Career Plan: SWOT, Goals, Development, and Gap Analysis Report

This report presents a comprehensive career plan developed by a student, encompassing a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to assess personal attributes and external factors. The plan outlines specific career goals, focusing on a sales admin position within the aviation industry, particularly with Korean Air. It details both short-term and long-term objectives, including academic achievements and entrepreneurial aspirations. The report further includes a personal development plan, identifying skill gaps and strategies for improvement, such as language courses and leadership training. A gap analysis highlights areas needing attention, such as social media marketing and customer engagement. Additionally, the report addresses succeeding in the global job market and incorporates references, cover letter and resume samples. The student aims to leverage communication skills, teamwork abilities, and educational knowledge to achieve their career objectives.

Running head: CAREER PLAN
CAREER PLAN
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1CAREER PLAN
Introduction: as this contains the information from student I have not skipped this point.
SWOT analysis:
The personal SWOT analysis details the personal strength and weakness of the
persons. In order to understand the situation around the persons and making decisions, proper
realizing of the self is the most important action. In my case, my first and foremost strength is
the capability of team work. As I have the experience of team working in the school and
college level, I can essentially compete the tasks and perform better in the team structure. I
can adapt with the team culture and mix well with people see appendix 1.
Secondly, the time management is another factor that serves a strong point for me. I
divide my time wisely according the preference and importance of the tasks. Finally I am a
good listener which makes me able to develop network contacts (Faris 2018). Through active
listening I judge the points of the communicators and try to solve the issues which is one of
the main important factors of sales admins. Thus I develop my networks of dependable
persons.
Among my weaknesses I think the inability of creativity that helps the sales admins in
the contemporary business contexts to think out of the box and solve issue is lacking in me.
The creative thinking capability is lacking in me that can be a threat giving other candidate to
get competitive advantage (Whitehall et al., 2018). In addition to this, I also lack the technical
knowledge in me that enables the sales admins to grow their capacity to enhance networks
and serve the customers more effectively. The technological advancement is one of the most
important factors for the growth of the business and in the sales department in any company
the technological advancement has become integral part.
In such case if I cannot growth my technical skill effectively, I will definitely lose the
ground. Finally as I think that the network system largely depends upon the trustworthy

2CAREER PLAN
relationship with the stakeholders of the company, I take time in this process (Duboust and
Knight 2018). This may make the networking system lengthy leading the company lose the
contracts or other opportunities.
Among the opportunities, I have found I am capable of getting employed in any type
of company that sakes products or services. In the business of sector of Malaysia is growing
fast and the companies from different parts of the world have started to come and start new
business here utilising the human and other resources. Moreover, different types of courses to
improve the knowledge base of the candidate are increasing. This is the reason why I feel I
will get the opportunity in this huge job vacancies.
Among the threats, I have found that the high competition in the job market if
Malaysia can put me in challenge. As there is constant changes in the job market and every
company is trying to enhance the capabilities of the human workforces therefore the
recruitment process has also changed to meet the high expectations of the organizations
(Chen and Huang 2017). This can create threat for me as I have some weaknesses needed to
transform into strengths.

3CAREER PLAN
Career goals:
In order to get placed in the highly competitive world of Malaysia, I need to have
proper understanding of my own capabilities and in which sector I can get placed. My aim is
to look for a potential job so that I get a chance to work according to my potential as well as
abilities. In the business market of Malaysia I aim to get a job of sales admin where I will
utilise the communication ability and chance to incorporate my team work efficiencies to
cater the needs of the customers (Stott et al., 2015). I want to work for Korean Air operating
in the aviation industry of Malaysia as a sales admin where I can utilise my educational
knowledge and ability. The experience in sales admin and marketing will help me to get
placed in this sector.

