top » talent » career » career management » career development

7 Types of Career Development

John Spacey, May 05, 2019

Career development is the lifelong process of growing and refining your productive contributions to society, also known as a career. The following are the basic elements of career development with a guide to each.

Self Knowledge

The process of discovering what you want, what you don't want, where you have potential, where you are weak and where you might be able to stretch yourself.

Ability	Aptitude
Intelligence	Knowledge Of Performance
Knowledge Of Results	Personal Resilience
Self-Discipline	Talent
Values

Planning

Planning includes the dreamy process of deciding your end-goals and the more grounded process of identifying actionable steps that move you closer to these goals. This also includes the process of aquiring information about industries, organizations, professions, business models, opportunities and career strategy.

Action Plan	Career Change
Career Direction	Career Goals
Career Interests	Career Objectives
Career Path	Career Plan
End-Goals	Opportunity Costs
Personal Development Plan	Professional Development Plan

Training & Development

Developing your knowledge, skills and talents by learning, practicing and gaining experience.

Business Skills	Job Rotation
Know-how	Learning Plan
Mastery	On The Job Training
Professional Growth	Soft Skills
Tacit Knowledge

Productivity

Developing in your career by delivering value and improving your productivity over time. This is the basis for promotions, rewards and recognition. If your an entrepreneur, productivity is the basis for revenue.

Creative Productivity	Flow
Productive Assumptions	Productivity
Productivity Improvement	Time Management
Toil	Work Quality

Competition & Politics

Internal competition for roles, responsibilities, recognition and rewards. External competition with other businesses may also be relevant to developing your career.

Abundance Mentality	Civility
Competitive Advantage	Competitive Disadvantage
Influencing	Leadership
Managing Expectations	Office Politics

Challenges

Career strategy tends to begin with high expectations. This initial excitement may progress to a period of problems and intense work known as a trough of sorrow whereby goals may feel out of reach despite significant effort. This is often followed by a crash of ineptitude whereby a significant series of problems causes you to doubt your strategy. This may trigger change to strategy. If your strategy is sound, the crash of ineptitude will subside and you will progress towards your end-goals. If your strategy is flawed the trough of sorrow can continue indefinitely.