Ploymint

What is career development? The term seems like a case-study in vague jargon, and for that reason it’s familiarly daunting. But career development is really just a fancy way of describing our work lives and all the changes they bring. So, essentially, career development is how we talk about our professional experiences and the formation of our professional identities. In other words, a brain surgeon isn’t born a brain surgeon, and the lifelong process that leads to the profession—from our earliest years in the classroom to the notoriously demanding residency period—is what we’re talking about when we use the term. And obviously career development never stops.

Career development is also an industry unto itself, and given that most of us need professional support at some point in our careers, the sector is an often overlooked resource.

Read on for a list of the five most important career development tools and resources below:

• A career coach is the most explicit vehicle for career development, and the one-on-one attention can fetch big bucks. As Donna Sweidan, a certified career coach, told Forbes in 2013, the discipline of career coaching is generally broken up into two distinct halves: coaching and counseling. Whereas coaching is a solution-based approach, the counseling approach is more interested in the process itself. Either way, a career coach can help you prioritize and better understand your professional goals and develop a fitting plan of attack. At the most basic level a career coach might help you streamline and improve your resume or cover letter, for example, but other benefits are much more abstract, like a boost in confidence or a better understanding of the application process itself.
• Your alma mater’s career services center—if they have one—is one of the most overlooked and underutilized resources for recent graduates looking for a job. Whether the career services department is hosting a job fair or offering one-on-one counseling, you should make the best of their help. Not only does your tuition pay for this type of service (i.e. put those dollars to work!), but as you’ve probably heard countless times before, networking early and often is one of the most effective strategies to finding the right job. A career center has value beyond the general advice you’ll receive, and part of the takeaway is all the people you’ll meet both directly and indirectly through the experience.
• Self-assessment might not seem like a conventional “tool,” but in more ways than one, you’re probably your own best critic. Whether you sit down and turn your self-assessment into a formal process or keep it more relaxed, reflecting on where you are in your career and where you want to be is a productive exercise. Every now and then, it’s worth reconsidering whether you’re where you want to be professionally, and some form of self-assessment is the best way to do so.
• In almost any professional industry, continuing education programs are the best way to move up the ranks and develop into a more desirable candidate. Whether your actually attending a formal graduate school program or running through some on-the-job training programs, make the best of whatever opportunities for continuing education are at your disposal.
• A good mentor is hard to come by, but they’re also a common factor in the careers of may successful businesspeople. You might not always be able to find the perfect mentor at your job, but there’s no better place to get the one-on-one guidance. While a career mentor is helpful, having an older ally within the ranks of your own company is the best-case scenario.

A job search is usually a hopeful time. Unless the economy is in the gutter—which it has been—or you’re starting over, we often feel like a new job should be a step-up. But it’s just as common to feel stagnant in our careers, and moving up the professional food chain is a lifelong process (and struggle). Use the tips and tools above to make the best of the resources available to you.