Reflection and Personal Development Plan

Table of Contents

Introduction. 3

Section – 1 – Reflection. 3

Section – 2 – Career and personal development plan. 4

Personal development plan. 4

Preparing for placement 4

Being professional in workplace. 5

SMART Goals. 5

References. 7

Appendices. 8

Introduction

The report will talk about personal SWOT analysis, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of individual development. Taking this SWOT analysis as a reference, reflective writing will be provided about securing a placement in future and personal feelings about being professional at the workplace. The reflection will find out areas of weaknesses and actions for improving those areas. In the next section, a career and development plan will be provided according to SMART guidelines, which will stress on five primary goals for attaining development in career. These goals will also relate to securing a placement and being a profession in workplaces.

Section – 1 – Reflection

Securing placement in a reputed firm can be a very tough job for students like us. Considering my strengths, I can clearly state that innovation is a beneficial element in this process as recruiters might be impressed with my innovative thoughts, which will be expressed through my answers (Agarwal and Pearce, 2019). Asking questions to the recruiters about their current business developments might create a good impression in their minds about my interest in the job. Considering my weaknesses, I can realize that lack of communicative skills will be a hindrance to the process as communication is an integral element of the modern complex business environment. I have to work a lot harder in the area of communication to achieve a lucrative campus placement.

Considering the opportunities, I can feel that innovation is a very prospective field in today’s business environment as every business is continuously striving hard to achieve a competitive edge in the market. This can be considered as an opportunistic element in the path of progress. I have a fear of public speaking, which might not put me into the good books of the recruiters as they always search for extrovert candidates who could easily converse with various kinds of people (Tims and Akkermans, 2019). I might have creative ideas in mind, but they might not be useful if I am unable to improvise them through my actions. Presentations can be an excellent way of showcasing the hidden thoughts or ideas, which might be a loophole of my character. Therefore, I will be working hard in the area of presentation and public speaking.

In the field of professionalism in the workplace, I strongly feel two of my qualities will be appreciated, that is, commitment and punctuality. As a professional employee, I am always dedicated to my work, and the management can easily rely on me for the completion of vital tasks of the organization. Being punctual is another essential quality, which is required for completing the tasks within the deadlines (Vondracek et al. 2019). I am also an inquisitive person who try to investigate more in-depth into the problems and seek solutions. This can also be a useful attribute of professionalism. However, being over-punctual might be detrimental in some instances, as I try to hurry up for most of the works, which degrades the quality.

Lack of communicative skills deteriorates the confidence in me, due to which I push myself backward while communicating with people. Though most of the time, I am quite polite and soft-spoken while talking to people, sometimes, I am not comfortable with speaking to strangers and become conscious of myself. This might reduce my competence as compared to my co-workers. In the field of ethics, I always try to display ethical behavior in professional places (Wang et al. 2019, July). I try to adhere to the code of conduct formulated in the corporate sectors and follow every statement enumerated in the code. However, being a non-communicative person, I might stammer in certain situations, which might be taken as unethical behavior by particular people.

Section – 2 – Career and personal development plan

Personal development plan

Personal development planning relates to the establishment of aims and objectives that a person wants to achieve in his career either in the short-term or in the long-term. The process refers to the assessment of the current realities, by which the person will be able to examine his current situation and take necessary measures to improve and enhance his skills and qualities. Every person should follow a personal development cycle, which consists of seven significant steps (Debono, 2017). The first step is to establish a direction for himself. Secondly, he should identify areas of development, and thirdly he should search out opportunities and formulate an appropriate action plan. The next step is to implement the plan and measure the outcomes. Finally, he can review and evaluate the outcomes to assess his current situation and take the necessary measures for future development. By following these steps, a person can quickly bring about development in his career and professional field.

Preparing for placement

Campus placements are significant for college students as it is the platform through which the students can showcase their skills and talents to the recruiters such that they can secure reasonable placement offers. The students can prepare in many ways for the campus placements. The students can bring about clarity in their thoughts by presenting logical arguments in front of the recruiters (Gould, 2017). This will create a good impression in the minds of the recruiters about the ideas and perceptions of a student, who has reflected a critical thinking approach. Another vital way of preparing for the campus placements is to work hard on the core domains. Most of the recruiters prefer candidates who are well-aware of the theoretical and technical aspects of their core subjects.

