Hi there,

With the new tools available, it’s easier than ever to steer your career ship. 🚢 

Today, in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• 🎯 How I stopped waiting for my manager to notice my potential (and started driving my own growth)

• 🗺️ The 4-part framework that turns vague aspirations into concrete proposals

• 🤖 How to build an AI copilot that preps you for career growth conversations

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💬 How I prep for career growth chats using AI

"Where do you see yourself in six months?"

Your manager asks you out of the blue. You freeze.

You know you want more. More scope, more complexity, maybe a different direction entirely.

But how do you articulate that without sounding unfocused or entitled?

Here's the thing most people miss about career growth.

It's not about waiting for your manager to notice your potential. It's about driving your own growth autonomously with clarity and intention.

In this edition, I'll walk through the career growth framework I've used for years—and show you how an AI copilot can make it 10x more powerful.

😨 The problem with winging it

In my early 20’s, I'd walk into performance reviews unprepared.

I'd ramble about wanting "more responsibility" or "growth opportunities." My managers would nod politely. Nothing would change.

I realized I was making a crucial mistake. I waited on my manager to outline my career paths for me. Whatever they didn’t verbalize, I also wasn’t bringing to the table for discussion. Hence, they couldn’t help me navigate either.

Here’s the thing:

It wasn’t their job to manage my career growth. It was mine.

This is doubly or triply important in startups or portfolio careers where roles are fluid.

The reality is that no one is going to care about your career as much as you. You need to own it. All of it.

That means getting crystal clear on what you want. Then building a plan to get there.

🗺️ Discovering a career growth framework

When I joined Dropbox in 2015, I learned a simple career planning framework.

This wasn’t perfect, but it was helpful structure I was missing at the time.

This broke down into four core components:

1. Personal brand
What do you want to be known for?

No this isn’t about your Linkedin profile. It's about identifying the unique value you bring to the world.

2. Short-term goals
What do you want to achieve in the next 3-6 months?

Be specific. Not generic things like “get promoted” or “get a raise.” For example “facilitate a design thinking workshop with CXOs” or “hire a new engineer on the team.”

3. Long-term goals
Where do you want to be in 1-3 years?

This gives you a direction to march towards. An internal compass. It helps you say no to opportunities that don't align with where you want to ultimately go.

4. Key strengths
What are you already excellent at?

Finally, these are your leverage points. Double down on them to make a bigger impact in your role. Or perhaps it’s about finding a new role that aligns better with your strengths.

Once you have these four pieces, it’s not over. There’s more:

👈️ Working backwards

Let's say your short-term goal is taking on a role that doesn't exist yet.

(This was my friend's situation recently. She wanted to propose a scope change to her manager, but the role/scope doesn’t exist at her company.)

Here's how to prepare:

Step 1: Identify the skills gaps.
What skills do you need that you don't have yet?

Step 2: Build a plan to acquire these skills.
How will you develop those skills? Through volunteering for new projects at work? Joining courses?

Step 3: Identify people.
Who can support you and how? Your manager? Mentors?

Step 4: Craft your pitch / business case.
This part is missed 90% of the time. Why does it benefit the company to help you acquire these skills or make connections to the people you want to meet?

How do you connect your goal to something valuable for the business, executives, or your manager?

By the time you’re done answering these questions, you’ll have turned an aspiration into a concrete proposal to your manager.

That concludes the traditional way of doing things. Now let’s talk about how an AI copilot can help you take this to the next level.

🫶 How to setup an AI career copilot

I’ve really enjoyed using LLMs as a sounding board in business and career.

Here’s what I’ve done:

Set up a Claude Project as your career co-pilot. (ChatGPT project is fine too)

Upload your career growth plan from earlier. Or just your reflections and notes on the topic so far.

Then provide context about your role, company, and goals.

I adapted and modified the AI copilot prompt from Tal Raviv:

I am a [role] at [company name], and you are my expert coach and advisor, assisting and proactively coaching me in my role to reach my maximum potential.

I will provide you with detailed information about our company, such as our strategy, target customer, market insights, products, internal stakeholders and team dynamics, past performance reviews, and retrospective results.

In each conversation, I will provide you with information about a particular initiative so you can help me navigate it.

I expect you to: ask me questions when warranted to gain more context, fill in important missing information, and challenge my assumptions. Ask me questions that will let you most effectively coach and assist me in my role.

Encourage me to: [list the values and behaviors that make you successful in your role]

I want you to find the balance of: [traits you want in a thought partner and coach that will be both effective and fun to work with]

To set it up, I’ve fed the copilot prompt a shortlist of things to encourage me to do.

This helps fine tune the questions it asks me.

Then every time I have a career related topic, I’ll go into my copilot project and start a new chat thread.

For example, you can ask it to encourage you to:

• Suggest daily actions to take to help you reach your short-term goals

• Identify blind spots like where you’re not taking advantage of your strengths

• Spar with you on how to craft your business case for your manager

• Role-playing challenging conversations before they happen

Personally, I’ve asked my copilot to balance being a supportive colleague vs challenging/pushing me beyond my comfort zone.

I’ve asked it to ask me questions about trade-offs, challenge my thinking, and encourage me figure out how to deliver value quickly.

Give this a try and share your results. Curious how it goes.

🍎 Make it a habit

Here's my final suggestion:

Have a career growth conversation with your manager every six months, then use your AI copilot to prep for it.

If your company has a performance review cycle, sync with that. You can use the chance to prepare for your pre-scheduled manager chat.

If not, pick your own cadence. Propose a career growth conversation with your manager. Use your AI copilot to refine your document to share with your manager.

Plus, using the copilot makes the whole process a bit less dreary - and more fun.

✔️ In summary

• Own your career development instead of waiting for others to drive it

• Use four components: personal brand, short-term goals, long-term goals, key strengths

• Work backwards from goals to identify skills, people, and narratives you need

• Set up an AI career copilot to challenge your thinking and prepare for conversations with your manager

• Review your plan every six months to stay on track

In the spirit of autonomy, it’s all about putting you in the drivers seat of your career. Not your manager.

What's your biggest challenge with career growth planning? Reply and let me know.

💎 Last Week’s Gems

🗣️ Choose Your Own Adventure: How to Have a Career Conversation (Deb Liu)

🚀 Here is how I approach starting a new job (Elena Verna)

◀️ Reverse impostor syndrome (Wes Kao)

💌 Reader Notes