Many dream of a successful career. But just the desire to make a career is not enough. To become successful in any field of activity, you need to strive for continuous professional growth. For this reason, at the very beginning of a long and difficult path of advancement, great attention should be paid to such an important matter as career planning.
First you need to clearly determine what kind of work you, as a novice careerist, can best suit. Here, of course, an important role belongs to education, work experience and, of course, personal interests and preferences. And consultations of experts and tests for suitability for a particular profession are called upon to help in determining — such tests can be easily found in print publications on career problems, or on the corresponding Internet resources.
One of the conditions for successful career building is that you should be well aware of what you ultimately want to achieve, based on which career planning is carried out. It is necessary to accurately imagine all the stages of a career, to set completely specific goals and tirelessly strive to achieve them. At the same time, you don’t need to think that it is possible to fulfill absolutely everything planned - all stages and goals can be adjusted, but you need to strive to achieve your goals.
It is believed that there are several types of careers. Basically, a somewhat simplified approach to this interesting issue was adopted, although few people already consider that a career is simply a victorious climb of an employee along the administrative ladder. There are many different interpretations, but basically there are two main types: a vertical career and a horizontal career.
Career management in many respects depends on the chosen type. So, a horizontal career does not involve moving up the career ladder, but rather moving horizontally, that is, moving to other positions that are close or identical in status within the same company, but possibly in different divisions or projects.
This statement can be illustrated by an example: the sales manager moves to the same position in the advertising department or the head of the public relations department becomes the head of the human resources department. In short, with the horizontal type of career, the specialist will remain a specialist, the manager will remain the manager, and the leader will remain the leader. But in any case, all such migrations involve improving the employee, increasing the level of his professional knowledge and skills. In this case, career management also provides for the setting of very clear goals and objectives.
A vertical career, in contrast to a horizontal one, means that an employee of a company can occupy a higher position in his division of the company or another, while increasing his professional and competency level. As an option - transfer to work in another company for a higher position.
A vertical career has an endpoint, as a rule, this is the post of CEO or president of the company. A horizontal career, as can be assumed, has no limitations. Nevertheless, one must clearly understand that in reality there is no kind of career in its purest form. For example, it may well happen that before taking the post of the head of the department, the employee will try his hand at several positions of the same level that only exist in this department.
As a vivid illustration of this statement, one can name an example of the world-famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who began his independent life as an errand boy. Once in the Schroeder trading company, Schliemann perfectly studied all varieties of the main product of the indigo company, knew all the company's warehouses - in short, managed to become an indispensable and very competent employee.
Continuously improving horizontally and bringing huge profits to the company, Schliemann also advanced through the ranks, eventually becoming a full-fledged companion of Schroeder.
In any serious company, such an important matter as managing a career for employees is given the closest attention, since this is how it is possible to select employees for vacant positions. Employees with competence and a desire for career growth are helped to plan their careers correctly and correctly identify all stages of a career.
Despite the fact that a career cannot always be amenable to management, since often a case can play a role in the success or failure of a career. And yet, career management plays a huge role in the development and improvement of employees of any company.