How to Have a Career Development Conversation With Your Manager

A career development conversation is a discussion about your future direction at work: the skills, experiences and opportunities you want to develop, and the support that could help you get there.

It is different from a formal performance review. A review generally looks at the responsibilities and expectations of your current role (I cover that in how to prepare for a performance review). A career conversation is more exploratory. It might include promotion ambitions, but it can also be about deepening your expertise, changing specialisms, gaining confidence in a particular task or discovering whether a different kind of work suits you.

You do not have to be unhappy in your job to have one. And you certainly do not need a fully formed five-year plan.

You are allowed to bring up your own development. If your manager has not scheduled a dedicated career conversation, ask for one. Be clear that you want to discuss growth and future opportunities, rather than spending the meeting on urgent operational issues.

You could write: “I’d like to spend some time discussing my development and the direction I could grow in. Could we schedule half an hour to talk about possible opportunities and what I should work on next?”

That is enough. You do not need an elaborate introduction or a dramatic announcement that your career has reached a crossroads.

If you have a regular one-to-one, you can propose putting development on the agenda periodically. If your organisation uses a formal development process, work within it, but do not assume that is your only opportunity to talk.

Before you meet, think about what you actually want. This is where I would begin if I were sitting opposite you as your manager.

Do you want to become more knowledgeable in your current field? Would you enjoy leading a project? Are you curious about moving into a different role? Do you want to become a manager, or are you quite sure that you do not? All of those are valid directions.

Try preparing short answers to these questions:

If your answer is “I’m not sure yet”, say that. Then choose something to explore. A good development conversation can be about finding direction rather than confirming one. If you would like to turn the answers into something you can keep, how to create a career development plan walks through it step by step.

You do not need a forty-slide presentation showing why you deserve to be the next senior manager. Bring two or three useful examples of your work. Choose moments that show what you enjoy, what you have contributed or what you want to develop.

Maybe you helped organise an improvement, took responsibility when something changed, supported a colleague or discovered that you enjoy the analytical part of a project. Be specific about your part. Recognise contributions from other people. If the outcome was mixed, explain what you learnt.

One example might sound like this: “I enjoyed bringing people together to solve the handover problem. I liked understanding the different perspectives and turning them into a workable approach. I’d be interested in doing more improvement work, although I know I still need to practise influencing a wider group.” This is an illustrative example, not a description of a specific employee.

That gives your manager something useful to respond to: a real interest, a strength and a development need.

If you are interested in a particular next step, ask what it involves. What skills matter? What experience would make you a credible candidate? Which parts of the role are more demanding than they appear? Where does your manager see strengths and gaps?

One of the most useful questions you can ask is: “When you look at the kind of role I’m interested in, what would you need to see me demonstrate before I’d be ready to apply?” It moves the conversation away from vague encouragement and towards something you can practise.

Your manager might not have all the answers. That is fine. Perhaps they can introduce you to someone who does the role, suggest a colleague to shadow or help you find the correct job profile.

Do not confuse an honest answer about a gap with a rejection of your ambition. If a skill genuinely matters, knowing about it gives you the chance to develop it.

A person can be good at something and still find it uncomfortable. Perhaps you want to speak up more in meetings, give presentations or handle difficult conversations. As a manager, I would want to understand what makes that difficult and which opportunities would help you improve.

But I would not make “be more confident” the entire development plan. Confidence is easier to work with when we connect it to an actual behaviour. For example: “I’d like to contribute more often in larger meetings. Could I prepare and present one short recommendation at our next session, and could we review afterwards what worked?” That gives you practice, a clear action and feedback.

Coaching or training may help, and sometimes external learning is appropriate. But do not assume that buying a course is the same as giving somebody a chance to use what they learn.

Also, development should not mean forcing everyone into the same personality. Someone can lead through clear writing, technical judgement, thoughtful listening or well-prepared decisions as well as through confident public speaking.

