Free Essay On Career Goal Statement

During my 15 years in the health care information technology field, I have had the opportunity to support several different organizations in their goal of providing quality medical care to their patients/residents. Although much of these experiences have been positive, I have also witnessed less than ideal business decision-making that has resulted in an inability to meet financial obligations and, ultimately, bankruptcy. The resulting displacement of workers and patients really opened my eyes to the need for solid leadership, good financial planning, and forward thinking approaches in an area as potentially volatile as the healthcare business. These experiences presented me with challenges I wanted to be able to personally meet, but I also knew I needed a more in-depth understanding of business and a broader skill set to be able to do so successfully.
I am applying to the Masters of Business Administration program in order to give myself the opportunity to be ready to meet the challenges facing the healthcare industry. The tools available to treat patients are more varied and effective than ever before, but these tools come with high financial and societal prices that mean they must be utilized effectively. I have spent my career organizing information toward the goal of effective healthcare. In that role, I have made solid contributions to multiple organizations and their work. I am now fully competent in my area of expertise but I realize that to truly impact overall organizational goals I need to better understand other aspects of the industry I support. A program in business administration will give me the wider worldview that I need to be in the position to meet these challenges effectively.
One of skill sets that I require to meet these organizational challenges is that of leadership. I want to become an effective leader of people in order to motivate, direct, and guide personnel to successful completion of their roles within the organization. While working in the information technology area I have been led by many different types of bosses, some with more effective leadership styles than others. I have gathered and internalized the good aspects and have learned what to avoid with the bad. With this MBA program I plan to seek the concrete reasons behind what leadership approaches worked and what approaches did not. I will also strive to develop my own personal leadership approach so that when I am presented with leadership opportunities, I will be prepared to respond in ways that will be effective for the personnel I am directing.
A further skill set that I aim to develop is business strategy development. I have seen firsthand the dangers of a reactive approach to business challenges in the health care industry. Organizations I have been involved in have been caught flatfooted by changes in the healthcare industry that could have been clearly predicted, if the leadership had practiced more strategic planning. By learning the techniques of developing forward-thinking business strategies during my program, I will be able to contribute to the overall organizational decision-making, with the goal of reducing the chance of overlooking important up-coming changes in the healthcare industry that need to be taken into account.
Financial responsibility is a third business competency that I seek to develop during my program. In the coming years, the healthcare industry will face continuing mounting challenges in providing high quality health care within the financial constraints placed upon the organization. The information technology field has much to contribute to this effort in providing information organizing programs that make providing healthcare much more effective and efficient. But all of this must be accomplished within the financial resources available. In order to meet this extremely important problem effectively and head-on, I want to learn the information-gathering and decision-making techniques that underlie a financial responsibility approach for an organization. In this way I will be ready to respond to this very real and essential issue within my industry.
Once I gain these core competencies I will be ready to expand my contributions to the business beyond my current role and into more challenging positions. Many of the complex problems of a business require strong leadership, creative strategy formation, and an underpinning of financial responsibility for solution. I will make every effort to grow my business understanding and knowledge base to be able to solve such complex problems. I also realize that in order to provide this input to the business effectively, I will need to have effective communication skills. During my program, I will take advantage of all the classroom, small group, and large group opportunities provided to me to hone my personal communication skills. In particular, I plan to expand my written, verbal, and oral communication skills, as all are required to be a good business leader. In this way I will ensure that not only do I have the business approaches formulated within my mind, but I also will have the communication skills to tell them to others, so that I can convince others within the organization to utilize them. After this is accomplished, I will also use these same communication skills to help the personnel who will be carrying out those strategies to understand the components of the strategy and their purpose.
I am also very interested in learning about the role of effective teamwork and collaboration on business accomplishments and success. It is clear that none of the complex problems facing the healthcare industry will be solved by the efforts of an individual; it will require teamwork and real collaboration to find the right solutions and implement them. Therefore, I will also seek out opportunities during my program to become better skilled at working within a team, both in the leading and contributing roles. By better understanding how people work together effectively, I will strive to bring the power of teamwork to organizations that I work for and increase the chances that the efforts of the organization will meet its goals. As with the varied bosses that I have experienced, I have had a wide variety of experiences with teams and their ability to contribute to the business. Yet I remain convinced that reliable team building and team utilization is an important part of the future success of the healthcare industry and I want to be part of this effort.
An additional complex contribution that I want to provide is that of gathering, organizing, and utilizing business knowledge. As a member of the information technology field, I know the high value of business information within an organization. Doing this effectively requires both the solid core competencies discussed above, but also the ability to see the big picture of a particular business field, like healthcare services, and its place within the larger economy. Part of what I would like to accomplish during my program is development of my personal ability to see my organization clearly within this larger picture. This will require an effort on my part to gather and digest large amounts of information about both general business topics and specific information about the business of healthcare. I also plan to expand my knowledge base on the possible contributions of information technology, particularly as this fast-moving field continues to evolve. Although I do this process on a regular basis now, I will be able to concentrate on expanding my business information knowledge while participating in the program.
Once the core competencies and complex contribution skills sets are in place, I will feel ready to find and fulfill a leadership position within my field of information technology. In particular, I am interested in a chief information officer (CIO) or chief technology officer (CTO) position. These types of positions provide key functions necessary for the success of a healthcare business, because of the increased role of information management within these settings. Beyond the management of patient/residence information, computers are now indispensible tools for almost all professions and further, information for the business itself is also management in this way. With all of these central support functions within an organization, the CIO or CTO provides input that is essential to a successful business and I will be ready to take on that challenge.
Alternatively, I am also keeping the option open of becoming an adjunct professor in a college or university. I have had significant real world experience in the high demand area of healthcare information technology and incoming students could benefit from the world-view I have gained from these experiences. Coupled with the academic expansion of my knowledge base and the more sophisticated approach to business that acquiring the MBA degree would provide, I would be interested in preparing more practical and grounded personnel to fill the increasing demand for skilled workers in this area. I also believe my real-world experience would provide a nice background for students interested in going into other areas that are information technology heavy, such as operations, human resources, and finance.
The reasons why I want to pursue an MBA are many, but they can be summarized in this way. I have personal career challenges and goals that I want to meet and I am convinced that attending an MBA program is the right path to be ready to do so. I have as my first focus the development of the core competencies of leadership, business strategy development, and financial responsibility. I will build these competencies into the organizational contributions of complex problem solving, effective communication skills, and strong teamwork abilities. Over-arching these efforts will be the development of a big picture view of my organization within the overall business economy. In this way, I plan to use my MBA program to become an effective CIO or CTO for a healthcare organization or contribute my experience back to newcomers to the information technology field as an adjunct professor. I would greatly appreciate the chance to fulfill these plans with your school’s MBA program.