Effective Steps to Success in Career Goals - Assignment Example

Career Action Plan Executive summary This study aims at providing an overview about career action plan and career development. The entire narrative presentation is structured into different sections with entire focus on self assessment and analysis of current position in relation to ideal career opportunity. Introductory section encompasses a thorough analysis of interests, abilities, skills, personal preferences and values. This section shall be followed by a brief analysis regarding employability skills and additional educational knowledge base. There should be an in-depth discussion related to internal strengths and core competencies along with those areas which has to be further improved. A marketability analysis is also included in this particular study for outlining my marketable skills. These identified skills would be compared with wide array of attributes in context of professional industry. There are appropriate analytical techniques incorporated to judge current position of an individual and what others skills are essential so as to secure a strong position in career path. In this study two kinds of attributes are majorly highlighted, one that is already being possessed and other is what is needed to be improved. Ideal situation will be well analyzed by implementing an effective tool known as SWOT analysis. This form of analysis shall encompass both current and ideal situation which is required for designing the best career action plan. Apart from identifying internal strengths and weaknesses and outlining external threats and opportunities, focus will also be on goal setting. In the entire process two forms of goals will be determined like long term and short term goals. At the end of this study, some steps would be discussed for achieving success in career path. Career goals can be explored only when desirable qualities are present within an individual. Introduction Career Action Plan is an important tool by which an individual is able to set and develop the steps for fulfilling its goal and objectives in his professional life. He is only responsible to build his own career. But there are certain things involves in career development which requires professional guidance for making decisions and planning of career more effective. It will help the individual to achieve its career goals in an efficient way. A person should start to build his career actions plans from a very early stage. This will help him to develop his employable skills. Various options arise while forming career actions plan. An individual explores each and every option very carefully for enhancing his skills and developing his experiences for making decisions. Career Actions Plans helps to set and determine short term and long term goals. These plans also provide much vital information which is required in the career development process. By this process an individual builds a framework for his future actions. Action plans provides a roadmap which highlights different development activities which will enhances abilities, knowledge and skills of a person. It helps the person to undertake a wide range of opportunities and options for his career growth. Steps to success career goals The most important thing in career is success. For achieving success in my career I am had implemented different strategies and plans of actions. This had helped me to achieve my long term and short term goals. Those plans and strategies are as follows: I have improved my knowledge by actively reading different books, academic journals, new report etc. It helped to develop my skills. My communication power has grown which enhanced my sales skills. By gathering more knowledge my analytical skills developed more. This process also improved my initiative skills and synthesizes abilities. I had devoted maximum time to use management skills. My courses and study of various subjects were completed within a specific time frame. I got engaged in suitable academic courses to enhance my cognitive abilities and skills for evaluating things. Participating in various group activities prepared me to work effectively within a group. I have learned to perform volunteer activities in new circumstances. I undertook different training courses which had helped me to know and understand the requirements of becoming a successful professional. When time permitted I did internships or part time jobs to have a better idea and real time experience about actual working process and settings of organizations. After the completion of my studies I forwarded my job application and resume to different companies according to my set skills to increase my opportunities of employment. In my resume I mentioned my strengths, skills, creative abilities and time management. I had highlighted the work experience which generated from part time jobs and internships. There I also mentioned about those skills and abilities which were developed or improved during that short time of my service. Different types of task that I had done in my academics and internship were also mentioned there. . I have a strong interest in banking and financial services. Therefore I made a plan to know more things about banking and financial issues, facts and figures on a global sphere. I took different proactive stances to learn those things. When I also employed in a financial institution then I participated in leadership development training and programs which enhanced my leadership skills and other necessary skills which were required in the company. Presently my most important career plan is after two years of my employment I will pursue higher studies in banking and finance. It will help to increase my career growth. Action Plans In career action plan I have described my experience of developing and implement my plans for the growth of my career in details. Many components are involved in development of these plans. With the help of these components I have enhanced my different skills and abilities which contributed a lot to become successful in my professional life. Self Assessment This plan involves in performing evaluation of you. It was my first step of career action plan. By doing self assessment I developed more knowledge about myself and my potentialities. I implemented career leader tool in this action plan. It is an interactive personalized tool. With the help of this tool I gave different self assessment exams