CW2: Executive Summary: Personal Analysis and Career Action Plan

This report presents an executive summary focusing on career planning and self-reflection, crucial elements for professional development. It begins with an introduction to self-reflection and its role in fostering personal and professional growth, emphasizing its importance in making informed career decisions. A personal analysis section, utilizing a SWOT analysis, evaluates the individual's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to the retail sector, identifying skills such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. The report then outlines a career action plan, detailing short-term and long-term objectives, along with the resources and activities needed to develop skills like communication, commercial awareness, and customer service. The Kolb learning model is applied to the experience, reflecting on the stages of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation to highlight the learning process and planned development. The report concludes with a discussion on the identified skills gaps and the strategies to overcome them, aiming to achieve the career goals. References to academic sources support the analysis and recommendations.

CW2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report included the discussion about the self reflection and its importance in career
planning. Study also consist of brief summary about Job opportunity which an individual has
identified. It has also highlighted the skills which a person required to develop in order to
perform specific job role. From the study it has been found that career planning is very much
essential in order to achieve desired career objectives or personal as well as professional goals.

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1
2. PERSONAL ANALYSIS ...........................................................................................................1
3. CAREER ACTION PLAN .........................................................................................................3
3.1 CV .............................................................................................................................................6
3.2 LINKED IN PROFILE..............................................................................................................6
4. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

1. INTRODUCTION
Self- reflection can be defined as capacity of human to perform introspection. It is the
procedure which demonstrate an individual interest in learning. Self-reflection is considered to
be as psychological exercise which assist an individual in fostering their personal growth and
developing their mind. It also helps an individual in generating the self-awareness. It is basically
involves analysing own skills, believes and character. Self reflection is considered to be as one of
the best practice which enables an individual to develop positive mindset. It is required to
formulate career plan after performing self reflection, as it will assist them in taking the right
decision for their career. Career action plan is a document which is created by an individual in
order to identify the career goal. It can also be referred to as the roadmap which assists an
individual in identifying the activities which are required to be executed for accomplishing
desired career objectives.
The purpose of the report is to analyse the skills required for performing the roles and
responsibilities in the retail sector. It will also include the career action plan which can be used
by an individual for development of required skills.
2. PERSONAL ANALYSIS
Swot analysis is an appropriate strategic technique which can be applied by an individual
in order to analyse internal strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. I have performed swot
analysis for identifying my strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. In context of skills as
well as knowledge which are required for performing the roles and responsibility in retail sector
from that I posses potential to work in team, friendly nature, product knowledge etc. In addition
to this, I listen to the opinion given by others, as it assist me in identifying the way to improve
my performance at workplace (Kuczera and Field, 2018.). As I have completed my studies in
business management I have knowledge about logistics as well as operations. I have good
personality as well as friendly nature which enables me to develop strong relation with other
people at workplace. I have confidence that I can perform all task. I have high level of sense of
responsibility which I believe that will assist me in fostering my personal as well as professional
growth. It will also support me in achieving higher position in an industry (Vigurs, Harris and
Everitt, 2018.).
1

In addition to this I have good analytical skills which assist me in analysing the different
things. It also supports me in identifying the root cause of the problem. In addition to this, I have
creative mind which helps me in development of innovative ideas for solving specific problem
at workplace.
The areas which I need to focus while preparing the personal as well as professional
development plan is to generate commercial awareness as well as develop customer service skills
as it will assist men achieving the desired career goals (Chung and D’Annunzio-Green, 2018. ).
Development of commercial awareness is crucial for getting the job in retail company like
Tesco. It is very much essential as commercial awarenesses will enable me to make my
significant contribution in accomplishment of desired business goal by an organisation (Ngcobo,
Martins and Martins, 2019). Customer service skills will assist me in delivering good experience
as well as high level of satisfaction top clients. In addition to this, I will also focus on improving
my communication skills. As development of commercial awareness, communication as well as
customer skills will assist me in accomplishing my desired career goal that is to get my self
employed in well known retail company that is Tesco.
Strengths:
 I have good personality.
 I posses good written communication
skills.
 Friendly nature.
 Good listening skills.
 Ability to work in a team.
 Leadership skills
 Self -motivation
 Confidence
 Sense of responsibility.
 Organisation skills.
 Creative mind
 Problem solving skills
Weaknesses :
 I lack an effective oral communication
skills.
 Lack of an effective customer service
skills.
 Lack of IT skills.
 Lack of commercial awareness.
 Lack of selling skills.
 Lack of time management skills
Opportunities :
 I have an opportunity to get job in well
Threats:
 There is high threat of failure due to
2

known as well as reputed retail
organisation.
 I have a chance to study further and
continue my learning by participating
in training and development program at
workplace.
lack of specific employability skills.
 Threat of increase in level of
competition at workplace.
3. CAREER ACTION PLAN
Career action plan is basically a road map which supports an individual in identifying the
activities and resources required in order to develop specific skills set. It helps an individual in
identifying the ways to accomplish desired career objectives (Spanjaard, Hall and Stegemann,
2018). I have developed the career action plan based on the weakness which I have found during
the SWOT analysis.
My short term objective is to generate commercial awareness and develop customer
service skills. In addition to this, my other short term objective is to improve communication
skills.
My long term goal is to develop the understanding about the retail industry. In addition to
this, my other long term objective is to complete my masters in business administration.
Skills need to be
developed
Resources
required
Activities
required to be
performed
Criterion for
measuring
success.
Target date.
Oral
communication
skills
Books , support
from coach
I will unroll
myself for the
personality
development
Feedback from
friends, family
members ,
colleagues etc.
Within six
months
3

