When we start our careers, we are always told about, we should choose a career which gives the growth. Nobody tells us to develop the skills during the whole period of our education and the time period we spend in our school and college. We need to know what is more important – career growth or career development?

Career development is also very important with career growth.

Career development is the process that goes lifelong during learning, studying, working, or leisure. It transforms you in the process of getting better than what you were. Really, it is important to develop yourself throughout your life. It adds solid credentials and continuously polish your skills. Certainly, it helps you to take the risk and explore new opportunities.

So, what is the difference between career growth and career development?

1. Career growth strives for higher status than the current role, whereas career development improves the skill within your role.

2. The career growth focuses on what your goal is whereas career development focuses on how you are going to reach your goals.

3. Career growth is strategically whereas career development is transformative.

Basically, we cannot choose one of them, we have to use a combination of both as both of them encourage each other. But how can we assure that the combination of both is perfect and works in your favor.

They both need to be equally balanced with each other. The key is to choose the business or industry which provides you the opportunity to grow and develop your personal and professional skills.

The tips through which you can ensure career growth and career development are:

• Take interest in your work – It is very important to understand and take an interest in what you want from your life. Take interest in your development and growth. Make time out specially for the development and learning about yourself. You should have a special plan for the same as we can get rid of frustrations and visualize our future. That is the reason many organizations plan for training and development sessions for the employees.

• Always look for opportunities – Be aware of the new opportunities which are around us so that you can know about your development and growth.

• Know your weaknesses – You should be aware of your weaknesses professionally. Identify the same and start working on them. Have a plan to work upon it. Once you correct one point move to the next issue.

• Make sure that you are learning every day – This should be considered every time you choose a job, career. You should choose a career where you are learning each day. For example, if you are a blogger, you should learn every day the tips and ways through which you can increase your knowledge.

• Collaborate to learn – It is always better to have people with whom you can collaborate and help each other in learning. Learn with each other and grow. When you learn together, you learn better and each other’s skill can be of help to all.

• Read more and more – Always make this a point that you read good content every day. Whether you pick a good novel, a good book or a blog. Just make this a point that you are reading each day and learning. Nowadays podcast is also a good way to consume knowledge. You can even listen to podcasts. The more important fact is that your brain is fed with the required knowledge each and every day.

• Maintain a life balance – You need to create a balance in your personal and professional life as if you have balance then you can actually focus more on the professional life and can grow.

• Be yourself – Do not over-burden yourself and do not take it hard on yourself. Be yourself and learn as much as you can. Do not be pressurized and be what you are not. Have strong ethics and values.

Now the question is how can we plan a career development process

There are 4 steps in the career development process

1. Assess your skills– This is the first step to analyze your skills and abilities. It involves analyzing your values, interests, skills, and personality.

2. Explore – This is the second step in the career development process. You need to explore by conducting research through the internet or books to know what career interests you and can have the growth for you. You can also do your exploration by having informational interviews with various experts who can provide you with information. Your network around you can also help you to have information.

3. Reality Check – Once you are done with your research make sure you have a reality check on whether the things researched by you are as per the real situations around you or not. If you do this reality check you can understand things well and make the necessary changes.

4. Implementation – This is the last step of the process and you need to do this with utmost focus and concentration. This part includes preparation, practicing interview, networking, revising resumes, and writing cover letters.

This is the whole process if you follow well then you can perform well.