Career Action Plan and Self Reflection

This article discusses the importance of a career action plan and self reflection for personal and professional development. It includes an identification of current skills, skills that need to be developed, SWOT analysis, and an action plan. Suitable for students and professionals in management and logistics.

CAREER ACTION PLAN
AND SELF REFLECTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................3
Identification of current skills.........................................................................................3
Skills that needs to be developed....................................................................................4
SWOT analysis................................................................................................................4
Action plan for personal and professional development.................................................5
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................8
REFERNCES.....................................................................................................................10
APPENDICES...................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
For the job role of operation support manager, a recent graduate requires various
skills and knowledge which an employer demands. For this specific job in the
management and logistic company, several skills such as communication, negotiation,
team working, problem solving and leadership skills are required. Along with this, a
recent graduate is expected to posses great technical skills and innovative thinking skills
which is essential for becoming successful in the professional life.
These skills are necessary for a graduate to understand the position in the
company and to carryout the duties with higher efficient. My report will consist a self
evaluation of my existing skills. It will include a swot analysis of current skills through
which I will be able to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses. For the weaknesses known
through swot analysis, I will prepare a skill development action plan by which I will be
able to develop the needed skills for my career.
Further, in the report a curriculum vitae (CV) will be prepared for the job position
of operations support manager in a management and logistic company. The reflection
will be in accordance with the Kolb’s learning model which will help me in my
continuous learning development.
MAIN BODY
Identification of current skills
From the interviews and feed-backs from various people, I have come to know
that a recent graduate shall possess five personal skills which are listed below:
 Communication skills
 Negotiation skills
 Problem solving skills
 Leadership skills
 Team working skills
From the personal evaluation and from the feedback from others , I possess good
communication skills, leadership skills which are required for my desired job role. Also, I
am good at using various database software and Ms-office applications which would
render me as a desirable candidate for the role of operation support manager. Also, I am

confident enough to take on the challenges and responsibilities related to the intended job
in the logistic company.
Skills that needs to be developed
There are certain skills and knowledge that I have to learn and develop in me for
my personal and professional development. Developing of such skills in me would help
me in boosting my career. The skills which I want to develop are negotiation skills,
problem solving skills and team working skills.
Negotiation skills basically means the capability of a person to bargain with a
person who possess different aim and viewpoints for reaching a consensus (Hanson, and
Casey, 2017). I want develop this skill because this skill helps in establishing good and
healthy professional and personal relationship with others despite having different
interests.
Another skill which I want to develop is problem solving skill. This skill means
identifying and defining the problem, creating alternative solutions , evaluating them and
selecting the best course of action. This skill is necessary for the professional
development because it will help me in standing out from the crowd and will further
boost my confidence.
Team working skills refers to those skills which allows a person to efficiently
work and manage a team of number of individual (Kutch and Johnston, 2018). This skill
is of utmost significance because in the professional life working in large organization, I
will have to work in a team and especially for a manager level, this become even more
important.
SWOT analysis
A swot analysis is an evaluation of internal strengths and weaknesses. It also
assesses the opportunities and threats present in the external environment (Hartung
and Santilli, 2016). Following is the swot analysis of my current skills and
knowledge :
Strengths
 Good communication skills, I can
effectively communicate with others.
 I possess good leadership skills which
Weaknesses
 My problem solving and decision making
skills are not very effective.
 I feel difficult in understanding the

means that I am able to influence others
with actions in a positive way.
 I am filled with required confidence in
carrying out my roles and responsibilities.
 My technology based skills are sharp.
perspective of others quite a few times
which I have observed while working in
teams.
 My negotiation skills are not very
satisfactory.
Opportunities
 To develop the core managerial skills
critical thinking and innovation in my
workings for enhancing my chances of
becoming a operations support manager.
Threats
 Intense competition from peers and
colleagues.
Action plan for personal and professional development
Personal and professional development plan is commonly called as continuous
development plan (CPD) which helps an individual to manage its own learning and
growth in its career. In other words, it is such a plan that helps an individual to record,
critique and reflect on the things which a person has intended to developed or learned
(Ashkenazy, 2018).
For the purpose of developing the essential skills in me, I have prepared an action
plan that will guide me in achieving my goals. Following is the action plan :
Career Action Plan
Areas for
development
Resource that I
draw on
Action or
strategies for
developing skills
How will I
measure the
success
Time required
Problem solving
skills
Guidance from
seniors , Friends
and family
 Proper
defining the
problem
 Focusing on
the solution
rather than
problem
 Thinking
 Self
evaluation
 Feedback
from the
people
around me
such as
colleagues,
2.5months

