Career Development
Career development is the series of activities or the on-going/lifelong process of developing one’s career. Career development usually refers to managing one’s career in an intra-organizational or inter-organizational scenario. It involves training on new skills, moving to higher job responsibilities, making a career change within the same organization, moving to a different organization or starting one’s own business.
Career development is directly linked to the goals and objectives set by an individual. It starts with self-actualization and self-assessment of one’s interests and capabilities. The interests are then matched with the available options. The individual needs to train himself to acquire the skills needed for the option or career path chosen by him. Finally, after acquiring the desired competency, he has to perform to achieve the goals and targets set by him.
Career development is directly linked to an individual’s growth and satisfaction and hence should be managed by the individual and not left to the employer.The 5 part models of career development are as follows:
Self Assessment
Self-Assessment is a process of clarifying your value through discovering the relationship between various occupations and your personality type and work style, interests, career values, and skills. Even if you have engaged in a self-assessment process early in your career, your interests may have changed over time and you may be eager to learn new skills. It is helpful to periodically engage in a thorough process of self-assessment throughout your career.
Career Awareness
In the Career Awareness phase of career development planning, your goal is to understand how your value applies to opportunities within your organization and the wider world of work. Developing your career awareness means gaining knowledge of career paths and job opportunities, the skills and qualifications necessary to be successful in these positions.
Ultimately, the fit of an organization’s culture with your personal goals, values, and work style is something you need to assess for yourself.
Goal-Setting
Goal Setting is a process of integrating self-assessment and career awareness information into career goals that reflect your vision of what you want in a career. If you have taken the time to do a thorough self-assessment and have built up your career awareness, then you are ready to focus on taking action.
Skill Development
Skill Development means developing yourself and your skill sets to add value for the organization and for your own career development. Fostering an attitude of appreciation for lifelong learning is the key to workplace success. Continuously learning and developing one’s skills requires identifying the skills needed for mobility and then successfully seeking out trainings or on-the-job opportunities for developing those skills.
Developing your skills begins with assessing which skills are important for your desired career development.Speak with your supervisor or manager and other career mentors to identify the types of skills that will help move you forward in your career.
Your development should follow the 70-20-10 rule:
70% of your development should come from on-the-job activities and action learning. This can include development experiences like managing a project, serving on a cross-functional team, taking on a new task, job shadowing, job rotation, etc.
20% of your development should come from interactions with others. This includes having a mentor, being a mentor, coaching, participating in communities of practice, serving as a leader in a staff organization, etc.
10% of your development should come from training, including classes, seminars, webinars, podcasts, conferences, etc.
Once you have identified the skills you need to develop to achieve your career goals, your next step is identifying how you will develop your skills. The two main avenues for developing your skills are through the following:
- Education and training
- Developmental experiences
Career Management
Career Management ensures others know about you and your value. Although Career Management is one of the five phases of career development planning in our model, it is deliberately front and center since activities related to career management are relevant to all the other phases. Also, career management, unlike the other phases, is a continuous process that occurs throughout one’s career and not just at discrete times. It may be helpful to think of career management as a philosophy and set of habits that will enable you to achieve career goals and develop career resiliency.
Successful career management is accomplished through regular habits of building relationships, engaging in career development conversations, updating your career development plan, and setting new goals as life and career needs change. Being proficient at career management also means possessing basic skills related to job searching and managing changes in a resilient manner.
Importance of Career Development
Every employee working in an organization is looking for a career development which moves in the right direction. Career path taken by an employee determines the growth. Career should be planned in a way that it moves forward. Career development provides the framework with Skills, goals, awareness, assessment and performance which helps an individual to move in the right direction and achieve the goals one has in one’s career.