Discover the Possibilities Along Your Career Pathway

A career in talent development (TD) can be very rewarding. Helping others learn and grow in their careers is something that contributes positively to individuals and the organizations they work for. The TD field itself is incredibly diverse. From one-person shops where practitioners wear many hats, to teams with deep bench strength in every specialized discipline, opportunities abound. In fact, the field is predicted to grow in the coming years.

Despite this, TD professionals can feel “stuck” in their role. Many are in roles within organizations that provide a limited view of the wider possibilities in TD. With all these variables, how can TD professionals chart a path forward for their career?

ATD has launched a new tool, Talent Development Career Pathways, to assist the field in exploring the kinds of work performed in TD and its associated roles. The tool outlines common activities across job families and the skills needed for specific roles. Dive deeper into specific roles, viewing common activities and necessary skill sets. If you are an ATD member and are logged in, you will see how well your current skill set aligns with that needed for each role. By aligning with the self-assessment from the Talent Development Capability Model™, you can identify roles that align to your current skill profile and help you create a personalized learning plan to build the skills needed for your dream job.

If you are interested in learning more about various TD functions, use the tool to explore by job family. If you have a role in mind or want to know what kind of roles perform specific activities, you can search by role. Once you identify a role, review how well your Capability Model Self-Assessment aligns with it. Choose that role as your Learning Path and be taken to the Capability Model to review your gap analysis. Connect to ATD resources that have been curated to your current proficiency level and the gaps you have.

The tool also shows popular career paths, based on ATD research, to get inspiration for where your skill set can take you. Select the Popular Path tab in each role to see how other professionals have moved across the field over the course of their career. These are not the only ways to progress from role to role but can help you see which roles are most likely to lead to your career goal. You can then identify which skills should be a priority for your development.

Created by career coaches and subject matter experts, TD Career Pathways can open you to new possibilities or find connection points for your skills if you are considering moving into TD from another field. We have even highlighted fields that are common crossovers to various roles.

In organizations with large TD teams, roles within the team can run the gamut from administrative support, curriculum design, technology enablement, classroom facilitation, strategy setting, and executive oversight. It is also true that in the TD field there are many organizations that have TD teams of one. In these organizations, one person will wear many hats regardless of experience or tenure. All these factors affect role descriptions, sets of responsibilities, and the reality of the day-to-day life of a TD professional.

ATD created the Working in TD section of the site to help users understand how all those considerations may affect a role in postings they see. This section includes short videos on how various factors may affect what a role really looks like day to day. Connect to other resources to help you navigate the variables across different roles with the same title. Access tools to help you consider a move to consulting or a transition from the K-12 environment. TD Career Pathways puts better understanding at your fingertips to help you chart your own trajectory. You can also see career profiles of professionals currently working in the field to better understand the possibilities of where working in TD can take you.