A conversation that ends with “keep doing what you’re doing” can feel reassuring. It may also leave you with no clear next step.

Before you go into the meeting, identify a request that could realistically help you develop. Perhaps you need a chance to lead a small project, access to a colleague with specialist expertise, time to attend training, feedback after a meeting or an introduction to another team. The table below gives a few examples.

A manager may have to consider workload, budgets and available opportunities. Ask for an alternative if your first idea is not possible. And be prepared for your part of the commitment: if an opportunity is offered, you need to engage with it, prepare and follow through.

It is perfectly reasonable to say you are interested in progression. You do not need to disguise ambition as a vague wish to take on “more challenges”.

But do not stop at “I’d like a promotion.” Ask which responsibilities the next role involves, how vacancies are filled, how readiness is evaluated and what evidence would make your application stronger.

I think it is important for managers to be candid here. They can support someone’s development and still be unable to guarantee a future vacancy or selection decision. An encouraging conversation should not quietly become an implied promise.

If there is no opportunity right now, you can still develop transferable skills, meet people working in the area and explore where else the work might exist. And if you eventually conclude that another employer offers a better fit, finding that out through thoughtful conversations is better than staying frustrated indefinitely.

For me, this is one of the most important parts. A useful career development conversation should finish with clarity about what happens next. Write down:

The example below is deliberately small. Career development is rarely the result of one enormous leap. More often, it is a series of opportunities where you find out what you can do, what you enjoy and what you still want to learn. To keep those agreements visible afterwards, you could create a simple career development plan.

You do not need to ask every question. Choose the ones relevant to your situation.

When exploring direction: “Which strengths do you see me using most effectively?” “Where do you think I could contribute more?” “What type of work might suit the things I enjoy?”

When interested in a particular role: “What would I need to demonstrate to be a credible candidate?” “Which skills or experiences am I currently missing?” “Who could help me understand the role better?”

When asking for development opportunities: “Is there a project where I could practise this skill?” “What support could be available?” “Could we agree how to review the experience afterwards?”

When the opportunities are limited: “What is realistically possible in the next three months?” “Are there other ways to gain the relevant experience?” “When would it make sense to review this again?”

Perhaps your manager sees a development gap you disagree with. Ask for a clear example and explain the evidence behind your own view. You do not have to agree immediately, but understanding the expectation is useful.

Perhaps the team is under pressure and there is no space for a new project. Discuss when the situation might change or whether a smaller opportunity is possible.

Perhaps your manager does not seem particularly interested. You can still ask for a specific follow-up or seek information through appropriate internal career or learning channels.

I would not treat one disappointing conversation as proof that your entire future is closed. But I would pay attention to whether clear requests and agreed actions are repeatedly left unsupported. The purpose is to learn what options exist, not to win a debate in a single meeting.

Because I write from a manager’s perspective, I think it would be unfair to place all responsibility on the employee.

A manager should make time to listen without deciding the answer in advance. They should help clarify expectations and distinguish what is possible now from what remains uncertain. They should offer honest feedback, consider access to learning and experience, and follow through on their own commitments.

They should also avoid assuming that everyone wants the same career. More senior does not automatically mean better. An excellent specialist should not need to become a manager to be taken seriously. And when someone chooses a development goal, the manager should help make room for practising it, where the realities of the job allow.

The employee owns their learning. The manager is accountable for providing appropriate clarity and support. Both matter.

If you are preparing for a meeting this week, write down these answers on a single page:

You can take that page into the meeting. You do not need a sophisticated template.

I want people to know what they are good at, what is expected of them and where there is room to grow. I also want them to know that they can ask for opportunities rather than hoping somebody will spot their ambition from across the office.

As a manager, it gives me genuine pleasure to see someone develop and eventually make a space their own. But the most useful conversations are the ones where that wish becomes something practical.

One clear direction. One opportunity to practise. Honest feedback. A next conversation. That is how a career development discussion becomes more than a pleasant half-hour.