The primary focus of career is an individual. Each individual in an organization continues to formulate, implement, monitor and fulfill his or her own mission in life through employment.
Career Development: Fulfilling a Commitment for
Life
The primary focus of career is an
individual. Each individual in an organization continues to formulate,
implement, monitor and fulfill his or her own mission in life through
employment. In other words, they are engaged in Career Management. The word
‘Career’ means a general lifelong course of action a person chooses to pursue
or a sequence of positions occupied by a person during the course of a
lifetime. The Oxford Dictionary describes career as a course or progress
through life or an occupation or profession engaged in as a life-work and a way
of making a livelihood and advancing oneself. To some people, career means
advancement, in which case, jobs offering little chance for advancement would
not be careers. According to another perspective, careers are equated with
certain high status occupations, while lower status occupations are merely
jobs.
According to Schein’s description
of career-cone, career changes may happen along three basic dimensions namely a
vertical movement between different levels, a horizontal movement between
different jobs at the same level and a radical movement toward or away from the
inner circles of power in an organization. Every person’s career goes
alternatively through a period of change, followed by a period of stability before
transforming again. A recent idea with regard to careers is known as career
security, It enjoins upon people to develop professional or occupational
security due to the development of useful skills and competence rather than
depending upon organizations for providing them job security.
Career development initiatives should
develop people for the long term
needs of the organizations and at the same time equip them to meet the dynamic
changes that would take place over a period of time. This may involve several
steps to be carried out by the employing organizations. First step would be to
orient employees on the numerous career opportunities, choices and paths that
might be available to them. Subsequently, a detailed assessment of individual’s
fitness for different career options would be an essential step. Career mapping
based on business plans and futuristic training is to be considered by every
manager of human resources.
Career guidance and counseling,
Career Workshops, allotment of a variety of challenging tasks, roles and
responsibilities based on the interests and capabilities of the employees would
follow the assessment as a third step. Training and Development inputs to
further enhance the competence of person would have to precede every stage of
career progression. Jobs can be designed to range from highly simple to highly
complex tasks in terms of use of the employees’ skills. Job enrichment, job
enlargement and job rotations are beneficial steps in shaping an individual’s
career.
Career Planning is an ongoing process through
which an individual sets career
goals and identifies the means to achieve them. As a saying goes, “If you don’t
know where you are going, any road will get you there”. Self-awareness helps
keeping one’s career related decisions in harmony with the deep inner values.
By suppressing self-awareness, some high achievers suffer from a severe sense
of deprivation at the end of their career. An individual could also shape one’s own career by planning for it and reviewing, renewing and adapting the plan during the entire work life. A dependable Career Strategy from an individual’s perspective involves the following steps:
a. Preparing a personal profile based on introspection and psychometric testing such as Vocational Interest tests and personality tests
b. Developing professional goals in the form of a mission statement
c. Analyzing the external and internal environment influencing careers
d. Developing strategic career alternatives based on the analyses
e. Evaluating alternatives and selection of the one that is most attractive
f. Preparing a set of guidelines and milestones for the
career plan as it is set into action.
Tags : Human Resources Management - Career Development
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