What is Career Planning Career is the occupation or work that you choose for life.

Hence it is of utmost importance in todays trying times that you choose a career well and not stumble into it. There should be ample scope for growth. A wrong choice can lead to a frustrating life with no purpose or meaning. To avoid this you need to think carefully and research into occupations. It is simple and not a lengthy process. Here are Some Tips that You Can Use while Planning a Career:

Career interest is of utmost importance. Decide what you wish for in life. Understand clearly what you would like to pursue. Because when you do what you like you are bound to excel in it. You can reach great heights in your career by proper career planning. Money and status will follow.

Seek career help. Ask your parents or mentors for advice. Many institutions have career planning offices. Seek their advice and go for it.

Ask what kind of returns you expect. Be realistic. When you have confusion between two career options, go for the highest paid one.

It is very important that you set some career planning goals while planning a career. It is important to have a long term vision. These should be achievable and motivating. The focus should not be narrow, explore different options that are available. This will be your guiding factor.

Write down the resources that you will require while planning a career. This will enable you to plan your finances and allow you to be prepared in advance.

Assess your strengths and inherent weakness. Choose a career that would match your personality.

Be patient and learn to keep your eyes and ears open before taking a decision. Learn from criticism and above all be honest and sincere. Always have a optimistic and a positive attitude. Be ready to face failure as many times they shape your career path giving you new options.

Have a clear vision of what you want to do after completing your education. Master the required skill sets and make sure they match the employers needs. Study the market trends.

Your resume and cover letter should be well written and reader friendly. It is important to get the employers attention. State your skills and support them with facts. The flow of your information should be natural.

Make sure you attend job fairs and visit popular networking sites. This enables you to come in contact with hundreds of people and will give you exposure. Do not miss small opportunities that give you big rewards later.

Once you choose your job well, you need to analyze it. Career planning is an incessant process which you must practice regularly. It will take time to go in the right direction.

Career planning includes meeting the desired goals and boosting it. For this you need to network and get exposed. Always update yourself with the newest skills

Career transition is also included in the planning process. Analyze your present situation and consider future prospects. You may find that there are new paths, which were not available earlier and which enable you to utilize your passion and gain personal fulfillment. Career building is a long journey with many destinations. Remember to be cautious while planning your career. Planning a career can be a bit stressful, but you can make use of the career planning tips and give yourself the best chance of succeeding.

Career development

In organizational development (or OD), the study of career development looks at:

how individuals manage their careers within and between organizations and, how organizations structure the career progress of their members, it can also be tied into succession planning within some organizations.

In personal development, career development is:

" ... the total constellation of psychological, sociological, educational, physical, economic, and chance factors that combine to influence the nature and significance of work in the total lifespan of any given individual." [1]

The evolution or development of a career - informed by (1) Experience within a specific field of interest (2) Success at each stage of development - and (3), educational attainment. "... the lifelong psychological and behavioral processes as well as contextual influences shaping ones career over the life span. As such, career development involves the persons creation of a career pattern, decision-making style, integration of life roles, values expression, and life-role self concepts." [2]

Career Planning and Objectives

Career programs should not concentrate only on career growth opportunities. Practically speaking there may not be enough high level positions to make upward mobility a reality for large number of employees. Hence, career planning efforts need to pin point and highlight those areas that offer psychological success instead of vertical growth. Career planning is not an event or end in itself, but a continuous process of developing human resources for achieving optimum results. It must however, be noted that individual and organizational careers are not separate and distinct. A person who is not able to translate his career plan into action within the organizations may probably quit the job, if he has a choice. Organizations therefore should help employees planning so that both can satisfy each others needs. Career planning versus Human resources planning: Human Resource planning is the process of analyzing and estimating the need for and availability of employees. Through Human Resource planning, the Personnel department is able to prepare a summary of skills and potentials available within the organization. Career planning assists in finding those employees that could be groomed for higher level positions on the strength of their performance. Human Resource planning gives valuable information about the availability of human resources for expansion, growth etc (expansion of facilities, construction of new plant opening a new branch launching a new product, etc) On the other hand career planning only gives us a picture of who could succeed in case any major developments leading to retirement death, resignation of existing employees. Human Resource planning is tied to the overall strategic planning efforts of the organization. There cannot be an effective manpower planning is not carried out properly. Need for Career planning: Every employee has a desire to grow and scale new heights in his workplace continuously. If there are enough opportunities one can pursue his career goals and exploit his potential fully. He feels highly motivated when the organization shows him a clear path as to how he can meet his personal ambitions while trying to realize corporate goals. Unfortunately as pointed

