Career formation and steps to get closer to who you want to be! Thorough explanation of the way of thinking
Why is it important to think about career development now?
“I was asked about my career in an interview, but I couldn’t answer it well.”
“Honestly, I don’t really know what I want to do with my career yet…”
I hear a voice saying. I think it is difficult for students who have never worked before to think about a career, but what I want to keep in mind is “career development”.
In fact, this career development is very important, and it is useful for clarifying your future vision and finding the work style you want. In this article, we will discuss career development in depth. Of course, it will help you to prepare for the selection process, but it will also help you lead a fulfilling life as a member of society, so please read it to the end.
What is career development?
Career development: Accumulating work experience and skills as planned
Simply accumulating the work prepared by the company cannot be said to be career development. Career formation is the process of polishing the necessary skills and accumulating the necessary experience according to the career plan that you set yourself.
The important thing is to draw a clear career plan. It’s difficult to draw a clear career plan while you’re a student, but think about what you want to do in 5 or 10 years, and what skills you want to acquire.
Words similar to career development
When thinking about career development, you will often hear similar words. Although the words look similar, they actually have slightly different meanings. Make sure you understand what each of these similar words mean before you start thinking about career development. That will make it easier for you to think about career development.
- Career design: Designing your entire life, including your future vision and goals for work, as well as your private life.
- Career plan: A plan for a professional life, such as promotion, transfer, job change, or independence. does not include private
- Career Path: Flow of stepping up within a company
Career formation is to accumulate the skills and experience necessary to realize the plan within the career plan. Both are part of career design.
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Why Career Development Matters
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the importance of career development, but why is career development so important? First, I will explain why it is important to think about career development. Know the importance of career development and be able to think positively.
(1) Collapse of the lifetime employment system
In the period of high economic growth after the war, “career formation = career path at the company where you get a job”. Also, once you get a job, it was common to spend the rest of your life at that company, so you didn’t even have to think about your career. However, now that lifetime employment is collapsing, there is a need to think about and act on one’s own career development.
It is said that the lifetime employment system began to be introduced in Japan around 1950 after the war. At that time, Japan was in a period of high economic growth, and the lifetime employment system was established on the premise that every company would continue to grow.
However, in Japan today, the number of companies going bankrupt due to poor business performance, restructuring, early retirement, and voluntary retirement is increasing, and it is said that the lifetime employment system is collapsing. Therefore, it is important to think about career formation, even if you are working for a large company, because you need to draw your own career.
(2) Diversification of work styles
With the collapse of the lifetime employment system, instead of building a career at one company, people change jobs with the aim of improving the work environment, work content, and career advancement, become independent freelancers, start businesses, etc. and work styles are diversifying.
There is an increasing shift from a career-oriented work style that engages in a wide range of tasks to a specialist work style that specializes in specialized skills. For example, when designing a career, if you want to value your private time as well, it would be better to specialize in specialized skills so that you can work without worrying about working at a company.
Belonging to a company is not the current way of working. Because of the emergence of various ways of working, it is important to think about how to draw a career and acquire skills.
(3) Development of IT technology such as AI
It is said that many of the jobs that people currently do can be replaced by IT technology. In fact, supermarkets and convenience stores have installed self-checkout counters, so you can pay without a clerk.
However, there are some jobs that can be done with IT technology and others that can only be done by people. In order to become a necessary presence in society, it is necessary to think about the future and develop a career.
What kind of jobs will still exist in 10 years from now, or jobs that are likely to disappear? Check it out in this article.
Preparations to do before thinking about career development
From here, let’s actually think about career development together. However, it is difficult to think about it. Thinking about career development from the beginning There are some good preparations to do before that. If you start from there, your career will progress smoothly.
Think about the base of the career you want to draw
Basically, the career as a social worker can be broadly divided into two categories.
