Reviewer for Personal Development

CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND EXPLORATION

 Career development is the series of activities or the on-going/lifelong process of developing
one’s career. Career development usually refers to managing one’s career in an intra-
organizational or inter-organizational scenario. It involves training on new skills, moving to
higher job responsibilities, making a career change within the same organization, moving to a
different organization, or starting one’s own business.
 Career development is directly linked to the goals and objectives set by an individual. It starts
with self-actualization and self-assessment of one’s interests and capabilities. The interests are
then matched with the available options.
 The individual needs to train himself to acquire the skills needed for the option or career path
chosen by him. Finally, after acquiring the desired competency, he has to perform to achieve
the goals and targets set by him.
CAREER CONCEPTS
 A career is defined as the combination and sequence of roles played by a person during a
lifetime (Super, 1980). Your career dictates a lot of things in your life it can determine the kind
of lifestyle that you will be leading, the quality of relationships that you have with people
around you like your family and friends, the kind of balance you will be able to keep with your
life and your responsibilities.
 There are two other concepts that we often associate with the concept of career.
o A job is a position an individual holds doing specific duties. For example, if you would
look closely at the job of a lawyer, you can say that a lawyer’s job is working as an
associate in X Law Firm.
o An occupation is defined as the similar work for which people have similar
responsibilities and for which they develop a common set of skills and knowledge. For
example, people who are in the mental health occupation would include psychologists,
clinical psychologists, counselors, and psychiatrists.
 A lot of things can influence one’s career choice. A popular career development model,
the Trait and Factor model believe that skills and abilities need to fit the demands of a
particular career field. This being said, it is then important that you take stock of the skills,
knowledge, and abilities that you currently possess and those that you still need to develop as
these greatly impacts that kind of career that could be a good match for you.
 Another factor that could influence your success in a particular career field would be your
personality and interests. John Holland, a popular career counselor proposed a theory that
strongly believes that certain careers require certain personality traits and must also fit our
interests.
 Our life roles are yet strong factors that influence our career choices. Your role as a child, a
sister, a student, and eventually if you choose it, that of a parent would have an impact on the
decisions that you would have to make as an adult. Donald Super, another career
 development theorist believes that since we play an array of roles in our lives, these roles are
likely to change over time thus requirements, needs and other external forces would come into
play when we are trying to figure out or maintain a career.
 One’s race and ethnicity could also impact our choices. The cultures in which we belong
shape our values and expectations. In the Philippines, our collectivist orientation makes our
family a strong influence on our career decisions. More often than not, the choice, of course,
to take in college, the location of our job, how strong- will we will be in achieving great
heights in our career, would most likely be influenced by our family roles, duties, and
obligations.
 Our social identity, specifically our gender, also possesses challenges and opportunities
for us when choosing a career. Although nowadays, the gender divide in terms of careers has
slowly narrowed, it is a known fact that men and women experience career-related
stereotypes.
 One of the strongest considerations in career decision-making has a lot to do with social and
economic conditions. Our choice of career is contingent on our capabilities to sustain the
monetary demands of pursuing formal education to train for it. Also, our financial obligations
and roles likewise would determine the kind of occupation we would be pursuing to fulfill these
duties. Furthermore, certain life events can also influence our career choices. The
unpredictability of these events may cause us to make certain concessions to meet the
demands brought about by these changes. Likewise, the volatile economic landscape and
how it impacts that supply and demand for people and jobs may also impact how our careers
would progress.
WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR CAREER CHOICE?
By Melissa Venable
 When we think about career choice, several things immediately come to mind job description,
training and education required, career outlook, and salary but several other factors may
influence your decisions. Let's explore some of these factors as addressed by multiple career
development theories. Theories can help us frame why and how things happen. In this case,
career development theories help us explain why and how we choose to pursue specific career
fields.
 There are a lot of theories to consider in the relatively new field of career development. As you
read through the factors below, you'll see that many of the related theories address some of
the same issues. No one theory explains everything, so it's good to consider these factors
from multiple perspectives.
 Influence Factors
o Skills and Abilities - Considering your skills and abilities and how they may fit a
particular occupation comes out of one of the earliest career development fields, Trait-
Factor theories, and is still used today. These theories recommend creating
occupational profiles for specific jobs as well as identifying individual differences,
 matching individuals to occupations based on these differences. You can identify
activities you enjoy and those in which you have a level of competency through a
formal assessment.
o Interest and Personality Type - Holland's Career Typology is widely used to connect
personality types and career fields. This theory establishes a classification system that
matches personality characteristics and personal preferences to job characteristics. The
Holland Codes are six personality/career types that help describe a wide range of
occupations.
o Life Roles - Being a worker is just one of your life roles, in addition to others such as
student, parent, and child. Super's Lifespan theory directly addresses the fact that we
each play multiple roles in our lives and that these roles change throughout our lives.