online. It turned my insight regarding my skills, motivations, interest and passion into a concrete shape which played an important role in setting up career path. Self assessment plan helped me to choose suitable career option according to my skills and interest. I became aware of various career paths and have an in-depth knowledge of it. This action plan also provided me the information about my entrepreneurial attributes. By assessing myself I became aware of my strengths and weakness in different circumstances. It highlighted positive and negative factors of mine. This plan gave me an idea that how I am going to handle various corporate cultures in organizational environment. Career research As a candidate I had to gather knowledge about different types of career which I can take as my profession. For this reason I developed an action plan of doing a detailed research of various types of job and industry for developing my career. This research plan helped to know about many companies and different types of market. This career action plan also focused on various industrial trends which affects organization and its employees. I came to know about different job positions where I can sent my job applications. By doing career research plan I had selected banking or financial service as my suitable career. This is because I have a strong interest in this field and after implementing this plan I became sure that in banking and financial service I can achieve success. My career research plan enabled me to take necessary decisions for implementing my goals and objectives. To undertake my career research plan successfully I had read a lot of books, journals and magazines. It helped me to develop a correct research report. Placement Approval Placement approval plan was involved with my college and its placement department. After implementing self assessment and career research plans I became sure of my interests. For becoming successful in my career I have to do that kind of job which matches with my interest. My interest was into financials jobs. But for getting that type of job I need the assistance of placement department of my college. Therefore I informed them about my interests and objectives of my professional career. According to that placement department provided me service. Getting placement approval is very important because it allows a candidate to sit for interview in different companies according to their interest and skills. By this effective plan of placement approval I got placed in a good financial company. This plan helps a student to enter into corporate life. It is a beginning step to get success in career. Placement approval largely depends on college rules. But effective action plan helped me to get approval. Apply for jobs Getting right job is a significant thing in the journey of career success. Before completion of my graduation I had applied in many companies for doing internship program and part time jobs. By this I became aware of various job criteria of different companies. It helped to improve my knowledge on job applications. After the completion of my graduation I made a plan of applying jobs to maximum number of financial companies and banks. I had not only depended on college placement service but also made serious effort by myself for getting a right job. This action plan of applying to different jobs made me responsible to undertake my own tasks. It helped me to face interviews of various companies which contributed a lot in the improvement my academic knowledge and skills. For implementing this plan successfully I made my resume in a very presentable way so that the companies get a brief and correct idea about me by looking at my resume. Employability skills For becoming a successful professional in financial service or bank a person has to have a very strong communication skill and convincing power. These are the strongest employability skills of a successful professional in this type of job. This was the main reason for which I had developed a career action plan to enhance my employability skills. This plan also includes developing conflict resolution skills, customer service skills, leadership skills, problem solving skills and decision skills. These are the most useful skills of financial managers who have to make interaction with clients directly and convince them to invest in different products and services of the company. These skills also contributes a lot in different other business process. By this plan I have also developed another important employability skill regarding the capability to work in a team or a group. Earlier I used to volunteer different works alone but now I know how to perform my duties well by working with others in a team. With the help of this plan I got to know my team members properly. I have exchanged different ideas with them and developed many new things which enhanced my career growth. It has helped to improve efficiency and effectiveness in my job. Employability skill plans contributed a lot in developing my leadership skills. I have learned various leadership theories and management theories which enhanced by decision making and problem solving abilities. Career goals: long term and short term Proper career goals are vital thing is achieving success in career. I had divided my career goals into short term and long term goals and made actions plans according to that. My short term goals were to complete my studies and courses within the stipulated time. Another important goal was to make good results in semester (Lee-Ross and Pryce, 2010). This helped to maintain a good academic result which is an important factor in getting success. I undertook different training and educational programs which helped to advance my academic knowledge and successfully completing my graduation. After my graduation my long term goals were to pursue Master Degree for enhancing my academic knowledge and career growth. Another goal was to apply my knowledge in real life and professional field. My long term goals also involves in positioning myself in a high ranking position of a bank or financial service providing company. This goal motivates and inspires me in my work which is a key factor of my success. Personal marketing plan In this plan I have established different actions for marketing myself in the competitive environment. By personal marketing plan I mean developing impactful resume and cover letter. A proper resume includes