Professional and Career Development - Assignment Example

Personal Reflection Skills for learning at Masters Level The achievement of a Masters degree in International Business Management and my entry into my profession means a lot to me. It is an indication of the achievement one of my goals in life. The completion of my Masters Degree is just a beginning of many things to come. Entering my profession is one of them but there are many other things on the way. The Masters Degree and the profession give me an opportunity to gain experience and become a seasoned professional in my area of specialization (Jackson, 2000, p. 56). I will now get an opportunity to put my knowledge into practice and gain practical skills to add on my theoretical knowledge. Definitely, entering my profession will help me to achieve my career objectives of joining an exciting company that can encourage me to work to my fullest potential while giving me the opportunities I need to improve my personal and career development. I hope to get exposure on the things I covered in my Masters Degree such as developing professional practice, International strategy, Innovation and globalization, International Business Management, Digital and Media environment and Strategy for digital marketing. I also intent to get opportunities to practice other things I learnt earlier in school that feature in my C.V such as financial accounting, management accounting and corporate finance. Depending on the professional environment I will find myself in, I will strive to develop myself professionally in whichever way possible. As a Masters Degree holder, I have high hopes of succeeding in the business world. I expect my Masters degree to give me a competitive edge against other with lower qualifications (Taylor, 2013, p.26). My professional qualification is complete but there are a number of things I can do to make it better. I wish to do more about my IT skills. Presently, I am proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and Power point. I know these three are the most important for my practice. However, I will be better off and more comfortable in my profession if I have knowledge in other Microsoft Applications. Therefore I will strive to study Microsoft Publisher, Photoshop, Outlook and others. Since volunteering is one of my major interests, I intent to use it to increase my experience at professional practice. I will therefore look for opportunities to volunteer in places that deal directly with my area of training (Irving & Malik 2004, p. 78). I want my C.V to show a few other areas I have volunteered in especially areas that will expose me to International Business Management practice. By doing this, I want to appear especially to my prospective employers as a person who is not just after monetary gain but one who can serve for free and give back to society. I also want to have something to prove to my prospective employer that I am always serious with my assignments and that my driving force is performance and adding value to my employer. First Career Moves-Preparing for Internship or Placement For an entry level-job employers require a person to have the skills in the table below. Skill Description Ability to adapt to different cultures The candidate should be free to mingle with people of other cultures without difficulty and take up their practices if necessary. Experience and readiness to work and live abroad The candidate should be willing to move to any international station to discharge his duties from there. Knowledge about foreign cultures The person should have an understanding of the cultures of other people other especially those outside his country of origin Experience in another industry such as finance Additional experience in areas such as management information systems, accounting, finance, law or marketing can increase the chances of being taken. Table 1: Skills required by employers for entry level jobs, Source: Cottrell 2010, pp. 67-73 Evidence of the above skills can be explained in the C.V under the work experience section. To support this it will also be displayed through testimonials from former employers, certificates of events and other projects where the skills were either required or obtained. From the C.V or application form, it will be hard for the employer to identify my team working spirit and change management skills (Raelin 2002, p. 49). Therefore, the explanations below should help to make things clear. Team work Between 2005 and 2007 while working as a store keeper, I managed to work with my team to achieve excellent results on a job we had been assigned that lasted for two years. I was part of the inspection committee that carried out inspection on goods. Everyone in the committee relied on the other to achieve the set goals. At one time the team was forced to pass through a hard time when a certain member of the committee could not come to work for three days and no replacement was made for him. Without this member, the overall objectives of the committee in which we had a specified amount of goods to inspect in a given duration could not be achieved. I had my portion to attend to but because I was interested in the success of the entire team, I volunteered to do the part of the absent member during my free time and even worked for extra time. I did this for three days and managed to make up for he lost time. Managing Change Still at the same station where I worked between 2005 and 2007, at one time I was charged with the duty of managing change since I was a team leader in the store keeping department at the time. Change came in the form of a different way of operations in the department. First the team was reduced to size by the transfer of a few people to other departments. Second the manner in which we were recording imported and exported items was completely changed and new design proposed. Thirdly, new inspection committees were formed with new people while the regular ones were moved to other areas. Since the store department worked closely with these committees, these