Introduction
Career development is one step that meets the needs of both employers and employees. Organizations hold training sessions and introduce various learning curves to help employees integrate their vision with their personal goals. Although this process may seem relatively smooth, it creates many problems during implementation.
The biggest reason is the communication barrier between management and employees in organizations. Career planning can also be defined as a process in which an employee utilizes opportunities within an organization to achieve career benefits. However, everything should be within the framework of organizational compliance. Career planning should ideally begin before joining the company.
Matching Grades with Career Interests
Individuals with a social learning style tend to prefer collaboration and group work. Characteristics of people with this type of learning are pronounced extraversion, good communication skills, and the ability to empathize. Social style describes the environment in which a worker with this type can express themselves best.
Based on the style descriptions, the employee will be able to present themselves as best as possible in teamwork, where they need to more actively demonstrate their social skills. Considering the assessments of learning style and work expectations, it can be concluded that they fully reflect the desired path for work and career building. The assessment tools are extremely helpful in identifying a suitable career path for the future.
Career Theory
The objective side of a career refers to the sequence of professional positions an individual holds. In contrast, the subjective, inner side encompasses how a person perceives their career, their image of professional life, and their role within it. Each person has a unique set of personal concepts, talents, motivations, and values that they cannot compromise when choosing a career.
According to the Smarter Measure Summary Report, the best career type in the analysis is the target career. An employee finally chooses a professional space for their development, plans the appropriate stages of advancement towards a professional ideal, and strives to achieve it.
At the same time, considering the character’s peculiarity and social learning style, it is possible to adjust to a spiral career. In this case, the employee is motivated to change activities, both with and without transfers, between jobs of different social ranks. As they master them, he moves up the steps of the organizational hierarchy. After completing these stages, a stabilization career begins when the individual is fixed in a particular position that suits them.
Instruments for Career Exploration
The first important step in career planning is making a plan. Evaluating your advantages and disadvantages is essential, as it helps you consider which direction is worth developing to achieve the best career results. The primary step in the career planning process is determining the two key components of a career plan. The first point is setting the goal; an individual needs to consider what their desired career will be in a few years and formulate the ultimate career objective. Next, a person needs to draw up an action plan and prescribe short-term goals that will become steps towards a more global one.
The SMART system is well-suited for formulating short-term plans. Goals must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It will also be helpful to supplement the career plan with a SWOT analysis of your capabilities to understand what can strengthen them for a particular field of activity. It will not be superfluous to draw up a list of necessary skills to further improve your qualifications.
Career Development
One form of career planning is the lifetime employment system. The advantage of lifetime employment is that each employee, in their thoughts, directly connects themselves with the company for which they work and understands that their prosperity depends on the prosperity of their company. The system creates confidence in the future, and the employee is almost guaranteed against dismissal.
A lifetime employment system is a form of job security that provides long-term stability. There is a growing interest in job security worldwide. There are other reasons for this, beyond those mentioned above. The fear of being fired may create a nervous environment and reduce productivity. Fear that using new equipment will lead to job losses, resulting in a slowdown in the technical development of production. High employee turnover is costly, especially in organizations with highly qualified personnel.
The choice of crucial career development points can be strategic, tactical, and situational. Zacher et al. (2019) define career development as the process by which individuals manage various tasks, experiences, and behaviors within or between organizations that influence an employee’s identity. Career growth will directly depend on this choice.
Choosing career development paths expands or narrows the social ties, providing a turn in a person’s life path in the right direction. A positive choice expands and deepens social ties, while a negative one qualitatively reduces them. A positive choice is the starting point for further personal development and an important stage in self-determination.
Tools for Career Development
There are different tools for career development, each of which should be applied depending on the situation. The first method is the self-assessment tool that organizations widely use to manage their employees’ careers. It is a career search tool that enables individuals to perform various exercises to develop and identify their self-esteem, as well as complete questionnaires about their skills, interests, competencies, work relationships, preferences, long-term and short-term goals, obstacles, and opportunities.
The second common strategy is career planning workshops. After completing the self-assessment stage, employees will share their results with colleagues and supervisors at career planning workshops. This allows them to receive feedback from other people and test the reality of their plans and aspirations. Employees can change their plans if they find them unrealistic and move in a new direction.
Another popular career development tool is individual counseling. It is one of the most effective tools for career development. In the largest global organizations, one-to-one counseling is provided by career development professionals or life skills instructors. Organizational assessment programs are one of the most effective methods for career development and are primarily suitable for large companies. It includes methods for evaluating employees’ potential for career advancement in the organization. The most popular programs in this category include assessment centers, psychological testing, 360-degree assessments, advancement forecasts, and succession planning.
Synthesizing the Information
Based on the analyzed information regarding career theories, career development tools, and research methods, we can conclude that the results of the Smarter Measure Summary Report are comparable to those presented in this paper. The report (SmarterMeasure Summary Report) states that the most successful option would be a career with increased social activity, consistent with the results of an independent study.
The best tool for career development is creating a SWOT analysis of an individual’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A good career development method is to build a list of tasks and points for their implementation. A methodological basis for the study’s materials should be prepared to proceed. Career planning workshops seem to be the most effective career development tool. The best career theory might be the target career, as it involves active cooperation with the boss and work colleagues, and provides high social activity that is appropriate for the individual. The report will benefit your future job search and serve as a basis for enhancing your career.
Personal Career Interests
Based on the study and the results of the Smarter Measure analysis, it can be assumed that the optimal career interest would be to work in the social sphere; this can be social work, a specialist in guardianship and guardianship of minors, a mediator, a specialist in working with youth, or political or social activities. Based on the research presented in the paper, career development in these areas can be highly successful.
The report’s results can be considered objective, and nothing is surprising since they fully correspond to the individual’s character and personal qualities. You can reach different stages of career development through various means. Firstly, it improves work, advanced training, and performance. These actions can significantly increase the chances of career advancement.
Conclusion
Nevertheless, all sorts of unforeseen critical incidents can occur along the path of career development. Examples of critical incidents include events such as the death of an employee, violence at work, a sudden or chronic illness of a team member, or a natural disaster or domestic violence experienced by an employee. Viable people will nevertheless be able to overcome difficulties and continue further career development. Such cases can be considered life tests. Career values set aspiring to the future, providing general guidelines and career directions that reflect their meaning for the employee. An employee needs to set career aspirations since these goals should be strived for in the future.
References
SmarterMeasure Summary Report. (n.d.). Assessment Summary.
Zacher, H., Rudolph, C. W., Todorovic, T., & Ammann, D. (2019). Academic career development: A review and research agenda. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, 357-373.