classes.
I will also get
admission in the
language classes.
Customer service
skills
Internet I will attend
online training .
Positive feedback
from customers.
Positive
comments from
management.
Within eight
months
IT skills Support from
colleagues in
technical
department
I will seek
support from
colleges in
technical
department.
I will attend
training
programs.
Feedback from
technical team
Within one year
Commercial
awareness
Internet , books,
magazines,
journals, online
articles,
newspaper etc.
I will conduct
research online
using internet in
order to gain
knowledge about
industry.
I will read
newspaper and
Self -assessment. Within six
months
4

articles as it will
assist me in
analysing the
trend in retail
sector.
I will also attend
seminars.
Selling skills Internet , books,
support from
colleagues
I will attend
seminars,
workshop.
I will use internet
to learn about the
technique of
selling.
Feedback from
seniors
Within eight
months
Time
management
skills
Stationery ,that is
note pad as well
as pen
I will set short as
well as long term
objectives for
myself.
I will prepare
schedule daily.
I will organise my
work according to
the priorities.
I will do multi
task
Self evaluation Within six
months
5

3.1 CV
In appendix
3.2 LINKED IN PROFILE
In appendix
4. CONCLUSION
Kolb learning model
The different stages kolb reflective model are :
Concrete experience: Presently I don't have an experience working in retail organisation. I have
executed the research in order to get the information about the skills as well as knowledge
required for getting employed in retail organisation (Ismail and Nowalid, 2018). I have good
experience in conducting the research as it has assisted me in identifying the sources from where
I can get an opportunity to develop skills as well as knowledge which can be helpful in context
of performing roles as well as responsibilities in systematic manner in retail organisation (Reilly,
2018.).
Reflective observation : After analysing the information gathered from the research I found that
specialised skills as well as knowledge which are required to work in retail organisation includes
customer service, communication, commercial awareness, product knowledge etc.
Abstract conceptualisation : After that when I conduct the self evaluation I found that my
strength is that I am active Lister. In addition to this, I also found that I have good knowledge
about the product. I also found that My biggest weakness is that I lack an effective
communication as well as customers skills which can create barriers in my professional as well
as professional growth. It was quite good experience of knowing own strength as well as
weakness.
Active experimentation : I have planned to perform different activities in order to develop the
three core skills which are required especially for getting the job in retail company these are
commercial awarenesses, effective communication as well as customer service skills. I have
6

decided that I will attend both online as well as offline training program in order to develop
customer service skills. I will attend personality as well as language classes ion order to improve
my oral communication skills. I will attend seminars and workshops in order to keep my selves
aware about the latent trends in retail sector.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Reilly, P., 2018. Building customer centricity in the hospitality sector: the role of talent
management. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Theme.10(1). pp.42-56.
Vigurs, K., Harris, D. and Everitt, J., 2018. Graduate gap years: narratives of postponement in
graduate employment transitions in England. In Graduate Careers in Context (pp. 85-98).
Routledge.
Chung, K.L. and D’Annunzio-Green, N., 2018. Talent management practices in small-and
medium-sized enterprises in the hospitality sector: An entrepreneurial owner-manager
perspective. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.10(1). pp.101-116.
Ismail, A. and Nowalid, W.A.W.M., 2018. THE ROLE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
IN ENHANCING PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR.
Ngcobo, T., Martins, A. and Martins, I., 2019. Talent Management: Retaining Distinctive Human
Capital Sustainably. In Forecasting and Managing Risk in the Health and Safety
Sectors (pp. 145-174). IGI Global.
Kuczera, M. and Field, S., 2018. Apprenticeship in England, United Kingdom.
Spanjaard, D., Hall, T. and Stegemann, N., 2018. Experiential learning: Helping students to
become ‘career-ready’. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ). 26(2). pp.163-171.
8

APPENDIX
CV
Cv for working in assistant manager in retail organisation .
Richard Dickson
12, beacon Road
Chester
Contact details: 01244 9649 78
Email : Richard19 @reedioffmail.com
Professional summary
Core qualification
City and guilds retail skills – south Wirral college (2013)
Apprenticeship in retailing (2013)
Bachelors in business administration : St. joseph college London (2015)
Academic Qualification
GCSE in maths, English, science, information as well as communication technology.
Key skills
 Good written communication skills
 Team working skills
 Flexible member of team
 Self-motivated
 organisation skills
 Knowledge about the products offered buy retail companies
 Good cash handling
 Baking knowledge about computer and internet
Languages
French and Spanish
Experience :
Fresher
References
9

Character references will be provided on request
10

APPENDIX 2
Linked in Profile
Categories Year 1 of 2 Year 3 to 4
Photograph
Headline Bachelors in business
administration student at St.
joseph college London
To develop the understanding
about the retail industry and to
develop the managerial skills
in order to perform the role of
manager in retail organisation.
Summary I have interest in leading
people. In addition to this I
have interest in retail field.
My goals is to get job of
assistant manager in well
known reputed retail
organisation.
I have got job as assistant
manager in Tesco which is
retail organisation. It has been
since five years I have been
working in Tesco. I have got
best performance award for
making my significant
contribution in achieving
business goals.
Education City and guilds retail skills –
south Wirral college (2013)
Apprenticeship in retailing
(2013)
Completed Bachelors in
business administration : St.
joseph college London (2015)
Skills Language skills
Leadership skills
Problem solving skills
customer service skills
Commercial awarenesses
effective oral communication
skills
Presentation skills
IT skills
Groups Professional group at company Group of professional
11

Aluminium group Group at social media
companies Tersco
Marks and Spencer
Morrison
Dixon
12