- Manager: Take command of the organization and take the lead
- Specialist: Stand at the forefront of the field by specializing specialized skills
It would be good to think about whether you want to manage as a so-called manager in the organization, or whether you want to sharpen your skills and continue working in the field. Depending on which one you choose, the skills you need to acquire along the way will change greatly. Decide in advance what your destination is.
Think about your career plan and design your career
Career development is how you accumulate skills and experience during your career. At that time, it is essential to design the flow of the career itself, not just skills and experience. And if you don’t think about your life, it’s hard to think about what kind of career you should pursue.
Before thinking about career development, first design the life you want, including both work and private life. What would be the ideal career plan to achieve that life? If you think about career development after that, it will be easier to think about it.
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I know my weaknesses, but I can’t think of my strengths. There must be a lot of people who don’t want to think, “I can’t say it’s an advantage.”
In such a case, let’s use the “strength creation tool”. With this tool, just select your weaknesses and in 30 seconds you can create your strengths by rephrasing your weaknesses.
It’s free to use, so if you want to know your strengths, let’s use it now.
4 tips for thinking about career development
Once you have a career design, let’s think about career formation to fulfill that life. Here, I would like to introduce four points, so please think along these points.
When thinking, I recommend writing it down on paper. If you just think about it in your head, you will quickly forget it. As you proceed, write out your thoughts in as much detail as possible so that you can quickly recall them when you look back later.
Once you have a career design, let’s think about career formation to fulfill that life. Here, I would like to introduce four points, so please think along these points.
When thinking, I recommend writing it down on paper. If you just think about it in your head, you will quickly forget it. As you proceed, write out your thoughts in as much detail as possible so that you can quickly recall them when you look back later.
(1) Think along the framework of Will, Can, and Must
There is a framework called “Will-Can-Must” that is often used in company interviews. You can also think about career development based on this.
Especially for students, there are almost no Cans and Musts. In other words, think about Will. What do you want and what do you not want? By thinking about Will, you can see the skills and experience required for that Will.
For example, let’s think about the necessary skills and experience when you want to get qualified as a first-class architect and open an office in the future. There are various kinds of knowledge and skills such as design knowledge and skills, achievements in which one’s designs have been evaluated by the public, sales skills to get jobs, and skills and knowledge to run a company.
Let’s divide them into “Can: what we can do now” and “Must: what we should do in the company”. After clarifying what kind of experience and what kind of skills you should acquire in the future, you should look for a company that can give you those things to do.
②Find a role model
If you can’t find the Will mentioned above, or if you don’t know what it is, you can also find a role model. This can be someone close to you or someone famous. It will be easier to understand if you think of it as “a person you think is cool” or “a person you admire”.
If you can’t find what you want to do or what you want to do, find a role model and learn about their career. If you can listen directly, it’s best to listen. If it’s a celebrity or historical figure, look it up. Knowing about the person’s way of thinking and career will be a hint for your own career development.
People you admire, which is common with role models, is a question that is often asked in interviews. If you think about it in relation to career development, you will be able to answer consistently in interviews.
③ Make a list of things you don’t want to do
It is also important to make a list of things you don’t want to do when considering career development. This is a great option for those who can’t find what they want to do.
Even if you don’t want to do something, you can make a list of things you don’t want to do. Here are some examples of what you don’t want to do:
By making a list of things you don’t want to do, you can narrow down the things you want to do based on that list. Please try it when thinking about career formation.
④ Actively listen to people
In addition to role models, it is also important to listen to seniors, parents, and other members of society when considering career development. If you haven’t experienced working, first listen to the stories of seniors who are actually working. It’s a good idea to ask them about what it means to work, what they think about their career, what skills they have, and anything else that might help them with their career development.
Talking to as many working people as possible will help clarify your thinking. Also, people say that talking to people helps them organize their thoughts. That’s because I try to talk about things that I haven’t been able to verbalize, and in the process my thoughts are organized. Especially if you feel the limit to think by yourself, please go and listen to people.