How we think about ourselves in these roles, their requirements of them, and the
external forces that affect them, may influence how we look at careers in general and
how we make choices for ourselves.
o Previous Experiences - Krumboltz’s Social Learning and Planned Happenstance
theories address factors related to our experiences with others and in previous work
situations. Having positive experiences and role models working in specific careers may
influence the set of careers we consider as options for ourselves. One aspect of Social
Cognitive Career Theory addresses the fact that we are likely to consider continuing a
particular task if we have had a positive experience doing it. In this way, we focus on
areas in which we have had proven success and achieved positive self-esteem.
o Culture- Racial and ethnic background, as well as the culture of an individual's regional
area, local community, and extended family, may impact career decisions. Our culture
often shapes our values and expectations as they relate to many parts of our lives,
including jobs and careers. Multicultural career counseling has emerged as a specialized
field to consider these influences when counseling clients and students. We can't
attribute the predominant characteristics of culture to any one of its individuals, but
having an awareness of the values and expectations of our culture may help us
understand how we make our career choices.
o Gender - Both men and women have experienced career-related stereotypes.
Gender is a factor included in multiple career development theories and approaches
including, Social Learning and multicultural career counseling. How we view ourselves
as individuals may influence both the opportunities and barriers we perceive as we
make career decisions. Studies of gender and career development are ongoing as roles
of men and women in the workforce, and in higher education, evolve.
o Social and Economic Conditions - All of our career choices take place within the
context of society and the economy. Several career theories, such as Social Cognitive
Career Theory and Social Learning, address this context in addition to other factors.
Events that take place in our lives may affect the choices available to us and even
 dictate our choices to a certain degree. Changes in the economy and the resulting job
market may also affect how our careers develop.
o Childhood Fantasies - What do you want to be when you grow-up? You may
remember this question from your childhood, and it may have helped shape how you
thought about careers then, as well as later in life. Career counseling theories are
expanding as programs related to career choice are developed for all ages, including
the very young. Ginzberg proposed a theory that describes three life stages related to
career development. The first stage, fantasy, where early ideas about careers are
formed, takes place up to age 11.
WORK/OCCUPATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS AND INTERESTS
 Psychologist John Holland classified jobs/careers/work environments into six: Realistic,
Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. There are no pure classifications,
though. A person's job function may combine ESA (Enterprising, Social and Artistic) or ISC
(Investigative, Social and Conventional) or any two or three other possible combinations.
 Holland also classifies personalities or interests into the same six types: Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Again, there are no pure interest types. A
person may also be ESA (Enterprising-Social-Artistic) or ISC (Investigative-Social-Conventional)
or any two or three possible combinations.
 If our interest patterns are ESA (i.e., Enterprising, Social, and Artistic) we will be attracted to a
job/career in which the work activities are ESA.
 Look at the letters listed with each party group and their corresponding descriptions below.
Think about how much you would or would not enjoy working in the types of situations
discussed and how the characteristics mentioned relating to your personality and interests.
 As a further note, these themes can be combined to produce several hundred job personality
types, each of which has something different to say about the match between an individual
and an occupation. For example, a person who is primarily “realistic” (R) might also be
“artistic” (A) and “enterprising” (E) and would probably find a job doing public relations layouts
for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources satisfying. Consider your
examination of these areas, here, as a good first step in further career and self-understanding.
o R = Realistic.
 People high on the realistic theme tend to enjoy creating things with their hands
and working with tools and objects rather than working with people and ideas.
Realistic people tend to be rugged and practical, enjoying work outdoors.
o I = Investigative.
 Occupations high in investigative characteristics tend to focus on scientific
activities. People high on this theme would often rather work alone than with
other people and are usually seen as idea-oriented and creative in scientific
areas such as research. They are analytical, abstract, intellectual, and task-
oriented.
 o A = Artistic.
 People who score high on the artistic theme are artistically inclined, and usually
describe themselves as independent, imaginative, creative, and unconventional;
they enjoy situations that allow them the freedom to be original, prefer to work
in an unstructured environment, and are usually dissatisfied if they are forced to
follow many rules and procedures. They enjoy activities related to language, art,
music, drama, writing, etc.
o S = Social.
 People high on the social theme are usually seen by others as sociable, popular,
and responsible. They prefer social interaction and social presence. They are
often interested in the problems and concerns of others, and like activities that
allow them to teach, inform, train, develop, cure, and help others.
o E = Enterprising.
 Occupations that are primarily enterprising in nature usually involve situations
where the person is in a position of leading or convincing others to achieve
team/organizational goals or economic gain. People high on this theme are often
seen as enthusiastic, dominant, and impatient.
o C = Conventional.
 High conventional people tend to prefer jobs where they are given a firm
structure and know exactly what is expected of them. People who rank high on
this theme often describe themselves as conscientious, efficient, and calm. They
enjoy activities that involve the precise, ordered use of data such as keeping and
filing records, organizing data, computing, printing, etc.

