Achieving Career Goals: A Reflective Essay on Higher Education

This essay reflects on career development and employability within higher education, emphasizing the importance of career development tools like personal branding and networking. Personal branding is defined as creating a specific public image to enhance career prospects, while networking involves building relationships with professionals for mutual benefit and career advancement. The essay highlights strategies for improving both, such as developing a strong online presence and enhancing interpersonal skills. It concludes that these tools are essential for students to achieve their career goals effectively in a competitive environment, fostering both personal and professional growth.

Orientation for
success in
higher eduction

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Career Development and employability .........................................................................................1
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

Introduction
It is important for students participating in higher eduction academics to focus on career
development in order to achieve career goals in highly competitive environment. Usage of career
development tools from early stage helps higher education students competition in the labour
market by developing skills to stand out from other candidates (Anwar, Musyrifin and Zakiyah,
2021). Career development is defined as the process of selecting suitable career and developing
skills in order to move upwards in the career path. The process of career development requires
navigating through occupational alternatives effectively to select and train for jobs which are
suited to personality, skills and interests of an individual. This reflective essay is centred around
the concepts of personality development and employability. The meaning and importance career
development tools along with suitable strategies for career development are included in this
essay. The career development tools covered in this essay include personal branding and
networking.
Career Development and employability
Personal branding is defined as the intentional and conscious efforts made to influence
and develop specific public image of an individual by creating suitable positioning of the
individual in their career. This involves marketing people and their career as brands and building
suitable reputation and impression of an individual to facilitate their career advancement and
promote their capabi8liuties (Infante-Perea, Navarro-Astor and Román-Onsalo, 2021). This
career development tool helps in career elevation by creating suitable impression of the
personality, skills and experience of an individual.
According to me, personal branding is an effective career development tool as it helps
create image about an individual that they are the most suitable candidate for specific job. As per
my viewpoint career development plays an important role in improving career development and
employability by creating an effective way of representing skills, interests and career goals of an
individual. It helps enhance professional reputation which is why I believe that personal branding
is necessary for career development. In addition to this, according to my knowledge personal
branding helps enhance job search as individuals. This is because individuals are able to connect
with suitable employers and gain more opportunities in comparison to unknown candidates by
utilizing personal branding.
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The most important personal branding strategy is to develop strong online presence in
order to promote skills, interests and capabilities. This is an defective suggestion as social media
ad online presence helps directly interact with employers and create personal perception in easy
and cost-effective manner. In addition to this another strategy for improving personal branding to
ensure career advancement and enhance employability is by showcasing expertise by
participating in public speaking events.
Networking refers to development of relationships with groups or people who have
shared interests with an individual (Jackson, 2018). This involves personal acquaintances,
collogues, senior employees and industry experts. Networking helps build relationships with
individuals who are mutually beneficial to the career of an individual and others in their network.
The process of building relationships to enhance professional networking is an ongoing process
which involves continuously fostering strong relationships with others which assist in profession
skills development and career development of an individual.
According to me, networking plays an important role in career development as building
strong relationships with other individuals creates an impression of dedication towards the
specific profession. As per my point of view, this is an impelling career development tool as it
helps expand contacts which provides new opportunities for career advancement and personal
growth. As per my viewpoint networking keeps individuals informed about various employment
opportunities which can be exploited to achieve career goals. In my opinion this tool is
significant to career advancement as it helps gain new knowledge, perspectives and fresh ideas
from industry professionals and others in networking circle to improve performance at job. As
per my knowledge networking helps gain recommendation from trusted employees to gain
employment at specific position which is beneficial for career development.
Tip for improving networking is to enhance interpersonal skills and confidence which
help enhance bonds with others at various types of professional event and build large closely
connected networking circle. In addition to this online tools can also be used for networking, this
involves social media sites such as Linkedin, creating personal blog and connecting with other
professionals on social media sites (Keengwe and Kungu, 2020). This is a useful suggestion for
networking and career development as it leads to quickly connecting with other individuals.
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Conclusion
From the above discussion it is concluded that career development is an important
process which helps individuals attain career objectives easily and effectively. One of the most
useful career development tools are internetwork and personal branding. Personal branding
involves creation suitable personal and professional image which ensures career development
while networking involves building strong relationship with other professionals to create large
networking circle. These tools are essential to initiate career development and enhance
employability. Strong online presence helps individuals build large network and create suitable
personal branding.
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References
Books and Journals
Anwar, M. K., Musyrifin, Z. and Zakiyah, A., 2021. How are important career services for
Islamic college students?. International Journal of Education and Learning, 3(3).
Infante-Perea, M., Navarro-Astor, E. and Román-Onsalo, M., 2021. Sex, Age, Work Experience,
and Relatives in Building Engineering Career Development. Journal of Management in
Engineering, 37(5). p.04021041.
Jackson, K., 2018. Resilience at work: Practical tools for career success. Routledge.
Keengwe, J. and Kungu, K. eds., 2020. Examining the Career Development Practices and
Experiences of Immigrants. IGI Global.
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