educational background, list of employment or work experience and skills. My resumes included all these things. Along with the resume I had build my cover letter which describes me briefly (Martires and Fule, 2004). The main function of my resume and cover letter is to land me in job interviews. All my information in resume was accurate, concise and professional. My skills were mentioned there in such a way which matched with the job position which I had applied. I had used correct sentences, grammar and spellings in my cover letter and resume. Both of these are error free. Much personal information was not mentioned in this. By making effective resume and cover letter I had made my personal marketing plans in different companies. Mock Job Interview Getting selected in the final interview process of a well reputed company was a big challenge for me. In my student I have not appeared in any serious job interview. So at the beginning I was feeling nervous for facing interviews in big companies. For this reason I had build an action plan of giving mock job interviews. This plan helped me to overcome my nervousness and fear of facing different question and answering then in the interview sessions. I became aware of various interview questions that were being asked by the interviewer. Mock Job Interview contributed a lot in growing my confidence level. This career action plan was focused on developing me. At the time of appearing in an interview a candidate must follow certain rules and manners. Mock interview plan provided me all those ideas. By performing those things effectively and efficiently I got success in my final interview process. Marketability analysis The last and one of the important career action plans is marketability analysis. After implementing all those plans I became aware of my all marketability skills. Based on the results of those plans I had build marketability analysis plan which highlighted the market scenarios and my abilities. For becoming a successful financial manager or a banker, a graduate candidate requires various skills like communication, sales skills etc which are required in different companies according to the market conditions (Dyck and Neubert, 2008). As per the analysis I required a medium guidance in all these skills. That guidance and training helped me to enhance various abilities which contributed a lot for becoming a successful professional. I already had creative skills and strong communication skills. So I did not put much effort to enhance them. My formal education was good. Therefore I do not feel the need to develop my academic knowledge. My leadership skills were not very good. This action plan showed the necessity of improving my leadership skills to deal with competitive environment. Challenges faced I have faced various challenges in conducting and implementing all these career action plans. The most significant challenge that I had faced is time management. I had to dedicate a quality time for performing those career actions plans. For different other activities it became very difficult to give appropriate and sufficient time to those plans. Initially I faced a challenge in setting up my goals and objectives according to my priorities. Success of my career was the main objectives behind this action plans. Therefore selecting proper career action plans for facilitating my career growth become confusing to me. For a long time I was unable to decide proper action plans for me. I had faced many barriers in getting proper information of training programs. SWOT Reflective Summary – Contrast between current and ideal situation SWOT analysis is basically conducted in order to determine potential strengths and external opportunities. These factors help an individual to eradicate their internal weaknesses and deal with probable threats efficiently. In current scenario I possess certain skill set that has helped me to understand chosen subjects and plan for a productive career. Though I have certain skills which have helped me all these years but these factors might not be sufficient for my professional career. This is where a gap can be identified between skills internal to me and what is required to develop a strong career base. The gap can be stated as difference between theoretical knowledge and practical applications. I feel this kind of gap mainly exists due to some of my inabilities in context of working within an organizational setting. Skill development and creation of a wide knowledge base is essential for becoming successful in any chosen career path. In this kind of scenario real world experiences play a vital role since it contributes magnificently towards self-development. Theoretical knowledge has to be combined with practical experiences for developing analytical skills, cognitive abilities, etc. Actual work experiences facilitate achievement of long-term goals and objectives in any chosen field of work. SWOT analysis Internal strengths are a major component when it comes to selecting a career path and successfully achieving set goals. From my current perspective my strengths are time management skills, strong skills of people and creative ability. These strengths have helped me to succeed in my studies and score good results till date. On the other hand, there exists certain weakness internal to me which I need to overcome as it can prove to be a barrier for me in future years. These weaknesses are related to team building in terms of organizational setting, application of analytical and cognitive abilities, and capability to synchronize tasks to form generalized reports from specific details. External opportunities are a source through which an individual can develop better career plans and become well established in future years. In overall context there are wide array of opportunities specifically in the banking sector. Employment opportunities in this sector provide good scope for students who wants to make their career in this particular field. It has been predicted that employment opportunities in financial sector is expected to grow by from 2014 to 2023 by 9% (Boxall and Purcell, 2006). This can be stated as a rapid growth in comparison to all other occupations. Those individuals who possess a master degree would be getting better job opportunities. Higher degree provides added advantages to all candidates in the form of expanded workplace opportunities. The major threat for me is large number of graduates who