Career Management Plan - Essay Example

Career Development Name: Course Tutor: Institution Department Date: Part 1: Information Interview Reflection The purpose of this information interview is to get a lead on the roles of a company secretary. To get sufficient information about this career I intend to interview Mr. Shane Hartwig the Anteo Diagnostics Ltd. Company secretary. I chose Mr. Shane die to his vast knowledge about corporate governance as well as his present position as a company secretary. Accordingly, in chose his place of residence as the idea place to conduct the interview because of his busy schedule. As such, he invited me to have tea at his residence on a Sunday afternoon since this would not affect his schedule as it was his rest time. During the interview, I learnt that the key roles of a company secretary included; ensuring that business is conducted within the provisions of Companies law and the memorandum of association; arrange and hold company’s meetings; carry out all matters regarding share allotment; prepare, approve as well as seal all agreements and legal forms on behalf of the company; and to have custody of the seal of the company. The revelation of these duties and their broadness changed my perception about the career since my prior thoughts were that, it involved roles similar to those of general secretaries. I realized that I needed to have an in-depth knowledge of company law, be a certified accountant as well as have sufficient experience in other roles of the company management. Mr. Shane advised that I should aim at starting from a lower position and rise through the ranks if I wanted to become a successful and effective company secretary. Thus, I was my original career goals were changed because I understood that it was almost impossible to get employment as a company secretary within the first five years after graduation. Thus, in the next five years I would like to be a marketing executive. Part 2: Career Action Plan My personal career development plan for the next five years after graduation will entail evaluating my SMART goals as the means to guide me to my next career level- Marketing Executive. Marketing executives have the role of promoting products by developing effective marketing structures and campaigns. As such, they are required to work closely with research, product development, planning, and public relations activities. The main motivations for this career choice are; the ability to communicate and meet with customers as well as the opportunity to see clients’ satisfaction and reaction first hand. More so, according to The Career Planning Process (2014), personal development is a very important element in an individual’s life and work experiences. Similarly, personal career goals are easily attainable if they match both an individual’s life goals and personal values. Therefore, my personal career action plan metamorphosis will include several stages. The first stage will be to work as a sales representative in a multi-leveled marketing company for a maximum of two years. In this stage, my main objectives will include; improve my communication skills, gain experience and how to handle marketing challenges such as rejections; get exposure to market expectations being adequately trained and lastly, improve my team managing skills. The second stage will entail working in a marketing research entity for a period of 1 year. The main intention of working in a research organization is for understanding marketing segments and various marketing strategies[McQ05]. In the third stage-, I will work as a marketing officer preferably in a multinational corporation. This will be helpful in tow major ways; to be an effective manager in a multinational workforce and to understand strategies of fishing potential clients of different nationalities. In the fourth stage- work as a marketing manager, I intend to work with marketing as the leader. This will help me to put into action the learnt skills and experiences. Accordingly, I will be able to gain experience on how to handle different personalities in the team and this will give me experience on how to handle a complete marketing department in an organization. Finally, in the fifth stage, I will secure employment as a senior marketing executive preferably in a multinational company here in Australia. I know that the five-year timeline after graduation is short; nonetheless, I intend to work hard so that I realize my career goals on time and with the required qualifications and experiences[Ore14]. Part 3 As a business major, it is my feeling that the career development experience was a success. I was able to learn a lot concerning how to function both individually and as part of a team. Notably, as an individual, I enjoy being in learning environments that are intellectually stimulating and challenging. Indeed, from personal experience, I have always exhibited perseverance through demanding situations and challenged myself by taking on complex responsibilities. Accordingly, if presented with a class or lecture that does not satisfy my intellectual standards I have a tendency of adding to the learning experience by making things harder than they are, in order to challenge my intellect. Additionally, as an individual, I have always been a thinker, however, during this task; I have impressively refined my critical analysis abilities. For instance, rather that of concentrating on proposed meanings or factual backgrounds; I have developed the tendency, of constantly asking "why" on diverse levels[Vic13]. Consequently, I am able to challenge myself to delve into a text as deeply as I can, to absorb every detail to support a sufficient close read. In addition, by reading multiple texts on a particular topic, I have learned to gather various insights or ideas