Create Your Career by Design

Posted on by Jenny Breakey

This blog is for anyone who wants help in their current position, or who wants to grow and go further to achieve their career goals.

Here are 3 progressive steps to help you accomplish this:

  1. clarify your direction
  2. build your foundation
  3. elevate your impact

Clarify Your Direction

Before you build a career, you need clarity. This first step focuses on identifying your core values, passions, strengths, and long-term goals. By understanding what truly drives you, and aligning that with market needs, you lay the groundwork for a career that feels meaningful and sustainable. This step is about defining your version of success and crafting a clear vision to guide every decision forward. This first step is so important, that you should set aside time where you will not be disturbed, so that you can focus on all the questions you will be facing. What can also help you is if you ask those closest to you, what they think your strengths are. 

1. Self-Awareness

  • A successful career starts with knowing who you are. Self-awareness is the foundation for making aligned decisions, it helps you understand your values, motivations, natural strengths, and what kind of work energizes or drains you. Without this clarity, it’s easy to follow someone else’s path instead of carving out your own.

2. Values

  • Your values are your internal compass. They define what matters to you and guide your behavior in the workplace. By identifying your core values early on, you can pursue roles and organizations that reflect your principles, leading to greater fulfillment and long-term alignment.

3. Strengths

  • Understanding and leveraging your unique strengths allows you to play to your advantage. Recognizing what you do best, and how it creates value, helps you position yourself for roles where you can thrive, deliver results, and stand out.

4. Purpose

  • Purpose brings meaning to your work. It’s the deeper “why” behind your career. When your daily tasks are aligned with your larger mission, you’re more likely to stay motivated, overcome challenges, and create a career that feels worthwhile, not just successful.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Reflect on Your Past Experiences

  • List 5–10 previous roles, projects, or experiences.
  • Highlight what you enjoyed, what you didn’t, and why.
  • Identify patterns in tasks, environments, or teams you preferred.

2. Assess Your Strengths

3. Identify Core Values

  • Choose your top 10 values from a values list.
  • Narrow it down to 3 non-negotiable values.
  • Reflect on how your current work aligns (or doesn’t) with these values.

4. Discover Your Purpose

  • Ask yourself: What problem do I care about solving?
  • Consider what kind of legacy you want to leave.
  • Write a personal mission statement (1–2 sentences).

5. Define Career Goals

  • Set one short-term goal (6–12 months) and one long-term goal (3–5 years).
  • Make sure they align with your strengths, values, and purpose.
  • Write down why these goals matter to you.

6. Create a Vision Statement

  • Describe your ideal work life in 3–5 years.
  • Include industry, role, environment, impact, and lifestyle.
  • Revisit and refine this regularly.

Build Your Foundation

Once you have clarity as to what it is you want to do, it’s time to construct a solid base. This second step involves building the right skillsets, gaining practical experience, developing a standout personal brand, and cultivating a resilient, growth-oriented mindset. Whether you’re entering a new field or strengthening your current position, this phase ensures you’re professionally equipped and strategically positioned to move forward with confidence. Just like building any construction, you need your clearly mapped out plans, have the tools necessary to build a solid foundation, and to ask for help if you need it.

1. Skills

  • Skills are the currency of career growth. This includes technical abilities, soft skills, and leadership competencies. Continually developing relevant, in-demand skills ensures you stay competitive and prepared for evolving opportunities.

2. Experience

  • Real-world experience gives context and credibility to your skills. Whether through internships, projects, jobs, or volunteering, building practical experience helps you apply what you’ve learned, demonstrate your value, and grow your professional confidence.

3. Personal Brand

  • Your personal brand is your reputation in action. It’s how others perceive your expertise, reliability, and character. By intentionally shaping your brand, online and offline, you can attract the right opportunities and stand out in crowded markets

4. Mindset

  • A resilient, growth-oriented mindset is essential for career longevity. It’s what helps you bounce back from setbacks, adapt to change, and stay proactive. Your mindset influences how you show up, learn, and lead throughout your career.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Identify Skill Gaps

  • List required skills for your ideal role (use job ads, LinkedIn profiles).
  • Rate your current proficiency from 1–10.
  • Choose 2–3 areas for focused development.

