Learning for Future Career - Essay Example

Name Tutor Course Date Learning For future career Introduction Everyone wants to thrive in a market especially after several years of struggling in school. While this is the case, not many people realise the importance of having a career action plan. And as it is popularly said, failing to plan for your future career is actually planning to fail eventually. As young people who are still in school, it is important to think and make a plan of how you want to progress in your professional life. A career action plan usually presents the various steps that one will follow as they progress the career ladder. However, it is important to note that a career action is not a rigid document but it should be flexible enough to allow for unexpected turn of events. Critical Reflection A successful career is not just a mere product of knowledge and skills we gain by going through a formal education. Your personal attributes have a large impact in terms of how far you can get as far as your career growth and development is concerned. That is why psychologists came up with self-assessment test that can help one have some self-awareness. Actually as Clarke (2008) notes the first step to a successful career path, needs an understanding of one’s self. Personality tests help one in knowing who you are especially as regards to strengths and weaknesses. In fact one needs to understand who they are before they decide on where they want to go in life and how they will get there. In the words of Grzeda (1999), self-assessment helps you understand your personal and career goals, your interests, preferences and strengths. The reason for this is that the kind of career that one adopts largely depends on the kind of person you are. According to the Holland’s career typology which connects career choices and personality types there are six career personality traits which included; realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional (McCrae and Costa, 1999). After carrying out the required test I consider myself a realist, social and conventional. As a realist I tend to be assertive nature. I am usually more interested in doing things that will make me acquire more skills and strengths. Being action oriented inspires me to solve problems practically as opposed to being theoretical about situations. My social personality manifests in the team building skill that I have continually embraced. I love to work for and with people. For me building close relationships with people and especially colleagues at the work place is I highly treasure and believe in. I love to appreciate that comes with working as a team as you utilise the different skills, knowledge that each individual has. My being conventional relates to desire to work in a structured environment which is controlled by rules and regulations. I dislike situation or a working environment that has no clear guidelines and for this reason and this stems from my character of being too keen with little details. Other career influences that will impact on my career path include; skills and abilities, life roles social and economic conditions (Brolin and Lyod, 2004). Every career needs one to possess particular knowledge and skills. For instance my dream is to become a social worker specifically working with a non-government organisation or a government department that deals with human rights. I hope that after gaining enough experience I will be able to start a charitable organisation to address the same. To be an efficient social worker I will require some training in social work or community development. But as I progress to the level where I want to run an organisation independently then it means I will have to go back to school and acquire some training in leadership or management of Non-governmental organisation as well as resource management. Secondly, family roles will also have an impact on my career choice and path. I want to believe that the day I start my own family and other responsibilities that will define my perception about my career and the choices will be made then. According to Supers Lifespan theory people are faced with multiple roles in their lives which change as time pass by (Bergh and Theron, 2009). I want to believe during the time when one has young children they will tend to go slow on taking assignments that will take them away from home for long periods of time; but when children are grown up people tend to feel free to explore and even take up international careers. Thirdly, the social and economic conditions which shape societal context have a major impact on one’s career path (Brolin and Lyod, 2004). Yes right now am ambitious and I want to start up an organisation in future, but who knows may be three or four years from now things will have changed so much and tougher rules put in place to limit their functioning. What if the donor funding behaviour may have changed and they no longer want to fund human rights organisation but maybe prefer those that deal with environment etc. That’s why it’s important to be adaptable and be able to redirect your career path if the prevailing conditions change. Again there could be a scenario where the economic and social conditions change to the extent that they make the career path you had chosen to become boring and unrewarding. This then calls for rejuvenation and you think of other routes to another career. Career Action Plan A career action plan is defined as a series of steps that an individual intends to take as they grow up the ladder of their desired career (Grzeda, 1999). After completing my undergraduate degree, I expect to start making various job applications to secure a job as a social worker either in a non-governmental organisation or in a government department. Because sometimes it might take time to get a paying job, meanwhile I would offer to work as a volunteer in one of the organisations that I know provide such opportunities within my locality. Being the social person I am, I intend to go out of the way to reach out to the various organisation that work on human right issues. This will enable me to build up my experience and be an added advantage when I finally secure an interview for a paying job. My projection is that I will have secured a job within six months of graduation. My plan is to work at most for two years in that organisation on fulltime basis. I will then start making application for a postgraduate qualification in leadership and management. This will be important in equipping me with the necessary skills to run an organisation. During that time I will look for opportunities to attend workshops, conferences and trainings on resource mobilisation which I know are normally organised by various organisations. I would, at this point, opt to take up jobs that will allow me to work on part time basis. I hope the training takes a maximum of two years before I embark of full time employment for about five years before I start my own organisation. Barriers and Solutions The possible barriers that could come in the way of achieving the above stated actions include; financial constraints, failure to secure a job for a long time or changes in terms of the social and economic conditions. In the plan presented above there are only three things I look forward to doing in the first three years after graduation. I remain optimistic to get a job within six months upon graduation. However there are situations where getting a paying job may take long. The reason why I want to get a paying job is so that I could save money for me to enrol in the post graduate course after two years. In case it happens that I fail to secure the job as anticipated I will continue to work as an intern so that I gain narration experience. I might also go ahead to start looking for opportunities to secure scholarship for my post graduate course. Another option would be I push the course ahead by one or two years as I work on getting more experience or a well-paying job. Conclusion A successful career does not just happen. It requires rigorous planning. Even though there maybe changes in the career path as envisioned earlier; that is better than waiting on chance. Career planning starts with self-awareness. There is need to understand that personality has a great impact on a career path. Being aware of your strength and weaknesses makes it easy for you to know which career option to settle for. Obviously we have other factors that will influence your career action plans and they include but not limited to; changing life roles, prevailing social and economic conditions, childhood fantasies, previous experiences, gender, culture as well as the requisite skills and abilities. The pursuit of every career is faced with some barriers that require strategies to manage. Works Cited Bergh, Z. C., & Theron, A. Psychology in the work context. 3rd ed. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa. 2009. Brolin, D. E., & Loyd, R. J. Career development and transition services: A functional life skills approach. New Jersey: Pearson2004. Clarke, M. Understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts. Journal of European Industrial Training, 200832(4), 258-284. Duberley, J., Mallon, M., & Cohen, L. Exploring career transitions: accounting for structure and agency. Personnel Review, 200635(3), 281-297. Grzeda, M. M. Re-conceptualizing career change: a career development perspective. Career Development International, 19994(6), 305-311. McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. A five-factor theory of personality. In: Pervin, L. A., & John, O. P. (Eds.). Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, 1999 (pp139-153). New York: Guilford. Read More