Question: Career development is a practice that all people should use whether it is used in a professional setting or someone right out college that has not worked in a professional setting. This practice allows people to create a plan or road map that will help give direction to one's future despite the actual career position. Career development allows people to make goals, which is one of the primary elements to this practice. Companies or employers should be actively helping their employees with career development on a voluntary basis, which means that companies should make resources available to employees who desire their company to help them plan and create goals.

Some people do not want to stay with the same company for their entire life, which is ok; however, some employees want to find a good company that they can work and eventually retire. Companies can help employees with goals within a company as well as position-specific that employees can take with them to future places of business. People should create goals in stages or obtainable steps that will allow them to maintain motivation and eventually reach their end-state goals. Creating a five or ten year plan is an effective way to get started as long as the person puts some kind of accountability factors in place to ensure that goals are being met in a timely manor, which will translate to meeting deadlines.

Would anyone like to share an experience about your own career planning experiences and how you're planning has worked for you to this point?