2. Plan Skill Development

  • Choose methods: online courses, mentoring, certifications, side projects.
  • Block time each week for active learning.
  • Track your progress with a simple spreadsheet or journal.

3. Gain Relevant Experience

  • Volunteer, freelance, shadow, or consult in areas you want to grow in.
  • Take initiative on projects in your current role that helps you build new skills for yourself.
  • Document achievements and results.

4. Build Your Personal Brand

  • Audit your LinkedIn profile and CV for consistency and relevance.
  • Create a positioning statement: ‘I help [who] do [what] by [how].‘
  • Post or share content aligned with your expertise and interests.

5. Strengthen Your Mindset

  • Practice resilience: keep a ‘challenge and growth’ journal.
  • Adopt a growth mindset and embrace feedback and discomfort.
  • Build a support network of 3–5 people who uplift and stretch you.

6. Track and Celebrate Progress

  • Review monthly: What did you learn? What went well? What needs adjusting?
  • Celebrate milestones (big or small) to keep momentum.

Elevate Your Impact

With a strong foundation in place, you shift from building to scaling. Scaling is all about doing more with what you’ve built, efficiently and effectively. This third step focuses on intentional growth, stepping into leadership roles, making high-impact decisions, and navigating strategic career transitions. It’s about becoming known for your contribution, building influence, and creating a legacy by aligning your work with a broader purpose. There could be times in your career when you reach a glass ceiling and cannot grow anymore in the organization that you are in, and that’s okay. It is just a sign that it is time to look at what is available in the market.

1. Growth

  • This phase is about strategic growth, not just taking on more work, but identifying the right opportunities to expand your influence and skillset. Whether it’s a promotion, a new project, or a lateral move with long-term payoff, it’s about advancing with purpose.

2. Leadership

  • Leadership is no longer tied to a title. It’s about taking initiative, guiding others, and being a trusted problem-solver. As you grow, developing leadership skills becomes vital, whether you manage people or ideas.

3. Strategic Career Moves

  • A well-designed career doesn’t happen by chance. Strategic career moves involve planning your next step with intention, considering timing, role, culture fit, and long-term goals. This is how you ensure progress aligns with your bigger vision and your core values.

4. Legacy

  • As you reach higher levels of success, you start thinking beyond personal achievement. Legacy is about impact, mentoring others, driving change, and leaving behind something meaningful. It’s the ultimate measure of a career built by design.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Map Out Growth Opportunities

  • Research future roles or pathways in your field.
  • Identify gaps and growth trends (AI, sustainability, leadership needs).
  • List 2–3 ideal next-step roles.

2. Practice Leadership Without a Title

  • Lead projects, mentor juniors, contribute ideas.
  • Focus on influencing outcomes, not just completing tasks.
  • Track leadership examples to use in interviews and promotions.

3. Make Strategic Career Moves

  • Use your vision and values to evaluate new roles.
  • Prioritize opportunities that align with long-term growth.
  • Be proactive instead of waiting for perfect conditions to advance.

4. Build Your Legacy

  • Mentor others, share knowledge, or create resources.
  • Document impact and contributions over time.
  • Ask: ‘What will people remember me for?’

5. Expand Your Influence

  • Speak at events, write articles, join panels, or contribute to industry forums.
  • Network across departments or industries.
  • Be seen as someone who adds value beyond your job description.

6. Revisit and Refine

  • Career elevation is not a one-time leap, it’s an iterative process. (The iterative process is a cycle of repeated work that a team creates to quickly prototype their product and get feedback from clients and stakeholders. The team then uses this feedback to improve the product (if needed) in the next work cycle and repeats this process until they achieve the desired outcome.)
  • Schedule quarterly reviews to realign with your evolving purpose and opportunities.
  • Stay agile and open to shifts that align with who you’re becoming.