CAREER PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Career Planning and Development Definitions

• Career - General course that a person chooses to pursue throughout his or her working life

• Career planning - Ongoing process whereby an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them

• Organizational career planning - Firm identifies paths and activities for individual employees as they develop

Career Planning and Development Definitions (Continued)

• Career path - Flexible line of movement through which an employee may move during employment with a company

• Career development - Formal approach used by the organization to help people acquire the skills and experiences needed to perform current and future jobs

Job Security Versus Career Security

• Job security - Protection against job loss within company

• Career security - Development of marketable skills and expertise that helps ensure employment within a range of careers

Job Security Versus Career Security (Continued)

• Job security implies security in one job, often with one company

• Career security results from ability to perform within career designation even when working for more than one organization

Factors Affecting Career Planning

• Career impacted life stages• Career anchors

Career-Impacted Life Stages

• Growth • Exploration• Establishment• Maintenance• Decline

Career Anchors

• Managerial competence• Technical/functional competence• Security• Creativity• Autonomy and independence• Technological competence

Career Planning

• Individual career planning and self-assessment

• Career assessment on the Web

• Organizational career planning

• Career planning objectives

Individual Career Planning Self-Assessment

• Learning about oneself• Strength/weakness

balance sheet• Likes and dislikes

survey

Strength/Weakness Balance Sheet

• A self-evaluation procedure, developed by Benjamin Franklin, that assists people in becoming aware of their strengths and weaknesses

• List your strengths and weaknesses as you perceive them

• Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper

Strength/Weakness Balance Sheet (Continued)

• Label left side Strengths and the right side Weaknesses

• Typically, a person’s weaknesses will outnumber strengths in the first few iterations

• Ultimately some weaknesses will be recognized as strengths

Likes and Dislikes Survey

• Assists individuals in recognizing restrictions they place on themselves

• All factors that could affect an individual’s work performance are listed

Career Assessment on the Web

• Numerous tests and assessment sites available on Web

• Information on Web about organizations that best suit each individual

Organizational Career Planning• Begins with

placement into entry-level job at orientation

• Ongoing process• Must closely parallel

individual career planning

Career Planning Objectives

• Effective development of available talent• Self-appraisal opportunities for employees• Career paths developed cutting across

divisions and geographic locations• Demonstrates commitment to EEO and

affirmative action

Career Planning Objectives (Continued)

• Satisfies employees’ specific development needs

• Improves performance• Increases employee loyalty and

motivation• Determines training and development

needs

Career Paths

• Traditional career path• Factors leading to decline of traditional

career path• Network career path• Lateral skill path• Dual career path

• Adding value to your career• Demotion

Traditional Career Path

• Employee progresses vertically upward in organization

• Straightforward• Becoming

somewhat rare

Factors Leading to Decline of Traditional Career Path

• Massive reduction in management ranks due to mergers, downsizing, stagnation, growth cycles, and reengineering

• Extinction of paternalism and job security• Erosion of employee loyalty• Environment where new skills must be

learned constantly

Network Career Path• Both vertical job

sequence and horizontal opportunities

• Recognize experience interchangeable at certain levels and broad experience at one level needed before promotion to next level

Network Career Path (Continued)

• Vertical and horizontal options lessen probability of blockage in one job

• More difficult to explain to employees

Lateral Skill Path

• Lateral moves within company• Employee becomes revitalized

and finds new challenges• No pay or promotion involved• Opportunity to develop new

skills• Employee rewarded by

increased job challenge

Dual Career Path

• Technical specialists contribute expertise without becoming managers

• Increasingly popular• Used in higher

education

Adding Value to Your Career

• Workers view themselves as independent contractors who must constantly improve their skills

• Workers are managing own careers• Only tie that binds worker and

company is commitment to mutual success and growth

Demotion

• A more realistic option today• Some workers have no

desire to change as technology changes

• Might open up clogged promotional path

• Senior employee can escape unwanted stress without being a failure

Career Development

• Formal organizational approach to ensure that people with proper qualifications and experiences are available when needed

• Benefits organization and employee• Includes exposure to activities that

prepare person for satisfying needs of the firm now and in the future

Career Planning and Development Methods

• Discussion with knowledgeable individuals

• Company material• Performance appraisal

system• Workshops• Personal development plans• Software packages• Career planning websites

Using Internet for Career Planning and Development at Texas

Instruments• Site introduces graduating college students to career planning process

• Engineer Your Career• Career Mapper• Resume Builder

• Fit Check• Ask the Cyber Recruiter

Developing Unique Segments of the Workforce

• Developing Generation X employees• Developing the new factory workers• Generation Y -- As Future Employees• Generation I -- As Future Employees

Developing Generation X Employees

• Label for 40 million American workers born between 1965-1976

• Widely misunderstood phenomena facing HR professionals today

• Xers careers not founded on relationship with any one employer

Developing Generation X Employees (Continued)

• Think of themselves as free agents in mobile workforce

• Expect to build career security, not job security

• Organization must provide opportunities for them to learn new skills, processes and technologies

Developing the New Factory Worker

• Life on factory line requires more brains than brawn

• Workers are going back to school• Company loyalty + strong back + showing

up on time no longer guarantees decent paycheck or job security

• More companies recognize they must develop employees

Generation Y -- As Future Employees

• Children of baby boomers; born between 1979-1994

• Leading edge of generation that will be richest, smartest and with the most savvy

• Largest group since the 72 million baby boomers

Generation I -- As Future Employees

• Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, referred to children born after 1994 as Generation I

• First generation to grow up with Internet• Internet will change Generation I’s world

as much as television transformed world after World War II