Development Plan

After a few years as an associate, your firm may ask you to prepare a "career development plan." This is typically a multi-page document in which you profess vociferously your enthusiasm for your practice area and colleagues, describe your grand ambitions in the field and at the firm and detail how you plan to achieve those lofty goals. This is all an elaborate charade, given that you and everyone you work for knows that your next career move now involves you packing up your desk, but these development plans at least offer an outlet for your creative writing skills.