SWOT Analysis for Personal Development and Career

This essay discusses the importance of SWOT analysis for personal development and career growth. It explains how to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and convert them into opportunities and strengths. It also includes a personality development plan to improve skills and abilities.

SWOT ANALYSIS
ESSAY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Career development is a process which carry various activities and these are in on-going
in nature. It refers to the management and planning of an individual career including training and
development and helps in providing new skills in order to pursue jobs at specified time
(Vondracek, Lerner and Schulenberg, 2019). It is directly linked with the goals and objectives
which is set by an individual in order to perform their job roles. This include various components
along with the development of a person like self-assessment, career development, goal setting,
skill training and performing. Moreover, this essay is based on the self assessment of personal
development skills and abilities and for this, SWOT analysis is performed which helps in
analysing various components of an individual. In addition to this, Personality Development Plan
is made in order to analyse and improve those skills in which shortage is identified and need to
be improved (Rubens and et. al., 2018).
DISCUSSION
Personal development is important for an individual because of this employees look more
confident and it helps in increasing the self-esteem and image of an individual. By considering
the SWOT analysis it is quite difficult to analyse own strengths and weaknesses for the personal
progress but it helps in learning new things and finding appropriate direction for career (Bull and
et. al., 2016). SWOT is an effective tool as it helps in analysing and improving the necessary
details for yourself. Overall, it helps in providing a picture of the merits and demerits an
individual has and its outcome is based on the reaction to the findings. While, conducting this, it
is important to think wisely and positively as it helps in overcoming the weaknesses and threats.
In order to become successful in the competitive world it is important to identify the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats as it helps in analysing the success factor for an individual.
It is important for an individual to having awareness of these four elements in order to achieve
competitive advantage. Moreover, it is helpful in focusing on those areas which need to be
improve and also find ways to overcome these lack areas. Therefore, SWOT analysis for
personal or career development is discussed as under:
Strengths: It is a factor which is useful in developing and enhancing the present skills in
order to bring them to next level. It is the factor which defines the strengths and depict what
differentiate me form other person or competitors like my image, behaviour and many more. It
1

defines that what makes you unique and different including expertise in skills and knowledge
which is beneficial for me and mentioning the professional skills and qualifications which
include certifications and also remind the achievements (Niranjanamurthy, Nithya and
Jagannatha, 2019). My personal strengths include my capabilities in terms of being innovative
and creative. It is my important factor which helps me in performing in my professional career
with an effective and efficient manner as compared to others. My innovative skill helps me to
look unique and different from others because it represent my education and abilities. Apart from
this, communication and legal knowledge are also my strengths as communication is the basic
knowledge which is useful at any point of career and also helpful in managing conflicts and
clarifying things to others. As communication skill is the primary key for the career
development.
Weaknesses: It describe those skills and knowledge in which I am weak and need to
improve in order to develop my career and personality. While analysing the weaknesses, it is
important to be honest with themselves as it also does not mean being much harsh on yourself it's
just about being truthful. For this an individual need to clearly identify its weakness without
hesitation in order to overcome them. Weaknesses are unavoidable when it comes to deal within
the competitive environment. It defines the drawbacks which hinder the personality and
development of an individual at the time of implementing various strategies in order to achieve
the objectives. While talking about me, my weaknesses are multitasking skills and managerial
knowledge in which I am weak and need to develop them in order to develop my career and
personality. Moreover, I am open minded and when I decided to gain something in me then it
becomes difficult to change my direction and to improve my weaknesses various theories are
opted by me such as human relations and system theory because it is the only path to deal with
them and seek advices form others in order to overcome them.
Opportunities: It describes the situations which represent the present possibilities in
order to exceed or extend the goals and objectives. Opportunities will represent themselves in
various manner as it can gain by losing something and getting an opportunity in return
(Phadermrod Crowder, and Wills, 2019). It describes the impact of external factors which can
become opportunity for me in order to develop my self and enhance my overall personality. My
some opportunities which are created by eliminating my weaknesses and these are leadership and
legal knowledge as in these skills I am average and for me it is an opportunity to convert them in
2

