The Career Development Plan - Essay Example

Personal Development Plan Affiliation Personal Development Plan This personal development plan plays a critical role in my career as it helps me have a clear picture of where I am headed and where I am coming from. It creates a breakdown of events pertaining to my business administration career and how I have performed so far (Targett, et al. 2013). It also gives direction and guidance on the goals that I am yet to achieve and the milestone that is ahead of me. Hence, the PDP works to improve my understanding of the career I have ventured in and moreover plan for the future in as far as career development is concerned. The personal development plan also serves to articulate personal goals, take up responsibilities, and enhance career development (Marsh 2012). Career Achievements For the last 12 months, I have made tremendous growth on personal and professional platforms. On a personal level, I have become social, and outgoing like never before after interacting with people from diverse background with different work ethics and approaches to life. I began classes on foreign languages; French and Germany. This has been a major boost to my career in as far as gaining international recognition and having an overriding advantage on potential competitors is concerned. In an effort to compete favorably in the international scene and have a wide market scope, knowledge of international languages becomes indispensable. I have acquired project management skills from the short-term course I undertook. These additional skills obtained from the four months course helped become a holistic leader with excellent management and administration skills. This has been instrumental to my career, as I now understand better how to handle the overwhelming work and projects at the work place in an organized sequential manner. On-the-job training on capacity building and employee motivation has helped develop my career towards being a better manager. The training was based on approaches that could be utilized to get the most from the workforce and establish a working rapport that will guarantee sustainability of labor and ultimate increased productivity. I came to learn that employees are the biggest assets in any organizational setting and play a central role in the attainment of the objectives and goals of the organization in question. For this reason, there is need to invest in the employees for the firm to realize its goals and meet its targets in the competitive business world. I can attest to the fact the training granted me a divergent view of the workplace and the evident need to undertake capacity building and employee appraisal programs on a regular basis. From my experience, this helps the organization gain a competitive edge over their potential competitors in the same market domain (Sá, Kretz, & Sigurdson 2013). Personal Growth In the last twelve months, I have grown in my personal attributes in as far as business administration is concerned. From my personal assessment, I have acquired the following within the stipulated period: Gained interpersonal relations and communication skills. After acquiring the theoretical concepts of communication from my course work in college, I now had an opportunity to mingle with other people at the place of work and this has enabled me learn to appreciate the differences in personalities and embrace them with a positive aspect to achieve a common goal. Having to interact and work with people from varied social backgrounds prompted me develop excellent interpersonal communication skills that is vital in any organizational setting. Without effective communication in the organizational structure and systematic flow of information from the top managers to the workers on the ground, the productivity of the workers is bound to be hampered. Working in an organization that believes in teamwork and collective efforts in work delivery, I slowly gained interpersonal and communication skills gained from the diverse work force within my first three months. Gained multitasking and good organization. These are personal abilities that I have come to perfect owing to the nature of my career. The administrative work requires record-keeping and general organizational skills. This works to enable me safeguard vital company documents and be in a position to retrieve them with ease whenever requested. Working on a number of projects with a large volume of employees and casual staff members, it is hectic to keep track of every individual’s performance in their respective dockets as well as address the daily needs of the organization one has to perfect multitasking. This has helped me meet short deadline work and bring sanity among the staff. With the span of time, I have gained decision-making skills having worked in leadership positions within the corporate circle. I have come to realize my abilities to make crucial decisions in a timely manner whenever called upon. Being a leader calls for one to be responsive enough to make critical decisions on behalf of the organization without compromising its public image and performance on the international platform. For this reason, I had to learn to make speedy decisions after examining the situation at hand and with limited time to make necessary consultation and advice from the relevant parties. I have learnt to brainstorm and quickly troubleshoot problems to many situations at the workplace and have never made a wrong move that affected the firm’s performance. Character development- I have built my character and personality over time. I now understand myself better and essentially avoid unnecessary confrontation. I am now more at ease with myself and can handle pressure without crumbling down. Reflecting on my previous personality indicates how impatient I was and how it almost cost my job and now I know better how to handle pressure and still deliver high-quality work. I categorically state that the 12-years have brought a paradigm shift to my career life as well as developed my personal character. Future Plans in the Next Twelve Months My goal is to essentially develop