INSIGHTS INTO ONE’S PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

An awareness of one’s interest, skills, and abilities, as well as limitations, is necessary for
you to make informed decisions, improve your career choices, plan their future and cope
up with the demands, of your chosen careers.
All of these involve taking responsibility for yourself and owning up to the decisions you
make. You may become apprehensive about entering the real world of work if you are
unprepared and unequipped in facing the challenges and demands in your quest for
ideal and successful careers or jobs. You may experience disappointments when you
learn that you lack the skills necessary for the jobs or careers you want to pursue. It is
for this matter that as a student, you must not only focus on your academic growth but
your personal development as well. There are factors in personal development that
guide you in making important career decisions. Central to this is self-awareness.
It propels you to look closely at what your characters are and what you are capable of
and the second factor which involves career exploration in the opportunity awareness.
You researched careers available to you based on your identified skills, capacities, and
abilities. As you developed a clearer career view of yourself you learn to finally decide
 on your career options.
This module focuses on the importance of enriching and empowering one’s self to help
you in your career and life goals set. It considers people, events, and experiences
affecting your career plan. By looking closely at these factors you can develop a strong
foundation supporting your career decisions.
Factors Influence A Career Choice?
When we start thinking about our future profession and career choice, we think about
several factors. The most important things are job description, required skills and education,
salary, career outlook. But many other meaningful factors can influence someone’s career
choice. In this article, we discuss some of these factors. It’s important to take them into
account when you have to decide on your future work. You need to make the right choice,
weigh the pros and cons and it will help you to find your perfect career.
There so many factors which influence the future career choice and have an effect on different
levels.
Let’s talk about the most important factors.
 Different life roles

