As the evening came to a close, a few of us were discussing career development. What did today’s exectutives who are responsible for this in their organisations think about career development as a people management tool? Did they see the individual as well as the organisation benefit through a partnered approcah? What are the main factors which influence choice of career?
Came across this article in Express Computer where Sudipta Dev writes about Career Development and its impact on employee performance.
Here are a few of my thoughts:
- Ownership for career development has shifted from the organisation to the individual. It is up to individuals to chalk out what they want to achieve in their career, equip themselves to achieve these goals by making the best use of every opportunity offered to them by their organisations.
- Organisations support career development as a well structured and executed initiative has benefits for the organisation as well as the individual.
- Career development is strongly linked with individual needs and desires. There can be no standard template. The drivers are just too different. For someone learning is a major trigger, for another compensation is. This influences the choice of career and what they put in to their development. Interestingly, these drivers vary over time for all of us.
- For most, career choice is largely influenced by others. Many simply join academic courses because their friends have done that or choose an option because it is perceived as being well paying with many job opportunities.
- Very few choose based on their own interests and strengths. This calls for a certain amount of courage to buck the trend and stick out your neck to make what is seen as a unconventional choice.
- Career development is a process which facilitates the professional and personal growth of the individual. As we grow and mature, our choices become more clear and focussed and we are more certain of what we expect of a career. There comes a time when hard choices have to be made. Many ladies have compromised on their careers for the sake of their growing family responsibilities.
Successful executives have taken responsibility for their own career development. They made sure they were at the right places at the right times to accelerate their quest to get what they want from a career.
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This is the 134 th of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success
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