4CAREER PLAN
Career plan:
In pursuing my objective to become a part of aviation industry of Malaysia by getting
placed in the company named Korean Air, I have some short term goals and some long term
goals. In the short term goals, I aim to complete my studies and get placed in the company
within 1 year. The short term goals also include my objective to gain experience in the real
life practical situations in the workplace. In the workplace, I will learn from the challenges
and utilise my capabilities to overcome every situation (Pais and dos Santos 2015). In
addition to this, I will get support and feedback from the co-workers who will guide me to
overcome the weaknesses. In this manner, the ability of time management and thinking
creatively will be understood by me.
In the long term goals I want to start my new business in Malaysia within five to
seven years. Therefore, I need to have proper understanding of the needed skills for a start-
up. However, I cannot start an airline business by this time but I can start a sales and
marketing company in which I will give the customers or clients to opportunity to get proper
products and services. There are different organizations that help the aviation market of
Malaysia to grow. I want to establish such a company that will help the customers of the
airlines to get the access of the services more effectively. I will be working in the short goals
more effectively so that I will learn all the needed knowledge by these time.

5CAREER PLAN
Personal development plan:
I need to achieve communication skill therefore, taking part in the courses learning
languages of Korean and mandarin language. For this I need to sign up for the courses and
participate in the public speaking conference where I will listen to the others and understand
what factors are important for effective communication. It should be done within next three
months (Albers et al. 2017).
Secondly learning innovative methods of problems solving is essential therefore
developing deep understanding the business operations of the aviation market is mandatory.
For this I need to purchase books and access business journals. I should be learning business
management journals offline and online.
Thirdly I need to be capable of assessing self and situations and developing
understanding of the strength and weaknesses of self as the sales manager in the aviation
industry (Agafonova, Bryukhova and Kaigorodov 2015). I need to get enrolled in the
personal assessment training and courses and I need to undergo some very important
personality tests like Big five personality test, Johari window and other personality tests.
Fourthly, I need to improve leadership skills by attending leadership coaching
research centre. I must not depend upon the team skills only because there are aspects where I
need to make my own decision. I need to follow the curriculum of leadership, people skills,
customer management and sales. All of these must be done within two to three months (see
appendix 2).

6CAREER PLAN
Gap analysis:
The gap of knowledge in me and the desired capabilities of the industry and
companies are high. This is the reason why I have found out some very important factors that
I lack but need to overcome as early as possible. As I have the inability to use social media
for marketing. This is the reason why I may lose the ground of selling services to my clients.
I need to develop the ability to use social media like Twitter for sales and marketing.
Therefore I need to focus in increasing knowledge about the method of online marketing.
Secondly, the engagement level of the customers is low as they have high bargaining
power. The gap in me needs to me overcome to attain high customer engagement for which I
need to follow some essential learning methods of engaging customers as a sales admin.
Finally, the low level transparency and privacy expects maintaining ethical
transparency of the company therefore as a sales admin of such MNC like Korea Air I need
to use honesty and ethical decision making process.

7CAREER PLAN
Succeeding in global job market:
According to the data published by the International Air Transport Association has
highlighted that the aviation industry I going through challenges in skill acquisition, training
and retention of employees in the industry worldwide. According to information published by
aviationbenefits.org (2019), it has been understood 10.2 million people work in aviation
industry of the world and 2.7 million are the executive operating in all over the world. In the
case of Malaysia the rate of unemployment is high but in the aviation industry as many
foreign companies have entered the business, the rate of unemployment has been reduced
(Iata.org 2019).
The global aviation trend has pointed out that the employees who are somehow
connected with this particular industry need to have four most important skills. These skills
include
 Effective communication skill
 Ability to quick decisions making in the emergencies and dealing with the customers
 Excellent knowledge about the sales and marketing of services
 Diplomacy and tactfulness.
In order to overcome personal weaknesses, I need to follow three most important methods
which include
 Understanding weakness through finding them
 Developing concise plan for overcoming weaknesses
 Counting success to get confidence
In order to attain the skills by overcoming the weaknesses, I need to start the process of
finding out what exactly I lack in my personality and how I can overcome them. In order to

8CAREER PLAN
overcome my weaknesses I need to have a proper action plan so that I can develop myself
without any barriers. In this process I may become less confident therefore I must count my
success of the short goals set by me. Then only I will keep myself motivated to achieve the
long term gaols.
Cover letter: as this contains the information from student I have not skipped this point.
Resume: as this contains the information from student I have not skipped this point.