out by John Leach, organizations do not pay adequate attention to this aspect in actual practice for variety of reasons. The demands of employees are not matched with organizational needs, no effort is made to show how the employees can grow within certain limits, what happens to an employees five years down the line if he does well, whether the organization is trying to offer mere jobs or long lasting careers etc. When recognition does not come in time for meritorious performance and a certain amount of confusion prevails in the minds of employees whether they are in with a chance to grow or not they look for greener pastures outside. Key executives leave in frustration and the organization suffers badly when turnover figures rise. Any recruitment effort made in panic to fill the vacancies is not going to be effective. So, the absence of a career plan is going to make a big difference to both the employees and the organization. Employees do not get right breaks at the right time their morale will be low and they are always on their toes trying to find escape routes. Organizations are not going to benefit from high employee turnover. New employees mean additional selection and training costs. Bridging the gaps through short term replacements is not going to pay in terms of productivity. Organizations therefore try to put their career plans in place and educate employees about the opportunities that exist internally for talented people. Without such a progressive outlook organizations cannot prosper.

more at http://www.citeman.com/13281-career-planning-andobjectives.html#ixzz2HSB3hfzh

Importance of Career Planning

Career means profession, which we want to adopt for earning livelihood, and planning means proper flow or to make proper decisions. Pre- planning in our life plays very important role in every aspect of life, to work in a proper flow, and pre-planning for career, which we want to pursue in our future ahead after acquiring certain level of degree is also very necessary in today's competitive world. According to the Thorndike dictionary "A goal that you desire to achieve in a selected field or occupation with a well-thought out plan, to get you there is called Career Planning." The world is now moving very fast, and the time has come when this meritocratic society accepts only those, having right qualification and right skills. Olden days are gone, when just a degree would help an individual to get high profile job by giving bribe or using some other mean. Now it's high time, when the transparency in job recruitment has taken place.

Challenges and competition are the part of today's society, and therefore, Career Planning is the only task, which can guide us to do what we want to do in our life, rather than just aimlessly changing job all the time in future. We have seen many Pakistani, who after completing Intermediate don't know where to go, what to do and we have also seen graduates, who aimlessly do graduation without any specialization. As a result, they earns just in 6-8 figures. Career Planning is one of the broader aspects of learning in our existence. We all have some intentions and we all think to have stability in our future lives, and for that purpose, CAREER PLANNING serves as a key to success. Career Planning makes a person to think suitably about their positive and negative aspects. All about their interest, about their creativity becomes possible through proper analyzing ourselves. Career Planning basically starts, when a person finishes Secondary/ Higher Secondary level of education. After that level, a person could opt for that educational degree, which would help them out to have a good job opportunity according to their skills at the right time. Career Planning helps us to design and formulate our future smoothly. Like, If a person wants to be a banker, then he or she would choose to go for ACCA or CA or MBA in finance after completing Intermediate in commerce and Graduation in commerce/ business administration.. Else he/ she would go for CAT course or Masters in Commerce or even upto doctorate level. This pre-planning would be effective and would give him/her benefits after achieving educational targets effectively. It also helps us to evaluate our own personality, which helps us to know that which kind of job would suit us according to our need and capabilities. In short, Career Planning is like mapping our future. Without proper planning, no one could think of getting a desired job in future. Think what we want to do and finding out more about the kind of training, education, and skills we will need to achieve our career goal is the core objective of career planning. It help us knowing the nature of the jobs that interest us, such as educational requirements, salary, working conditions, fringe benefits, promotion chances, future prospectus, and help us focusing in the right dimension. Career planning directs us, motivates us, and helps us to accomplish what we want. A career goal is a specific vision such as an architect or a teacher or a career goal can be a particular field, which we want to work in, such as Media, Education, Medicine, Engineering etc. For those who will think about their future and career after completing education without any long term desired goals are the one, whose all attempt might end in smoke. There are some cases and situation, which bound a person to pre-plan in advance, such like family high family business status, lack of interest in studies or traditional job, low motivation, low financial status etc or some past educational traumas, which had made a person to plan after wards.

