Stages of career development

The main stages in a career cycle include : development stage, exploration stage, establishment stage, ageing stage and declination stage.

1. Development stage: This stage begins from birth and normally lasts until 14 years old. This is the period in which children affected by the relationship with family, school and society. In this stage, children have developed ideas about their own hobbies and abilities, maybe with some practical ideas about their future careers.

2. Exploration stage: This stage often lasts from 15 years old to 24 years old. In this period, people have many different career choices and they often tend to choose job careers. In this stage is that people need to develop a broad knowledge and a variety of job skills.

3. Establishment stage: This stage is from the age of 25 to 44. This is the main stage in the career of a person. In the beginning of the stage, some people have found their suitable jobs. Establishment stage includes 3 periods:

      3.1. Trial period:  From the age of 25 to about 30, in this period, people work primarily to find out whether the career 
        choice they made is suitable or not.
   
      3.2. Stable period: Normally from the age of 30 to 40, in this period, people often have identified their own career goals 
      and have specific plans to decide what should continually be done to reach those goals. There are two tendencies, 
       continuing the path chosen or turning to another job career.
   
     3.3. Mid – Career Stage: During this period, people often compare in career .They have to follow their career path as well as 
     their career ambitions with the achievements they have got in career such as position, salary and so on.
   

4. Ageing stage: This period continues from the age of 45 to 60. There are many people who jump directly from stable period to this stage without having experienced all the difficulties and failures in mid – career crisis period.

5. Declination stage: Declination stage is the final stage when people are old, less healthy and clairvoyant. In this period, the sense of responsibilities toward the job has decreased and they must accept the new role of the young generation.

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