Difference Between Career Planning & Development

What are the Career Planning & Development ?

Career planning is a crucial method for helping employees in understanding who they are and the way they want to spend their working years. By establishing a career planning and development process, you can determine your goals and the actions required to achieve them.

Who can use them?

If you’re a recent graduate and can’t decide on a career, career planning and development are essential no matter what stage of life or career level you’re at. You must keep in mind that career planning and development is a lifelong journey that starts right now.

We always hear a common interview question that says, where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years? In other words, what are your career goals within this position? Employers want to know if you have long-term goals and are aware of what you are going to do next.

Difference between career planning and development

We may talk about career planning and development as if they were the same thing, but they are not. So let’s clarify the difference between career planning and development.

What’s Career planning?

Career planning is an ongoing process in which the employee explores his interests and abilities and defines professional goals and ways to achieve them, and reviews available opportunities and challenges.

The major goal of career planning is to give you a roadmap for the future so that you may make informed choices about your profession and potential job movements. You’ll be more motivated and concentrated if you have a good career plan.

What’s Career development?

Career development is a personal choice in the first place and is more limited; It is a process that relates to acquiring and refining the necessary skills for your desired career, and advancing along the career path. It’s a lifelong learning and decision-making process that gets you closer to your ideal job and the lifestyle you desire.

When someone gives their career development specific attention, he recognizes their strengths and limitations and then works hard to improve their skills. Development can be learning a new skill from a mentor or taking on new responsibilities in your current job.

3 Importance of career planning and development

Career planning and development are essential to creating a detailed path for your future career that makes the most of your skills and values. Here are some of its benefits:

1. When you can’t decide on a career, a career development plan will identify your strengths that enable you to search for suitable opportunities in your field. For example, if you are good at technology, a career in software development, data analysis, or digital marketing may be a suitable option.
2. As a graduate, career planning can help you achieve job security, decrease financial risks, eliminate future doubts, and worry less about any other unexpected scenarios.
3. Career planning enables you to stay up to date with job trends and new market demands, keeping you against the possibility of financial hardship or lack of opportunity.

6 Steps involved in career planning

Here are steps you can take to help you with your career planning and development process:

1. Conduct a Self-analysis.

Self-analysis is the first and most important step in career planning. It includes an individual’s self-evaluation, identification of his strengths and abilities, and knowledge of his personal preferences, which helps him make a correct professional decision about the job that best suits his interests and orientations.

2. Do career research.

The second step of career planning is that the individual needs to review the sectors and companies related to the field of interest. You can search about job responsibilities, the work environment, and available advancement opportunities. You may also learn about the salary and benefits of the position. It can also help you determine the advantages and disadvantages of that career.

3. Make your career decision.

After doing your career research, you have to weigh the pros and cons of all your options. To identify your top choice, you’ll need to consider many factors, including potential pay or pleasure balances, the pros and cons of commuting, and work-life balance.

4. Analyse Your Opportunities and Define goals.

Once the career choice has been made, you need to analyse the available opportunities and define goals including defining realistic short and long-term career goals that suit your practical and academic experience, which helps determine the best ways to achieve those goals.

5. Develop new skills for career planning and development.

This step requires the graduate to learn the scientific and practical qualifications and training courses necessary to acquire the skills that qualify him to reach the required job. You need to research the skills, competencies, and years of experience needed for your desired position. You can ask someone who is already doing the work about how he got there.

6. Search for jobs to be accepted.

Gather all the information you have learned and define an action plan. Use your career plan to start your job search, identify specific roles and companies you are interested in applying to, and compare those preferences and requirements to your career plan to see if there are steps you still need to take or if you’re eligible to apply.

Examples of career planning and development

1. An example of a career planning and development project is when an employee plans to become a consultant. He may plan to be a financial consultant, and this requires a great deal of education, testing, and experience.
2. The career path for this position begins with the position of financial analyst or accountant within financial companies.
3. Upon gaining the necessary experience and undergoing training programs in major companies under the supervision of an experienced financial consultant, you can start with the financial consultant position.
4. Once appointed as a financial consultant, a certificate or license that allows working with clients should be obtained, as it increases confidence in the financial advice provided by the consultant.
5. Some may aim to obtain a leadership position, and this requires experience in the field in which they aspire to work in addition to the educational level and many skills and competencies.

Need more help, We Can Provide It!

If you’re just starting out and need some assistance with career planning and development to make an informed decision, let our career counselling experts at Whitecollars help you map out an effective plan for your future endeavors’. Try our cost-effective career counselling packages now!