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How to Find a Career, Not Just a Series of Jobs

Start a Career dont get stuck in a dead end job. A Career is defined below but what really is a Career?

Most people do there day Job and never strive to have a Career why because most people dont know how to start there Career or build a Career.

I started working when I was 16 in a Job that I knew wasnt going to give me a Career, So at the age of 19 I finally started my Career I decided I didnt just want a normal Career doing one job I have built a Career that contains Sales, Internet Investment and other business task. At the age of 24 my Career is glowing and shall only grow.

My Career has brought me a beautiful life, with a woman I love, a dog, a house and the luxuries of life that most cant afford.

If I stayed in my dead end job, Would I have had the same? I dont know but my Career is something that Im proud of and shall only grow.

So start your Career today! Get up and dont just get a Job, Get A Career!

Career is a term defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an individual's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". It usually is considered to pertain to remunerative work (and sometimes also formal education).

A career is mostly seen as a course of successive situations that make up a person's occupation. One can have a sporting career or a musical career without being a professional athlete or musician, but most frequently "career" in the 20th century referenced the series of jobs or positions by which one earned one's money. It tended to look only at the past.

As the idea of personal choice and self direction picks up in the 21st century, aided by the power of the Internet and the acceptance of people having multiple kinds of work, the idea of a career is shifting from a closed set of achievements, like a chronological résumé of past jobs, to a defined set of pursuits looking forward. In its broadest sense, career refers to an individual’s work and life roles over their lifespan.

In the relatively static societies before modernism, many workers would often inherit or take up a single lifelong position (a place or role) in the workforce, and the concept of an unfolding career had little or no meaning. With the spread during the Enlightenment of the idea of progress and of the habits of individualist self-betterment, careers became possible, if not expected.

Career Assessments are tests that come in a variety of forms and rely on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Career Assessments can help individuals identify and better articulate their unique interests, values, and skills. Career counselors, executive coaches, career development centers, and outplacement companies often administer career assessments to help individuals focus their search on careers that closely match their unique personal profile.

Career counseling advisors assess people's interests, personality, values and skills, and also help them explore career options and research graduate and professional schools. Career counseling provides one-on-one or group professional assistance in exploration and decision making tasks related to choosing a major/occupation, transitioning into the world of work or further professional training. The field is vast and includes career placement, career planning, learning strategies and student development.

By the late 20th century a plethora of choices (especially in the range of potential professions) and more widespread education had allowed it to become fashionable to plan (or design) a career: in this respect the careers of the career counsellor and of the career advisor have grown up. It is also not uncommon for adults in the late 20th/early 21st centuries to have dual or multiple careers, either sequentially or concurrently. Thus, professional identities have become hyphenated or hybridized to reflect this shift in work ethic. Economist Richard Florida notes this trend generally and more specifically among the "creative class."

Personal Development refers to activities that enhance self-knowledge and identity, develop talents and potential, improve human capital and employability, enhance quality of life and realize dreams and aspirations. Personal development is not limited to self-development or self-help; it also includes developing others and by extension refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems used in personal development.

At the level of self-improvement, personal development includes the following:

1. Becoming the person one aspires to be; integrating social identity with self-identification
2. Increasing awareness or defining of one’s priorities, values, chosen way of life or ethics.
3. Strategizing and realizing dreams, aspirations, career and lifestyle priorities.
4. Developing professional potential and talents; developing individual competencies, learning on the job
5. Improving the quality of lifestyle in such areas as health, wealth, culture, family, friends and communities.
6. Learning techniques or methods to expand awareness, gain control of one's life or achieve wisdom.

The personal development of others may be a function within the role of teacher or mentor, a personal competency such as a manager's ability to develop the potential of employees, or a professional service such as providing training, assessment or coaching.

Personal development is an industry with two distinct markets, business-to-individual and business-to-institution. The business-to-individual market^[1] includes books, motivational speaking, e-learning programs, workshops, individual counseling, life coaching and techniques such as yoga, martial arts, meditation and fitness programs. Business-to-institution markets reach tens of millions of students in higher education and hundreds of millions of employees in companies through training, employee development programs, development tools, self-assessment, feedback, coaching and mentoring. Some consulting firms are specialized in personal development^[2] but generalist firms in^[3] human resources, recruitment and organizational strategy have recently entered this growing market, not to mention a large number of smaller firms and self-employed professionals who provide consulting, training and coaching.

At whatever level of development -- economic, political, biological, organizational or personal --- a framework is needed in order to know if improvement has actually occurred. Personal development frameworks consist of goals or benchmarks that define the end-point, strategies or plans for reaching goals, measurement and assessment of progress, levels or stages that define milestones along the development path, and a feedback system to support progress.

As defined by Richard Beckhard, "Organization development" (OD) is a planned, top-down, organization-wide effort to increase the organization's effectiveness and health. OD is achieved through interventions in the organization's "processes," using behavioural science knowledge.^[1] According to Warren Bennis, OD is a complex strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges. Warner Burke emphasizes that OD is not just "anything done to better an organization"; it is a particular kind of change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result. OD involves organizational reflection, system improvement, planning, and self-analysis.

The term "Organization Development" is often used interchangeably with Organizational effectiveness, especially when used as the name of a department or a part of the Human Resources function within an organization. Organization Development is a growing field that is responsive to many new approaches including Positive Adult Development

You can call the Careers Advice Service free on 0800 100 900 to talk in confidence to one of our friendly, trained advisers, or check out the links at the side.

Information to help you find a career to suit you

Information to help you if you are thinking about a career change

Issues to consider when you have good idea about the career you want

Find out about careers in the public sector from the armed forces to teaching

Refreshing your skills or learning new ones can increase your chances of finding a job

Earn while you get training leading to nationally recognised qualifications

Get personal advice by phone or email

Training schemes that let you learn while you're in work, and increase your employability whether you're working or looking for work

An overview of the funding available, and find out where to go for advice

 - A Career with Coke Cola

Whats Going to be your Career? Is it one of the above?