My Personal Theory of Career Management and Strategy Development

Introduction

The career is defined in the realm of career management as, the patterns of work relegated activities that span the course of a person's life (Jeffrey & Greenhaus, 2010). In the modern world, organizations have changed and obviously employers too. Today careers are changing and so is the nature of jobs. The psychological contract between the employer and the employee is now changing. It is not anymore about, perpetual job guarantee. Rather the focus and priority is given to jobs, which help individuals in advancing in their careers.

Changing Landscape of Careers

The success in career is all changed now. The advice of friends, relatives, and other acquaintances seem to be outdated in the face of rapidly changing or we should say evolving scenario. In the book Get a Life, Not a Job: Are Multiple Career Acts Right for You (Gerard et al, 2010). By Paula Caligiur, says that one should be not looking for a career only because of financial outcomes in the short run. Like an investment in the long term financial instruments, the value is calculated in terms all the future cash flows. Similarly, a career's value should be gauged according to the worth it has in the long run. The career should enable a person to acquire, work and life balance, in addition to financial security. However, this is not going to keep you motivating. A highly creative person is unlikely to be happy after a while in a job that pays high, but takes monotonous work from him or her. Therefore, one needs to identify activities that provide financial outcomes but are interesting to do. This will be a self-made career. Relying on an employer is not secure in today's psychological contract. She can give you a red card on job, irrespective of fault.

While many facets of the career have changed. Some have been there since the beginning. These can be termed as elements of success, which include, reliability, possession of valuable skills, conscientiousness, performance excellence and such measures have endured the passage of time. The idea is to engage in the career with a full commitment but engage in a career after careful thought. One should ask a question, whether this is the career I want to do, or it is just a way for financial security. As mentioned before, no career is secure now; psychological contract has all changed now. Therefore, the focus should be on finding wealth producing activities that give oneself more freedom and sense of financial security. In this way, we do not rely only on one source of income. The employer is our self, and therefore we are the boss of our self in such case. In the world of competition, many employers try to exploit the employees. However, provided one is involved in other interesting work that is providing wealth is less likely to be a victim of such exploitation. The approach of not tying one's destiny with an employer gives ...