Career Development Reflection: Personal and Professional Goals

This report is a self-reflection on a student's career aspirations, specifically focusing on becoming a business development manager. The student undertakes a self-assessment, examining their personality, strengths (like risk-taking), weaknesses (such as insecurity in building relationships and communication), and emotional intelligence. The reflection explores personal values and the need for professional networking, including plans to expand their network through participation in professional organizations and publishing articles. The report also highlights the importance of mentorship and outlines strategies for skill development, such as communication and technical proficiency, to overcome identified weaknesses and achieve career goals. The student acknowledges the need to develop their communication skills, improve their networking, and become technically proficient to succeed in their chosen field. This reflection underscores the journey of self-discovery and proactive planning necessary for career advancement.

REFLECTION 1
Career Development Reflection
Name:
Course
Lecturer:
Institution:
Date:

REFLECTION 2
Career Development Reflection
I have been undertaking a series of self-examination and self-evaluation regarding my
future career. I have been drowning in the miasma of thoughts regarding what the future
holds for me. My career objective is to become a business development manager. I believe
that my future will be shaped by realizing my career dreams. But to get there, there are
myriads of life upheavals. Are the characteristics and behaviours am exhibiting
strengthening or limiting my ambitions? This is one of the many questions that ring in my
mind whenever I think about my future. What is my personality? What are my strengths and
weaknesses? What are my insecurities? Is my coping mechanism concerning weaknesses and
insecurities help to manage stress and tension? These are the critical question that informs my
self-awareness. I need to comprehend what tends to make me vulnerable so that I can find an
effective coping mechanism. To understand myself, I need to be aware of my values and
emotional intelligence. Being aware of these implicit areas would help me in my self-
evaluation and have a predictive mechanism on my reaction to specific situations. I have met
challenging experiences in my life but I have been in a position to handle them and continue
to grow stronger. Following an online test which I did at the end of the semester, I was able
to learn that I can control my emotions and I possess anger control in that I do not get angry
when a person threatens or degrades me. I know that if I allow influencing my reaction upon
provocation by responding angrily would jeopardize my ability to help others and myself too.
I have come to learn that positive critics assist in changing particular devastating behaviour
and that assist me in growing stronger. I can confidently conclude that I possess emotional
intelligence since I can undertake consequential thinking that can influence my actions and
then make effective decisions. Since my childhood, I have had a smaller body size in
comparison with my age mates. I felt insecure and secluded and strived to fit with the rest of
my age group. I engaged in coping activities, as a challenge to myself not to be left out, some

REFLECTION 3
of which were dangerous. This defines my risk-taking characteristic which would be a
strength to my career as a business development manager. Today, I am much informed of my
risk-taking behaviour and ought to employ emotional intelligence to control the extent of the
behaviour. Learning from my past experiences, I can tell that I possess some feeling of
inadequacy and have insecurities. These characteristics limits my ability to build relationship
with new people. I have also realized that I fail to speak up whenever I strongly disagree with
the sentiments of another person. It is not once or twice that I set my personal goals but
always fail to implement them. This has defined my values which to me appears to be weak.
I had not set my values by which I will live with. Having been aware of this, I have created a
personal value in that what I will not define who I am, but I will be for who I am as a human
being.
Looking at my network system, I can confidently say it does not comprise of effective
people nor professionals. This has been influenced by fear in building relationships with new
people. My network is only comprised of peers whom we don’t share common ambitions.
The network can be defined as a pleasure-influence network. Following the application of
emotional intelligence, I understand the need to have an effective professional network. A
business development manager is a brand that requires a connected network of resources.
Relationships trigger the most significant successes. I need to build and maintain a strong and
effective professional network. To achieve this, I will start talking about my career and
passion. I will then endeavour to join professional organizations and participate actively.
Writing has been my passion and will expand and start publishing articles, whitepapers and
blogs. I will try and create an organization that fits my passions and abilities together with
career skills. I will endeavour to volunteer in organizational and community activities. By
doing that, I will have built an effective professional network. Maintain the network will
require invoking emotional intelligence. I appreciate the role of a mentor in career building. I

REFLECTION 4
have a career mentor who is a successful business development manager in one of the leading
state corporations. Mentorship plays a critical role in career development as they encourage
and challenge the candidate on career-related issues. Mentors offer guidance in situations
which seem to be challenging to the career candidate. My mentor has been of great help in
guiding me through the career of business development manager. He usually offers critical
advice relating to career activities highlighting the Do’s and Don’ts.
The journey to achieving my career objective is rough and bumpy. It doesn’t stop at
acquiring a degree in business management. The career path needs to be nurtured and
developed. I have a weakness in communication. One of the requirements of a business
development manager is to have excellent communication skill. I will thus enroll in
communication classes to enhance my communication skills. The career will involve
developing and fostering a relationship with business stakeholders. Considering my
insecurity in building relationships with new people, I will challenge the fear by looking and
starting conversations with people who I consider having uncomfortable feelings with me.
Through this, I will gain the required courage to blend with any person and that will be a
development in my career path. The advancement in technology requires every business to
incorporate technology in its operations. This means that one needs to be technically
proficient to succeed in his career. For that reason, I will enroll for computer classes to acquit
myself with the relevant computer literacy skills.