In layman’s words, Career development can be stated as a lifelong process of opting for the desired career, building up your skills through different stages, and striding towards constant growth on the path. This process lasts for as long as individual desires and is full of learning, decision-making, that helps you to bring you closer to a particular job, skills and lifestyle. But this is not as easy as it sounds. Career development is crucial for one to grow in his or her life and move towards the desired lifestyle, but then one has to go through various stages of career development and that can be quite testing but not impossible.
Know How-To:
Though most people experience a different career start, with many differences, the long-run career path is almost similar for all of us. An average employee has to go through a similar type of career path to stride towards betterment though the methods may widely vary. Starting from your interest or inclination towards a particular career to the time of finally bidding goodbye to it, one has to come across various types of unknown challenges.
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Here are the five stages of career development:
1. Looking Out For:
This is the stage when you note down your weaknesses, strengths, and your likings so as to opt for a career path that suits your interests and tastes. Before getting permanently employed, this stage begins either as soon as you are out of college or in your sophomore year. For many, this may start even before. As you know that you have to pick up a career you might actually start narrowing down from various to a handful of options. Many other factors like upbringing, feedback from teachers and friends, communication, and education depend on the decision that you make.
This stage can be narrowed down to three points:
- Discovering interests
- Learning and practicing basic skills
- Having expectations
2. Stepping On Board:
Now that you have chosen a career path that fits your tastes and suits your interest, it is time to get established. For this, you need to apply for an actual job and accept your position. At this level, you will get an intermediate position or so with comparatively minor responsibilities. During this stage, your expectations will be replaced by actual reality and you might come across new emotions like work-related anxiety and the fear of uncertainty. But then you will be excited about the new phase of life. For more success on the stage, you might also consider opting for the
best soft skills coach who can help you in various things. For performing better at this stage you might consider opting for a
personality development course.
During this time your main goal is to:
- Learning the various facets of your new job.
- Developing and improving your skills at multiple levels
3. Entering the Mid-career:
This stage of career development will be identified either by gaining a sense of stability in your present job or transitioning to a new career path. Most of the workers who are employed in a job will learn a specific type of skills related to the job. During this, your commitment to the job will be tested and this will lead to the solidification of a particular role. In addition, during this stage, you might want to refurbish your job, goal, and interests. During this stage, a work-life balance or stability is also experienced.
4. Coming of Late Career:
Now that you have cleared the first 4 stages of career development, you have reached the second-last stage and the least challenging and most interesting one. During this phase of career development, your work will be less demanding and instead of learning or obtaining new skills, you will be eligible for imparting your experience and knowledge to other employees. Though still, you will have a plethora of opportunities. During this time you might actually start planning what your life after retirement will look like and you can also start indulging in more fun activities that help you in recreation and just having a good time like going on vacation, spending more time with family, picking up sports activities and the likes.
5. The Onset Of Decline:
Mostly in their mid-60s, after working for over a decade and gaining life-long experience about a plethora of things, many people pick to retire and take out time for themselves. Once you have retired you might consider taking a break and enjoy more time with your friends and family by going on a vacation and more. You can also spend time reviving your past hobbies, developing new interests, or volunteering for a better cause.
But this does not last and so on the basis of skills and experiences, many people also start looking for various ways of making money like:
- Working part-time,
- Consulting an organization on a freelance basis,
- Or maybe starting your own little business.
These various stages of career development completely depend on your abilities and the kinds of education or knowledge you have. These all stages are also interlinked with each other and the success in one stage determines your success in the other.
