There is no doubt that everyone’s career path is very different and has a unique story. Even though these career paths are different, there is something common in each person’s career path. Beginning with your initial interest in possible career paths to retirement, everyone will face new challenges and unique growth opportunities at once.
However, facing new challenges is a commonplace that everyone experiences to pass each stage of their career development. Of course, career stages are very important to help distinguish your goals throughout your professional life.
In this post, we will show you five career stages that are also referred to as “career life cycle stages.” That said, career stages are ways of categorizing where you are in your professional life. Okay, let’s dive into our post to find the five career stages you may face!
Five Stages of Career Development
One of the well-known development theories is “Super Career Development,” which is provided in the book “A life-span, life-space approach to career development.” Career development evidently begins at birth, and the stages of career development are divided into five stages. Here are the five stages of career development:
1) Growth
The first stage of career development starts from the age of 0 to 14 years. In this age range, every individual will learn about self-concept, get to know various professions, and develop attitudes so that they can really understand the things they like.
If we go back to our childhood, we always find questions related to our ideals. Of course, this kind of question aims to get to know a variety of professions and teach us to understand ourselves.
2) Exploration
The typical age range for this career stage is around 15 to 24 years old. This stage starts when you’re in high school and lasts until you get your first job. The exploration stage will be full of experimenting with a variety of things to find out personal desires and interests.
During high school, you might actively join extracurricular activities to explore your interests and hone soft skills. Of course, the lessons in high school have started to be divided based on majors so that they correspond to your interests and talents. At the end of high school, you will make a decision to select a college major that will surely have an effect on your future career.
During college, you may also be active in non-academic activities such as committees, student activity units, or internships. Of course, these activities aim to hone your soft skills and explore your interests.
At this time, it is usually very pleasant, but those who do not know themselves yet will experience confusion. They will not follow their interests, passions, or even future career goals. Of course, when they enter the world of work, they will feel lost, confused, and uncertain.
Basically, exploration refers to the stage before obtaining permanent employment. If you get confused at this stage, it leads to a quarter-life crisis. They really feel anxious about their future, particularly their career, money, and social life. Well, this crisis can be faced if a person understands himself and can manage his/her emotions so that he/she is not discouraged and insecure when seeing the achievements of their friends.
3) Establishment
After going through a period of searching, the person between the ages of 25 to 44 has started to believe in and focus on one job. People at this age already know the purposes of life and the direction of life in the future.
As time goes by, knowledge and skills are slowly increasing as work experience increases. The job responsibilities are also more strategic, and opportunities for promotion are beginning to appear. Furthermore, leadership skills are a must at this stage. Work demands being able to direct a team, lead a project, and accept greater responsibility for achieving company goals.
4) Maintenance
The issue that often arises at the age of 45–60 is the gap with young people. It frequently occurs in various workplaces regarding differences in views between generations. Of course, those who are starting to enter the workforce will have a lot of knowledge and keep up with the latest conditions.
If we do not have the desire to continue learning, we will lose out to young people. The most negative impact is that the organization will not advance and innovate if it is controlled by people who are unwilling to learn new things.
5) Decline
Basically, the working productive age is calculated up to the age of 60, after which the person will retire from work. Before retirement, a lot of companies prepare for retirement training. Reportedly, there are workplaces that have policies to reduce the workload of employees before retiring.
For some people, retirement is not an easy thing since they will experience very different habits. The problem that often arises when retiring is loneliness. According to Shin et al., loneliness can be overcome if you get social support from the people around you.
When you retire, you may still have to socialize with anyone. One of the activities you can do after retirement is to continue your hobby, such as gardening, socializing with your community, etc. If you do what you like, retirement is not an obstacle to staying productive.
Okay, these are the five stages of career development you will pass through during your life.
Why Is It Important to Get to Know Your Stages of Career Development?
According to kampuspsikologi.com, it is highly recommended for everyone to understand themselves to achieve career success. Even though you will face challenges or crises in your career development, you really have to know your goals and develop your knowledge and skills.
The crises that may occur yourself are identity, quarter-life crisis, mid-life crisis, and retirement crisis. The crises encountered at each stage of development are essentially rooted in the urge to learn new things. What you should do is to always dare to try different things, see anything from different perspectives and keep networking with anyone.
The world situation is always changing, and various innovations emerge. If we never try, we will never know. If we feel enough with the knowledge we have, then we will lose to new people.
A crisis in a career is a natural thing. It’s okay to experience despair, confusion, and uncertainty because this is normal. Knowing the stages of career development will make you more prepared and give you a picture of the future.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
