Career Development

Career development is different from job search. As a career coach, I coach my clients to develop a lifelong career management plan to become job-search-proofed. Career management is a lifelong process of acquiring skills, understanding career development and management, and making decisions that help clients achieve their dream job, skill set(s), and lifestyle. Clients bring Diane’s Whole-Person Theory issues to every job search. Many life factors and obstacles may impede career management or job search, including illness, death, divorce, babies, layoffs, the economy/finances, and more. These obstacles sometimes cause a job seeker’s career management plan to temporarily veer in a different direction. 

In some instances, careers span nearly a lifetime. Someone who decides to become a medical doctor will attain the necessary education, build a career in the field, and then specialize in a medical area, such as pediatrics, cardiology, orthopedics, or labor and delivery. The same career ladder may be true for lawyers, engineers, accountants, and experts in specific niches (spacesuit development, nuclear reactors, Artificial Intelligence or Robotics, green industries, etc.).

Some people end up in jobs that they never leave, jobs that last 20 or 30 or 40 years, like being a waitress in a restaurant, managing lawn care, becoming an expert butcher in a meat packing plant, mastering plumbing or electrician skills, and more. Some start as a stocker in a grocery market and grow up to become the grocery manager. These jobs/career fields/roles are not always planned; they just sort of happen and evolve without a plan. 

A career management plan includes enhancing skill sets via education and degrees, training and certifications, or on-the-job training. It also includes addressing skill gaps to attain a certain level of expertise for applying to higher-level positions. This may involve reviewing the requirements of higher-level positions to determine what skills are needed to elevate one’s career. Perhaps the client needs to speak with human resources or management to determine the performance level and requisite skill sets to attain a higher level of employment. 

Career management and career development involve identifying goals, setting new ones, and defining a career purpose. It also includes applying self-awareness regarding jobs/industries/and disciplines of interest, exploring the career landscape and job search, and making wise decisions based on fact-finding. 

Case Study

I worked a contract for the USDA and trained thousands of its employees in résumé writing, interviewing, positive onboarding, and career development. These personnel worked in food and meat processing/slaughter plants across the country. I took tours of poultry and beef plants to gain a solid understanding of the jobs they performed. They are responsible for ensuring that meat products are unadulterated when they reach commerce, which makes their jobs important. They understand animal diseases and possible contamination in the plants. They work in rather austere conditions. 

Side note: I learned that because the job was difficult, turnover was high, and many often were late to work or called in sick. Supervisors believed that employees who called in sick or were late were unreliable and irresponsible. I was further informed that the supervisors did not want to hire these employees into roles of greater responsibility, even if they were good/well-trained inspectors. So, dependability, reliability, and responsibility became skill sets and behavioral traits the supervisors used for hiring decisions. 

To address the turnover issue, leadership worked with information technology experts to design a virtual reality demonstration of the plants. These virtual reality headsets made it feel and look like I was in a plant. They used these VR headsets at job fairs and on university campuses.  However, when I entered the plant, it had a different feel; it had a harsh smell, and it was difficult to see the operations in the slaughter plant. So, even though the VR headset provided the experience and look of a plant, it missed the reality impact of working in a plant. 

Nevertheless, using this job as an example, some of the meat inspectors aspired to advance to positions as supervisors and managers. They sought more responsibility and opportunity to learn more and contribute to the larger operations. However, their résumés were poorly written: they listed some basic duties, they were not updated, and they lacked any accomplishments. They often included five or 10  years of work in one job block on the résumé. There was no thought about how to attain these higher-level positions. Even if they created nearly perfect résumés and met the qualifications for higher-level positions, if the employee had a less-than-perfect attendance record, they would not be able to attain promotions. 

I coached these inspectors to prepare a career advancement development plan that included a list of required skill sets, certifications, training, and or education. Coaching them to advance their careers, I asked them several questions:

• Why do you want the advancement?

• What will be different in the new role from your current role?

• Comparing the two roles, what experience do you need to attain to fill any gaps?

• How can you demonstrate to the hiring manager the value you bring to the position?

• How can you transform your résumé from duties to impactful accomplishment stories?

These inspectors had never considered the need to bolster their accomplishments. They just figured that the hiring managers/résumé reviewers would know what they do. 

I coached them to craft strong value impact statements and identify their accomplishments. I also coached them in determining their future plans. I asked them to:

• Write their long-term and short-term goals
• Create an action plan to reach the next level – and the next higher level of position they sought, including training, timelines, and commitments
• Review performance plans to determine any obstacles, e.g., if they did not have perfect attendance, they would need to decide and commit to reverse that downward spiral and demonstrate dependability to management and the plant operations over time
• Initiate and maintain an accomplishment journal

Career development and management is long-term planning and making adjustments to action plans as life circumstances enter the equation. It is about making wise decisions to identify a satisfying career field and attain an adequate salary. Job search is applying the tools gained from career management to each job search launch. 

Since November is National Career Development Month, I coach my clients to review their career management plans annually, make any adjustments, make new commitments, update their résumés, and remain job-search-proofed.