Career Development vs Career Planning: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?
As we navigate through our professional lives, we come across two common terminologies – Career Development and Career Planning. Although the terms might sound similar, they convey different meanings. However, it is essential to understand the distinction between the two and their significance in our career paths.
What is Career Planning?
Career Planning is a process of creating a roadmap of your professional career. It involves setting achievable short-term and long-term career goals, identifying the skills you need to acquire, and assessing the resources required to reach those goals. In simpler words, career planning requires a proactive approach towards determining your future career path.
For instance, if you aspire to become a software engineer, you need to decide what education and skills are necessary to progress in your career. You can plan to complete a computer science course, take up an internship, and work for a few years to gain experience, eventually leading you to your desired job role.
What is Career Development?
Career Development is a continuous and progressive process that involves acquiring and enhancing skills, knowledge, and experiences to succeed in your present role and prepare for future roles. It involves not only improving your technical skills but also your interpersonal skills, work habits, and communication skills.
For example, if you’re working as a software engineer, enhancing your coding skills can be a part of your career development. However, learning effective communication skills, collaboration skills, and leadership skills can also contribute to your career development, enabling you to progress within your organization.
Why is it Essential to Distinguish Career Planning and Career Development?
Although career planning and career development sound similar, they have different objectives and goals. Career Planning is setting the right career path and identifying career prospects, while career development is continuously expanding your skills, knowledge, and experiences. Understanding the difference between the two is vital for employees to build a successful career.
Without proper career planning, professionals may lack a clear understanding of what skills, experience and education they need to achieve their career aspirations, causing them to miss out on vital opportunities. Similarly, without career development, individuals may stagnate in their careers, failing to acquire the skills or knowledge they need to advance in their roles.
As a result, it’s essential to prioritize both career development and career planning to ensure a fulfilling professional career.
Examples:
Let’s take some examples to understand the importance of career development and career planning. Suppose you’re a marketing professional with a passion for digital marketing. You can plan your career by identifying the various roles available in digital marketing such as SEO specialist, social media manager, and PPC advertising specialist, amongst others. Once you have determined your preferred role, you can plan your progress towards it by acquiring relevant skills and experience. For career development, you can continuously enhance your digital marketing skills, seek new challenges, and learn from industry experts.
Similarly, suppose you’re a sales executive looking to progress in your career. Career planning can involve identifying the senior roles available within the organization and planning to acquire the skills and experience required. For career development, you can improve your sales techniques, communication skills, and leadership skills to succeed at your current role while simultaneously preparing for future roles.
Conclusion:
In a nutshell, career planning lays out the path to your dream job, while career development equips you with the skills, knowledge, and experience required to succeed in that role.
Organizations need to support both career planning and career development for their employees to progress and succeed in their roles. By giving employees opportunities to plan their careers and learning from industry experts, organizations can ensure high employee satisfaction, retention, and talent growth.