about
generating
different
alternatives
and
evaluating
each of the
alternative’s
pros and
cons.
 Visualizing
the problem
 Simplifying
the things
with creative
solutions
peer, friends,
family etc.
Negotiation
skills
 Online
tutorials
 Keen
observation
of the people
who are
good at it in
my
surrounding
 Enrolling
myself in the
training
classes for
the
improvemen
 Studying
and
practising
the literature
available for
improving
the
negotiation
skills
 Aptly
considering
the
viewpoints
of the
opponent
 Feedback
from the
tutor of the
training
program
 Self
observation
of my
growth while
negotiating
with people
in real life
3.5 months

t of my
negotiation
skills
parties
 Participat
ing actively
in the
training
session.
Team working
skills
Help from the
experienced
people
 Understandi
ng the
perspective
of different
people.
 Being
emphatic
while
working in
team
 Being
patient
 Trusting the
other team
members
 Communicat
ing the point
of conflict at
the time it
develops
with the
other team
members for
avoiding any
misundersta
 Asking
suggestions
and feedback
from the
other team
members
while
working in
teams
 Bench-
marking by
which I will
my results
with the
standards set
by the peers.
5 months

nding
Career Action Plan: Short term and long term goals
Short term goals that are to be achieved in 12 months
 Improvement in the negotiation skills
 Development of problem solving skills
 Enhancement of team working skills
Long term goals ( up to the period of 2 years) Deep understanding of the business of logistics Strengthening the core managerial skills Getting well averse with ever evolving technology taking place in the field of management.
These were the skills which I needed to develop in me for triggering my career as
operations support manager in the logistic and management company.The action plan
prepared by me has set out the strategies regarding how will I achieve my short term
goals and objectives that I desire along with the time required for each skill to develop.
This action plan will guide me in achieving what I intend to and if I does not get the
desired result , it will allow me to make modifications in the current plan so that I can
effectively improvement the skills that a graduate must have who wish to become a
manager in the future.
CONCLUSION
I will use the prepared action plan in accordance with the principles of the Kolb’s
learning model which guides an individual regarding how it learn new things
systematically and use that newly acquired knowledge in the practical life. As per the
Kolb’s model, there are four stages in the self learning which are ; confrontation of a
situation or having a concrete experience, then reflection of the situation confronted by
the individual for finding out any inconsistencies between the exiting understanding and
the new experience, after-which creating an abstract conceptualization for dealing with
the new situation and finally applying the new acquired learning in the environment for
ascertaining the results (Kolb's Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle, 2017).

The use of my personal and professional development plan will go just like the
Kolb’s learning model wherein I will use my strategies that I have developed in the plan
for developing the needed skills. After my confrontation with a specific situation, I will
conduct a self reflection by observing whether there are any inconsistencies in between
my understanding and that particular situation. This self reflection will facilitate me with
the creation of new ideas and thoughts. This is the stage in Kolb’s learning style wherein
a person learns a new concept and forms an abstract conceptualization for facing a new
situation . Lastly, I will use this learning in my surroundings to see what actually happens
whether I have been to apply my newly developed skills as per the action, are they
satisfactory, are they going to help me in my to grow personally and professionally. This
measurement of my skills will be from the feed-back and reviews by my peers,
colleagues, friends , family and seniors.

REFERNCES
Books and Journals
Hanson, B.J. and Casey, M., 2017. Creating a Career Development Curriculum:
Facilitating Transition to Professional Practice. The Health Professions Educator: A
Practical Guide for New and Established Faculty, p.11.
Hartung, P. J. and Santilli, S., 2016. The theory and practice of career construction.
In Career Counselling (pp. 192-202). Routledge.
Kutch, B. M. and Johnston, S., 2018. From Stuck to Spark: Career Planning.
Ashkenazy, R., 2018. Behavior, experience, skill, and training: a four-pillar framework
and tool for career development in science.
Online
Kolb's Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. 2017.[Online]. Available
through <https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html>

APPENDICES