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.

According to Gysbers and Moore, “Career development is

self development over the lifespan through the
integration of the roles, settings, and events of a person’s
life”.
 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. Careful career planning is always useful for
individuals to succeed professionally and also helps to boost employee motivation in
the organization.
• Evaluates capabilities critically
• Creates a pool of talent
• Talent-retention
• Enhances employee Aspirations
• Enhances Organizational competitiveness
• Establish goal congruence
Steps involved in career
development plan

SELF-ASSESSMENT

GOAL SETTING

FORMULATE A
PLAN OF ACTION
STAGES OF CAREER
DEVELOPMENT MODEL
1. Exploration
2. Establishment
3. Mid-career
4. Late career
5. Decline
EXPLORATION : A career stage that generally ends in the mid-twenties when one makes transition from
formal education to job .We start exploring about different career opportunities. Our decision for career gets
influenced by parents, peers and the financial resources. It is a time when a number of expectations about
one’s career are developed, many of which are unrealistic.

ESTABLISHMENT : this period begins when we start the search of work and also includes accepting
the first job, acceptance by peers, learning about the job and gaining the first taste of success or failure in the
real world.
Problems in exploration period
1. Finding a niche
2. Making your mark
3. Characterized by making mistakes.

MID-CAREER : A stage marked by:-

o Continuous improvement in the performance
o Levelling off in the performance
o Beginning of deterioration process

Possible outcomes of mid- career

1. Some employees reach their early goals and go on to even greater heights.
2. Other may suffer from plateaued mid -career

Late career stage : A career stage in which neither the person is learning about their jobs nor they are
expected to outdo their level of performance from previous years. It also has two affects on:
o Individuals who have grown in mid career stage
o Individuals who have stagnated or deteriorated

Decline (Late Stage) : This the final stage in one’s career which is usually marked by retirement. This
is the difficult stage for everyone but hardest for those who have had continued successes in the earlier
stages and then comes the time has come for retirement.
 Competency Mapping and its
linkage with Career Development
Competency Management is the set of management practices that identify
(Competence Mapping) and optimise the skills and competencies required to
deliver on an organisation’s business strategy. Competency management provides
the foundation to manage strategic talent management practices such as
workforce planning, acquiring top talent, and developing employees to optimise
their strengths
The competency mapping tools are as follows.
1.INTERVIEWS
2.QUESTIONNAIRES
3.ASSESSMENT CENTRES
4.PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS
There are many human resource functions where competency mapping is used
like career development, training and development, recruitment and selection,
performance management, Potential management, etc. when organization goal
and employees performance objectives are connected then it will deliver better
results and during the process, competency mapping will act as an accelerator.
Competency mapping helps in visualizing the sustainability and development of
skills and abilities which are based on changing needs of the organization.
Employee development must focus toward increasing skills and competencies of
the employee rather than preparing them for jobs. Thus, skills and competencies
developed in employee will help organization to meet needs when any change or
evolution takes place
Competency Mapping recognizes the strength and the weakness of employee to
help them know their strength and weaknesses and it also put its efforts to guide
employee career development