The Career Management Process for Life

Posted on May 08, 2024 by Martin Hahn, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

As with adult life and career stages, an understanding of the attitudes, needs, and motivations of different generations of employees certainly has implications for organizations in terms of the recruitment, development, and retention of individual workers as well as fostering positive group interactions and communication.

Stages of Career Development

I defined career development as an ongoing process by which an individual progresses through a series of stages, each of which is characterized by a relatively unique set of issues, themes, and tasks. While the concepts of life development and career development are compatible, there is a greater emphasis on work-related issues in career development models. I view development of a career in terms of four stages.
This view and the delineation are based on the more traditional perspectives on adult life development as well as the growing body of literature on generations of individuals.

The four stages of this model are summarized in the list below.

Stage 1: Occupational and Organizational Choice

Typical Age Range: Initially 18–30; then variable

Major Tasks: Develop occupational self-image, assess alternative occupations, develop initial occupational choice, pursue necessary education, obtain job offer(s) from desired organization(s).

From a career perspective, the initial set of tasks in this stage are to form and refine an occupational self-image, explore the qualities of alternative occupations, develop at least a tentative occupational choice, and pursue the type of education or training required to implement the choice. The accomplishment of these initial career tasks requires considerable insight into one’s own abilities, interests, values, and desired lifestyle, as well as the
requirements, opportunities, and rewards associated with alternative occupational fields.

Indeed, for younger adults who have selected, the second set of tasks in this stage focus on selecting and entering an organization, and landing a job that can satisfy one’s career values and utilize one’s talents. The organizational choice and entry process can take several months to complete and often depends on the number of years of education one has pursued, the accumulated set of skills, and the availability of employment opportunities.

Although the entry process is experienced initially by persons who are moving directly from school to their first career-related work assignment, people can enter a new organization at any age; therefore, the age range can be quite variable.

Stage 2. Early Career

Typical Age Range: 25–45

Major Tasks: Learn job, learn organizational rules and norms, fit into chosen occupation and organization, increase competence, pursue career goals.

Once an occupation has been selected, the second set of tasks in this stage focus on selecting and entering an organization, and landing a job that can satisfy one’s career values and utilize one’s talents. The organizational choice and entry process can take several months to complete and often depends on the number of years of education one has pursued, the accumulated set of skills, and the availability of employment opportunities.

Although the entry process is experienced initially by persons who are moving directly from school to their first career-related work assignment, people can enter a new organization at any age; therefore, the age range can be quite variable.

The Early Career or the Establishment and Achievement Phases

This career stage, which really encompasses two periods, reflects the dominant issues of early adulthood: finding a niche for oneself in the adult world and striving to “make it” along the chosen path. Having already focused on an occupation and an initial job, a critical first task of the early career is to become established in that career. The new employee must not only master the technical aspects of his or her job, but must also learn the norms, values, and expectations of the organization. In this establishment period of the early career, the individual’s major task is to learn about the job and the organization and to become accepted as a competent contributor; in other words, to make a place for himself or herself in the occupation and the organization.

It may seem odd that the early career can extend all the way up to age 45. But the entire stage, in our view, does reflect the early career in that the individual typically continues to pursue youthful aspirations as yet unencumbered by the sometimes-painful reappraisal of the midlife transition. In addition, career disruptions, high levels of job insecurity, and the rise of the gig economy with non-permanent alternative work arrangements mean that individuals might take a greater amount of time to become established in a job and a career. Thus, it is suggested that the dominant theme of the early career, becoming established and making it (however defined), can maintain itself in one form or another for a significant period of time.

Stage 3. The Mid-career

Typical Age Range: 40–60

Major Tasks: Reappraise early career and early adulthood, reaffirm or modify career goals, make choices appropriate to middle adult years, remain productive in work.

The midcareer period can extend all the way to the age of 60. With people all over the industrialized world living longer and retiring later, it is possible that the “middle period” of a career can last longer than would traditionally be expected.

Stage 4. Late Career

Typical Age Range: 55–Retirement

Major Tasks: Remain productive in work, maintain self-esteem, prepare for effective retirement, both financially and mentally. There are two major tasks that dominate this stage.

First, the individual must continue to be a productive contributor to the organization and maintain his or her sense of self-worth and dignity. However, the maintenance of productivity and self-esteem is often hindered by changes within the individual and by society’s bias against older people.

Second, the individual in late career must anticipate and plan for an effective retirement, so that either partial or full disengagement from work is not devastating to the individual and that the post retirement years are meaningful and satisfying.

Dificulties in Applying a Career Stage Perspective

This article has outlined four career stages, which are organized around typical age ranges.

We are not claiming that this is the only or the best way to view career development, but it does seem to structure our knowledge about careers in a meaningful manner. Nonetheless, there are several factors that complicate the use of stages as a predominant method of viewing career progression.

One question concerning career stages is whether, in today’s era of employment uncertainty, there is a clear linkage of the stages to chronological age. To answer this question, it is important to recognize that all age ranges are approximations. The onset, duration, and termination of stages can vary.

Thus, a high school graduate might accept a first full-time job at age 18, whereas a Ph.D. graduate may take a first academic post at age 28 or later. Some approaches to career development define career stages on the basis of work activities, relationships, and psychological issues rather than on the basis of age. Despite the many valuable contributions of that approach, we take the position that age, or more generally life experience, strongly shapes career aspirations, experiences, and concerns, and therefore plays a critical role in the identification of career stages.

A second issue concerns the assumption that the stages of a career cycle depict development in a “normal” career; that is, a career in which a person chooses an occupation at an early age and remains continually in the same career field (or in the same organization) for the duration of one’s work life. The idea of long and sequential career stages is based in large part on the assumed pursuit of traditional organizational careers that were prevalent when career stage theories were first proposed in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

There is an emerging view, as we move through the early part of the 21st century, that career stages or cycles not only vary in duration but also reoccur periodically over the course of a person’s career. It is thought that career cycles are now compressed because of the frequent and dramatic changes or transitions associated with pursuing a boundaryless career.