According to Benjamin Franklin, without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

This is to emphasize the continuous process through which an individual must subject themselves to development to attach value to themselves in different areas, including their career.

What is Career Development?

Career development is the process an individual undergoes to evolve their occupational status. It's about setting goals for your career that you intend to achieve to position yourself better in your organization, workplace or field.

Achieving each level/goal requires work in the four elements of professional development which are:

1. training,
2. education,
3. experience, and
4. self-development.

Who needs Career Development?

Although career development is more vital to employees than employers, but everyone (both the employer and employee) needs to take career development seriously.

Career development is the responsibility of both the employee and the employer: it must be a collaborative effort because it cannot be done unilaterally. The employee is responsible, ultimately, for career management and development—and reading The Start-up of You is an excellent guide here.

The employer's perspective is necessary in order for individuals to achieve alignment between who they are (their identity), what they want (their goals), and what the organization needs from them.

The employer must provide an environment for employees to thrive while the employee must strive for career development as it will provide a roadmap to their future and also to make well-informed decisions, and increase productivity.

Stages of Career Development

There are 6 stages of career development according to the U.S Chamber of Commerce

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