Professional Career Development

This report discusses the importance of career development and personal reflection, as well as the skills and knowledge necessary for efficient working. It also covers readiness for employment, understanding personal strengths and weaknesses, and setting employment goals. The goal is to become a child care manager and the actions required to achieve this goal. The report concludes with the importance of planning and determination in career development.

Professional Career
Development

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Personal reflection on career development and journey.........................................................3
Skills and Knowledge that has unable in efficient working...................................................4
Readiness for next height in employment..............................................................................4
Understanding of personal strength........................................................................................5
Identify your area of weakness that talk about challenges it can cause at workplace and how
you can further improve those areas.......................................................................................6
Employment goals and personal actions................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Career development is the process of choosing a career path and focusing ourselves fully into
that field. It involves making a plan so that we can achieve our long term goals or what we
actually aspire from our life. Every human being has an expectation regarding his career or
professional life (Hagemann, and Kluge, Langdon, 2019).
To fulfil those expectations everyone makes a plan so that he can reach his final
destination or achieve his or her goals. The plan is designed accordingly so that we can learn and
acquire new skills and knowledge which is going to be helping us while being in an organisation.
But the question here is what career path one should choose? So the answer to that question is
one should choose a career path which is our field of interest and that makes us happy or the
work that makes us happy and keep us motivated for our entire life. Like my field of interest is
childcare. This following report is going to highlight about my career and my plans and the
future goals I want to achieve. It’s also going to talk about the obstacles I faced while pursuing
my career.
Personal reflection on career development and journey
My journey to become a child care specialist started when I analysed my interest in school days.
Since my senior secondary I wanted to make a career in this particular field only because I
believe it's the only thing that is going to keep me motivated and happy my entire life (Brubaker,
Adams, and Weins, 2019).
I used to secure highest marks in biology and from that time only I started my research for
finding how to become a specialist. I completed my BTEC national diploma and NCFE CACHE
and then I started an internship where I got exposure to practical knowledge instead of theory.
Initially my work was to take care of the children but slowly it grew to doing check-ups of the
children on my own and suggesting those medicines.
During that internship I realised that I lack in some areas which mainly were communication
and getting nervous while talking. So to overcome these problems I started working on them so
that when I become a professional doctor I don't have to face these problems again. I started
conversation with more and more people and starting talking to myself in front of the mirror.
After this internship and a level 3 exam I again applied in one of the best hospitals for internship
so that I can learn more from them. It was going to add a feather in my cap. Though it was an

internship only but not everyone gets a chance of being an intern there. I feel proud that got this
opportunity and learned a lot of things.
Skills and Knowledge that has unable in efficient working
Though I was a brilliant child in biology during my school days but it taught me only the
theoretical part. I got a practical exposure during my trainings where I enhanced my skills and
knowledge.
 Critical thinking- Critical thinking is developed only when we learn the practical aspect
instead of theory part. My trait of critical thinking also developed during my internship and
when I used to deal with my patients alone analysing their health problems. I gained a lot of
confidence.
 Good communication – Communication is the essential part of any career. If we lack
communication skills we may not be able to talk to our clients especially when you are in a
field where communication is the basic requirement. Same was the case with me I lacked
communication which was a hindrance because I was not able to explain my patients their
problem and solution. So I started working on my communication skills by talking in front of
the mirror.
 Efficiency- Efficiency depends on regular practice and doing practical things. Mugging up
theory won't help anyone in increasing the efficiency. During my internship I was devoted
towards new tasks so that every time I perform a new task I can learn something new that
was my main motive and using this approach I increased my efficiency (Tawfik, and et. al.,
2019).
 Self Confidence- A confident person always looks different from others. When you are
confident enough people can completely rely on you. Self-confidence is required in every
field and so was the case with me where you know that the patients’ health is your
responsibility. Confidence helped me became more efficient because it solved my problem of
getting nervous every time in front of my patients.
Readiness for next height in employment
Employment readiness basically means making bows and ready for the job by giving him
knowledge and polishing his practical and skills that are required for the job you want to do or if
you want to go on a higher position. There are many skills that are required perform the duty

effectively and efficiently those skills are good communication, critical thinking, problem
solving and also academics (McDonald, 2017).
As I want to become childcare manager I need these skills some of them were already in me
and I have polished them in my career and acquired others that are essential for the job. I still
lack in written communication and make some grammatical mistakes which I am looking on
by taking classes and doing writing practices. I am good at problem solving, handling the
customers is a skill that I acquired while my internship and has helped me a lot. So, it is
important to be ready for the job.
Understanding of personal strength
Everyone possesses some strengths and weaknesses. The strengths that we have help us to
perform better and we should try to make them even stronger. One needs to identify his or her
strengths and work upon it. Not only strengths but we should know our weaknesses as well so
that we can change them into a strength. Everyone has a different strength and weakness; we
need to identify ours like I did. My strengths that I analysed during my leanings and internship
were:
 Communication skills- Though it was my weakness but as I said earlier we should be
capable of transforming our weakness into strength and I did the same. By continuously
working on my communication skills I developed them and even grew them stronger.
Communication is something that has a long lasting impact on someone’s mind. We can
easily make someone understand our point if we are good at communication.
 Keen at practical work- Theory is not going to help us in every phase of life. It was only
useful when we used to study in schools and were asked to mug up the answers. When
we enter the phase of job applying that theoretical part into practical part is the most
important aspect (Meng, 2020). How to get practical knowledge and how easily we can
understand them, all depends on our ability to learn them. Being an intern in 2 highly
prestigious institutes I acquired practical learning skills and it became my strength.
 Knowledge-As it is rightly said “A little knowledge is a dangerous a thing” without
proper knowledge of our field or more precisely without adequate knowledge we cannot
excel in our work. One should have a complete learning of his field which in turn is going
to make him more efficient. The more efficient we are the more are the opportunities of

