ESSAY ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Running head: ESSAY ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Essay on Career Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ESSAY ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT1
Professional development is a term that is used to describe the efforts that are made to
maintain and to earn various types of professional credentials. Examples in this respect include
the efforts that are made to acquire academic degrees and diplomas, undertaking formal
coursework, partaking in informal learning opportunities that are situated in practice and
attending seminars and conferences (Basto-Pereira and Farrington 2019). Professional
development is something that is collaborative and intensive in nature and it ideally is seen to
incorporate an evaluative stage (Benson et al. 2018). In this assignment I will engage in a
reflective analysis of what career development and professional development mean to me and the
type of career or profession that is ideally suited for my skills and abilities. I will define with
clarity my career mission statement and will also reflect particularly on the type of skills that I
need to attain in order to be a success in my chosen profession or career (Sharf 2016).
Professional development is important I believe, as it involves undertaking the type of
programs and courses that help us to attain the skills and the credentials which we need to
perform well on the job front. There are many ways by which professional development can be
brought about. To begin with, attending a seminar or a workshop is one of the key ways by
which professional development can be attained (Neureiter, M., and Traut-Mattausch, E. 2016).
By attending a workshop or a seminar, an individual is exposed to a variety of new and updated
ideas and ways of thinking, deploying which can prove to be useful in the domain of job and
career. Most careers these days are those that require employees to be pragmatic and innovative
in their train of thought. Employees who are capable of innovative thinking, who have the
capacity to think out of the box are people who are most likely to do well in their professions.
Hence I believe that professional development is something that is very important for the career
growth of a person. Unless methods or measures are undertaken to enhance skills and abilities,

ESSAY ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT2
there is every possibility that an individual will lose out to rivals and competitors in the
workplace. I feel that in order to stay ahead of competitors and to attain professional excellence,
additional or extra training should be taken so that an individual has all the competence that is
necessary to perform or carry out a specific job role in the desired manner. I personally feel that
professional development is something that we should undertake from time to time, by signing
up for courses and programs that can sufficiently enhance the skills and abilities that we must
demonstrate in a given job. With respect to my own career and professional life, I can state that I
am more than willing to sign up for the type of programs or courses that are necessary in order
for my skills and abilities to be enhanced in a suitable fashion. I am open to new forms of
learning and I feel that career or job growth can become quite static unless professional
development is undertaken. I would also like to point out in this context that some of the
activities that can be undertaken to enhance professional development and which I would want to
take up in order to develop my skills at least are research, foreign language learning,
participating in professional programs and undertaking a skills based approach to learning.
Both hard and soft skills need to be developed for career success, and in order for
professionals to be better positioned to address the challenges of everyday living. The
unprecedented use of technology has transformed the way people conduct their professions today
(Blustein 2017). Professionals need to be proficient about how they handle or make use of
technology to perform business operations and to attain the goals and objectives of a business
organization. It is also quite crucial for professionals to be well-spoken, to be communicative
about their thoughts and ideas at the workplace and to maintain a good relationship with the
people that they are working under, all of which requires the proper and effective use of soft
skills (Bocciardi et al. 2017). Being polite in speech, being refined in speech and being in a