Career Developer

Career Resource Guide

It is no secret that trying to select a perfect occupation or attain the perfect job is a challenge. What is even more challenging today is that jobs, occupations and career paths are consistently changing.

Where we used to think of career planning we now need to think of career building.

At one time, career development was thought to be a process of exploring your personal aptitudes, making a plan and then setting out to achieve your goal ? an occupation. But when talking to most people you will discover that their career path has not been a direct route. Even those who had a strategic plan in place to achieve their goals took some detours along the way.

One of the first rules of career development is to realize that we cannot control all of the factors that will influence our careers. This means that our ability to adapt to change and have confidence in our career readiness skills will be huge. Those equipped with these skills will be able to re-group, re-route, and re-focus their career efforts while others struggle with the changes going on around them.

Often when we first start out we have some form of support to help us. It may be parents, friends, teachers, career specialists or counsellors. This support may also involve access to paid career planning services. However, as people move further down their career paths and take on more responsibilities they often find that the direction of their work-life rests with their own ability to find the right resources. From this viewpoint, think of Career Developer as your travel information centre. No matter what stage you are at with your career or educational planning there are a variety of resources within Career Developer that you can draw on.

Another important rule of career development is to be weary of those who promise shortcuts to educational and career planning success. Successful career development is a process no matter whose resources you are using. There is no single resource that will eliminate self-reflection and offer instant answers that will be written in stone for the several decades that your work-life will span.

Ultimately, think of the resources in Career Developer as maps from leading experts in the career development field. Maps that will get you started on your career development route, and maps that will get you where you want to go.