exceptional leadership skills that will propel me become a transformative leader. I believe that I am in a better position to take up executive positions in my organization and this requires one to display an authoritative leadership role in the organization. I seek to gain new skills and abilities within the next three months. The newly acquired skills in leadership will be a platform for my further development in the corporate ladder. This will be made possible through my mentors and leaders who are reputable, whom I look up to for inspiration. Having been able to apply the new concepts and ideas that I have amassed at the place of work for the last one year, I am optimistic that developing exceptional leadership skills will not be a great deal. I would like to learn the ins and outs of business management and administration to the point that I can start up my own corporate organization and rover see its day-to-day operation. For this reason, I am planning to establish a close relationship with the C.E.O of our organization so that I may get to understand the magnitude of work they are entitled to execute including management policies and strategies. This will prepare me psychologically in as much as preparing for my future career plans is concerned. I plan to undertake short training courses on elements of management such as co-ordination, leading and controlling of business ventures to add on the planning and organizational skills that I have already amassed in the course of my educational training. By the end of the next one year, I will have attended sufficient seminars, trainings and workshops on at least two of the three fields mentioned above in an effort to develop a holistic personality-ready to take up superior challenges in the corporate world. Strengths The strongholds that I will ride on to help me attain the ambitions and visions that I have for the next one year include: I am strong-willed and self motivated This attribute has helped me be at my best in all that I pursue to do despite any prevailing conundrums. I have been able to rise in my career within a short span owing to my resilience and strong belief in myself. This attribute is what will help me achieve my future plans and even go beyond the set targets. I have a strong passion and commitment to my career. This drives me to work towards meeting my career objectives. My interest in this field has also made me undertake a series of training to better understand my field of specialty and develop exceptional expertise. With this strong passion as a motivation, I have been able to go through hurdles and challenges before, and with this momentum, I believe I will achieve my career plans and objectives. Leadership skills- having exceptional leadership attributes with a good command of the language has helped me articulate my ideas and opinions with much ease. This has enabled me be very influential at the place of work by clearly passing across my intended information and convincing others to agree to it. In so doing, I have had most of my plans go through and gain grounds in the mainstream. With more training on leadership, I believe that I will be in a better position to achieve my future goals. Excellent business administration and project management skills that I have acquired in the course of training and in my professional practice. I have since gained detailed background knowledge and expertise, which I will use as strength to climb, up the corporate ladder. I am visionary as I look beyond the current situation and instead focus on the long-term benefits that come with the current investment on my career development. Learning spirit - I am always ready to learn new ideas and concepts and utilize them to develop my career. Weaknesses Some of the weak points that may derail the course of achieving the desired goals include: Procrastination-I tend to postpone many things that I plan to do. This has derailed me from achieving my desired goals in a timely manner. Lack of keenness on detail- I tend to be reluctant and sloppy in light of my attention to small details. This has slowed down my efficiency and accuracy in work delivery Overconfidence-this has in some instances worked against me as I have overlooked other people’s opinion and in the process missed great opportunities. In essence, my personal development plan (PDP) has been instrumental in my career life as it forms a platform that guides me towards the attainment of the set goals. Through the PDP, I am able to reflect well on my career and identify the areas that need to be addressed in order to speed up the actualization of the targeted goals and objectives. Further, it helps me appreciate the achievements that I have since made and hence inspires me to do more. Consequently, I am able to keep track on my career development over a stipulated timeframe and hence make vital decisions based on the progress I have made so far. For this reason, I highly regard the personal development plan as a tool for building one’s career and unveiling their inner potential in their respective disciplines. Bibliography Golden, J 2015, Giving It Back To The People, Hospitality Ireland, 94, pp. 22-25, Hospitality & Tourism Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 July 2015. Gordon, EE 2014, ECONOMIC GROWTH requires EXPANDING CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION, Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 89, 4, pp. 42-45 Webb, K, Repetto, J, Seabrooks-Blackmore, J, Patterson, K, & Alderfer, K 2014, Career development: Preparation, integration, and collaboration, Journal Of Vocational Rehabilitation, 40, 3, pp. 231-238. Marsh, P 2012, The Career Development Workshop, Training & Development Journal, 27, 7, p. 38 Sá, C, Kretz, A, & Sigurdson, K 2013, Accountability, performance assessment, and evaluation: Policy pressures and responses from research councils, Research Evaluation, 22, 2, pp. 105-117. Targett, P, Wehman, P, West, M, Dillard, C, & Cifu, G 2013, Promoting transition to adulthood for youth with physical disabilities and health impairments, Journal Of Vocational Rehabilitation, 39, 3, pp. 229-239 Read More