Personal and Professional Development Plan

Personal and professional development is a continuous process that allows gaining new knowledge, skills and competencies concerning work duties, vocation and works surrounding. It is crucial that I continue with learning and development to ensure my prowess and knowledge are updated and build a safe and legally productive working environment. For this reason, the report is a document of my development plan containing conventional procedures of how I will frame my career goals, plan of action and results of acquired knowledge through training and, self-managed learning. The development plan will include my personal career preference, networking strategies, and professional online presence that would give me a chance to succeed in any career in the job market.

Preferred Personal Career

Since I am taking a course in management, it makes sense to develop a career development plan centered on management and marketing as the two go hand in hand. In my self-assessment, I have realized that one of my strength is interpersonal communication skills. I can mobilize people to work and persuade clients to purchase. Since my focus is working in a large organization, excellent communication will help in generating feedback to and forth the company, employees, suppliers, and customers thus building an intimate climate of interaction and achievement of set expectations.

        I would love to work in a management position in the retail industry like McDonald’s. The organizational behavior is fascinating as I will get to learn jobs, and enjoy other privileges as creating a sense of purpose, responsibilities, getting opportunities for advancement. The retail industry is one that is customer-oriented; thus I will be able to utilize my communication skills (Martinez & Howard 7). The sector has flexible working hours thus gives an opportunity to work overtime and earn more, and also creates a career path and progression opportunities. It has many positions like cashiering, internal audit, merchandising thus leading to exciting careers and networking opportunities. At the same time, I will evaluate other fields in both small and large organizations to acquit myself with vast knowledge. I, therefore, will consider working in medium-sized firms of between 250-500 employees, which provides more opportunities to grow and have just enough responsibilities to handle with minimum supervision.

Personal Goals and Motivations

 One of my personal goals is taking care of myself by taking it easy, taking more time in personal development and having just enough expectations of myself. I have come to learn that most people do not think about self-care, thus neglecting their mental and spiritual well-being. For this reason, I intend to invest in self-care starting with writing an article about it and enjoying the health benefits it brings and taking daily walks to catch some fresh air and generate ideas for next career and personal aspirations. I also intend to remove toxic people from my life, those that make me feel bad about myself, and also forgive myself of past mistakes to make myself stronger and take better actions in life.

      Another goal is pushing myself to work beyond my comfort zone. Life generally becomes boring and lacks fulfillment when a person remains physically and mentally in the same space. Due to this I intend to take more risks in business and career decision making, entering new job fields and travelling more to explore the world. Having such personal goals can give long-term direction and motivation of what I want to be and what to do with my life. Through this, I will be able to utilize knowledge and manage time and resources thus focusing more on my potential, as well as keep insight of my progress to redress new approaches to a failed step. Some of my career aspirations include traditional career success. Security, expertise, freedom, and balance. I have set these following the SMART technique to build goals that are future-oriented and those who motivate me to achieve career success.

Development Opportunities

Professional development involves maintenance of professional credentials in academics, formal coursework, and informal learning opportunities. There are various techniques of professional events I wish to explore such as consultation, technical assistance, reflective supervision and community of practice. Professional development involves formal vocational education or poly-technical training that gives qualification requires to get a job, and also in-service professionalism programs which can provide me with opportunities to enhance my process skills such as team functioning and system thinking skills (Hennecke & Alexandra 257). Continuing professional education (CPE), a program for continuing education can help me in the maintenance of skills and knowledge. Besides, I intend to engage in result-oriented teamwork in the managerial position at the workplace because projects implemented by groups are the key to personal success, satisfied clients, and business growth (Johnston & Greg 98).

Personal development can be explained through Maslow’s self-actualization process. It states that people have an inbuilt need for personal growth. Individuals can only develop depending on the ability to meet specific needs which form a hierarchy (Ozguner & Mert 62). Reflecting on my qualifications and skills and education enhancement are some of the requirements that promote not only the professional but also personal development. The presence of individual mentors such as parents and lecturers at my side to monitor my progress can help in planning for training and continuing my education outcomes. The regular and structured assessments will, in turn, provide a chance for professional feedback concerning my performance and development options.

My Networking Strategy

As a management student, entrepreneurship is the other side that has always captured my interest. For effective communication of my expertise in these two areas to the potential audience, I require a series of networking techniques to benefit fully. My first close connection is that with my family. My parents are well connected with Mark and Spencer retail company since my father worked there as an internal auditor in his 30s. His links with the company give great insight to explore the retail industry about management. My mother also works in Marine Advertising Agency. Through her, I learn basic business marketing strategies and business organization structures from a personal perspective.

      I also have had a close connection with my previous teachers and lectures that I have encountered in the past. According to Breeding, the close networking with these educators provided opportunities to network with companies, scholars, and businesses where students could build links with relevant figures in different industries (P. 29). The high-end opportunities offered by educators gave a chance to understand how to succeed in our careers and different routes to take to achieve. Through technological integration such as digital learning and data center networks, we can connect with the digital traffic and make use of the internet to make our expertise known.

     One of the essential activities that have boosted my networks is the presence of many friends from church, school, and home. Through interaction with them, I can participate in many church and community events thus having chances to meet more people with whom I network. Close connection with university comrades I can get avenue and opportunities for discovering new experiences in management, marketing and entrepreneurial skills that I can apply in a work setting or a business. Besides, social media connection like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been a significant boost to building my networks and online presence.

