Career Development

Job Vs a Career
❑When does a job evolve into a career or become a lifelong pursuit?
• Usually, this only happens when individuals feel satisfied and fully
engaged in their endeavours. Unfortunately, many working adults do
not know whether their career decisions will allow them to pursue
their interests - or if they are taking the best steps to move their
career forward.
What is career development?
❑Career Development is the planning of one’s activities and
engagements in the job one assumes in the path of his life for better
completion, growth and financial stability (Juneja, n.d.).

❑Another definition of Career Development refers to a life-long

process of managing learning, work, and transitions in order to move
toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future.
➢Some people naturally develop ability to manage their careers in a
meaningful way, but others need assistance, especially as the rate
of economic, occupational, and social change escalate.
Career development
❖Generally, career development is a lifelong psychological and
behavioral processes as well as contextual influences shaping one’s
career over the life span.
➢It involves creation of a career pattern, decision making style,
integration of life roles and self concepts.
➢It’s also about behaviors and that’s why it is important to
encourage the development of good habits in career
development.
➢It also happens within a context; it doesn’t happen within a
vacuum.
➢It is important to make a priority about your career development in a
way that is realistic in your life right now.

➢So think about how you maintain a priority in this area in a realistic
way in the context of your whole life.

➢And that is why the self concepts part of the definition is important
because it encourages you to think of your vocational identiy
Career Development Model
Career development Model

Self
assessment

Skill Career Management Career

developmen Awareness
t

Goal setting
Components of the Career Development
Model
1. Self-assessment component
• It is really about you and who you are in career context
• It is about knowledge or it is about your interest, skills and values and
• What is important to you in work

2. Career Awareness component

• It is about the information you have about the career.
• How do you find good information about career and career trends
• What are the kind of emerging career areas where there may be more
opportunities
3. Goal setting
• It about setting realistic goals for your career plan
• It is not a linear process but it happens within the context of your
full life span
• It is about figuring out the different patterns and challenges to you
in your current career planning situation and how do you work
through them
✓For example people go to career counselling to get support once
they get stuck in their planning
4. Skill development
• It is about how do you make yourself more valuable in a career context
• What skills can you develop for your career?
• what are the skills you want to develop further?
✓ Engaging in training and experiences to help develop those skills

5. Career management
• Finally, Career Management (CM) touches in all those components
and it includes an aspect of job search preparation which takes into
account resuming writingapplications, attending interviews, etc.
1. Self-Assessment
❑When you are doing self-assessment
• It’s about asking what’s the relationship between qualities that are
important to you and career opportunities
• Some of the areas where we break down for self-assessment include:
✓Interests
✓Values
✓Personality type / work style
✓Skills and competencies
✓Career directions / path
➢Examples of self assessment resources/instrument
• There are some of the resources that are associated with self
assessment
❑One is Strong Interest Inventory . The Strong Interest Inventory (SII)
is a career assessment tool based on the RIASEC model developed by
psychologist John Holland. The SII is used to help people identify their
interests and work preferences, and to explore potential careers and
educational pathways.
❑It is a theory of career choice developed by John Holland in 1974.
❑Holland’s theory is based on four main assumptions:
➢In our culture, most people can be categorised into six Themes and
each person may be characterised by one Theme or some
combination.
➢Job environments can be divided into these same six Themes and
each environment is dominated by a particular type of person. Thus,
the personality types of co-workers, as much as job requirements,
establish the working tenor of a given occupation.
➢People search for environments that let them exercise their skills and
abilities, express their attitudes and values, take on problems and
roles they find stimulating and satisfying and avoid chores or
responsibilities they find distasteful or formidable.
➢Behaviour is determined by an interaction between a person’s
personality and the characteristics of his or her working environment.
Factors such as job performance, satisfaction and stability are
influenced by this interaction.
❑A as psychologist who was dedicated to career development, he
developed 6 personality types ( RIASEC) relating to career namely:
➢ Realistic-the doers
➢ Investigative-the thinkers
➢ Artistic- the creators
➢ Social –the helpers
➢ Enterprising-the persuaders
➢ Conventional –the organizers
Holland’s Strong Interest Inventory
Holland’s Strong Interest Inventory

Realistic Investigative

Conventional Artistic

Enterprising Social
Holland’s SII Model
• By developing his model, Holland assumes that you have a vocational
self-concept where you can measure things that are important to you
in work and you can measure work environments.
• According to Holland the concept of congruence is very meaningful
• Holland’s concept of congruence refers to the similarity between a
person’s work personality and his or her work environment (Holland,
1992). The congruence between individual interests and work
environments affects the degree of continuity in occupational
decisions, which in turn influences satisfaction on the job (Holland,
1992).
Holland’s SII Model

