Career Velocity: Managing The Speed and Direction of Your Career

In physics velocity is defined as speed with direction. Your career development can be looked at in the same way. What direction is your career headed and how fast is it going? Is your career headed in the direction you want? How pleased are you with how fast your career is developing?

So how do you measure your career velocity?

First of all direction is more important than speed. Heading in the wrong direction at high speed is a disaster waiting to happen. So first make sure you know where you want your career to grow and evolve by developing a Strategic Career Plan. Knowing where you want to go and the steps along the way will let you know whether you are headed in the right direction, need a course correction or need to turn around.

How you measure the speed of your career development is really up to you to define depending on your personal values. Perhaps you will measure career speed by how long it takes to get promoted. Perhaps you can measure it by the changes in your annual salary. Or perhaps by the number and types of experiences.

Regardless of how you choose to measure your career velocity, the most important thing you can to achieve more success more quickly is to define your career velocity and measure it. The very act of defining and measuring your career velocity, even imperfectly, will show you some great results that will only improve as you get more practiced and/or work with a career coach.

Do you know your career velocity? What's your next step?