Professional Online Presence

Positioning oneself for career building requires online presence to showcase skills and experiences. The online professional profile helps to build links with people who can accelerate a job hunt and help in rising up the career path (Edmiston 21). I use my LinkedIn site for professional networking. My profile is always up to date with information including education background, employment history, skills and projects that I have done. I use the site to engage with other users actively and spending the time to grow my networks since the more connections I get, the higher my visibility. I expect my LinkedIn site to open avenues to connect with managers out there in the retail industry as well as get a job through them, and create a marketing niche for the company I will be working for through it.

       I am focused to have a personal website and a blog that I can use to write about me, promote my professional brand and sell my skills to prospective customers and employers. I will then link the website to my online social profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn, providing information on what I can offer to employers, then share my contact details to enable them to reach out to me. Apart from networking and commercial use, the platforms are applicable in the workplace as a means of communication and information sharing (Edmiston 24). Through the social platforms, I will also create a branding statement and enhance my visibility thus building a professional brand. At the same time, I will be careful about privacy, to ensure information that I post online is strictly professional to avoid making a wrong impression on a prospective employer.

Resume

Phone number:

Email:

Personal Profile

An outgoing and self-motivated person who has acquired relevant and competitive professional skills in enterprise management and marketing. I can aggressively speed up sales growth and business profits through development of friendly, well-trained sales group who attract high visibility to customers and respond positively to client needs. My education has equipped me with some hands-on management techniques, and one of my strengths is the potential to create enterprise apprehension from different information sources. Right now I am looking for a good leadership position in a market-leading, and growth-oriented retail company that gives me the opportunity to advance and gain experience in sales management.

Primary Skills

Active communication skill and a natural ability to multitask and share information and ideas reasonably.

Ability to jungle different tasks simultaneously, organize and prioritize work and work with little or no supervision

Negotiate with marketing study firms and advertising bureaus

Ability to assume highly performing work relations with sales representatives.

Capacity to positively affect sales through training and inciting employees to achieve desired goals.

Creation and maintenance of customer database documents that contain essential customer data and contacts

Identifying and selling against merchandising plans

Preparing itineraries and business reports with sufficient detail promptly

Education Background

Birmingham North University     2016-2019

BA Business Management

Birmingham South College         2012-2915

A Levels: English (A), Math (B), Religious education (A), Physics (B), Geography (C)

Work Experience

December 2016: Mark & Spencer

Responsibilities: overseeing merchandising activities in the stores, mobilizing employees to work and influencing a team spirit, monitoring the financial performance of the store, and dealing with customer queries and complaints.

August 2017: marine advertising agency

Responsibilities: working with department heads on marketing plans and contract budgets, planning advertising and promotional campaigns, meeting with clients to provide technical advice, maintaining close relations with employees, clients, and company stakeholders.

References

Available on request

The Job Application: Cover Letter

Retail Deputy manager

Aldi PLC, London, United Kingdom, EC3P 3DQ

Tel: +44 (0)20 7283 2000 email: [email protected]

Hiring manager,

Aldi Plc

London, U.K

EC3P 3DQ

Date: 10 march 2018

Dear sir/ Madam,

I am writing in light of the retail deputy manager position recently posted on the company website. After viewing the work description, I am convinced that I can be a good candidate for the post because my abilities and expertise equal your requirements.

I have an in-built desire to grow my career in Aldi Company and getting involved in successful business operations. I feel that the skills obtained from academics together with my natural enthusiasm will enable me to convince customers to make purchases. Besides, I am equipped with marketing skills thus in a position to help in company marketing functions, which makes me a good candidate for this position.

I am currently continuing with my studies in management at Birmingham North College where I will graduate mid2019. Some of the core strengths that will help me in working for the company include but are not limited to;

Helping to grow the sales pipeline in a short time

Directly engaging with customers to develop long-lasting relationships

Satisfying client needs through innovation and equivalent business activities

For more information about my abilities, please review my attached C.V.

I would love to work in a reputable organization like yours to build a career in sales management and where there is a significant stage to showcase my talent. An interview with you is welcome as I will be better placed to explain in detail the benefit and efficacy that I can bring into the company.

I look forward for your feedback and having an interview with you at your time of convenience.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

Name

Conclusion

The report contains a documented personal and professional plan of what I wish to commence on by highlighting my career of choice, development opportunities, personal goals and motivations, online presence and networking strategies. By analyzing and justifying these factors, my career path has become more explicit through the expression of my ambition and capabilities. Through the networking, concept to build my career prospect and enable me to stand out in job applications, the above aspects couple to developing my career plan.

Appendix

Aldi job advertisement

Works Cited

Johnston, Mark W., and Greg W. Marshall. Sales force management: Leadership, innovation, technology. Routledge, 2016. Pp. 98-102.

Edmiston, Dawn. “Creating a personal competitive advantage by developing a professional online presence.” Marketing Education Review 24.1 (2014): 21-24.

Breeding, Marshall. ”Social networking strategies for professionals.” Computers in libraries 29.9 (2009): 29-31.

Martinez, Martha A., and Howard E. Aldrich. ”Networking strategies for entrepreneurs: balancing cohesion and diversity.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research 17.1 (2011): 7-38.

Hennecke, Marie, and Alexandra M. Freund. ”The development of goals and motivation.” Personality Development across the Lifespan. 2017. 257-273.

Ozguner, Zeynep, and Mert Ozguner. ”A managerial point of view on the relationship between of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s dual factor theory.” International Journal of Business and Social Science 5.7 (2014): 62-69