Career Viewpoint

Career Action plan and self-reflection

Assignment task: This report is a self-reflection report, which will enable you to identify a career action plan, based on the research conducted for the first assignment, CW1.

Following on from the research that you undertook in CW1 and making use of the feedback that you received on this report to assist you, you need to:

Complete a personal analysis of what you have to offer this employer at the moment. This should include your current skills, knowledge and experiences, both academic and from other areas of your life. However, it needs also to identify if there are any areas for development. For example: Where could you do with adding more evidence? What additional skills and experiences do you need to add?
Once you have answered the above, you are in a position to develop your Career Action Plan. This should show both the short-term and longer-term actions required to prepare you for an opportunity in the area you have researched. Your actions must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound).
Finally, you also need to prepare a Curriculum Vitae (CV) and LinkedIn profile. You are asked to complete these exactly as your situation is now, as if you were applying for the position you identified. They can then be tailored and adapted for use in other methods of recruitment, for example on-line application forms.

INTRODUCTION - Provide a paragraph outlining what your assignment will cover. From CW1, you will need to include a brief summary of the job opportunity that you identified and also the full list of the key skills and knowledge/expertise that you identified as being required. These will form the basis for your self-evaluation.

PERSONAL ANALYSIS - a general review of your current skills, knowledge and experience related to those identified in CW1. You need to provide evidence for this analysis, so you can include the feedback and information reviewed within the seminars as well as work experience, and volunteering. The aim is to highlight current strengths, and also areas to focus your personal development around. Reflect on the following areas: What areas do you lack evidence in? Where do you need further examples / evidence in your applications? Where do you feel weak in your overall application?

CAREER ACTION PLAN - Once you have identified the areas you need to focus on, you need to prepare a Career Action Plan which addresses both the personal development and specific career related activities you will undertake to take you forward.
This plan should include the knowledge, skills and experiences you need to further develop. You should come up with clear SMART actions to get you to where you want to be. You should show the resources you will use to move the area of development forward and the timescales you will complete these in. This should cover as a minimum the time remaining to your graduation. This plan can be presented in the form of a table.

CV - Preparation of a CV to apply for the graduate level position identified in your research for CW1, based on your current situation. Your CV should be included as an appendix and will thus not form part of the word count for the assignment.

LinkedIn PROFILE - preparation of a LinkedIn profile based on your current situation. A snapshot of the profile should be included as an appendix, and include the following:- photo, headline and summary, education, skills (at least 4), groups (at least 2) and companies (at least 2).

CONCLUSION - A brief reflection on how you feel having completed the overall assignment, and how you intend to use the Career Action Plan.