Chapter 38: Career Development
Lumen Learning and Linda (Bruce) Hill
Career Development
See if you can remember a time in your childhood when you noticed somebody doing professional work. Maybe a nurse or doctor, dressed in a lab coat, was listening to your heartbeat. Maybe a worker at a construction site, decked in a hard hat, was operating noisy machinery. Maybe a cashier at the checkout line in a grocery store was busily scanning bar codes. Each day in your young life you could have seen a hundred people doing various jobs. Surely some of the experiences drew your interest and appealed to your imagination.
If you can recall any such times, those are moments from the beginning stage of your career development.
What exactly is career development? It’s a lifelong process in which we become aware of, interested in, knowledgeable about, and skilled in a career. It’s a key part of human development as our identity forms and our life unfolds.
Stages of Career Development
There are five main stages of career development (developed by Donald Super). Each stage correlates with attitudes, behaviors, and relationships we all tend to have at that point and age. As we progress through each stage and reach the milestones identified, we prepare to move on to the next one.
Which stage of career development do you feel you are in currently? Think about each stage. What challenges are you facing now? Where are you headed?
| # | STAGE | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | GROWING | This is a time in early years (4–13 years old) when you begin to have a sense about the future. You begin to realize that your participation in the world is related to being able to do certain tasks and accomplish certain goals. |
| 2 | EXPLORING | This period begins when you are a teenager, extends into your mid-twenties, and may extend later. In this stage you find that you have specific interests and aptitudes. You are aware of your inclinations to perform and learn about some subjects more than others. You may try out jobs in your community or at your school. You may begin to explore a specific career. At this stage, you have some detailed “data points” about careers, which will guide you in certain directions. |
| 3 | ESTABLISHING | This period covers your mid-twenties through mid-forties. By now you are selecting or entering a field you consider suitable, and you are exploring job opportunities that will be stable. You are also looking for upward growth, so you may be thinking about an advanced degree. |
| 4 | MAINTAINING | This stage is typical for people in their mid-forties to mid-sixties. You may be in an upward pattern of learning new skills and staying engaged. But you might also be merely “coasting and cruising” or even feeling stagnant. You may be taking stock of what you’ve accomplished and where you still want to go. |
| 5 | REINVENTING | In your mid-sixties, you are likely transitioning into retirement. But retirement in our technologically advanced world can be just the beginning of a new career or pursuit—a time when you can reinvent yourself. There are many new interests to pursue, including teaching others what you’ve learned, volunteering, starting online businesses, consulting, etc. |
Keep in mind that your career development path is personal to you, and you may not fit neatly into the categories described above. It’s more common than it has been in the past for people to change careers in their thirties, forties, fifties, and even sixties. Perhaps your socioeconomic background changes how you fit into the schema. Perhaps your physical and mental abilities affect how you define the idea of a “career.” And for everyone, too, there are factors of chance that can’t be predicted or anticipated. You are unique, and your career path can only be developed by you.
Career Development Resources in Your College, Community, and Beyond
Career experts say that people will change careers (not to mention jobs) five to seven times in a lifetime. So your career will likely not be a straight and narrow path. Be sure to set goals and assess your interests, skills and values often. Seek opportunities for career growth and enrichment. And take advantage of the rich set of resources available to you. Below are just a few.
Career Development Office on Campus
Whether you are a student, a graduate, or even an employer, you can obtain invaluable career development assistance at your college or university. Campus career centers can support, guide, and empower you in every step of the career development process, from initial planning to achieving lifelong career satisfaction.
Books on Career Development
Going to college is one of the best steps you can take to prepare for a career. But soon-to-be or recently graduated students are not necessarily guaranteed jobs. Staying educated about strategies for developing your career and finding new jobs will help you manage ongoing transitions. The book The Secret to Getting a Job After College: Marketing Tactics to Turn Degrees into Dollars, by author Larry Chiagouris, was written specifically to help recent grads increase their chances of finding a job right after college. It speaks to students in all majors and provides tips and tactics to attract the attention of an employer and successfully compete with other candidates to get the job you want.
The following video provides an introduction to the book. You can download a transcript of the video here.
Video: The Secret to Getting a Job After College
Career Roadmap
You can use the Career Roadmap, from DePaul University, to evaluate where you are and where you want to be in your career. It can help you decide if you want to change career paths and can guide you in searching for a new job. The road map identifies the following four cyclical steps:
- Know yourself
- Explore and choose options
- Gain knowledge and experience
- Put it all together: the job search process
Plan, Do, Check, Act
PDCA (plan–do–check–act) is a four-step strategy for carrying out change. You can use it to evaluate where you are in the career development process and to identify your next steps. The strategy is typically used in the business arena as a framework for improving processes and services. But you can think of your career as a personal product you are offering or selling.
- PLAN: What are your goals and objectives? What process will you use to get to your targets? You might want to plan smaller to begin with and test out possible effects. For instance, if you are thinking of getting into a certain career, you might plan to try it out first as an intern or volunteer or on a part-time basis. When you start on a small scale, you can test possible outcomes.
- DO: Implement your plan. Sell your product—which is YOU and your skills, talents, energy, and enthusiasm. Collect data as you go along; you will need it for charting and analyzing in the Check and Act steps ahead.
- CHECK: Look at your results so far. Are you happy with your job or wherever you are in the career development process? How is your actual accomplishment measuring up next to your intentions and wishes? Look for where you may have deviated in your intended steps. For example, did you take a job in another city when your initial plans were for working closer to friends and family? What are the pros and cons? If you like, create a chart that shows you all the factors. With a chart, it will be easier to see trends over several PDCA cycles.
- ACT: How should you act going forward? What changes in planning, doing, and checking do you want to take? The PDCA framework is an ongoing process. Keep planning, doing, checking, and acting. The goal is continuous improvement.
Internet Sites for Career Planning
Visit the Internet Sites for Career Planning Web site at the National Career Development Association’s site. You will find extensive, definitive, and frequently updated information on the following topics:
- Online Employment
- Self-Assessment
- Career Development Process
- Occupational Information
- Employment Trends
- Salary Information
- Educational Information
- Financial Aid Information
- Apprenticeships and Other Alternative Training Opportunities
- Job Search Instruction and Advice
- Job Banks
- Career Search Engines
- Resources for Diverse Audiences
- Resources and Services for Ex-Offenders
- Resources and Services for Youth, Teen and Young Adults
- Resources and Services the Older Client
- Industry and Occupation Specific Information
- Researching Employers
- Social Networking Sites
- Disabilities
- Military
Activity: Campus to Career
Objective
- Examine two critical questions about developing your career while still in college: How do I prepare myself for a career while I’m in college? How do I position myself to get ahead?
Instructions
- Review the Campus to Career Web site called “Top College Career Tips from Freshman to Senior Year.”
- Visit the section for each year of college: Freshman Year, Sophomore Year, Junior Year, and Senior Year. You may need to return to the main page of the site to access the sophomore, junior, and senior year pages of content.
Licenses and Attributions:
CC licensed content, Original:
- College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/collegesuccess-lumen/chapter/career-development-2/ License: CC BY: Attribution.
CC licensed content, Shared previously
- Campus to Career Quiz. Authored by: Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer. Provided by: Chadron State College. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License: CC BY: Attribution.
All rights reserved content:
- The Secret to Getting a Job After College. Authored by: CT STYLE. Located at: https://youtu.be/OpeIqQ5qTjc. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License.
Adaptions: slight formatting changes, removed image of people in lab, removed image of plan-do-check-act, removed quote. Relocated Learning Objectives.