Being professional in the workplace

After securing a placement in a reputed organization, the next step of every student is to learn about the professional ethics and code of conduct followed in the workplace. The student should understand the expectations of the organization and behave according to the work culture developed in the office premises (Young and Domene, 2018). A positive attitude is always a top priority in every organization, and the person should be optimistic in every situation and behave politely. Another critical attribute of professionalism can be a display of etiquette and mannerism through proper body language. Taking proactive measures before the occurrence of any future issue can be another crucial professional behavior appreciated in organizations.

SMART Goals

I have prepared five crucial career and personal developmental goals using the SMART technique, which can be described as follows.

• Specific goals relate to simple, small, and significant goals of a person. The particular areas, which I am supposed to work hard are public speaking and communication. For this purpose, I have thought of finding a personal mentor for myself, who would be communicating with me throughout the process and will provide me with sample topics for discussing with my classmates (Baruch and Rousseau, 2019). I will also take up sample presentations to enhance my public speaking skills. I have decided to take up mentor classes frequently after my core subject classes such that I can balance both the aspects in an efficient way.
• Measurable goals relate to meaningful and motivating goals, which can help me in assessing my progress quantitatively. I have decided that I will take communication tests once in a week, and will ask my mentor to grade me based on my performance. My presentations will also be classified, and feedback will be provided accordingly. Through this process, I will be able to evaluate myself and work further to improve my loopholes. I will also work on my time management skills, such that I can complete a task within its deadline without sacrificing its quality.
• Achievable goals relate to the agreed and attainable goals of the future. I strongly feel that all the objectives formulated for overcoming my weakness and threats can be achievable (Kim et al. 2019). I can easily take the guidance of a mentor, who will be assisting me throughout my mentoring program, for nurturing and sharpening my skills and overcoming my weaknesses. I can also sit for sample communication tests, where I will communicate with my fellow mates to discuss current affairs and other relevant topics.
• Relevant goals relate to the reasonable, realistic, and resourced goals, which can be based or determined through results. In this segment, I can try to take up challenging assignments for completing within a short deadline without hampering their qualities. I can compare my results weekly and can assess my progress or improvement. These goals can be relevant as communication is a significant skill, which is required in every organization. Through practical communication skills, I can easily secure good placements and be professional in workplaces. Time management and public speaking are also important attributes preferred in every organisation.
• Time-bound goals relate to the time-based and time-sensitive goals, which have appropriate deadlines for completion. All the goals formulated by me can be time-bound. The communication assessments can be conducted for at least three months to ensure a proper result and improvement in skills (Brewer, 2018). The presentation tests can be conducted for at least 1 month for improvement of public-speaking skills. The time-bound tests can conducted for a longer duration, for about six months for improving time management skills and enhancing the quality of assessments under short deadlines.

References

Agarwal, M. and Pearce, P., 2019. Back to India again: Motivational insights from the travel career pattern approach. In CAUTHE 2019: Sustainability of Tourism, Hospitality & Events in a Disruptive Digital Age: Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference (p. 204). Central Queensland University, Australia.

Baruch, Y. and Rousseau, D.M., 2019. Integrating psychological contracts and ecosystems in career studies and management. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), pp.84-111.

Brewer, A.M., 2018. Factors Influencing Career. In Encountering, Experiencing and Shaping Careers (pp. 67-105). Springer, Cham.

Debono, M., 2017. Career education and guidance in Malta: Development and outlook. In Career guidance and livelihood planning across the Mediterranean (pp. 337-350). Brill Sense.

Gould, J., 2017. Career development: A plan for action. Nature, 548(7668), pp.489-490.

Kim, W., Ahn, S., Lee, I. and Park, J., 2019. Development of A Career Development Competency Inventory for College Students.

Tims, M. and Akkermans, J., 2019. Job and Career Crafting to Fulfill Individual Career Pathways. Career Pathways: From School to Retirement, p.165.

Vondracek, F.W., Lerner, R.M. and Schulenberg, J.E., 2019. Career development: A life-span developmental approach. Routledge.

Wang, H., Liu, J., Wang, E., Li, J., Wang, T. and Chen, Y., 2019, July. Predicting Employee Career Development based on Employee Personal Background and Education Status. In Proceedings of the 2019 2nd International Conference on Data Science and Information Technology (pp. 260-266).

Young, R.A. and Domene, J.F., 2018. 1 Career development theory. Contemporary Theories of Career Development: International Perspectives.

Appendices

SWOT Quadrant