Q. Describe the basic Career stages?

The proper way to analyze and discuss career is to look at them as made up of stages. We can identify five career stages that people most people will go through during their adult years regardless of the type of work they do. These stages are exploration establishments mid career late career and decline.

Exploration: many of the critical choices individuals make about their careers are made prior to earning the work force on a paid basis. Very early in our lives our parents and teachers begin to narrow our alternatives and lead us in alternatives and lead us in certain directions. The careers of our parents their aspirations for their children and their financial sources and crucial factors in determining our perception of what careers are open to us. The exploration period ends for most of us in our mid twenties as we make the transition from college to work. From an organizational stand point this stage has little relevance since it occurs point to employment. However this period is not irrelevant because it is time when a number of expectations about one's career are developed many of which are unrealistic. Such expectations may lie dormant for years and then pop up later to frustrate both the employee and the employer.