How to Create a Learning Plan
Control your career growth by deciding what to learn next
As a software engineer, one of the most difficult problems you'll face is deciding what to focus on in your career. At any given point, you can:
learn a new programming language
understand design patterns in depth
go deeper into your current stack
cover foundational skills you lack
follow the new shiny skill all interviewers are asking for
… and much more. It’s overwhelming.
The secret
In order to determine your learning journey, first answer the question:
Who do I want to become?
It doesn’t need to be about your entire life (although that helps). Focus on your work goals. Think about the next year or two.
Consider your current job, level, and industry.
What would make you stand out?
Your aspirations define your learning path:
🤓 A specialist in your stack
Being known as an expert JavaScript developer requires you to understand much more of the language than most of us use every day.
🧐 A domain expert
Many developers decide to go deep into a field and become the best at finance, crypto, or healthcare software. Companies and peers will look at you as a reference in this field.
👨🏻💻 An overall better developer
A lack of soft skills can hinder your chances of promotion to senior and beyond. Improving your communication, time management, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities is absolutely critical.
📈 An entrepreneur
If your time is better spent creating products or running a company, you'll need to develop a broader view and prepare to dive into sales, product design, marketing, and effective negotiation.
Creating a Learning Plan
A learning plan is a guide for you to follow after you know exactly where you want to improve.
Start with the ultimate vision - who you will be at the end of this process.
From there, think backward and determine the goals you need to reach in one year.
Break them down into quarters, then into weeks.
Share this idea with your dev friends and colleagues ⤵️
Bonus points
To optimize results, set hard but achievable goals, and build one project per quarter.
The weekly schedule gives you 12 spots for smaller goals each quarter. From here, every week is a list of small tasks.
After each quarter, reflect, write, and publish your learnings.
What are you waiting for to create your own learning plan today?
P.S. Ask Chat-GPT to outline the learning plan for you. You’ll be surprised!
- Josias (@josiasds)