Planning and creating goals for personal reasons should be important to every person. Goals allow persons to achieve their long term and short-term plans that they have made for their lives. As a full-time student at SVSU, I have come to realize that these goals are important and that in order to become a successful professional, one must have goals that are feasible and those that can be achieved in a reasonable time frame. Males often find it easier to function in managerial positions as the traditional practices in the society have reinforced that men are the more dominant gender.
Introduction
Setting goals is an important aspect of person’s lives. Persons set goals for different reasons and in many cases persons are more likely to set career goals that they can either fulfill or that are impossible to fulfill. Either way, one must set goals for careers and their personal lives if they are not aware of making the right steps towards feasible carrying out feasible career goals. The following report will look at the professional goals that I have set towards becoming a Manager in one of the financial institutions. My goals are directed at organizational management, marketing and especially to have the knowledge to bring changes to my family’s business. Of course, these fields require much hard work, and I will need to constantly review my progress and setbacks in order to make the necessary changes that will improve my career. The report will discuss the challenges that I have faced during my time at SVSU and assess the amount of time that I have left to complete the required courses in the program and dedication to overcome the challenges.
Professional goals
I am a full – time student at SVSU working towards a Baccalaureate in Industrial Management. I intend to manage my family’s business in the next two years. I also have an interest in the field of Organizational Management or Marketing. SVSU will help me to achieve my personal goals as the wide variety of programs will allow me the opportunity to expand my knowledge base and become familiar with a wide range of courses. My performance goals include increasing my performance metrics in my subjects so that I may increase my performance metrics and show the value that I may bring to achieving my goals. My second goal is to work hard and achieve a high grade point average so that this my influence the prospective employer’s decision to employ me based on my high level of performance. I intend to working in the banking world for two years after college and gather enough practical and theoretical knowledge to eventually manage my family’s business.
Progress toward your professional and development goal(s)
I have been making progress in completing my course of study. I have completed 88 credits which mean that I am currently on track to complete course within the next academic year. I have completed the foundation courses in Accounting, Communication, General Education, Economics, Marketing and Management. I am currently enrolled in my 6th semester. I still have to complete my senior year and this seems possible as I have maintained a high GPA and am currently on the Dean’s list. I believe that I am making good progress and this has motivated me to continue to work hard to complete my course of studies.
I have ensured that I participate in a number of physical experiences in the form of internship and this has strengthened my resolve to work in the industrial management. In addition, I have learned valuable information that I could not have possibly learned during my college experiences. In other words, I spent two weeks shadowing the manager of a small business venture and I have learned that much of the theoretical aspect and the details of writing the business documents in class were not employed in this organization. Of course, there are negative and positive connotations in this respect as the company could face legal challenges from their shorthanded procedures when they are being audited. The experience taught me however that the shortest way to complete a task is not always the best way.
I also completed a certificate training course at the local community center. The program was designed to teach us how to handle the challenges of behavioral conduct from customers. I was successful in the training and received a certificate of participation and was voted as “The Most Likely” candidate to succeed in customer relations. The training session was important as we were allowed to interact with actual customers in small business and we were expected to create plans that would help us to improve communication and interaction in the business field. The customers as one local food store were quite rude and I was tempted to lose all ethical and moral values that I had learned in class, but I learned the value of teamwork in this exercise when I referred the customer to another “manager” in the office. The crisis aversion tactic was one of the topics I had learned in college and I was able to implement this method. There is no doubt that I am learning to practical and theoretical strategies that will help me to fulfill my professional goals.
There are still some steps that I have to complete in order to fulfill my professional goals. I believe I need to interact more with the real world and apply the principles I have learned in the course to the daily events in the workplace. I believe that I would achieve more if I were allowed to spend a month serving as the manager of a larger organization for at least a month. I hope to ask my professor to seek organizations that would allow for this experience and this will help me to move more freely and competently into my final year. I have not explored my options of managing my family’s business because I believe that I would be more effective as the manager after gaining firsthand knowledge from working for other organizations.
I attend college full-time but I balance my job at one of the McDonald’s store and on the weekends I work with my father in the family business. I work as a night supervisor. The role comes after having a part-time job at the same store for over a year. One of the biggest challenges that I have had is that the person who I supervise are older than I am and these persons often resistance to the changes I bring to managing the branch. I have attempted to implement the theories from my classes, but I have found that the older staff members are more resistant to the changes and I believe that this is the reflection of the challenges that I will face in any future managerial position.
I have made significant strides in overcoming these challenges as I have implement a solution box system that allows each employee to offer constructive criticism on each supervisor and their management style. The suggestions are important and I have made efforts to adjust a number of the management techniques I have learned in classes and I realize that the theoretical knowledge from the books will not always work in real – life experiences.
Lessons Learned
Despite the numerous days when I feel like falling asleep in classes because of a late night shift at work or because I have stayed up late studying and preparing for classes, I am more motivated to work hard when I get a full time job. I have learnt that dedication is the key to any future success and that the more practical experiences that I gain, the more I will be able to adjust to a job that has higher managerial expectations and a larger work force. The customers that I face daily also help me to control my anger and learn to appreciate the value of the customer’s opinion. But, the most valuable lesson that I have learned throughout my studies and at work is that professionalism is the key to being a successful manager. Even at work, when the staff becomes difficult to manage and I become frustrated with their attitudes, I have learned to maintain a professional relationship with each worker. I have also learned to maintain a line between the persons I supervise and my personal life because there are those workers who are unable to maintain a professional relationship when they are friendly with the manager.
