Professional Development - Assignment Example

?Professional Development Table of Contents Professional Development Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Career Objectives 3 Skills, Knowledge and Qualification: SWOT Analysis 4 Strength 4 Weaknesses 5 Opportunities 5 Threats 6 Reflective Summary 7 Conclusion 8 Bibliography 9 Introduction This research paper will intend to plan my personal development in order to develop and enhance the needed skills in order to achieve my professional goals. This paper will contain the entire details of my present career along with the aimed plans for my future professional. There are certain skills that I possess and also which I need to develop so that it helps me in my respective future plans. I will aim to gain an evident insight into my possessed and required skills with the help of performing a thorough SWOT analysis of myself. Therefore, the paper will aim to structure a definite personal development plan that will help me to emerge as a better professional. Career Objectives Presently, I am engaged with the food industry and working as a head waiter in a Hakkasan company. I intend to pursue the course of economics after which I want to return to my native country, Myanmar and start my own business there. I will like to make efficient use of my present work experience and so want to start my own restaurant in future along with a trading company and a property business. My current work experience will help me significantly while managing my own restaurant business. The knowledge gained from my economics course will help me to properly comprehend the financial matters of my business. The present requirement of interaction with the visiting customers in the restaurant business will help me to gain expertise in communication skills which will prove advantageous for my future businesses that I aim to start. The identification of the needed skills and their development will also help me to a large extent while managing my businesses in future. Skills, Knowledge and Qualification: SWOT Analysis Strength My ability to be flexible towards any kind of situation or task is my strength. The competence of flexibility facilitates in developing increased self-confidence within me owing to my ability of adjusting to any kind of circumstances. It assists me to remove all the internal barriers in the course of performing various activities. The skill of flexibility within me also helps in developing a positive attitude owing to which I accept fresh challenges with ease and also broadens my thought process owing to the presence of this particular positive attitude in my character. The positive attitude prevents me from becoming demoralised in my work. I also have the tendency to work rigorously as a result of which in spite of several failures in my task, I never intend to always come forward for the reason of attainment of that particular task. The interpersonal skill within me also assists me to make effectual communication with others. I would also like to add in this context that I also possess qualities of a good listener and have the flair of getting along with people well that too owing to my good communication as well as listening skills. Weaknesses The weakness in me is the lack of confidence in work and also while talking to the customers and even my friends or class mates owing to my poor pronunciation. In certain instances, this dearth of confidence results in embarrassing me in front of others. This dearth of confidence while communicating with people is my greatest weakness which might hold me back from scaling heights in the profession I am in presently and the one that I wish to pursue in the future, as both calls for the requirement of this skill to a large extent. Thus, to overcome such weakness increased growth in the level of confidence is required which is only possible with the help of regular practice or training. I must focus on my confidence level as it is regarded as essential while dealing with customers in any kind of business along with triggering self-assurance in the competitive environment. I even need to improve the skill of decision making along with problem solving and cognitive skills as these skills are necessary to be acquired and mastered by me as they are considered to be essential for any kind of business and would also help me to attain success in my future projects that I wish to pursue. Opportunities I have been working at Michelin restaurant for nearly three long years. This job has helped me to gain significant amount of knowledge regarding the way of managing the food business. I am responsible for keeping a check on the quality of the prepared food along with executing the food orders for each week. I have decided to pursue economics as I believe it would help me in my future endeavours. I intend to return back to my home country and start my own business like opening restaurants, dealing in property and start a trading company as well. My present experience in the food industry will help me to a great extent in my future projects of starting my own restaurant. The interaction with the customers presently will help me in my future businesses that is in my property and trading business. The kind of business that I am planning will entail the need of rigorous hard work and interaction with customers. The completion of my economics course will also help me to gain a lucid comprehension regarding the financial side of my businesses. Threats The lack of self confidence in my communication process resists me from being successful in my present work as one of my colleague possesses greater communication skills compared to me and always manages excels in his work. We both share the job responsibilities but his superior presentation skills keep him ahead in work at most of the incidents. The dearth of confidence while communicating with the customers might prove to be a threat, as in the future while managing my own business I will require to deal with numerous people where I will certainly need this skill. This will also become a threat for the reason of the rising competition in the industry at the time of starting my business in the future. Reflective Summary The reflective summary has been prepared by taking into consideration the requirement of the development of the needed skills towards the attainment of my career objectives. The SWOT analysis that I conducted on myself helped me to identify the skills that I lack in and the ones that needs honing. Based on that analysis and according to the basis of priority the cognitive skills need to be developed initially. This will entail the need of enhancing my listening skills which will further trigger the development of my cognitive skills. I intend to develop this skill within me in the initial three months by way of enrolling myself in the required regular classes that will assist in the development and promotion of this skill. The next aim will be to develop my communication skills which I can start consequently with the development of the earlier mentioned cognitive skills. I will require initiating communication with the people present around me without feeling shy. I need to overlook the aspect of poor pronunciation which restricted or resisted me from communicating with people around me for all this time in order to effectively develop this skill. I will also need to start communicating or strike conversations with the customers coming to my place of work. My active participation in the discussions during my course classes will also be a contributing factor for the development of communication skill. I expect that all these endeavours will aid me to enhance and hone this skill within me in a time period of three months. The other most imperative skills that need to be developed within me are the skills related to decision making and problem solving. For this I will require to actively partake in the weekly meetings that are held at my workplace to address the problems faced by the customers and the ways of finding an effective solution towards it. I will have enough opportunity to implement my practice of the skill by way of taking the initiative to provide definite viewpoints and ideas with regard to the raised issues in the meeting. The viewpoints and the ideas may not prove to be effectual in the initial stage but my active participation in the meetings on a regular basis by way of suggesting ideas will help in raising the degree of confidence in me along with enhancing my decision making and problem solving skills. The practice of development of the mentioned skills can be done during the persuasion of my economics course as well as throughout my engagement with the job of a head waiter. I intend to develop these particular skills within a time period of 3 months. I also aim to develop research as well as investigative skills within me which will prove advantageous during the persuasion of my economics course and also at the time of starting my ascertained business ventures in the future. These skills will help me to arrive at effective decisions. The development of this skill can be practiced alongside the development of communication skills as both these developments will call for the need to talking more to people. Conclusion The above discussion and the designed personal development plan will surely prove helpful for developing the essential skills within me which will aid me in my ascertained future ventures and facilitate me to become a successful businessman. The development of the above mentioned skills will also help me to manage my businesses in the future in a quite competent manner. I aim to develop these skills within me in a time period of six months which will help me in the process of my course as well as in my present workplace. Bibliography Attwood, M. & et. al., 2006. Professional Development: A Guide for Primary Care. John Wiley & Sons. Read More