Career planning is a life time process we are always learning and growing, and as we do, our interests and needs also change. Career planning is not just making plans to obtain our career, but it also help us to make many adjustments there will be along the ways we learn throughout our lives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/407034

Career planning and development INTRODUCTION MEANING OF CAREER:A Career has been defined as the sequence of a person's experiences on different jobs over the period of time. It is viewed as fundamentally a relationship between one or moreorganizations and the individual. To some a career is a carefully worked out plans for self advancement to others it is a calling-life role to others it is a voyage to self discovery and tostill others it is life itself.A career is a sequence of positions/jobs held by a person during the course of his workinglife.According to Edwin B. Flippo,A career is a sequence of separate but relatedwork activities that provide continuity, order and meaning to a persons life.According to Garry Dessler, The occupational positions a person has had over manyyears.Many of today's employees have high expectations about their jobs. There has been a generalincrease in the concern of the quality of life. Workers expect more from their jobs than justincome. A further impetus to career planning is the need for organizations to make the best possible use of their most valuable resources the people in a time of rapid technologicalgrowth and change. C A R E E R D E V E L O P M E N T Career development, both as a concept and a concern is of recent origin. The reason for thislack of concern regarding career development for a long time, has been the careless,unrealistic assumption about employees functioning smoothly along the right lines, and the belief that the employees guide themselves in their careers. Since the employees areeducated, trained for the job, and appraised, it is felt that the development fund on is over.Modern personnel administration has to be futuristic, it has to look beyond the present tasks,since neither the requirements of the organisation nor the attitudes and abilities of employeesare constant. It is too costly to leave 'career' to the tyranny of time and casualty of circumstances, for it is something which requires to be handled carefully throughsystematisation and professional promoting. Fortunately, there has lately been someappreciation of the value of career planning and acceptance of validity of career developmentas a major input in organisational development.12 Career development refers to set of programs designed to match an individuals needs,abilities, and career goals with current and future opportunities in the organization.

Wherecareer plan sets career path for an employee, career development ensures that the employee iswell developed before he or she moves up the next higher ladder in the hierarchy. CAREER PLANNING Career Planning is a relatively new personnel function. Established programs on Career Planning are still rare except in larger or more progressive organizations.Career Planning aims at identifying personal skills, interest, knowledge and other features;and establishes specific plans to attain specific goals.Aims and Objectives of Career Planning:Career Planning aims at matching individual potential for promotion and individualaspirations with organizational needs and oppurtunities. Career Planning is making sure thatthe organization has the right people with the right skills at the right time. In particular itindicates what training and development would be necessary for advancing in the career altering the career path or staying in the current position. Its focus is on future needs andoppurtunities and removal of stagnation, obsolescence, dissatisfaction of the employee. OBJECTIVE OF CAREER PLANNING To attract and retain the right type of person in the organization. To map out career of employees suitable to their ability and their willingness to betrained and developed for higher positions. To have a more stable workforce by reducing labour turnover and absenteeism. It contributes to man power planning as well as organizational development andeffective achievement of corporate goals. To increasingly utilize the managerial talent available at all levels within theorganization. T o i m p r o v e e m p l o y e e m o r a l e a n d m o t i v a t i o n b y m a t c h i n g s k i l l s t o j o b requirement and by providing opportun ities for promotion. It helps employee in thinking of long term involvement with the organisation. To provide guidance and encourage employees to fulfill their potentials. To achieve higher productivity and organizational development. To ensure better use of human resource through more satisfied and productiveemployees. To meet the immediate and future human resource needs of the organisation on thetimely basis. NEED FOR CAREER PLANNING To desire to grow and scale new heights. Realize and achieve the goals. Performance measure. High employee turnover.13

