Concept of Career
The term ‘career’ was traditionally associated with paid employment and referred to a single occupation. In today’s world of work, the term ‘career’ is seen as a continuous process of learning and development. Employees join organizations for a career not for jobs. All employees aspire for a career. A career is a pattern of job-related experiences gained during one’s working life. Career is a sequence of jobs held during the course of an employee’s working life.
A Career is a sequence of positions held by a person during the course of a lifetime. It comprises of a series of work-related activities that provide continuity, order, and meaning in a person’s life. This is an objective view of a person’s career. There is also a subjective element in the concept of career. A career consists of the changes in values, attitudes and a motivation that occurs as a person grows older.
A career can be of two types as follows:
- Internal Career
Internal career is subjective. It is an individual’s self-concept of where he/she is going in his/her work life. It consists of changes in values, beliefs, attitudes, and ambitions that occur as the employee grows older. Each person’s career is unique. Employee referral is an internal recruitment method employed by organizations to identify potential candidates from their existing employees’ social networks. An employee referral scheme encourages a company’s existing employees to select and recruit the suitable candidates from their social networks.
- External Career
External career is objective. It is a sequence of positions occupied during the working life of an individual. It leads to increasing level of responsibilities, status, power, and reward. It refers to the objective categories used by society and organizations to describe the progression of steps through a given occupation, while internal career refers to the set of steps or stages which make up the individual’s own concept of career progression within an occupation.
Career needs to be carefully planned. It is the self-responsibility of the employee. Managers and organizations should facilitate career planning.
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