9CAREER PLAN
References:
Agafonova, S., Bryukhova, N. and Kaigorodov, B., 2015. Professional and personal
undergraduates’ development in the educational process from the perspective of competency-
based approach. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 214, pp.479-486.
Albers, S., Baum, H., Auerbach, S. and Delfmann, W., 2017. Strategic management in the
aviation industry. Routledge.
Aviationbenefits.org (2019). Employment : Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders. [online]
Aviationbenefits.org. Available at:
https://aviationbenefits.org/economic-growth/employment/ [Accessed 9 May 2019].
Chen, G. and Huang, S.S., 2017. Toward a theory of backpacker personal development:
Cross-cultural validation of the BPD scale. Tourism Management, 59, pp.630-639.
Duboust, S. and Knight, P., 2018. Group Activities for Personal Development. Routledge.
Faris, J., 2018. Some reflections on process, relationship, and personal development in
supervision. In Perspectives on supervision (pp. 91-112). Routledge.
Iata.org (2019). Significant Growth in Aviation Jobs Expected. [online] Iata.org. Available at:
https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2018-08-20-01.aspx [Accessed 9 May 2019].
Pais, L. and dos Santos, N.R., 2015. Knowledge-sharing, cooperation and personal
development. The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Training, Development,
and Performance Improvement, pp.278-302.
Stott, T., Allison, P., Felter, J. and Beames, S., 2015. Personal development on youth
expeditions: A literature review and thematic analysis. Leisure Studies, 34(2), pp.197-229.

10CAREER PLAN
Whitehall, A.P., Hill, L.G., Yost, D.M. and Kidwell, K.K., 2018. Being Smart Is Not Enough
to Ensure Success: Integrating Personal Development into a General Education Course. The
Journal of General Education, 65(3-4), pp.241-263.

11CAREER PLAN
Appendices
Appendix 1.
Strength Weaknesses
 Efficient team worker
 Time management
 Good networking contacts
 Lack of creativity
 Time consumption
 Limited technical knowledge
Opportunities Threats
 Available job vacancies
 Available support for growing
knowledge
 High competition in the job market
 High expectations of the
organizations
 Constant changes
Appendix 2.
Goals Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time bound
1 Achieving
communication
skill
Taking part in
the courses
learning
languages of
Korean and
mandarin
language
I need to
sign up for
the courses
Participating in the
public speaking
conference where I
will listen to the
others and
understand what
factors are
important for
effective
communication
Within next
three
months

12CAREER PLAN
2 Learning
innovative
methods of
problems
solving
Developing
deep
understanding
the business
operations of
the aviation
market
I need to
purchase
books and
access
business
journals
Learning business
management
journals offline and
online
Within next
two months
3 To be capable
of assessing
self and
situations
Developing
understating
of the
strength and
weaknesses
of self as the
sales manager
in the
aviation
industry
I need to
get
enrolled in
the
personal
assessment
training
and
courses
I need to undergo
some very
important
personality tests
like Big five
personality test,
Johari window and
other personality
tests
Within next
month
4 To improve
leadership skills
I must not
depend upon
the team
skills only
because there
are aspects
where I need
to make my
own decision.
I need to
attend
leadership
coaching
research
centre
I need to follow the
curriculum of
leadership, people
skills, customer
management and
sales
Within next
two months
Appendix 3.
Current state Desired state Activities
Inability to use social media
for marketing
Ability to use social media
like Twitter for sales and
marketing
Increasing knowledge about
the method of online
marketing
Engagement level low High customer engagement Learning methods of
engaging customers as a
sales admin
Low level transparency and
privacy
Maintaining ethical
transparency of the company
Using honesty and ethical
decision making process