Career Development - Essay Example

Before analyzing different aspects of career development, let us get a better understanding of what career development actually is. “Career development is an organized planning method used to match the needs of a business with the career goals of employees” (Faria, 2011). A career development plan not only helps employees carry out their job responsibilities more efficiently but also makes them look for higher positions in a company in order to achieve those positions.

In order to develop an appropriate career development plan, employees need to analyze different factors. First, an employee needs to know everything about the company where he or she wants to do the job. Some of the major aspects, which an employee needs to know about a company, include the business of the company, major accomplishments, career progress opportunities, financial status of the company, and the future of the company. Along with the awareness about all of these major aspects of a company, an employee also needs to know whether he or she meets the requirements of a company or not. In case an employee does not meet the requirements, the employee should know the factors, which are acting as obstacles for meeting the requirements. Moreover, the company should meet the professional and job benefits requirements of the employee as well.

An employee should start by finding a better place for doing an internship because it acts as the foundation for career development by consulting the faculty, fellow students, alumni, websites of different companies, newspapers, journals, and career websites. By consulting all or some of these sources, an employee can surely find a perfect place for the startup.  If we look from the employers’ perspective, we can say that employers have a step-based approach to recruiting employees. Entry-level employers advertise on the websites of universities and companies, which cost them nothing. On the websites of some universities, there exist separate login areas for both students and employers, which they use for their respective causes. Students use their login areas to find new jobs posted by the employers whereas employers use their side to post new vacancies for the students. Mid-level employers advertise on popular job search websites and newspapers, which cost them nearly $385 per posting and nearly $850 for a national resume search for 2 weeks. Monster, career builder, and yahoo hot jobs are some of the most famous job search websites, which both employees and employers use for their respective purposes. Students can save and update their resumes on such websites, which employers can search and view for recruitment purposes. Upper-level employers use headhunters for recruiting employees and they give up to 10 to 20 percent of a year’s salary to the talent hunters.

On the websites of the companies, companies use different ways to keep applicants up to date regarding the status of their job applications. Companies use periodic updates and job alerts to make people aware of vacancies. The employers also publish dates of interviews for selected interviews on some websites. After the interviews, companies offer attractive packages to the finally selected employees.