 To educate the employees It motivates employees to grow. It motivates employees to avail training and development. It increases employee loyalty as they feel organization cares about them. A D V A N T A G E S O F C A R E E R P L A N N N I G A N D D E V E L O P M E N T In fact both individuals and the organization are going to benefit from career planning anddevelopment. So the advantages are described below: For Individuals 1. The process of career planning helps the individual to have the knowledge of variouscareer opportunities, his priorities etc.2. This knowledge helps him select the career that is suitable to his life styles, preferences,family environment, scope for self-development etc.3. It helps the organization identify internal employees who can be promoted.4. Internal promotions, up gradation and transfers motivate the employees, boost uptheir morale and also result in increased job satisfaction.5. Increased job satisfaction enhances employee commitment and creates a senseof belongingness and loyalty to the organization.6. Employee will await his turn of promotion rather than changing to another organization.This will lower employee turnover.7. It improves employees performance on the job by taping their potential abilities andfurther employee turnover.8. It satisfies employee esteem needs. For Organizations A long-term focus of career planning and development will increase the effectiveness of human resource management. More specifically, the advantages of career planning anddevelopment for an organization include:1. Efficient career planning and development ensures the availability of human resourceswith required skill, knowledge and talent.2. The efficient policies and practices improve the organizations ability to attract and retainhighly skilled and talent employees.3. The proper career planning ensures that the women and people belong to backwardcommunities get opportunities for growth and development.4. The career plan continuously tries to satisfy the employee expectations and as suchminimizes employee frustration.5. By attracting and retaining the people from different cultures, enhances cultural diversity.6. Protecting employees interest results in promoting organizational goodwill.14 CAREER PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS Chart1.1: Career planning & Development process 1 . I d e n t i f yi n g i n d i v i d u a l n e e d s a n d a s p i r a t i o n s : Its necessary to identify and communicate the career goals, aspiration and career anchors of every employee because most individuals may not have a clear idea about these. For this purpose, a human resource inventory of the organization and employee potential areasconcerned.2 . A n a l y z i n g c a r e e r o p p o r t u n i t i e s : The organizational set up, future plans and career system of the employees are analyzed toidentify the career opportunities available within it. Career paths can be determined for each position. It can also necessary to analyze career demands in terms of knowledge, skill,experience, aptitude etc.3 . I d e n t i f y i n g m a t c h a n d m i s m a t c h : A mechanism to identifying congruence between individual current aspirations andorganizational career system is developed to identify and compare specific areas of matchand mismatch for different categories of employees.4 . F o r m u l a t i n g a n d i m p l e m e n t i n g s t r a t e g i e s : Alternative action plans and strategies for dealing with the match and mismatch areformulated and implemented.5 . R e v i e w i n g c a r e e r p l a n s : A periodic review of the career plan is necessary to know whether the plan is contributing toeffective utilization of human resources

by matching employee objectives to job needs.Review will also indicate to employees in which direction the organization is moving, whatchanges are likely to take place and what skills are needed to adapt to the changing needs of the organization15 CAREER PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT STAGES 1.ExplorationAlmost all candidates who start working after college education start around mid-twenties.Many a time they are not sure about future prospects but take up a job in anticipation of risinghigher up in the career graph later. From the point of view of organization, this stage is of norelevance because it happens prior to the employment. Some candidates who come from better economic background can wait and select a career of their choice under expert.2. guidance from parents and well-wishers. EstablishmentThis career stage begins with the candidate getting the first job getting hold of the right job isnot an easy task. Candidates are likely to commit mistakes and learn from their mistakes.Slowly and gradually they become responsible towards the job. Ambitious candidates willkeep looking for more lucrative and challenging jobs elsewhere. This may either result inmigration to another job or he will remain with the same job because of lack of opportunity.3.Mid-Career stageThis career stage represents fastest and gainful leap for competent employees who arecommonly called climbers. There is continuous improvement in performance. On the other hand, employees who are unhappy and frustrated with the job, there is marked deteriorationin their performance. In other to show their utility to the organization, employees mustremain productive at this stage. climbers must go on improving their own performance.Authority, responsibility, rewards and incentives are highest at this stage. Employees tend tosettle down in their jobs and job hopping is not common.4.Late-Career stageThis career stage is pleasant for the senior employees who like to survive on the past glory.There is no desire to improve performance and improve past records. Such employees enjoy playing the role of elder statesperson. They are expected to train younger employees and earnrespect from them.5.Decline stageThis career stage represents the completion of ones career usually culminating intoretirement. After decades of hard work, such employees have to retire. Employees who wereclimbers and achievers will find it hard to compromise with the reality. Others may think of life after retirement LIMITATIONS OF CAREER PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT Despite planning the career, employees face certain career problems. They are:1.Dual Career Families:-With the increase in career orientation among women, number of female employees is onincrease. With this, the dual career families have also been on increase. Consequently, one of those family members might face the problem of transfer. This has become a complicated problem to organizations. Consequently other employees may be at disadvantage.16 2.Low ceiling careers:-Some careers do not have scope for much advancement. Employees cannot get promotionsdespite their career plans and development in such jobs.3.Declining Career Opportunities:-Career opportunities for certain categories reach the declining stage due to the influence of the technological or economic factors. Solution for such problem is career shift.4. Downsizing and careers:-Business process reengineering, technological changes and business environmental factorsforce the business firms to restructure the organizations by and downsizing. Downsizingactivities result in fixing some employees, and degrading some other employees.5. Career planning can become a reality when opportunities for vertical mobility are available.Therefore, it is not suitable for a very small organization.5.Others:-Several other problems hamper career planning. These include lack of an integrated humanresources policy, lack of a rational wage structure, absence of adequate opposition of tradeunions, lack of a good performance reporting system, ineffective attitudinal surveys, etc.