changes were going to affect us. Many people in the stores department were resistant to these changes and therefore, they had to be convinced to adopt them. As a leader I took it upon myself to help them understand why the changes were necessary and why their support to these changes was vital. I guided the entire department comprising of 20 people through the transformation period until they got used to the new system. The biggest barrier to getting the job I am targeting is lack of sufficient experience. Employers might require experience of between three and five years for people intending to get jobs in International Business Management in their companies (Vreie & Manfred 2011, p. 89). Experience will prove to be a great impediment because as it stands now, I have only one place where I worked for two years and this may not be sufficient to convince an employer that I am capable of working for him. Having experience is the best way of proving to my future employers that I am competent, capable and that I have what it takes to deliver on the job. Getting experience will require that I get opportunities for paid or voluntary work in the same profession before I can boast of being experienced. Both paid and voluntary work opportunities are not easy to come by. Opportunities for volunteer work may be available but not in the capacity I want (Jackson, 2000, p. 39). However, I intend to look for such opportunities so that I can volunteer for about three years before I can launch out to look for a job with a salary. Having said this, it does not mean that I will turn down a job offer just because I want to go and volunteer to gain experience. The prevailing circumstances will dictate the situation. For my professional development, I will enroll in a computer college for lessons on the Microsoft applications that I have not been able to do before. This will happen in the next one year because I want to be ready for any opportunity that may come my way. Computer proficiency will help me to be efficient in my world and not to miss out on opportunities that may require that I have training in these particular areas. Another goal I am planning to achieve is to do voluntary work for three years in different organizations involved in International Business Management. At least one of these volunteer opportunities should be overseas. Through these opportunities, I intend to gain experience on how to handle and work with people from different cultural backgrounds (Rothstein & Burke 2010, p. 116). This will give me good exposure that is very necessary for my career. Through this exposure, I will also strive to learn new languages such as French and Portuguese which are very important in my line of profession. Dissertation and Employability My chosen career path is to become an expert in International Business Management. Business management is my passion and desired career. Therefore, I will do my best to ensure that I do everything possible to get to the top of my career through training and service in order to gain experience. The topic of my dissertation project is Professional and Career Development. From this project I will gain skills and knowledge on how to manage my career within organizations and even between organizations. I will also be able to know and understand how to advance my career within the structures of various organizations. After writing this dissertation I will be in a position to know which areas of training I have not been able to focus on well. This will help me to direct my focus at those areas so that I can become an all rounded professional with the highest chances of succeeding in my career (Irving and Malik 2004, p. 67). I have the opportunity of discovering my weak areas especially in my qualifications and how best I can strengthen them and bring them to the levels of my choice. Through the dissertation I will get to understand the available opportunities for me especially when I begin my career. There are many channels available in my profession. The dissertation will also help me to make a decision on which specific channel to take that will ensure that I exploit my potential and become very efficient in the channel I will choose. This is very important because a wrong decision may cost me a lot when I realize that I messed and want to correct it. In future, I will enroll for a Doctorate Degree in International Business Management. The dissertation will therefore open my eyes on what specific area in my career I can specialize in. The dissertation will be an opportunity for me to gather information on how to polish my C.V and expand on the details discussed there. By writing the dissertation, I will also get an opportunity to do research on career development. The research will help me to gather knowledge on my profession, the opportunities available for me and their requirements. Career development is very important o anybody’s career (Jackson 2000, p. 28). Therefore, I am also hoping that the writing of the dissertation will help me understand how to manage my career development goals in the future. Career development will help me to advance my performance on the job, know how to take advantage of the job opportunities that will come my way in the future, and fulfill the goals of my employer by becoming a dynamic and effective employee. Bibliography Cottrel, S. (2010). Skills for Success: The Personal Development Planning Handbook (2nd edition). Palgrave Macmillan, Basingtoke UK. Irving B. & Malik B. (2004). Critical Reflections on Career Education and Guidance. London,Taylor Francis. Jackson T. (2000). Career Development. London, CIPD Publishing. Raelin J. (2002). Personal Career Development for Professionals. London, Routledge. Rothstein G. & Burke R. (2010). Self Management and Leadership Development. Northampton, Edward Elgar Publishing. Taylor R. (2013). International Business in China. London, Routledge. Vreie K & Manfred F.R. (2011). Reflections on Leadership and Career Development. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. Read More