my strengths. On top of that, I need to conduct research in order to achieve success in my career
path as there are lot of opportunities present in me all I need to do is just brush them up. It is
important to analyse them and take continuous feedback from others in order to develop and
improve them.
Threats: It is determined as those factors which are present in others and can hinder your
overall performance as it include some of those skills which need to improve in order to develop
your career but somehow it becomes quite difficult to improve them (Li and et. al., 2016). Most
common threats which many people face are opposing competition, struggle and overcoming the
obstacles and many more. Currently, I face many barriers in my success path as they can hinder
my overall performance in order to develop my career. As the two threats which influence my
overall development are increasing competition as in modern world lot of people have different
kinds of abilities and those people can become threat for me because of this it impacts my overall
learning and success and strengths of others can become hurdle in my success. Another one is
frequently changing requirement as it is the most impacting threat which bring downfall in the
development of my career and for this in always need to have those skills and knowledge which
is not present in anyone or unique in nature.
It is important to conduct SWOT analysis as it helps in enhancing my strengths and
weaknesses and useful in analysing my overall opportunities and threats. Moreover, it helps in
finding out those ways which can convert threats into opportunities and weaknesses into
strengths but for this an individual need to put contingencies in place (Bull and et. al., 2016). It
helps in developing various strategies in order to attain goals and describe the path of success,
analyse the drawbacks and helps in reaching the desired objectives. Moreover, it is useful in
improving the self-confidence and esteem in order to understand and improve the self image and
reputation. At that time, is can improve strengths and reduces the weaknesses and also focus on
the present abilities, skills, capabilities and many more.
Personality Development Plan
Skills Current Ability Target Ability Development
Opportunities
Criteria to
Judge Success
Time
Frame
Multitasking
skills
I take lot of
time in order to
do work at
Aim is to
perform
various roles
To develop this
skill, I need to
perform
The success is
achieved when
I perform
01/10/19
3

same time as
overall I almost
cannot perform
many roles and
responsibilities
at a time which
can become
hindrance or
barrier in my
overall
development.
and
responsibilities
at a time as it
helps in saving
time and also
become helpful
for me in the
development of
my career.
different
functions at a
time which helps
me in order to
manage and do
multiple
functions.
various
functions at a
time and save
time. It is
judged by the
board of
directors and
the top level
management.
Managerial
Knowledge
I am weak in
this skill as I
take too much
time in order to
learn about the
things which
are related with
the functions of
management
and
administration.
Purpose is to
perform
managerial
functions
effectively and
develop skills
and knowledge
for it.
In order to
improve this
skill, I need to
learn things
about the
management and
its related
functions.
The progress is
judged by those
individual who
helped me in
my career
develop and
self-assessment
like top
management,
my supervisor
etc.
05/12/19
The above mentioned PDP describes the different skills and abilities in which I am more
weak and it require improvement and development in order to develop the career and personality
of an individual (Drozd, Saini and Olesen, 2016). Moreover, it also describes the corrective
measures which is taken in order to develop the performance and career and also convert them
into strengths.
4

CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded that self-assessment is important in order to improve the
performance and career of an individual. For this, SWOT analysis is conducted which helps in
determining the strengths and weaknesses and identifying the opportunities and threats and also
useful in order to convert the opportunities into strengths. Moreover, a personality development
plan is made which define various ways in order to improve and overcome the weaknesses and
also define how it can be developed.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bull, J.W and et. al., 2016. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis
of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services. 17. pp.99-111.
Drozd, L., Saini, M. and Olesen, N. eds., 2016. Parenting plan evaluations: Applied research for
the family court. Oxford University Press.
Li, C.Z and et. al., 2016. SWOT analysis and Internet of Things-enabled platform for
prefabrication housing production in Hong Kong. Habitat International. 57. pp.74-87.
Niranjanamurthy, M., Nithya, B.N. and Jagannatha, S., 2019. Analysis of blockchain technology:
pros, cons and SWOT. Cluster Computing. 22(6). pp.14743-14757.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management. 44. pp.194-203.
Rubens, A and et. al., 2018. Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic
professional development plan in an MBA leadership course. The International Journal
of Management Education. 16(1). pp.1-13.
Vondracek, F.W., Lerner, R.M. and Schulenberg, J.E., 2019. Career development: A life-span
developmental approach. Routledge.
6