Personal Career Planning
- Introduction
The ultimate purpose of education is to help someone to realize his/her purpose in life. As such personal career planning is an important step towards driving someone in the right direction in terms of making one’s career aspirations and ambitions a reality. Therefore, this paper is a self career planning aimed at identifying the career development services and opportunities available, the skills or knowledge so far gained and future plans or areas that I should endeavor to acquire skills in the future. This is an important exercise as it identifies the career development opportunities, and future career plans and skills so far acquired. This exercise shows one’s career status and subsequently shows a person’s strengths and weaknesses. Simply, it charts a clear career path that I can follow to reach my career dream. My major is marketing and as such, this paper will explain the career development opportunities in campus, skills so far gained in marketing and areas that require future learning.
II. Professional Development Investigation:
Marketing is a career that utilizes the level of communication between the marketer and the potential clients. This then means that one has to ensure that at the time of completion of the major, you already have proposed communication skills to enable you convince the market that your products are the real deal. Communication is assumed to come of age with experience. In fact, the best marketers are those who have been in the market for long. They not only know the gaps and emerging markets but also have developed those captivating statements that wow their potential clients. To achieve the bets traits that will place me at par with the marketers out there, I have focused on care development service providers as a way to sharpen the theoretical knowledge I already possess. Career Development Services Inc is one of the providers who have helped me through this process. The services available such as career workshops, expos, career panels, resume writing services, interview training, and provision of information about potential job markets will be useful to me through this patch when I seek to gain wide knowledge on marketing. I have already begun attending workshops though irregularly. I have also attended two expos. However, I have not been consistent enough in those programs due to the pressure from my course work as a major in Marketing. In two years, I will have completed my major and henceforth, I plan to utilize the services at CDS Inc. particularly the workshops and expos to understand what clients want to hear and what is the role of the marketer in such cases.
B. Analyze insights that you have gained this
This semester I have learned a lot of things that somewhat contribute to my career growth and development. Although most learning occurs in lecture rooms, outside class activities complement whatever that is taught in class. My dream career is to be a marketer and a successful businessperson. One of the aspects that I have gained in this semester is the principles of marketing. Marketing as a career or discipline is firmly grounded on various principles. Primarily, all the marketing principles revolve about knowing what the consumers want, providing what the consumer wants and collecting feedback from the market. This semester has demystified the importance of communication in marketing, and I can term the entire semester as an eye-opener in terms of improving my communication skills. Throughout the course of the semester, I have managed to improve my interpersonal skills and social skills. The world has gradually evolved into a global village, and international business is becoming the new trend.
Although I have not learnt a lot pertaining to the international marketplace in this semester, admittedly, this semester has fueled my urge to learn more about international business and I have discovered a new energy to myself updated with the international business events and happenings. On the other hand, this semester has imparted critical thinking and analytical skills. Every occurrence in business; be it changes in prices or changes in brand names, there is a reason behind it and is usually driven by market forces. Therefore, this semester has been a turning point for me in terms of equipping me with skills to analyze the market. Outside-class activities and events have also played a major role in shaping my team building skills. Team building is an important aspect in the modern day marketing. Agreeably, modern marketing is complex and requires a team approach and this semester I can boost of a few team building skills.
C. Plans for future professional skills improvement
Like any other career, marketing experience and skill cannot be gained on just training or class work. Even with the important role played by the organizations such as CDS Inc. it would still there is no assurance that one knows all that appertains marketing. The dynamism of the business environment means that marketers have to learn the trends and adapt accordingly to avoid being phased out by the vibrant marketers that have learned the trade well.
Oral and written communication skills: As identified earlier, a marketer cannot shy away from speaking; they cannot shy away from constant communication with their potential clients. However, it is important to realize that not everyone is endowed with the capabilities of effective communication. As such, continuous improvement through learning becomes vital. For me, I tend to think that while I know that I have the ability to convince people about a product or service, but still I lack that self-belief to talk to people of class or those I perceive to be older than I am. This then would limit my potential clients more so considering that the older generation is the most active clients across most markets. The CDS Inc. programs will, allow me that platform to practice my writing skills and oral communication skills which is a core element learned in the development of resumes and professional documents.
Interpersonal skills and team management skills: Marketing cannot be achieved be done in a single day. It is a continuous and ever-changing phenomenon that requires a vibrant team to achieve all set goals. How well one relates with other team members defines their value to the team in achieving the set goals. Naturally, I am not the type of person who has worked well with groups or team even in class work. The career planning sessions at CDS Inc will help me improve my team participation and team building skills. These sessions will run for two months and will involve active participation in expos and workshops where tasks will be shared among groups and evaluated on the same basis. The challenges and barriers encountered at group level will then be discussed as a baseline for improvement of team participation skills.
Strategic planning and management are important skills in, marketing. Marketing revolves about planning for the future and subsequently, managing the impacts of the strategies in place. Marketing at a management level encompasses planning and managing all the resources allocated to the marketing department and as such, I consider strategic planning and management skills imperative as a future area of improvement. I love to make an impact by making decisions, and once I improve my skills in this area, I will be actively involved in policy formulation and decision-making in whichever organization that I will be affiliated.
Public relations are an equally important field that I hope to gain skills in the future. The world is evolving rapidly, and public relations are becoming an important domain in marketing. In marketing, public relations are important as a way of maintaining the flow of information between a business organization and the public. I understand that not unless there is a healthy flow of information from the market or the public, understanding the public psychology in terms of choices and preferences is very hard. I, therefore, plan to sharpen my skills in public relations further in the future.
- Career Plans
