Career Experience Gap Plan
Build evidence for your target role before waiting for a promotion
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 95%
The Career Experience Gap Plan begins by naming a desired future role and identifying the skills, judgment, and evidence needed to earn it. The professional then compares those requirements with the experience available in the current job. Missing capabilities need not wait for a formal promotion: cross-functional assignments, volunteer leadership, professional organizations, or nonprofit board service can create relevant practice. The second mechanism is explicit communication. Rather than assuming leaders will notice an unspoken ambition and offer the right role, the professional tells a manager what they want and collaborates on a long-term development plan. This turns career growth from a passive hope into a visible sequence of experiences, feedback, and increasingly relevant responsibilities.
Origin
Extracted from Masters in Business, where Heather Brilliant advised graduates to seek experiences aligned with their target roles and explicitly communicate their ambitions to managers.
Core principles
- 01Career advancement requires deliberate evidence of readiness
- 02Relevant experience can be built outside a person's formal job
- 03Managers cannot support ambitions they do not know about
- 04A long-term target should determine today's development choices
- 05Proactivity is more reliable than waiting to be selected
How to run it
- 1
Choose a Target Direction
Name the role or type of responsibility you want in the long term, even if the choice remains provisional.
Pro tip Describe the work and responsibilities, not just the title.
Watch out A vague desire to advance cannot guide specific experience choices.
- 2
Map the Required Evidence
List the skills, decisions, relationships, and leadership experiences commonly expected in the target role.
Pro tip Ask people already doing the job which experiences mattered most.
Watch out Credentials alone may not demonstrate readiness to perform the work.
- 3
Identify Your Experience Gaps
Compare the target requirements with what your current role lets you practice and demonstrate.
Pro tip Separate genuine gaps from skills you possess but have not made visible.
Watch out Do not assume excellent performance in one function automatically proves readiness for another.
- 4
Create Experience Outside the Job
Use volunteer organizations, nonprofit boards, professional groups, or special projects to practice skills unavailable in daily work.
Pro tip Choose roles that require real accountability rather than nominal membership.
Watch out Outside activities should close a specific gap, not merely fill a résumé.
- 5
State Your Ambition
Tell your manager which role, sector, or responsibility you want and ask for help creating a development path.
Pro tip Make the request concrete enough for the manager to identify relevant assignments.
Watch out Do not expect to be selected for an aspiration nobody knows you have.
- 6
Execute and Review the Plan
Pursue the agreed experiences, gather feedback, and periodically assess whether the evidence now supports the next move.
Pro tip Record outcomes that demonstrate increasing scope and judgment.
Watch out Do not confuse completing activities with developing the underlying capability.
In the wild
An equity analyst wants to manage a research team but has no direct reports. She joins a nonprofit board, leads a committee with a budget and volunteers, and tells her manager she wants a future leadership role. Her manager then gives her responsibility for coordinating a cross-sector research project.
→ She develops and demonstrates leadership before a formal management vacancy appears.
A sector analyst tells his manager that he wants to become a portfolio manager. Together they identify gaps in portfolio construction and risk oversight, then arrange shadowing, model-portfolio responsibility, and quarterly reviews.
→ The employee gains a visible development path instead of waiting to be unexpectedly tapped for promotion.
Common mistakes
Waiting to Be Tapped
Managers may value an employee without knowing the employee's desired destination. Unspoken ambitions rarely produce a tailored development path.
Relying Only on the Day Job
A current position may not offer the experience needed for the next one. Carefully chosen external responsibilities can close that gap.
Naming a Goal Without a Plan
Stating an ambition helps, but it must lead to concrete skills, assignments, milestones, and feedback.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for early- and mid-career professionals who know their desired direction but lack opportunities in their current job.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for someone who has not yet explored enough options to identify even a provisional career direction.
From the transcript
“seek experiences that will help you get the role that you think you want in the long term.”
“it's so important to put your hand up and make sure that your manager knows how you want your career to evolve”
“I just don't think it generally works that way.”
From the episode
From Equity Research to International Investing With Heather Brilliant
Heather Brilliant