Personal Development Plan - Essay Example

? Personal Development Plan November 18 Why do you want to study Project Enterprise Management at Graduate Level? Having grown up in an environment that encourages entrepreneurship and trade, I was raised to have taken great interest in business management and financials. I remember being engrossed in books and magazines related to marketing, eventually making me feel that my calling was towards this craft. I have the mind of a businesswoman. This is probably the single, strongest reason why I was determined to pursue a degree in Accounting and Finance. My quantitative skills, particularly in Mathematics and Economics, have always been evident since my secondary years. I have a knack for business analysis, a number-cruncher so to speak. One of my strengths is that I can keep up with numbers, analyze them and interpret them into useful data. For me, this is one of the best traits any businessperson could have. Such is my belief when I entered the University of Exeter in UK last 2010. I was determined to become well versed in Finance and Accounting. I took my long-term goal, which is to help my parents in managing our own business to heart, and worked on having the right kind of education that would lead me to my career objectives. In 2013, I am looking forward to earning my degree in Finance and Accounting, after three years of hard work and perseverance. I look forward to pursuing a career doing project management and become as flexible as I can be with the kind of industry I will be involved in. With this, I would like to take my degree, knowledge and skills to another level, at into a more particular field of study, which is Enterprise Management. 2. Why do you want to study Project and Enterprise Management at UCL? The University College of London (UCL) is known to be one of the world’s best universities. This is the ultimate reason why I have decided to apply for a master’s degree program with UCL. Its academic programs are known to be one of the best in UK. UCL, being a public research university, offers affordable education without sacrificing quality. This is another reason for choosing UCL. I can comfortably attend to my studies without worrying about the costs. Furthermore, this university is also proximal to my area of residence. 3. What particularly attracts you to the chosen programme In the Chinese history, Liu Bang was the founder and first emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Xiang Yu was a political figure during the same period with Liu. There was a famous battle between them, which is known as Chu-Han Contention. Xiang got 400,000 very strong soldiers. However, he failed in the war by fighting with only Gao's 100,000 soldiers. The reason of Gao's success was because he put the right people in the right place from this ancient example, we can know how important the enterprise management would be. In 2011 and 2012, I took the internship in CITIC Securities Ltd and PWC respectively. In these two periods, I further my understanding about the significance of enterprise management since I was connected closely with the staff within management from the first day I came in to the last day I left. In the very beginning, the representative of enterprise management provided all the interns with primary training for a half day in order to familiarize all the routines during our work. In the preceding time, I needed to frequently contact with them, not only handing in my time sheet but also reporting them any particular personal issues such as a sick leave. From ancient example and my personal experience, I see that enterprise management has played and will continue to play an essential role in a company or even a nation. Without it, the enterprise would never survive especially in present society with such an intensive competition. Essentially, Enterprise Management develops in a person the skill to look into business management from a holistic and integrated perspective. That is why I have been intrigued by enterprise management. To me, it is a higher level of understanding business operations. I want to know more about how it works, though I major in the finance and accounting in my undergraduate study, but which, I believe, would never influence my further study in enterprise management, instead, it can somehow boost my learning. 4. How your academic and professional background meets the demands of this challenging programme Getting into a Masters Degree program entails a different set of skills and abilities. It requires a great deal of independence and self reliance, with the ability to perform self study more than being reliant on other people, the educators or classmates (Studying at Masters Level 2012). At an academic level, there are three major areas that a Masters Student needs to develop: (1) basic principles of producing academic work (researching and writing); (2) skills for study; and (3) critical thinking and reflection (Step up to Masters 2012). Furthermore, compared to getting an undergraduate bachelor’s degree, the effort to level up must be there. In the online article You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College, it emphasized on several differences between the two: breadth vs. depth; memorization vs. analysis; reporting vs. analyzing and arguing; reading it all vs. copious skimming and selective reading (You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College 2012). Taking an undergraduate course is not a walk in the park, but obtaining a Masters Degree takes doubled effort and added passion on the part of the student. I am confident that I can be an independent student who is very resourceful and creative in addressing the requirements for my Masters Degree. Since the Masters Level is essentially a notch higher than the Bachelor’s Degree, everything else must be raised to that level, too. Academic pieces are expected not to be just in a narrative style, but more of on an analytical approach. There must be less grammatical and typographical errors, if none at all. It addresses desired outcomes, developing arguments, unfolding supporting lines of reasoning, and drawing logical conclusions from these presented evidences. It is highly critical, and is reflective of you as an individual (Writing at Masters Level 2012). Efforts to resolve course requirements must be done within the given timeframe. There is less room for mistakes and a lot of areas to be creative, highly analytic and effective. After careful self-evaluation, and taking into consideration my current grades, and my long standing desire to move higher and reach my career goals, I feel confident that I possess everything that a successful graduate program student needs to successfully finish the course. 5. Where you would like to go professionally with your degree My long term goal is to be able to help in my family business. Before I am able to do that, I see myself contributing my skills within organizations specializing in construction, IT or infrastructure management. Reference List Studying at Masters Level. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/ECL/tef/93191.htm Step up to Masters. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/stepup/studyskills.html Teamwork. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=IAT304 What is Team Work and Why is it Important to your Organization? Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Team-Work-and-Why-is-it-Important-to-Your-Organization&id=1693070 Writing at Masters Level. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.doceo.co.uk/academic/m_writing.htm You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://gradschool.about.com/od/transitions/a/Graduate-School-Vs-College-You-Ll-Need-Different-Study-Skills.htm Read More