are having similar educational background. There is a tough competition in the banking sector and I need to score best marks with high qualification degree in order to secure strong position in the banking industry. Gap Analysis Gap analysis is basically a project management tool that is utilized for identifying current performance level and expected level of performance. It can be well described with the help of a diagram as in figure1. Figure 1: Gap Analysis (Source: Mueller, 2006) I feel that gap analysis is an efficient tool to analyze existing gap between current and desired performance level. In my career path I will be witnessing wide range of challenges in terms of competition, adaptation of skills, etc. For banking sector specifically it is important to acquire theoretical knowledge along with practical experiences. Real world experiences generally add on to existing knowledge base. I feel that this is where I currently lack because I did not get such exposure. On the other hand, I am currently scoring desirable marks in semester examination but this is not sufficient to achieve high position in selected industrial sector. Marks are obtained by all good students who have dreams and want to be successful in their career path. However I feel that in current scenario where competition has become such intense along with marks professional experience is also equally important. The most prevalent gap is in context of educational qualification. There are many candidates who possess a much higher degree in comparison to me. I am planning for my graduation but desirable performance will only be when I am able to secure good marks in my master degree. This would help me to develop future career plans (Harrison, 2005). Though I possess cognitive skills and analytical capabilities but I feel that innovative skills are also essential in competitive world. These skills will be required for reaching desired performance level. On the contrary, currently I do not have such widespread job experience and this is another area of gap. In recent years I plan to gain maximum job experience and this would help me to succeed more in financial sector or rather banking sector. The major areas where I need to focus on are my educational qualification and practical knowledge. Conclusion Career Action Plan played a very important role in making me successful in my career. With the help of different plans I came to know about all the necessary things which are required for achieving success. I have set up my goals and objectives based on career plans. These goals and objectives contributed a lot in my career success. I had undertaken certain steps for fulfilling my career goals. It helped me to improve my different skills and knowledge. I have developed my management potentiality with improved knowledge and abilities. I pursued many training for handling situations. My internship program contributed a lot in developing career plans. I came to know about various companies and organizational settings by implementing those plans. It helped to increase my employment opportunities. I have an interest in financial service and banking. I have undertaken those career plans which increased my knowledge about different jobs. In this framework for career plan I have analyzed different dimensions that are closely associated with career path. It is observed theoretical knowledge forms the base for every student but real time experiences are also essential. As number of educational courses is increasing it is becoming more important for students to pursue highest qualification possible. This aspect has been outlined in this study where qualification supports an individual to select a career path. I have chosen financial or banking sector as my career option and I view this sector as a challenging field. As per this study there are certain characteristics that should be internal to an individual. Some of these skills are in-born whereas others have to be acquired in due course of time. I personally possess cognitive and analytical skills. This skill set has helped to achieve desirable position in my career. I have made plans for my future career path on basis of these skills or attitudes. However for my next step in career path I have to gain sufficient theoretical knowledge as it would help me to stay firm in midst of tough competition. I have been able to present a well structured career plan which shall prove to be beneficial in coming years. It not only comprises of qualities required to design a career plan but even highlights essential qualities required for achieving desirable performance level. Appropriate research techniques had been incorporated to determine current career position along with integrated preferences, abilities, interest and values, and a comparison was drawn with ideal position. There is a marked divergence between ideal situation and my current situation. Gap analysis had been utilized so as to outline such form of divergence. I was able to understand my internal strengths and weakness. I feel that my biggest weakness is my inability in terms of team building. In any industry leadership or team building qualities should be present within every individual. These qualities facilitate development of a strong or productive team which in turn enhances career growth and success of an individual. On the other hand, my strength is analytical skills, time management, etc. External opportunities are more in banking sector and rate of employment in this sector is comparatively more. Threat is mainly in the form of rising competition in all sectors and for that I should possess highest qualification with job experience. The broad strategies highlighted in this study would help me to fulfil my personal as well as professional goals. References Boxall, P., and Purcell, J. (2006). Strategy and human resource management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Dyck. B and Neubert, M., (2008). Management: current practices and new directions. Cengage Learning: New York. Harrison, R. (2005). Learning and development. London: CIPD. Lee-Ross, D and Pryce, J., (2010). Human resources and tourism. New York: Channel View Publications. Martires, C., and Fule, G. (2004). Management of human behavior in organization. Quezon City: National Book Store. Mueller, F. (2006). Human resources as strategic assets: an evolutionary resource-based theory. Journal of Management Studies, 35(6), pp. 757–85. Read More