o Every person plays different roles in his or her life. He is a worker at work, a
parent, husband, or wife at home. And every person thinks about himself in these
different roles and decides which role will be the most important for him. And this
decision may influence the career choice and the way the person looks at his
work.
 Personality and interests
o We are all different. We have different tastes, preferences, and tempers. And
someone’s success at a particular job position depends on these things. There is a
special theory which is called Holland Occupational Themes which can answer how
the personality of the work-seeker influences his choice, his work ambitions, and
abilities.
 Previous work experience
o If someone has a positive role model in a particular career or positive work
experience it will influence the future work choice. The research has shown that a
person prefers to continue the work in which he was more successful rather than
start doing something new. It is a great idea to focus on the work with proven
success as well as with positive self-esteem for most of us.
 Cultural background
o The cultural background of the person as well as his regional area and ethnic group
can influence the future work choice. Besides family of the job seeker and local
community also can become the factors that can determine someone’s future career.
A person’s expectations and life values are always shaped according to cultural
issues, and they have connections with different parts of our lives. Understanding the
 nature of our expectations and values can help us to understand our personality and
make the right career choice.
 Economic and social conditions of life
o Our life benchmarks and career choices always lie in the context of economic and
social issues. And it is natural. Sometimes we can’t choose the society in which we
have to live, but we can choose the way of life. Different situations and conditions
which take place in our economic and social lives give us a definite choice and have a
certain effect on it. And we have to take into account this factor.
 The financial aspect
o For many of us, money which we can earn is the most important factor which
influences on future career choice. This is not surprising. We have to pay for
everything that we have in our lives. But everyone has different needs and ways of
life that’s why think twice when considering the job which will not allow living as you
like and make a correct and reasonable choice.
 Along with pragmatic factors, some issues can influence someone’s future work choice. And
they lie in the non-material plane. It’s important to choose the career which will bring
pleasure. Find your career passion and the work will always be a joy. You have to choose
something passionately for you. Find out what can inspire you and follow your inspiration.
Answer the simple question “do you want this career? If you are confused about your
choice, just take a break and clarify your thoughts.
 You have to decide on what purposes do you have right now. And what do you want to get
from your work? What are the reasons in favor of some particular career? Do you want to
earn money or you want to develop your talents? It’s great if you have an opportunity to
choose a career which is related to your hobby or interests.
 Usually, if you pick the work according to your interests, salary is not the most important
motivation for you. But there are examples when someone’s hobby turned into a fortune.
For example, if you like to write essays, someday you can become a professional writer. You
never know what awaits you so do not give up your interests.
 So choosing the future career is perhaps the most important decision in our lives. That’s
why we have to think well and weigh all the pros and cons. We have to take into account
such important factors as:
o Education;
o Financial aspects;
o Work experience;
o Our personality and interests;
o Economic and social conditions of life.

Personal factors Influencing Career Choice

 Personality
 o Personality may include your traits or characteristics. Your personality affects the way
you do your work. There are careers that require certain personality traits. For
example extroverts, people may fit into a type of work that requires people skills
such as marketing, sales, or entertainment. While those who are introverts may fit
into jobs such as research, bookkeeping and computer related work.
 Values
o Your values are the principles or standards that guide you in making choices and
decisions of your life. The totality of what you value in life makes up your value
systems. What is acceptable for you may not be acceptable for others because of
your values system. For example, because you value time with your family, you go
home early and eat dinner; thus we say no to other activities that might affect your
time with the family. What we value in life affects the choice and decisions we make.
Thus, it is important to know your values. One way of knowing your values is by
identifying the factors you consider important.
 Interest
o Interest or preferences are activities that you enjoy doing. These may include your
likes or dislikes or the things that motivate you. When your work is aligned with your
interests, you will find your work exciting and challenging. For example if your
interests is reading you may find research work very appealing; so doing research
task may be a lot easier for you.
 Attitudes
o Attitudes are also essential factors in career development success. It is described as
how you view situations or things around you. Sometimes, attitude is described as
the predispositions or the tendency to act or behave in a certain way. Attitude have
three (3) components
 Cognition
 You’re set of beliefs or perceptions.
 Affects
 How you feel about certain situations
 Behavior
 Actions caused by the way you think and how you feel.

Factors affecting Personality Development

Career Paths
External factors Influencing Choice of Career

Career Options