and craft connections that link the ideas together. As such, this has helped me to develop a better understanding of the topics in question. Employability is a contentious notion, which bears a plethora of micro-interpretations. Indeed, most of the variants on defining employability categorize it as the proclivity for graduates to acquire employment and develop in their vocations of choice. For instance, Hillage & Pollard (1998), proposes that one of the four key components of employability is ‘deployment’ which denotes the degree to which individuals are aware of their individual abilities and how to use them. Further, they hold that, ‘deployment’ encompasses the development of career management skills, employment search skills, and scope to which individuals are adjustable to labor market dynamics and realistic labor market prospects (Watts 2006). Further, Harvey et al., (2002) suggest that employability development has three vital areas of focus. These areas include development of employability characteristics; readiness to learn and reflect on learning experiences; and the development of self-profile-raising and career management skills[Har02]. Conversely, employability does not entail developing qualities, skills or practice to empower a student to acquire employment, or advance within a specific career. Employability involves acquiring knowledge with more emphasis placed on ‘ability’ rather than on ‘employ’. Essentially, the importance is on developing critical, reflective capacities, with an aim of enabling and enhancing student[Wat06]. Therefore, I realized that it was important that I personally manage the process of developing my employability and take charge of the career management abilities. Upon this background, I set out as an individual, to increase my deployment characteristic by conducting extensive research in the current labor markets, in the field of marketing executive, the crucial individual characteristics considered by prospective employers and improving my career management skills were of significance. Further, I purposed to ascertain the perceptions of employers regarding the employability of new graduates like myself. To this end, I engaged in various activities such as visiting several recruitment firms, conducting interviews with recruiters and attending career workshops. In addition, I conducted research on the leading consulting firms in the world to acquire relevant information regarding their recruitment process and the unique criteria they used to select and hire their employees[Llo06]. From the scoping interviews with potential employers and recruitment organizations, I discovered that prospective employers are partial to a number of attributes, skills, knowledge, and intellectual aptitude elements, which are necessary for distinct roles in the field of consulting. Moreover, the ability to combine different sets of transferable skills is also considered predominantly relevant. Some of the highly valued transferrable skills include team working; self-management; problem solving; business knowledge; career relevant literacy and numeracy; ICT knowledge; excellent interpersonal and communication abilities; capacity to apply own initiative and follow instructions; as well as effective leadership skills. Furthermore, employers also emphasized the necessity of possessing certain attitudes and viewpoints such as motivation, commitment and tenacity. My research on some of the leading consulting firms in the world shows that employers often value work-related experience, internships and extra-curricular activities engaged in by the graduate at the university. In particular, participation in these activities is considered helpful in inculcating the necessary transferable skills. In fact, most of the employers interviewed or researched on supposed that even though a degree was necessary amongst applicants in certain jobs, it contributed very little towards the graduate’s enduring employability. Further, I discovered that employers attach key significance to the efforts, on the part of the graduate, in generating an excellent first impression, CV preparation and self-presentation during interviews. In fact, according to those interviewed, most graduates lacked the ability and impetus to impress potential employers at this preliminary stage. For example, at the workshop, the shared criticism was that graduates frequently do not invest the time and attention to create CVs oriented to attract an employer. Besides, some recruiters emphasized that applicants every so often had inadequate motivation to prove themselves during interviews and conduct background studies on the prospective employers. As a result, they set impracticable expectations. Notably, leading business consultancy employers place emphasis on interviews, and preliminary assessment centers, to help identify those applicants who possess the drive, and array of skills mandatory for the post. In view of that, these employers use role-play, presentations, follow-up workshops and sessions, among other interactive activities to assess extensive generic skills among potential employees. In total, my employment research activities highlighted a number of key areas that I need to develop on in order to increase my employability as I graduate. These areas induced developing my ability to network, taking responsibility for my career growth, commercial awareness, self-confidence, and work readiness. Consequently, I have purposed to develop these areas through further research, internships or career placements and mentorship opportunities. References McQ05: , (McQuaid & Lindsay , 2005), Ore14: , (Oregon State University, 2014), Vic13: , (Victoria State Governemnt , 2013), Har02: , (Harvey , et al., 2002), Wat06: , (Watts, 2006), Llo06: , (Lloyd & Payne, 2006), Read More