Reflective Account and Portfolio of Evidence

¶ … Account

Career Development Plan for Implementation over 3 Years

Desired Career: Finance

Review Period from: January 8, 2016 to January 8, 2019

Career Goals:

Enter a graduate training programme in one of the major financial companies

Shift into a management position by the completion of my training

Start undertaking the Chartered Financial Analysis (CFA)

Progress on to a senior management role

Areas of Strength:

Currently, I am on course to attaining my Bachelor's Degree, which is the minimum requirement in entering the course that I plan to undertake. I am organized and I also have excellent time management skills. Being part of the finance club leaders, I have attained proper people skills. I am also a fast leaner and require very minimal supervision and close to none. I have undertaken classes that are linked to the career, for instance, Statistics. This class has comprehensively helped me in developing the analytical skills chiefly required in this career to grasp and evaluate data in order to discover reliable financial strategies. I am also good in communication as I can articulate and convey information in a clear manner that can be easily understood.

Areas of Development:

I plan to start undertaking the Chartered Financial Analysis (CFA) credential in the next two years. This development will enable me to break into and become eligible for other competitive fields, such as investment banking, business development as well as portfolio management. This program is mostly required by big organizations that process a lot of data and whose financial statements are very long and complicated. However, if dealing with individuals or family financial consultation, courses in investment, taxes, risk management and the likes are preferred. In order to enter into this institute, the minimum required prerequisite is a bachelor's degree. Work experience is very much preferred but in most cases is not a mandatory condition for selection. Taking this into account, I plan on applying for internships in different financial institutions in order to attain a great extent of work experience that is necessitated in the field of profession (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). I will apply for any temporary assignment or entry level positions that come up in any of the finance branches. In addition, a number of areas that I intend to develop and improve on include programming as well as IT. In the present day, more and more companies require their employees to have skills and proficiencies in IT, owing to the increase in technology use.

Skills Audit Linked to Professional Requirements

Required professional skills in the chosen career include excellent verbal and oral communications skills, exceptional and versatile IT skills, and an analytical and logical tactic to problem solving. It also includes motivation and ambition, sensitivity and integrity as well. It also necessitates proper communication skills and the capacity to function and operate personal initiatives. At present, in auditing the skills, I am yet to fully develop versatile IT and analytical skills.

Knowledge and Skills Considered for the chosen Career

Ability Rating

(Strong/Weak/Somewhere in Between)

Good Communication Skills

Organization

Problem Solving

Confidence

Working well as an individual and as a team

Punctuality

Good knowledge in the following aspects:

Analytical Skills

Programming

Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel

Strong

Strong

Somewhere in between

Strong

Strong

Strong

Somewhere in between

Somewhere in between

Strong

CV Improvements

The following are some of the adjustments made on the curriculum vitae with the endeavor of reaching the career that I have chosen

Before

After

Co-managed and controlled all of the operations and activities undertaken by the Finance Club

Managed and controlled all of Finance Club's activities

Lack of Referees

Included two referees at the end of the CV

Hobbies and interests

My main interest encompass math, playing football and watching rugby and reading novels. I also participate in the finance club and math club.

Changed the paragraph into bullet points

Playing football

Watching rugby

I love mathematics and calculations

Co-founder and participant of finance club

Participant of math club

Use of IT to create an online professional identity to communicate achievements, experience and skills development

In this case, taking into account the field of profession and career I have chosen, there is a distinctive need to develop and sustain online professional identity to communicate achievements, experience and skills development. My online presence will be made up of my own website from the domain site yourfullname.com. In particular, this aforementioned website will serve as the heart of my online presence. The notion is to make the most of this website in an effective manner, in order for it to be ranked first when my name is searched in main search engines, for instance Google, Yahoo and Bing. In addition, my online presence will also consist of social network profiles, with self-importance, URL's, on different social networks, for instance, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter on the least (Schwabel, 2011).

Reflection

Critically evaluating your current level of personal performance in relation to relevant professional standards

With respect to the finance profession, a minimum of a bachelor's degree is required in order to enter into this career. However, similar to the earlier mentioned career, more and more employers now prefer to hire employees who have attained a master's degree. Financial management is a serious task and therefore requires plenty of knowledge and experience in the career. Professional certification in this field is very much valued. Such programs can be done through the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. Work experience is very much preferred, but in most cases is not a mandatory condition for selection (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). There are ethical and financial standards necessitated in this field. Employees are expected to act with integrity, respect and competence at all times. In addition, they are mandated to place the integrity of the profession and the interests of consumers above their own individual interests. In overall, the employee has an obligatory duty to the clients and employers and also respect and maintain the integrity of the markets (CFA Institute, 2015).

At the present, I do not comprehensively have the fitting skills and competencies, which are deemed necessary in the field. In mapping my own skills against the requirements of my chosen profession, I have excellent communication skills, not only verbally, but orally as well. I am motivated, ambitious, and I have the capacity to work on my own initiative. One of the skills that I would consider not to have fully attained encompasses advanced IT skills and also analytical skills. These are significant proficiencies in the profession, which I am yet to fully develop (Monster, 2015).

Using IT to create an online professional identity to communicate achievements, experience and skills development.

In the present day and age, there is a great magnitude to which a professional online presence is important. This is because in the contemporary, this has come to be the main manner in which employers get to know prospective employees not only professionally, but also individually. For this reason, cultivating an online professional presence is of paramount significance through both social and professional networking websites. A strong online presence makes it simpler for employers to have extra ways to examine and evaluate an individual as a prospective applicant (WLU, 2015). In addition, an online presence speaks volumes regarding an individual. This can either have a constructive or adversarial impact on the manner in which employers perceive you as a prospective and prevailing employee. According to WLU (2015), statistics indicate that one in every ten young job applicants have lost a job prospect, owing to their social media profiles.

