James Cook University Professional Employability Plan Report

This report presents a professional employability plan, focusing on career development within the software engineering industry. The plan begins with an analysis of recruitment practices, emphasizing the importance of campus recruitment, online platforms like LinkedIn, and aptitude tests. It then explores the role of networking in building relationships and increasing employment opportunities, particularly for project managers. The report includes a self-assessment, evaluating individual capabilities, career research, and success profiles. It identifies skill gaps and outlines development plans, emphasizing the importance of experience and personal branding. The plan also addresses short-term, mid-term, and long-term career goals, along with the preparation for recruitment processes. The document highlights the need for continuous professional development, emphasizing the importance of aligning job search tools with success profiles. The student aims to gain project management experience in the software engineering industry.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Recruitment practices in the industry
The role of Networking in the industry
Career Clarity
The short term motivational goal is to make career planning for the engineering industry and
develop the skills required for project manager.
The medium term motivational goal is to focus on the primary skills and gain the experience
as well as build the SMART action plan to work on those skills.
The long term motivational goal is to chart down the strengths and weakness plan along with
the development needs plan to assess the knowledge, skills and attributes the project manager
in the software engineering will be required.
The recruitment in the engineering industry is mostly done through campus recruitment in Tier I colleges
with to graded students getting the chance to sit in the placements. The engineering companies follow
the external source of recruitment for the bottom level operations by recruiting fresh graduates. The
companies take experienced professionals in the middle management roles, while the top management
ladder consist of both experienced professionals and the promotion of internal staff through successional
planning. The digital and online recruitment through social media like LinkedIn is used to attract and
select fresh talent (Shahbaz 2018). Most of the engineering companies now have an online test of
aptitude and personality round from their company website as basic preliminary tests select the best
candidates out of the huge poll of talent (Menon and Rahulnath, 2016) .
The networking and relationship building play a huge role in the engineering industry. The fresher
graduates increase their networking platform through social media professional platforms like the
LinkedIn where the references are made (Komodromos 2017). The professional networking includes
talking up with managers and showcasing your work in various management fairs and start up trade
exhibitions. The networking in the position of project manager is required because of the interactions
the project manager has to make with the top management and the various project decisions to be taken
after collaboration with the finance team and the immense amount of teamwork as well as leadership
duties to handle (Rossi, Caloffi and Russo 2016). The networking skills in the form of communication
and the teamwork are very crucial among the skills required to be a project manager.

2PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Career Planning – Self Assessment
Clarity
INCREASING SELF-AWARENESS
Do I fully understand my individual capabilities, values, motives and preferences to inform
my career planning?
Response Planning & Development
No I have to understand the individual capabilities and
values through listing my goals and skill
requirements and then build a SMART action plan
to develop them.
CAREER RESEARCH
 Have I undertaken extensive career research to understand my options?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Not really. The career research has not been taken on a wide
basis. The career counsellors and the engineer
experts in the various companies are to be
contacted with through professional network.
 From that research can I define my target industries, disciplines and roles?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Yes The target industry being the engineering and the
discipline revolving around the software
engineering operations can be defined through the
role of project manager as decided from that
research.
 Do I understand the Success Profiles for my target opportunities?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps

3PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Not exactly To understand the success profiles, the wide
research with the labor market along with the
market data of target companies where I wish to
apply for is to be considered. The various trends
and the updated technologies are to be studies to
decide on the success profiles (Xu et.al, 2018).
PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
Have I met with a broad range of people, working in my target discipline, or associated with
it, too deeply inform my thinking on career options?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
No The broad range of people can be met through
social networking in various business fairs and the
trade exhibitions. The career advice from the
managers and the supervisors in the internship can
be contacted for the suitable role clarity.
PERSONAL GAP ANALYSIS
Are my own attributes (skills, knowledge, experience and behaviors) aligned to the Success
Profile requirements for my target role, or can I bridge the gap?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Not fully My own skills, knowledge, experience and
behavior are not yet fully aligned as per the success
profile of project manager. I can bridge the gap
through taking new skills certification courses,
industrial experiences and enhancing the
knowledge of market as well as of the role from
performing in various related projects
CAPABILITY
SUCCESS PROFILE DEVELOPMENT

4PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Do I have a targeted development plan to build the Success Profile Dimensions associated
with my ideal opportunities: Skills, Knowledge, Experience, Behaviors?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Not really The target development plan is not yet ready to
understand the profile dimensions. The needs and the
skill gaps are to be assessed before making the
development plan. The necessary goals to achieve
within a timeframe are to be redesigned and
considered.
BUILDING EVIDENCE
Can I articulate my value in each of the four Success Profile dimensions with specific
measures or evidence of my capability?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Skills Not fully The skill gap exist in the form of leadership and the
teamwork. These skills are not yet developed due to less
experience in projects as well low social networking skills
where the project handling and the various communication
issues are not fully addressed.
Knowledge Yes The theoretical knowledge is well prepared with the college
education as achieved and the other certification courses
necessary to become a project manager in the software
engineering industry with all the software knowledge.
Behaviour Yes The behavior in terms of proper body language, gestures and
the communication skills like listening and working with
precision as well the decision making power is well
established.
Experience No I have no experiences as such in the software engineering
field being a fresher. The industrial experience is yet to be
gained through internships and work-based observation from
college or third party consultation.

5PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
EXPANDING EXPERIENCE
Am I fully engaged in both a range of embedded and co-curricular activities to build my
capability? Have I created relevant industry experiences?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Not fully I am not yet fully engaged in the embedded and co-
curricular activities required to build my capability to
less awareness before. However, the online
certification course which train the fresher’s on the
software projects and the new innovative designs on
projects are being learnt as side learning experience.
The relevant industry experiences has not been
created but the industrial visit by the college in some
companies has been made where the observation of
how the project management gets carried on as a
basic ideas is taken (Kim et.al, 2017).
Confidence
PERSONAL BRAND DEVELOPMENT
Can I articulate my value proposition to a potential employer to demonstrate my ability to
perform and deliver value in my target role?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Yes I can articulate my value proposition currently to
the employer ready to recruit me with my available
knowledge and skills, however the deliverance f
value will require more development.
The main areas to work on is the more wide
creation of the personal brand networking
(Gorbatov, Khapova and Lysova 2019). The
creation of resumes with cover letters and the blogs
featuring my own project works throughout the
academic career are to be showcased. The personal
brand should reflect my strong areas through
freelancing on online projects available.

6PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
RECRUITMENT PROCESS PREPARATION
 Do I understand every element of the recruitment process for my target employers?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Not fully I do not understand the full process with each and
every element of the recruitment process essential for
target companies where I will be applying.
To understand the recruitment process, I need to very
well be prepared with the aptitude rests where the
mathematical reasoning and the logical reasoning
tests are conducted on preliminary basis at the
company website (Silva, Silva and Martins 2017).
On getting cracked the process, the personality round
will require polishing on my faulty areas like
arrogance and procrastination habit. The recruitment
process will require the references, where I have to
build my social networking skills a lot in order to
provide goo references in my resume helping in my
career later. All these stages are however little
known. The in-between stages of whether a
telephonic conversation with the recruiter can happen
or not there will internship provision and then
placement – this are to be known for wide market
research and company study with the last 10 years
trend in the software engineering industry.
 Can I perform competitively at every stage of the recruitment process?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Somewhat yes I can perform competitively in the recruitment
process however, the different style of questions and
the proper answers required to ace at the interview
are not yet known to me. The market competition
and the required knowledge to present my unique
proposition statement at the interview will require
more experience and projects. The technical skills
are required to be flourished as per the trends to
create a benchmark in the interview.

7PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
 Do my job search tools align to the Success Profile, particularly the Key Selection
Criteria?
Response Action/s to Address Gaps
Not really The search tools are to be more aligned with the success
profile of the key selection criteria through the proper
allocation of search engines and suitable job portals
where the top software engineering companies advertise
their job openings with the requirement skills focused on
mainly (Koong, Liu and Liu 2020).
Short Term
What do you want to achieve in your
career in one to three years?
In 1-3 years I want to work as a project manager in a
good learning environment to polish my skills in the
software engineering industry and gain experience in
project management.
Mid Term
What do you want to achieve in your
career in three to five years?
In 3-5 years I want to be a senior manager in the
organization in the same field as project management or it
can be any other role, but my focus will be to grow my
career in the same company and strive the career ladder.
Long Term
What do you want to achieve in your
career in five years +?
I may change my career of being a project manager in
software engineering to something more prominent role
after gaining much experience. It can be project developer
or project technology designer.

8PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Skill Reflection
Short Term Career
Goal
Skills Required Strengths Development Needs
Project Manager in
the software
engineering industry
Communication
Problem solving
Decision making
Flexibility
Organization
Risk taking
Listening
Technical
knowledge
The development is required
in the personality
development to reduce
irregular communication
patterns. The strong
networking is required with
the polishing of project skills
and the risk taking is needed.

9PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
SMART Action Plan
Employability Development Action Plan
DEVELOPMENT STAGE
Development Focus Area
Development of Strength or Weakness
Development Objective
Development Objective
Measures and Benchmarks
Personality Development behaviour
Strength – Decision making
Weakness – Inter-personal communication and leadership
To improve the networking and communication patterns with enhanced knowledge in leading a
team and developing a teamwork project guidance.
The benchmark to assess and measure the personality development behaviour in terms of the
networking and the communication, the competency units to be focused on are:
1. How many teams has been under my leadership before?
2. The number of times where I have provided feedback in communication?
3. Team handling issues performed accurately?
4. The quality of oral and written communication skills?

10PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Sources of measurement
The measurement is to be performed through the performance measure cars as per the
behaviourally anchored rating scales. This is a quantitative measurement source, where as per the
critical incident my behaviours in terms of communication and networking are to be assessed and
then rating is to be provided with each incidental behaviour through numbers based on the scale
(Kell 2017). The aggregate of numbers on each behavioural pattern will evaluate the progress. The
lowest rating of behavioural pattern is to be more crucially worked upon.

11PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYABILITY PLAN
Strengths Action Plan
Development Activity Where When Measure Capture Progress Tracking
Technical knowledge Software
back-end
operations
From post-
graduation
level
Number of
defects
detected
Amount of
speed
required to
debug a
system
The
number of
back-end
operations
tasks
performed
The progress will be
tracked through
critical graphical
rating scales to
detect the operations
handling using the
rating metrics.
Weaknesses Action Plan
Development Activity Where When Measure Capture Progress Tracking
Communication Teamwork From
internship
Number of
leadership
actions taken
Quality of team
making
decision
Way of
communication
used mainly
Number of
interactions
made
The progress will be
tracked through
behavioral anchored
rating scales to put
the enumerating
metric in order to
assess the
communication
pattern.