Career Planning Report for Finance Graduate: Skills, Values, and Pitch

This career planning report, crafted by a finance graduate, offers a comprehensive analysis of career readiness. The report begins with a values audit, identifying key principles such as accountability, honesty, and tolerance, which are essential for professional success. It then moves into a capability audit, emphasizing the importance of communication, organizational skills, teamwork, and customer service. The report highlights the skill gaps that employers often identify and the methods to address them through training and recruitment. Furthermore, it includes a graduate's elevator pitch, showcasing the candidate's skills and experience. The report concludes with a discussion on leveraging a LinkedIn profile for career advancement, detailing how to present skills and experiences effectively. References to academic literature support the analysis, providing a solid foundation for the career planning strategies presented.

CAREER PLANNING 1
Career Planning
Student’s Name
Code + Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

CAREER PLANNING 2
Career Planning
Task 1: Values audit
Values can be described as the principles and behaviors one has and they’re important for
the work life. Accountability is one of the core values and is characterized by being responsible
to the behavior according to Sortheix, and Salmela-Aro (2015, p.162) and it creates trust. Second
is honesty by saying the truth. Third is appreciation by recognizing efforts and good qualities.
Patience is fourth by not getting upset and accept delay. Lastly is tolerance and is demonstrated
by Parry, and Urwin (2011, p.79) and entails accepting others’ opinion. In the field of work I will
pursue jobs related to my degree which I acquired hard skills. The hard skills include computer
skills which will hasten work done, management of data, scheduling for efficient working,
budgeting and accounting.
Task 2: Capability audit
Generally employers look for the best in recruiting a new employee. During selections
employers not only look at the qualifications of employees but also the interpersonal skills and
personal qualities. Interestingly academic knowledge is considered a less important compared to
personal qualities. Graduates ought to improve the interpersonal skills to make it easy in getting
jobs.
First employers look for graduates who have the capacity to communicate effectively.
Right from the bat communication is a key driver to the success of an organization. According to
Patrick, and Kumar (2012, p.2) communicating effectively entails listening keenly, managing the
nonverbal communication, portraying the image in respectful way and managing of stress.

CAREER PLANNING 3
Employers always notice inefficiency of communicating skills during selection by noticing lack
of focus, out of control emotion and inconsistent body language. Many employers who recruit
graduates look at their communication skills by using interviews in assessing the applicant. A
graduate who cannot communicate effectively has a higher probability of being turned down.
Besides, employers look at good organizational and administrative skills. Time management is a
key element employers look into because an organization can lose clients, fail and miss their
goals. Hence, employers look at the ability of the graduate to meet the deadlines as explained by
Humburg and Van (2015, p. 24) set in performing tasks, setting and achieving goals, making
right decisions, team work, problem solving and leadership. Furthermore employers need high
focus in their jobs and alert person. Therefore the employer looks at creative thinking of the
graduate, taking notes, identifying problems, development planning and public speaking.
Furthermore, employers look at the ability of the graduate to work as a team. One of the
fundamental aspects of an organization is working as a team. According to Noe, Hollenbeck,
Gerhart and Wright, (2017, p.5) Teamwork eases the work done and hastens the accomplishment
of goals. An employee needs to bond effectively with their partners at the workplace. Therefore
during selection employers look for graduate who is social and willing to work with other
employees. Employers identify graduates who can work as a team by looking on how the
graduates engage themselves during selection.
Well-developed customer skills are also a key element considered during selection.
Customers are the main reason for existence of the organization and they have to be treated well.
Graduates ought to have the skill to engage customers well and initiate conversations. Graduates

CAREER PLANNING 4
who can communicate efficiently with customers have an upper hand during selection because
they can bring more customers to the company and have the skill to retain a customer.
Lastly, the graduate needs the ability to manage projects. Employers look for graduates
with the skill to manage projects set. For a project to be successful there should be sufficient
communication in the company. Therefore the graduate must portray good communication skills
to propel ideas and goals. The graduate must have good leadership skills and can lead others
towards a goal, manage the team used in the project. The graduate also has to negotiate well with
team members when discussing projects and have the ability to create solutions of problems
before they come up.
Skill gaps in organizations come up due to the difference in skills available in the
organization and the skills the employer needs. Analyzing the skill gap helps employers know
the skills needed to steer the organization in achieving its goals and helps in hiring and training
of employees as explained by Radermacher, Walia and Knudson (2014,p. 291). First the
organization has to perform a skill gap analysis. It can be done individually or by a team.
Second, the organization will get to know the important skills required in the organization. The
skills needed by the organization so that it can run efficiently towards goals and vision.
Employer then measures the current skills available by using surveys, interviews and
performance review feedback as demonstrated by O’Riordan, Akturk , and Ortiz et al.(2011,
p.175). After identifying the available skill and noticing the void which has to be filled, the
employer trains the employees as explained by Cappelli (2014, p.162) as they can attend events,
subscribe education materials and attend conferences in order to fill the gap. Also, the
organization can hire other employees with the skills required to fill the gap.

CAREER PLANNING 5
Task 3: Graduate “elevator pitch”
I’m a recent graduate with a degree in finance, looking for a job in the field of finance or
any related work. My academic performance was excellent at university and I passed highly in
every test. I possess various hard skills which include computer skills, data management,
preparing financial reports, accounting and budgeting. Talk of fast typing, I type very fast and
solve financial problems both in accounting and finance. Looking for a person with good
communication skills? I know how to speak fluently and manage nonverbal expressions. Am a
very honest person, I have patience and very tolerate. In addition am very appreciative to other
employees and very responsible hence a person you can wholly trust. Furthermore, I have good
organizational skills, good in socializing and work as a team. My customer service skills are
good and know how to manage customers. Also, am good in managing projects and can be a
good projects leader.
The LinkedIn profile has to completely explain the kind of person I am. First, my
LinkedIn profile will be complete showing all the values I have, what I do and academic
performance. To make it more traceable I will add a friendly profile picture then develop a
LinkedIn profile headline. On the headline, I will indicate my previous employment role.
Generally the profile will describe my role because it is easily noticed.

CAREER PLANNING 6
References
Cappelli, P., 2014. Skill gaps, skill shortage and skill mismatches: Evidence for the US (No.
w20382). National Bureau of Economic Research. pp.1-65.
Humburg, M. and Van der Velden, R., 2015. Skills and the graduate recruitment process:
Evidence from two discrete choice experiments. Economics of Education Review, 49, pp.24-41.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M, 2017. Human resource management;
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
O’Riordan, M., Akturk , Z., Ortiz, J.M.B., Dagderiven, V., Elwyn, G ., Miscallef, A., Murtonen,
M., Samuelson, M., Struk, P., Tayar, D and Thesen, j., 2011. Dealing with uncertainty in general
practice: an essential skill for the general practitioner. Quality in Primary Care, 19(3). pp.175–81
Parry, E and Urwin, P., 2011. Generational differences in work values: A review of theory and
evidence. International journal of management reviews, 13(1), pp. 79-96.
Patrick, H. A and Kumar, V.R, 2012. Managing workplace diversity: issues and challenges. Sage
Open, 2(2), p.2158244012444615. pp 1-15.
Radermacher, A., Walia, G. and Knudson, D., 2014, May. Investigating the skill gap between
graduating students and industry expectations. In Companion Proceedings of the 36th
international conference on software engineering (pp. 291-3000.ACM.

CAREER PLANNING 7
Sortheix, F.M., Chow, A. and Salmela-Aro, K., 2015. Work values and the transition to work
life: A longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 89, pp. 162-171.