Topic 2 Develop your Professional Lifeline
First of all, take some time to think about your professional career so far. Take a piece of paper (or use Microsoft Word or Powerpoint) to draw your ‘professional lifeline’. Mark important points in your working life as ‘ups’ and ‘downs’. Describe why you consider the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ as such.
Tip: Take notes in different colours to give you a better overview.
The following questions might help you:
- Which central aspects in your working life had great influence on your decisions? Which important changing moments can you identify?
- Which personal skills and competences do you see regularly in your working life? Which could you use more often?
- Which persons supported and influenced you (mentors, friends, family, colleagues, etc.)? How did they support or influence you?
- Imagine you would have a personal fan club: What would they admire the most regarding your work?
Source:CICLO (2021).
When you are finished, have a look at the result and answer the following questions for yourself:
- Can you see a certain pattern?
- Are any of the ups and downs related to a certain amount of ‘change’?
- Were you required to adapt or develop your behaviour in any of them?
- Look at the present: Where do you consider yourself standing? More upwards or downwards?
- Look at the future: What do you think the future brings? Will your lifeline go down or up? What helped you in the past that supported an upward shift? What might help you this time to go further up or prevent your line from going down?
This exercise allows you to reflect on milestones you experienced throughout your professional career and to have a glance at the future. Furthermore, this professional lifeline should give you an idea about what brings joy (‘ups’) to your career, what you consider as challenging (‘downs’) and what resources for support are available to prevent future challenges from pushing you downwards.