A professional online presence is important for a couple of other key reasons. According to Totka (2013), a professional online presence is very imperative in order to hold onto a job. An employer has the need to ascertain that an employee is not going to have a damaging influence on the brand and appearance of the business. Secondly, it is important when it comes to networking. In the present day, networking has shifted on to the online world. It is imperative for one's social media presence to appear as professional as possible. However, this does not apply that they ought not to include aspects that are funny. Nonetheless, they ought not portray you in a negative manner from the employer's standpoint (Totka, 2013).

A professional online presence is important to a great extent particularly with respect to my chosen career. This is for the reason that more and more employers in this field make use of the web as a place to look for talent and also pilot employment background searches. Another reason is that it instigates business success, especially in the financial realm (Schwabel, 2011). As a personnel of the company, I want to make certain that the business is successful in order for me to keep being employed. As a result, maintaining an online presence professionally is imperative. Without a doubt, no employee wants his or her employer to find him or her in a compromising circumstance online (Schwabel, 2011). Handing out an attention grabbing, enlightening, and professional online faAade will aid the companies' consumers to perceive the business in a professional perspective. In addition, the more consumers the company attains, the greater the likelihood of the company surviving (Schwabel, 2011). Another significant reason for a professional online presence in my chosen career is the aspect of growth prospects. With a comprehensive level of competition in the financial world, it is imperative to appear in a professional light so as to grow and develop within the profession. Developing and maintaining a successful online presence in a professional manner enables the employee to put out and indicate their talents, skills, and expertise. In turn, this can go a long way in the direction of instituting a credible status (Schwabel, 2011).

Creating a Personal Career Development plan for implementation over 3 years

Career planning is a process intended to aid one in thinking through their career aims and objectives, place emphasis on developing the necessitated knowledge and skills, and most of all, deliberate and ascertain on how to better employ one's string suits, talents, expertise, as well as passion in a career. In better terms, career planning can be thought of as a means of permitting individuals to envision their future careers and somewhat, offering them a trail or a path to follow in attaining their dreams. It is imperative for an individual seeking to explore further into a certain career to make plenty of considerations before diving in completely. Majority of people eventually come to regret most of the career paths chosen when it is virtually late to do anything about it. Career development planning is important for any individual. According to Rennolls (2014), just about every individual has some kind of important aspiration or goals they anticipate to realize in the future. For a considerable number of individuals, this takes into account some sort of longstanding dream job. Despite the fact that the majority of these objectives might appear hard or perhaps difficult to attain, they can be much more manageable by the implementation of a career plan (Rennols, 2014). A solid career development plan is important as it can serve as a dependable roadmap to the desired career. Having a genuine career development plan in place is time and again an indispensable part of individual growth and development. Devoid of goals to work toward, most people find it challenging to wander from the easy standard or to attain skills, which make them a more valued product in the career or professional world (Rennolls, 2014). This can be linked to the short-term, long-term and SMART goals that have been indicated in the career development plan above.

A critical discussion and reflection of your own personal career journey

I have undertaken various steps with the purpose of increasing my prospects of success in my chosen profession. To start with, I have carefully selected the courses that are in line with my desired career path. For instance, I have included statistics as part of the courses I undertake. I am also currently partaking IT classes in order to attain exceptional IT skills, which are necessary for the profession. Most of all, I have made considerable applications for internships and graduate trainee programmes in order to attain work experience, which is necessary in this field of profession.

However, this academic journey has not been smooth at all. I have faced quite a number of challenges on the way. One of the main difficulties has been time management. With the several activities going on in campus, more often than not, I have found myself waiting up until the final moment to finalize an assessment. At times, I have even been forced to drop imperative tasks completely simply because I did not have sufficient time (Ellis, 2016). This is one particular challenge that gave me problems and at times resulted in me being behind with my work. However, the manner in which I overcame this challenge was simply setting a calendar that included all of my deadlines. This proved to be critical as it enabled me to list down the dates of important activities, such as assessment tasks and exams, thereby being able to schedule sufficient time for studying within the prior days. In addition, having listed down my obligations, I was able to set priorities for the significant tasks and therefore not get passed over (Ellis, 2016).

One other significant challenge that I have faced during my time here in college has been social distractions. One of the common things that seizes the time of students in college has been student parties and college house parties. Socializing with friends during parties is necessary as it is a stress reliever. However, there are a few times when I partied too much and ended up missing classes (Ellis, 2016). The main way in which I overcame this challenge was simply by determining the amount of time it would take for me to undertake my different obligations on a day-to-day and weekly basis. Subsequent to this, the extra time that I was left with was apportioned for relaxing and also socializing with other individuals (Ellis, 2016). In addition, without certainty of the amount of time my work would take, I avoided unnecessary stress and worry by getting such things out of the way (Ellis, 2016). In addition, I also ensured that I went to social parties enough times, but did not overdo it. Social distractions are another major challenge that I faced. At this day and age, with the advancement in social media and technology, social websites have come to be a serious distraction. More so, they become all the more distracting as several classes require online reading. Several times, I found myself wasting plenty of time on social websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Whatsapp. However, I managed to overcome this major challenge by disabling and also ignoring notifications on the phone and tuning out social media websites (Ellis, 2016).