growing in the future. Everyone is going to count on you if you are a knowledgeable
person.
Identify your area of weakness that talk about challenges it can cause at workplace and how you
can further improve those areas.
Making a career in professional field requires a lot of skills and the person and has to face a
lot of challenges as no one is perfect and everyone learns through practice. Below are some
of my weaknesses on which I have worked and improvised them.
 Introvert: This is a type of nature seen in human beings under whom they hesitate to
talk and feel shy while talking; this nature was problematic for me as I want to develop
my career as a manager (Aithal, and Kumar, 2016). I have to talk to client and also assist
doctors. So I worked on my weakness to achieve the goals that are required in my career.
 Development of weakness-
During my internship I tried to talk to many people that were senior to me and by which I
learned many things also my fear to speak in front of public got vanished. While taking
the training and interacting with people the fear went away and now I am able to solve
the problems that arise and communicate effectively. This happened because I understood
my weakness and worked on it.
Employment goals and personal actions
The goal of my life was to become a child care specialist and the duty of the person is to
help other doctors and give them the responsibility of patients. The task requires hard work as
you have assist other doctors and nurses while handling the patients. It is not as easy task to get
at this stage as it required degree as well as hard work (Török and et. al., 2017).
Goal: The goal of my life is to become a child care manager.
Action plan: As, told earlier I have already sent my application Child Care hospital, London
which is one of the famous hospital that serve the children at the best possible ways. The
treatment provided by the hospital is finest and has a good image in society. There is opportunity
for growth in this hospital as the treatment given to patients is so wonderful that I want to learn.
Getting internship from this hospital will increase my skills and knowledge and I would love to
get a job in Child Care hospital (Fischer, Greiff and Funke, 2017). I will work at my best during
internship so that I can get a job there and the hospital hires me because of my hard work. It is
my dream to work with the hospital also my parent would love if I will make my career in such a

big organisation and they will be proud of me. And if they will not hire me or I lose the
opportunity I would complete my last level of NVQ and then I would apply in other child care
hospitals.
When I will get the job I will serve customers at my level best so as to fully solve their
problems. I will learn while working and try my best to enhance my skill and knowledge. Them
when I will get better opportunity I would switch to a higher post. I would like to focus on
learning managerial skills because that is required at every level in life (Storme, and Celik,
2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that career development requires a lot of planning
right from deciding a career option, setting a goal and how to advance in our path to achieve a
goal. If we don’t have a aim we can never decide how to go on in our life. Because if we are
careless about the career path we choose we can suffer for the rest of our life. It also talks about
the problems I faced, my strengths and weaknesses and how I overcame them. My ultimate goal
is to become a child care specialist for which I did internships which helped me to gain the
practical knowledge. It all filled me with determination and confidence.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aithal, P. S. and Kumar, P. M., 2016. Using six thinking hats as a tool for lateral thinking in
organizational problem solving. International Journal of Engineering Research and
Modern Education (IJERME), 1(2), pp.225-234.
Brubaker, D., Adams, H. and Weins, K., 2019. The Effect of Exercise on Decision-Making and
Problem-Solving.
Fischer, A., Greiff, S. and Funke, J., 2017. The history of complex problem solving.
Hagemann, V. and Kluge, A., 2017. Complex problem solving in teams: the impact of collective
orientation on team process demands. Frontiers in psychology, 8, p.1730.
Langdon, P. E., 2019. Assessment for Social Problem‐Solving, Social Information Processing,
and Criminal Thinking. The Wiley Handbook on What Works for Offenders with
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: An Evidence‐Based Approach to Theory,
Assessment, and Treatment .pp.167-180.
McDonald, S. D., 2017. Enhanced Critical Thinking Skills through Problem-Solving Games in
Secondary Schools. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning & Learning Objects, 13.
Meng, P., 2020. Examining the Effects of Academic Team-initiated Problem Solving
Professional Development on Data-based Decision Making for Reading Supports.
Storme, M. and Celik, P., 2018. Career exploration and career decision-making difficulties: The
moderating role of creative self-efficacy. Journal of Career Assessment .26(3). pp.445-
456.
Tawfik, A. A and et. al., 2019. How novices use expert case libraries for problem
solving. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 24(1), pp.23-40.
Török, R., and et. al., 2017. Analyzing models of career decision self-efficacy: First-order,
hierarchical, and bifactor models of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale. Current
Psychology .36(4). pp.764-773.