No matter what profession or industry you’re in, most of us want to transition into a new role eventually — and it doesn’t always mean jumping ship to another company. Perhaps it’s taking on a higher leadership role or transitioning into another department. Either way, advancing ourselves professionally is something many of us aspire to do.

However, that’s where a lot of the thinking stops. We want to become the manager or work in marketing instead of sales, but we don’t do much to make it happen. For instance, let’s say you you want to be a designer. To advance in the proper way, you need to know the basics: UX Design, Front End Code, Branding, Application Virality, and some color basics, etc. In short, you have to know what you’re doing.

The reality is, if in the next 18 months you want to be at a certain level, you have to take steps to get there because no one is going to do it for you. That is all career management is. That’s what going to get you somewhere and that’s what going to advance your career.

If we look at the career landscape today, career management is not all about execution alone. It’s a lot of talk, a lot of promises, and perhaps a lot of wishing. However, how you manage and perform today will determine your professional life five, 10, maybe even 15 years from now. You can dream all you want, but you have to get ……