• In the Strong Interest Inventory theory, takes 6 personality types and

highlights the interests associated with each of them.
• It measures interests and these interest areas are also interrelated.
• So, for example, if you are social person who likes helping and
interacting with people, you also tend to be more artistic and
enterprising because enterprising often requires interacting with
others and managing things and so forth.
• But you’ll be less likely to be realistic (someone who works with his or
her hands, likes to be in the outdoor and be physically active in a
work context).
• What the Strong Interest Inventory does is, it gives a general rating of
your interests along those 6 themes (what are the things you like
more or less with regard to work)
• READ FROM THE HOLLAND’S TEMPLATE
❖REALISTIC PERSONALITY
You like working mainly with your hands: making, fixing, assembling or
building things, using and operating equipment, tools or machines

• READ MORE FROM THE TEMPLATE WITH EXAMPLES

2. Goal Setting
❑SMART Goals in Career Planning
• It’s a system that has been created to support goal achievement.
➢Specific:
• Does your goal clearly and specifically state, what you’re trying to achieve?
• Try to be more specific like I want to look for 3 jobs this week that are aligned with
your interests.

➢Measurable:
• can you measure it?
• How will you and (others) know if progress has been made on achieving your goal?
• Can you quantify or put numbers to your outcome?
SMART GOALS
➢Attainable:
• Are you achieving your goal dependent on anyone else?
• Make sure you’re not setting yourself up to fail in achieving the goal
• It shouldn’t be overly stressful and end up with discouraging action

➢Relevant
• Why is achieving this goal important to you
• The goals should mean something to you
• Why do you want to achieve that goal?
SMART GOALS
➢Time bound
• When will you reach your goal?
• When you set a time to finish it gives you a marker for when you want to
finish and provide some optimal tension to that goal
• Give yourself deadlines
3. Skill development
It is about how do you identify and develop skills needed for career
advancement and enrichment.
a. Identify needed skills through
➢Self assessment
• Part of that is by doing self-assessment on what of the things that you are
motivated for further development
• You may make career development conversations
e.g talking to people in the field you are interested in such as your supervisors,
your mentors
Skill development
b. Develop skills through
➢It is important to understand that very small amount of skill building
comes from formal education and training. So, don’t look so much to
a class, but so much of the skill building comes from experience such
as
• On the job experience
• Organizational experience
• Leadership experience
• Education and training
Skill development
• For example: (all these examples are good for skill building and
enriching your CV)
• Take a complex and difficult project, assume responsibilities that acquire
learning a new skill
• Volunteer in a student or professional association or a community
organization or take a temporary or part time in an organization to learn new
skills
• Leadership and speaking experiences: mentor, lead a project team, lead a task
force, assume a liaison role, chair a committee, speak at a meeting or present
at a conference. All these will help you to develop public speaking skills and
presentation skills.
4. Career Management
• Reflecting on what’s important between you and your work
• Researching careers and job opportunities
• Building a network (go to events, like career fairs and the like)
• Participating in mentoring relationships
• Increasing resilience and ability to tolerate change
• Updating your CV
• Continuously develop yourself and your career
…Career Management
➢Another method of thinking about career management is through
the 3Cs

• Clarity - knowing yourself and knowing what’s out there in the world
of work
• Confidence – believe in yourself
• Communication – communicating your strengths, CV writing,
interviewing and so forth
More explanation on the Confidence part…
❑Believe in yourself
❖Concept of self-efficacy- has been written a lot in social cognitive
career theory (Lent, Brown & Hackett 1996). It is one of the career
development theory
✓They talk about self-efficacy being the pillar of career development
✓Self-efficacy, the belief in yourself. It’s simply a belief that I think I can do,
something that I set out to do.
• For example, in building a skill, how do you develop confidence in public
speaking skills? One way of developing self-efficacy is getting the experience.
If you think you are good at something, you are much more likely to pursue it
… Confidence…
➢How do you build self-efficacy?
• Performance accomplishments: Remind yourself of your skills you have
developed and your achievements
• Vicarious learning: researching careers, doing informational interviews
• Social skills: connect with friends, former colleagues and mentors. People
who know you and your strengths are important to stay connected with.
✓For example: it could be your supervisor, boss, professor, mentor or
colleague saw something in you or saw a strength in you that was
highlighted.
• That can be helpful in internalizing your self-efficacy and change your
perspective on how you see yourself.
Another theory of career development.

