Career & Personal Development - Essay Example

One of the areas that have appeared as likely for pursuit of opportunity is human resource. The considerations for being aware of this opportunity stem from personal research through which I have noted the international dimensions of human resource and how motivating and satisfying it is. Thus, this has influenced my future career decisions as I now plan to undertake post graduate studies in peace and international law through which I will be able to take advantage of this opportunity. Decision Learning and Transition Learning Another area that is of importance to career management is decision learning, which Delgado, Phelps and Robins (2011, pp. 101-103) discuss in terms of intransitive choices and their impacts on context-dependent preferences.

This is accompanied by transition learning, with the two concepts influencing my personal career ambitions/dreams, the steps I need to take towards them and the way I handle transitions in my career development. This is a continuous process, discernible in terms of transition from general education to making the decisions to specialise in law and study peace/international law in future. I realise that my decision-making and transition management skills are in need of being polished through making them more specific and strategising on how to achieve them.

Analysis and Evaluation of learning undertaken The first consideration here is the knowledge I have gained about my skills, abilities, qualities and motivation about my career potential. According to Hom and Folger (2008, p. 2) analysing information about oneself is the first step of effective career management. I have learnt that I have excellent people skills from the way I have undertaken near flawless interaction with individuals during the course. This is complemented by good communication skills, both of which will play a significant role in my career advancement.

I am motivated by both monetary and non-monetary factors including appreciation and recognition of efforts, job enrichment and a sense of participation alongside cordial relationships with workmates and superiors. However, commercial awareness is an area in which I was not adequately informed upon in regards to my career planning before undertaking this module. The knowledge gained from labour market input including employer, lectures and resource inputs include the importance of implementing SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-planned) goals and objectives.

I have also gained valuable insights about strategic career planning in which planning missions is based on smart objectives which are then used to generate strategies towards meeting these objectives. Knowledge on synchronising short-term, medium and long-term goals in career planning has been indispensable, as well as use of key performance indicators (KPIs) to guide my career development (Patton and MacMahon 2001, p. 76; Coitzee and Roythorne-Jacobs 2007, p. 23). Independent research has also played a crucial part in career management learning.

For instance, I was able to appreciate the importance of mentors and career champions in career development through attending fairs and visits to professional functions alongside professional discussions. I backed this knowledge through independent search in literature; for instance, gaining insight that career champions are