CHAPTER 5 CAREER PLANNING

CAREER: Career is a life time activity, referring to the progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime, especially those related to that person's occupation. A career is often composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a long period of time, rather than just referring to one position. For example, an individual's career could involve being a lawyer, though the individual could work for several different firms and in several different areas of law over a lifetime. Career Planning Career planning involves the setting of one’s long term goals which direct him/her to choose a specific career path. According to Edgar Schein, “career planning is a continuous process of discovery in which an individual develops his own occupational concept as a result of skills or abilities, needs, motivations and aspirations of his own value system.”

CAREER PLANNING PROCESS: 1. KNOWING YOURSELF: The first step in career planning should be to gather information about yourself to assist in making a decision about a career. You should develop an understanding of self – including values, interest, aptitudes, abilities, personal traits, and desired life style – and become aware of the interrelationship between self and occupational choice. Begin by asking yourself the following questions: Where am I at now? Where do I want to be? What do I want out of a job or career? What do I like to do? What are my strengths? What is important to me?

2. FINDING OUT AVAILABLE ALTERNATIVES: The second step in career planning is to explore and research your options. Exploring takes your self-assessment a step further by looking at your personal interests, skills, values, and work-life needs and narrowing down areas of possibilities. Explore occupations that interest you and ask yourself how do my skills and interests match up with these occupations? Where are the gaps? What options do I have to gain these skills or qualify for these occupations?  What skills do I need? Where is the work? At the end of this step you will have a list of preferred occupations and/or learning options.  

3. MAKING DECISIONS OR SELECTING THE ALTERNATIVES: After having completed your self-assessment and explored your options you should be ready to make some career decisions. The question now is how you will decide. Using the information you have gathered and analyzed, you can now evaluate your options. This step involves comparing your options, narrowing down your choices and thinking about what suits you best at this point in time.   Ask yourself: What are my best work/training options? How do they match with my skills, interests and values? How do they fit with the current labour market? How do they fit with my current situation and responsibilities? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option? What will help and what will hinder me? What can I do about it? At the end of this step you will have narrowed down your options and have more of an idea of what you need to do next to help you achieve your goals.

4. Implementation: This is the step in the process where you implement what you have learned and move forward towards a new job or more advanced education. You should also continue to evaluate your options and make adjustments as needed. Use all you have learnt about your skills, interests and values together with the information you have gathered about the world of work to create your plan.  Begin by asking yourself: What actions/steps will help me achieve my work, training and career goals? Where can I get help? Who will support me? At the end of this step you will have: a plan to help you explore your options further (eg work experience, work shadowing or more research); or a plan which sets out the steps to help you achieve your next learning or work goal.  Decide which step is relevant for you right now and start from there. 

Sources of Information The individuals must find out more ways to find a job that enhances the greater opportunities to succeed. The sources of job information are: Online job portals – the job vacancies are listed online through various job portals. Few job portals list vacancies for a variety of jobs, while others have job in specific industries, such as IT. This saves money, time, effort, as well as provide a lot of choices. College placement cells- college placement services in today’s scenario provide opportunities for college students in resume and interview preparation and tools to practice and improve skills. They also arrange for interviews in college campus and help employers in fulfilling their recruitment needs.

Libraries - It helps to provide the knowledge regarding the job opportunities through many magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. people can make use of the resources available in the libraries to gain knowledge of different job opportunities in the market. Recruitment agencies - Often advertise vacancies in newspapers, on their own websites on behalf of employers etc. the candidate normally needs to register with an agency before they can apply for the vacancy. Recruitment agencies will contact the candidates about the job if the candidate fulfils the basic criteria. It is an effective way to access jobs that are not publicly advertised. Career expos / fairs – Many recruitment agencies, universities and industries hold job expos. In career expos, we find many companies. The employers provide information about job opportunities at their companies and list vacancies. The candidates have the opportunities to apply in many companies at once. The candidate must take a few copies of their resume and they should be well prepared for interviews.

Newspaper advertisements and articles - many companies prefer to give the advertisements in the newspapers. Newspapers have broader reach and this can be a tool for job search. Contact employers – contacting employers directly allows the candidate to tap into the large number of jobs that are not advertised. Many of these jobs are filled by people who have friends, relatives or other contacts through the organization. Personal reference – The individuals must talk to everyone they know and develop connections with people who can either give them the information about potential job openings or introduce them to others who have this information.

Awareness of Different Careers Career Opportunities in E-Commerce career awareness means expanding your knowledge of possible career paths and job opportunities, as well as what's required to be successful in them. Awareness of Different Careers Career Opportunities in E-Commerce Internet Site Designer Project Manager Internet Network Specialist Internet Security Specialist Internet Application Developer Internet E-Commerce Specialist

2. Career Opportunities in Management Employee relations manager Senior employment analyst Human resources director Management consultant Financial analyst Accountant CPA Marketing consultant Compensation and benefits manager

3. Career Opportunities in Commerce Career in the civil service Trading Insurance Marketing Management Banking Accounting CA CS etc

Advantages of Career Planning:- The process of career planning helps the individual to have the knowledge of various career opportunities, his priorities etc. Internal promotions, upgradation and transfers motivate the employees, boost up their morale and also result in increased job satisfaction. Increased job satisfaction enhances employee commitment and creates a sense of belongingness and loyalty to the organization. Employee will await his turn of promotion rather than changing to another organization. This will lower employee turnover. It improves employee’s performance on the job by taping their potential abilities and further employee turnover. It satisfies employee esteem needs. By attracting and retaining the people from different cultures, enhances cultural diversity. Protecting employees’ interest results in promoting organizational goodwill. The career plan continuously tries to satisfy the employee expectations and as such minimizes employee frustration.

Factors influencing Career planning Abilities and Skills:  Identifying the difference among individuals. Personality Type and Interest: a system of classification that matches personal preferences and personality characteristics to job characteristics.  Life Roles: How we think about ourselves in different roles. Previous Experiences:  we are likely to decide and continue a particular task that previously you had a good experience doing it. Culture: Culture and ethnic and racial background of the person’s regional area, extended family and local community are factors that may impact decisions of career.  Gender: Men and women experience stereotypes that are career-related. Economic and Social Conditions:  Resulting job market and economy changes may also affect career development. Fantasies of Childhood:  A theory that describes three career development related life stages was proposed by Ginzberg.

Making a Career Choice  Have passion for it  Makes you happy  Resembles you  What are your talents?  What skills do you have?  Always happy when you think about it  Makes you want to go to work everyday  Cannot get a job, you can create one

Career counselling: Career counselling consists of services that help people successfully manage their career development. It can be offered to individuals or groups. It is to support an individual though his/her entire career. Career Counselling is a process that focuses on helping one understand one’s own self, as well as work trends, so that one can take an informed decision about career and education. Importance of Career Counselling: Objective approach Career awareness Generating alternatives Narrowing career options Query solving Professional analysis Career roadmap Less regrets Mutual and informed decisions

The benefits of career counselling are – Realize aptitude Guidance Evade confusion Determine strengths and weakness Goal setting Job search support.