industry can connect you with a professional learning community and keep you updated on industry trends. There are more high-quality online offerings than ever before, and you should be able to find one that aligns with the skills you’re looking to develop. Sites like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, and edX can get you started on your learning journey.
Mentorship Matters: Forge Meaningful Career Connections
A mentor can have a significant impact on your career growth by offering guidance and direction, expanding your professional network, and even identifying opportunities that you may not have considered. To find a mentor, start by asking friends, family, and colleagues or by searching your connections and groups on LinkedIn. Other ways to find a mentor include searching within your professional organization, at conferences and at other networking events in your industry.
Get Professional Development Budget from Your Employer
Good news: you may have the opportunity to secure a budget for career development through your employer! If the skills and knowledge you acquire benefit both you and your organization, it’s worth exploring.
Begin by investigating what resources are available to you. Many employers offer funds for professional development, so make sure to take full advantage of these opportunities. If your company does not currently provide a budget, consider making a compelling case for why investing in your growth is beneficial for the business. Highlight how your enhanced skills can contribute to improved performance and drive organizational success.
For detailed strategies on how to successfully request and secure professional development funds, check out our article, How to Get a Professional Development Budget From Your Employer.
Activities for Networking and Community Building
Networking is the foundation of career development, and it doesn’t have to be painful or awkward to make professional connections. Your network can offer you an insider’s perspective with valuable insights and real-time advice on the job market. Start by building meaningful relationships within the workplace or in your professional communities, showing curiosity about their insights, and connecting with people who share your professional interests and ambitions.
Strengthen Your Relationship With A Colleague
Many people overlook the potential for networking within their own workplaces. Building relationships with coworkers can significantly enhance team dynamics and foster personal career growth.
Consider investing your lunch hour in a conversation or coffee date with colleagues. This is a great way to get to know those you work with and others within your organization, paving the way for stronger connections and collaboration.
To learn more about how to effectively network and cultivate valuable relationships throughout your career, check out our article: Building Networking Skills for a Successful Career.
Beyond Business Cards: Engaging Networking Activities
If you’ve tried all of the standard networking opportunities, you may want to get creative about how you make connections. To meet people in person, attend industry events, conferences, workshops, and roundtable discussions focused on your professional interests; if you can’t find any events in your area, you could even consider hosting one yourself!
Don’t forget to leverage your social circles, as well as any affinity groups or alumni associations you belong to. The more professional connections you establish, the easier it will be to build relationships and seek support in your job search.
For more innovative ways to connect with others, check out our article: Creative Networking: Building Connections the Fun Way.
Career Development Activities for University and High School Students
For university and high school students, career awareness activities are designed to expose them to a wide variety of potential career paths. Many schools offer programs that allow students to explore a broad range of careers, job roles, and industries to learn about themselves and the world of work. These activities help students develop a sense of direction and purpose in their career journey and make informed decisions about their futures.
Job Shadowing: Experience a Day in the Life
Job shadowing is a great way for university and high school students to gain real-world experience and gain insight into their desired career path. This career activity provides unique insights into the day-to-day responsibilities of the job. With this firsthand experience, students develop a deeper understanding of their desired career path and make informed decisions about how to move forward.
Volunteering and Internships: Get Hands-On Experience
Volunteering and internships are great ways for students to gain hands-on experience and develop essential skills for their desired career path. Many schools encourage students to participate in these opportunities. Volunteers and interns see the day-to-day work that goes into their chosen career field and try out the work without making a long-term commitment.
This allows them to build problem-solving skills and confidence through practice in their desired career field, while developing a competitive edge in the job market.
Unlock Your Potential with These Career Development Activities
By investing in career development activities, you can boost your productivity and job satisfaction. And whether you are a high school student developing awareness of potential career paths or a seasoned professional seeking new challenges and opportunities, we hope the activities outlined in this article guide you towards success.
If you’re looking for personalized support, book a free consultation to learn how a career coach can help you create a customized plan that aligns with your unique career goals.
