In this solo episode of the Paralegals on Fire! Podcast Show Ann Pearson discusses why it is important for every paralegal to have a career development plan, regardless of their experience level or the number of years in the legal industry.
Show Highlights
- You own your paralegal career; your employer owns the job – invest in your career!
- How to put your career development plan in writing (see below for your free download!)
- Is it time to sharpen your saw? Because a dull saw will take you twice as long to do that project.
Show Summary
Instead of waiting to see what your company is going to do for you – Ask yourself: what am I going to do for myself? The answer is to make a career development plan and put it in writing. It is one of the best investments you can make in your paralegal career.
“The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember that jobs are owned by the company you own your career and owning your career means that you invest in that career.” – Earl Nightingale
You’re going to get what you put into your paralegal career. If you graduate with just the basic foundation and never make any other investment in it, you’re going to stay there in the same place you were when you graduated from your paralegal certificate program.
The schools give the foundation and the education. It takes experience and on-the-job training to gain those skills that you actually need.
That’s why it’s up to you. Especially if you’re a paralegal starting out in a new profession, you have to seek out paralegal training after you graduate. It’s great when you have an employer who has a good training development program in place, but it’s still up to you to get the training you need to succeed.
No one is going to do more to advance your paralegal career than you!
Your Actionable Strategy
In all of our podcast episodes, we try to give paralegals an actionable strategy that they can take away from the show because we know your time is valuable.
In this podcast episode, Ann Pearson discussed giving you a template to help you get started. Get a copy of the Paralegal Career Development Plan that you can use to start planning your career path.
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Did you get a tip from today’s episode to help you fast-track your paralegal career? Give the show a review and let me know what you enjoy most about the Paralegals on Fire! Podcast Show. I’ll be reading every one of them! –Ann Pearson
Additional Career Resources
Here are a few of our favorite resources for paralegal career development: