Saturday, August 1, 2009

Strategic Career Planning. Six Career Development Strategies. Career Management Guide.

Career planning is an individual's lifelong process of establishing personal career objectives and acting in a manner intended to bring them about.

Career management is the process of deciding what work opportunities to accept or reject, depending on their perceived value in helping achieve career objectives. It includes not only decisions made by an individual but also those made about the individual by managers and others who control what work opportunities can be made available.

Career development is the process of improving an individual's abilities in anticipation of future opportunities for achieving career objectives. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a career consists of the organized structure and sequence of patterns in an individual's work life.

Strategic Career Planning
Instead of devoting so much attention to explaining or describing why people decide on the careers they do, individuals and career counselors probably need to devote more attention to strategic career planning. Using this framework, individuals focus on such issues as:
1. Who am I? Where am I going?
2. What are my present personal strengths and weaknesses?
3. What conditions inside and outside the organization—as well as occupation—will create future opportunities or pose future threats for me in my occupation or job?
4. What choices for long-term career strategy are available to me?
5. Which choice is likely to do the best job of maximizing my present strengths and future opportunities while, at the same time, minimizing my present weaknesses and future threats?
6. How can my long-term career strategy be implemented? In particular, what skills will I need over time? What is the role of family and personal life in my career?
7. How can the relative success of my career strategy be evaluated? When should it be evaluated?
Career strategies include:
1. Growth in the occupation or the organization, meaning simply doing more of what one has been doing.
? Build present skills
? Build expertise in the occupation
? Prepare for more responsibility
? Learn to supervise others
? Enter new occupation
? Build skills in a new occupation
? Move to a different organization but in same job
? Build existing skills/ knowledge for use in unrelated occupation and different type of organization

2. Retrenchment: This translates to mean "cutting back to weather a storm of unfavorable conditions." It is rarely effective as a long-term career strategy, but might be useful in anticipation of retirement, during a search for another employer, or during preparation for entry to another occupation.
? Move to a lower level job in the same occupation and in the same organization
? Move into a lower level job in a different occupation in the same organization
? Move into a lower level job in a different organization
? Cut back on work
? Seek satisfaction through avocations and hobbies
? Prepare for new occupation

3. Diversification: Branch out to an utterly new and more promising occupation, job, or employer.
? Branch out into a more promising area within one's present occupation (increase emphasis on a new area of work)
? Branch out into a more promising line of work in the organization (one with major differences from past occupation)
? Make a move into an organization with more promise, but remain in the same occupation
? Branch out into a more promising occupation in an organization with more promising long-term prospects than present employer

4. Integration: Make a move to a related occupation, job, or employer.
? Branch out into a more promising area within one's present job (but an area of work like what has been done in the past)
? Branch out into a related line of work in the same organization
? Make a move into a new organization that is related to the present employer (supplier, distributor, wholesaler, retailer)
? Branch out into a related occupation in an organization somehow related (supplier, distributor, wholesaler, retailer) to present employer
5. Turnabout: Retrench and select another strategy.
? Retrench (slow down on activities/outputs)
? Follow retrenchment with a new strategy: growth, diversification, integration, or combination
? Retrench (move out of organization)
? Use a new strategy: growth, diversification, integration, or combination
? Retrench (move out of occupation)
? Build new skills (perhaps return to school) for entry into an entirely new line of work. Grow in the new occupation.

6. Combination: Pursue one strategy in a present job or occupation while simultaneously pursuing a second strategy by preparing for a completely new job or occupation.
? Apply two or more strategies at once: one to organizational status, another to occupational status



  1. very informative article it would be very beneficial for managers or students...

  2. very great blog.very informative and valuable information than:)

  3. this blog is really useful to everyone.

  4. Pretty nice post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wished to mention that I have truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. Keep it up!


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