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What is Career Path?

Definition of Career Path

A career path refers to the growth of the employee in an organization. It means the various positions an employee moves on one by one as he grows in an organization. The employee may move vertically most of the time but also move laterally or cross-functionally to move to a different type of job role.

Sometimes It is part of the employee development processes within organizations. In this case, an employee and a supervisor or Human Resources representative discuss the career development of the worker within the context of their organization.

It may occur as part of the performance appraisal process and takes into account the interests, knowledge, and skills of the employee. Additional education, training, or work assignments may be planned as mechanisms to qualify employees for subsequent roles within their career path.
In many cases, an individual will develop and actualize a career path without the cooperation of their employer. These workers will engage in the career exploration process independently or with the assistance of a career counselor, mentor, or personal adviser.

Importance

Career path is not only a series of positions one takes but also an opportunity to achieve overall positive career development. It provides various options like in example below. The decision points can determine how well your career would go farther. Right and informed decisions can help you move to better positions and vice versa. The career path is the result of the decisions and handwork put by an individual.

Company should also work towards ensuring that its employees move in career path the way they want to. Proper job analysis should be done in order to make sure the employees are satisfied and achieve higher positions in the organization itself rather than moving to other organizations in search for better path. An employee must also constantly acquire new skills like leadership, time management, communication management, team management, etc. These people management skills help the employee rise in an organization as well as have positive motivation towards work.