Career development is the process of learning and utilizing short-term skills to progress toward long-term professional goals. This process is often lifelong and involves steadily reaching milestones specific to your designated career path. Much of career development calls for reflection and the exploration of purpose in your work, and is the foundation for achieving larger career growth.
A career path can be visualized as a ladder, with each rung symbolizing the level of a role on the path. Landing a job is a paramount first step, but odds are you may not want to stay at the entry level forever. Moving up the career ladder and earning promotions is easier said than done, however. It often requires careful planning and taking intentional steps.
Career development is all about gathering what skills and experiences can launch you further on your career path, and navigating these processes in increments (or ladder steps) to make career growth manageable.
Why Is Career Development Important?
Having a structured career development plan helps professionals ensure that they are entering and traversing a career path that makes the most of both their skills and values.
Helps Make Use of Skills
The further you climb the career ladder, the more you have to build and utilize certain skills for the workplace. Career development helps employees home in on what specific skills they would like to learn, what actions need to be taken to learn them and how to actively use them. Plus, seeing the positive feedback of forming new skills signals a feeling of reward, incentivizing an employee to continue the practice.
Increases Motivation at Work
Career development is all about finding tangible goals to work toward. This helps workers set realistic expectations, feel less pressure and find more enthusiasm to reach these goals. As their career develops, an employee often gains a sense of accomplishment and motivation to do even more in their job.
Helps Achieve Financial Goals
A worker with more experience and refined skills generally will receive a higher pay. While following a career development plan, employees typically get a better idea of what milestones need to be met on the job in order to get a promotion or increased salary.
Increases Employee Retention
People want to make the most out of their jobs, and can feel stuck or neglected in their career without proper growth resources. Employees who are provided professional development opportunities at work are shown to be more engaged and yield a higher retention in comparison to those who aren’t. Making learning and career development a part of a company’s culture can help employers both attract and keep their employees for the long run.
Increases Happiness and Satisfaction
Career development and happiness at work often go hand-in-hand. Feeling successful in your development goals at work will likely boost workplace happiness, and in turn workplace happiness will boost performance and incentivize further development. To frequently learn, develop and master new skills as an employee makes for a more rewarding and satisfying career overall.
