A career development manager helps employees identify opportunities for new employment and advancement in their careers. Some career development managers are part of the human resources department of a company. Other managers work for staffing agencies or similar career organizations to help individuals develop their careers no matter what company it is for or what industry it is in.
One of the duties of a career development manager is to meet with employees or individuals to create a career plan. For example, if they are currently an administrative assistant but they want to become an account executive at an advertising agency, then the career development management would work out a plan on the steps to take to make this happen.
Some of the plan may include the person having to return to school to obtain a degree or education. It may require that the person obtain experience or knowledge in a particular area. Together, the individual and the career development manager work out a plan for the person to reach their career goals.
On an ongoing basis, the individual meets with the career development manager to evaluate the steps the individual has taken since their last meeting in order to work toward attaining their goal. They may talk about ways to tweak what the person is doing to achieve the goal faster or what the individual needs to do to get on the right track.
A career development manager can also work with individuals, such as college students, to help them match their talents and degree with types of jobs they may enjoy. For example, a business major may not be aware of the vast variety of jobs they may be able to perform with a business degree.
After discussing an interest in marketing, for example, a career development manager may guide the student toward looking into positions such as public relations specialist or marketing associate at advertising firms or for individual companies. The career development manager may even guide the student to take a few extra classes to specialize in marketing.
A career development manager may even be able to arrange for students to obtain work experience through internships or part-time jobs prior to deciding on a career path. If the student has declared a major, but after talking with the career manager realizes they want to pursue a different career, the manager may even help the student go through the process of changing their major and working with their counselor.
