How Can You Advance Your Career? Growth Guide and Tips

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

Career advancement means moving forward professionally with better titles, skills, and pay. This guide covers its importance, how to set goals, plan your path, and take actionable steps to grow and seize opportunities for long-term career success.

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Key takeaways

You can advance your career by setting career goals, designing your advancement path, working toward growth, and pursuing new opportunities.

  • Career advancement comes in many forms and may include getting promotions, changing fields, or expanding job responsibilities. 

  • Professional development opportunities can expand your education and foster career growth.

  • You can work toward career growth by networking in your field, building your skills, and collaborating with your manager.

Explore what career advancement is and how you can progress toward your professional goals. To start building your skills now, consider enrolling in the University of Michigan’s Leading People and Teams Specialization. You’ll have the chance to develop your vision as a leader in as little as four weeks. Upon completion, you’ll have gained in-depth knowledge that can benefit you in your career.

What is career advancement?

In the broadest sense, career advancement is progression to the next level of your career. This type of progress may come with an enhanced job title, increased responsibilities, expanded skill sets, and a greater salary. For individuals motivated by growth, pursuing career advancement can improve job satisfaction, open new opportunities, and illuminate continued learning pathways.

Career advancement will mean different things to different people. To specify what career advancement looks like for you, it’ll be important to know your values and goals. Some examples of what career advancement might look like are:

  • Getting a promotion

  • Moving into a new department or field

  • Expanding your job responsibilities

What does professional development mean?

Professional development is the advancement of your skills and knowledge as they pertain to your profession. When you pursue professional development opportunities, either through your company or independently, you can often open new growth opportunities within your professional field. Whether you aim to take on new responsibilities or progress into a more senior role, developing new and in-demand skills can help you move toward your goals.

How to advance in your career

Even if a new job isn’t your specific goal, advancing your career can feel like starting a new position along your desired career path. So, the approach to advancing your career will often be similar to the job search process.

The basic steps will be:

  1. Determine your career goals.

  2. Plan your desired advancement path.

  3. Work toward growth.

  4. Pursue new opportunities.

To start, take a closer look at each advancement stage.

Read more: Job Search Guide: Resources for Your Next Career Move

1. Determine your career goals.

Before you work toward career advancement, it’ll be important to know what type of career advancement aligns with your wants and needs. This way, you can make sure you are working toward an end state that fits your desired lifestyle. In determining your career goals, you can create guideposts for yourself as you work toward progress. 

Keep in mind that career goals, like most goals, tend to be cyclical. In achieving one goal, you may come to recognize a new goal. Remember to keep checking in with yourself as you reach new milestones.

2. Plan your career progression.

Once you have clarity on your goals, you’ll be more prepared to map your path toward achieving them. In this stage of your career advancement journey, you may find it helpful to compare your current state to your ideal future state.

Read job listings for positions or companies you’d like to work for and talk to people currently doing the work you hope to do. Take note of your current skill gaps or discrepancies, as these will likely be areas that you can focus on building and reinforcing to prepare for the upcoming growth stage.

3. Work toward career growth.

This next stage is when you really start engaging with your goals and working in a way that demonstrates your preparedness to advance. As you work toward growth, you may expand and hone your skills, earn a new credential, take on a project, or seek networking opportunities.

Depending on your goals and your relationship with your current manager, this may be a good time to talk about your desire for advancement. Knowing what you’re working toward, your manager may help you find growth opportunities within your current role’s scope or offer advice on what you can do to qualify for advancement within your company or field.

Having your manager as an ally in your development can enable you to effectively plan for your future, as well as plant the seeds for the next stage when you pursue advancement opportunities.

4. Pursue opportunities for advancement.

Oftentimes, it’s not enough to work toward growth; you need to ask for the results you want to achieve. Actively pursuing advancement opportunities signals to the people with the power to make decisions about your career progress that you are interested in and ready to move into the next phase of your career.

Whether you’re demonstrating your preparedness to your manager, another department lead, or a hiring manager, you’ll likely need to seek out and offer proof of your growth and effectiveness before you’re given new opportunities. During this time, keep an eye on internal and external job openings, apply for jobs, stay in touch with key contacts, maintain an updated resume and cover letter, and prepare for interviews.

Career advancement strategies

Career advancement takes time and effort, and progress isn’t always linear. Since certain aspects of your advancement aren’t entirely in your control, you may need to overcome some obstacles or shift your plans along the way. During those times, you may want to seek additional sources of motivation guided by self-improvement or an expert, such as a mentor, career coach, or career counselor.

Advance your career with free resources

Visit our Career Resource Hub to assess your skills, explore career paths, and refine your resume. Then, check out these resources for additional career-planning guidance:

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