Women in Climate (WiC) network
Women in Climate (WiC) network
Posted by Penny Maher
15 September 2025At our August Women in Climate event we were joined by two speakers from the UK Met Office: Damian Wilson (Applied Science Fellow and Head of Science Profession) and Deborah Hutchings (Performance Consultant – People Development) to facilitate and discuss a Career Development session. Deborah and Damian shared their insights and helpful tips on setting goals and how to achieve them, as well as dealing with setbacks.
We heard that when figuring out where you want to be going (i.e. setting a career goal) it makes sense to ask yourself what your strengths (and weaknesses) are, what motivates you and what you dislike about your current job. This is helpful for figuring out where you would like your career to go. In this context, the SMART framework can be helpful, i.e. setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, (Agreed upon, in this case with yourself), Realistic and Timebound.
Once you know where you want your career to be heading, it is helpful to reflect on how you can achieve your goal(s). As a first step, ask yourself what skills/experiences you will need and break those down into stepping stones on the path to your goal (note that there might be more than one possibly route). Then, consider which opportunities you need to look out for or create for yourself, and set a timeline. Finally, it is helpful to ask yourself what the first step is right now to get started. The GROW model nicely summarises these points, i.e. consider your Goal, the Reality (where you are now), Opportunities (such as mentoring, networking, working on different projects, etc.), and what you Will do right now to get going. When acquiring new skills and knowledge, it is also helpful to consider a holistic approach for example, the “70-20-10 model”, which states that for effective learning, 10% should be through formal learning, 20% through social learning (e.g. with peers/tutors), while the majority (70%) of learning should be in the form of experiential/applied learning.
When considering your career goals and the steps to get there, it can be very valuable to have a network, i.e. people that you can take risks alongside of, who encourage you/create opportunities for you, who will give you honest feedback, and who you enjoy working with.
Finally, it is important to realise that things will not always go according to plan (for reasons that might be out of your control). In order to keep moving forward, it is helpful to reflect on what has worked for you up until this point and what is different now from when you started your journey. It is also useful to reflect on your goals and whether they are still relevant to you, or whether you need to readjust them. It was interesting to hear that some people like well-defined goals, while others prefer a more flexible approach, but either way it is perfectly okay for your goals to change over time.