❖It is the theory of planned happenstance developed by

John Krumboltz
• This emerging theory specifically addresses the need for
people to deal with change within the rapidly changing
labour market.
• Krumboltz’s theory offers insight on how to deal with the
limited degree of control we have over some career
experiences.
… Happenstance Theory…
• At the core of this theory is the fact that unpredictable social factors,
chance events and environmental factors are important influences on
people’s careers and lives.
• As such, the role of career counselor for example, is to help their
clients (people with careers) approach chance conditions and events
positively. In particular, counsellors foster in their clients:
• curiosity to explore learning opportunities
• persistence to deal with obstacles
• flexibility to address a variety of circumstances and events
• optimism to maximise benefits from unplanned events.
… Happenstance Theory…
• These career planning skills are necessary because of the following
• Curiosity
• Exploring new learning opportunities
• Engaging with your passion, in things that spark interest in you
• If there is an opportunity to engage in an activity related to that
• Find reasons to engage with your curiosity
• Persistence
• Exerting efforts despite setbacks
• It can be a stressful and disappointing process
• But you need to keep perspective on that and not personalize it (take it personal)
• You have to be able to accept that as a part of the process and continue to believe in
yourself
CAREER IDENTITY DEVT and THEORIES
❑ The concept of career identify development involves the impact of a
variety of things such as
• Values (likes and dislikes)
• Family, school and other environments to interact with
• Economic factors and
• Any random experiences and encounters
Classification of career development theories
❑Types of theories of career development
• There are two types or classification of these career development
theories
❖ Typology or trait theories and Social learning theories
Typology or trait theories
➢In these theories, individuals make career choices based on matching
individual traits with requirements of occupations.
• One’s choice of career is based on matching it with his/her skills
he/she has and needs being met
✓example: a social person won’t work well in an occupation or
environment that is antisocial
or artistic or creative person won’t work well in an occupation or career
that does things ‘by the book’
John Holland’s theory : we know it already
• One known trait theory was developed by John Holland whose
assumption was that most people can be placed into six personality
types and each type has a matching or corresponding work
environment.
• These personalities are realistic, investigative, artistic, social,
enterprising and conventional.
Social learning theories
• Social learning theories suggest that social conditioning, social
position and life events are thought to significantly influence career
choice.
• In other words, instead of your personality being the key
determinant, it’s your environment and your interactions with the
environment that influence your career development.
• Here is an example that might help to understand the theory. Let’s
look at Roy’s story.
Roy’s story
• Roy has always been good with numbers. Always earning good grades
in maths and receiving praise from maths teachers for
accomplishments in their classes. Roy is aware of that they have high
expectations and gets a sense of fulfillment knowing their
expectations have been met. Always putting Roy’s education as a high
priority, Roy knows that his/her parents expect him to go to college to
study mathematics but doesn’t know of any other occupation that
uses math other than being a math teacher. Roy likes his/er math
teachers and decides to study math education. Roy’s parents and
teachers are excited about this decision.
Roy’s story
• At a Christmas holiday. Roy just happens to sit down at a table next to
his/her best friends cousin and politely starts a conversation by asking
them what they do for a living. They mention that they work as an
engineer and the two of them have a long conversation where Roy
learns a lot about the fields of engineering, the types of college
coursework involved and it sounds really appealing to him.
• After the holiday, Roy tells his/her parents and teachers that he/she is
still going to attend college but isn’t so sure about becoming a math
teacher anymore, that Roy may have deiced to study engineering.
Roy’s parents and teachers praise this decision as well, and encourage
Roy to learn more about engineering and other fields involving
mathematics.
Review of Roy
Group Brainstorming
CASE STUDY:
• Itu was born in Mmakau, a small village near Pretoria, to parents who were both
Educators. In Mmakau many children opted to go look for work after completing
their studies. Itu was influenced by her parents to take up teaching as a
profession and therefore enrolled at the Marapyane Teachers College. Itu initially
did not want to go into teaching. Once she commenced with her studies however
Itu found that she began to enjoy and love her teacher’s training. After spending
15 years as a teacher she felt it was time to leave for something else.
• She decided to enrol onto a 1 year IT course. Upon completing the course she got
a job at Zee IT Company and was responsible for Public Relations. She grew into
that role and eventually started taking on training of stakeholders in the PR
sector. Itu was retrenched after many years at the Zee IT Company and started a
real estate business where she continues to operate successfully today.
Group activity
• As a group please answer the following questions related to the case study
above. Submit your work on 18th Nov. 2024 during lecture hours
• i. What role did Itu’s parents play in her choice of a career? Would you say
that role was positive or negative?
• ii. What skills and attitudes do you think Itu had to learn in order to
develop love for teaching?
• iii. What barriers, both training and work did Itu experience in her career?
How did she deal with them?
• iv. I identify transferrable skills that Itu developed and used in the different
job roles she assumed over time.
THE END