Career Development Plan: Achieving Advertisement Manager Career Goals

This report outlines a comprehensive career development plan aimed at equipping the author with the necessary skills and competencies to become a successful advertisement manager. It begins with an introduction to the role and the importance of effective advertising strategies. The report identifies key job skills requirements, including creativity, people skills, problem-solving, money management, time management, and presentation skills. It then reflects on relevant learning events, such as academic experiences and project work. A SWOT analysis is conducted to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, highlighting gaps in time and budget management skills. A personal development plan is presented, detailing strategies to improve these skills through reading materials, online courses, and practical application. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of dedication and hard work in achieving career goals within the competitive advertising industry. The author aims to leverage creativity and presentation skills while focusing on improving time and budget management to succeed in the field.

Professional Development

1
Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................2
Identification of job skills requirements....................................................................................3
Contributing learning events......................................................................................................4
Link between skills and competencies.......................................................................................5
SWOT analysis........................................................................................................................5
Personal development plan.......................................................................................................6
Developing skills to achieve career goals...................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8

2
Introduction
Advertisement management is referred to a planned managerial process which is designed
in order to oversee and control various advertising activities which involve communication
with a firm’s target market and ultimately designed to influence the consumer purchase
decisions. The advertisement manager plays a crucial role in conducting activities relating to
advertisement management, and he/she also focuses on driving innovation in the workplace
to promote creativity in work. Effective advertising strategy resulted in providing success to
a corporation by spreading awareness regarding its products and services which positively
reflect on its profitability (Jugenheimer et al., 2015). The advertisement manager is requiring
ensuring that the advertising team is working collaboratively to achieve common goals in
order to benefit the organisation. The aim of this report is to prepare a career development
plan which is focused on improving my skills and knowledge in order to become a successful
advertising company manager. In this report, the specifications and skills requirements to
become an effective advertisement company manager will be evaluated. I will reflect on key
learning events which contribute to my career development. A link will be made between
current and future roles to sustain growth in my career. Lastly, a personal development plan
will be included in the report which will be focused on closing gaps in skills and
competencies required to achieve my career goals.

3
Identification of job skills requirements
The manager of an advertisement company requires various skills and knowledge which are
necessary to lead a team. Creativity is one of the key elements which are required for the
manager of an advertising company. In order to find career in advertisement field, it is
important that the person must be creative enough to find new ideas regarding products
and services of corporations. Advertisement companies focus on providing services to other
clients who hire them to prepare advertisement for their products and services (Moriarty et
al., 2014). The advertisement manager mainly focuses on taking a new and unique approach
to old products and services. Without creative approach, the advertisement manager
cannot approach to a wider audience or the target audience of the company. Another key
skill required for an advertisement manager is people skills. Without appropriate people
skills, the advertisement will not appeal to a wider audience or the target audience of the
company (Ahsan, Ho, and Khan, 2013). People skills assist the manager in understanding the
demand for customers based on which they can become creative while developing new
advertisements.
Without knowledge of customers, the corporations will not be able to appeal to them which
will negatively reflect on the profitability of the company. The manager must have problem-
solving skills which is crucial while interacting with people. Without proper problem-solving
skills, the corporation will not be able to influence people in the organisation in order to
guide them towards achieving common organisational goals. The managers are required to
be pretty sharp in order to become successful advertisers to ensure that they are able to
solve the problems faced by their clients. Handling an advertisement company is a stressful

4
job which requires the manager to have excellent people skills which should be used by
them in order to solve their problems (Freimer and Horsky, 2012). The manager must have
money management skills because they are necessary to ensure that the advertisement
project is finished within appropriate time. If the advertisement project is not finished
within the budget allocated, then the advertisement company suffers loss. Therefore,
effective money management skills are crucial for managers to ensure that they did not go
overboard with the budget.
Effective time management is another key element which is necessary to develop by the
manager to ensure that he/she is able to complete the projects within given deadlines.
Without proper time management skills, the manager finds it difficult to managing many
clients and their projects which adversely reflect on the performance of the advertisement
company. Effective presentation skills are also important to ensure that advertisements are
appealing to a wider audience and they complete their job. Without effective presentation
skills, advertisements are not able to appeal to the targeted audience (Rossiter, 2012). The
advertisement manager is required to make a 30 second, 1 minute or smaller advertisement
in which they have to include much information regarding their products or services while
ensuring that it is understood by the audience. Therefore, presentation is a key part of
becoming a successful manager in an advertisement corporation.
Contributing learning events
People learn from their experiences, therefore, learning events have a significant impact on
the development of a person. In my case, there are many events which contributed to my
learning experiences, and they encouraged me to become the manager of an advertisement

5
company. Creativity is the major element which I believe is necessary for the success of an
advertisement company. Lack of creativity makes it difficult for advertisement agencies to
ensure that they are able to get more clients and satisfy their demands. In my academic
career, I faced many incidents in which I realise that I am a creative person. I also find new
ways to complete my projects while ensuring that they are appealing as well. I have
developed many skills while studying for MBA degree one of which includes presentation
skills.
I have to present my work in front of others which has developed my presentation skills,
and it has assisted me in learning how to appeal to a wider audience. I used my creativity to
ensure that my presentations are appealing and they are easily understood by my audience.
I also learned how to work in a team while preparing projects with my peers. I learned how
to solve problems and tackle issues which I faced during my assignments. I also learned a lot
about customer perspective and psychological factors which resulted in making an
advertisement campaign successful. I learned about how corporations use advertisements
to expand their customer base by appealing to a new customer segment.
Link between skills and competencies
SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 Creative mind
 Effective presentation skills
 Positive attitude
 Problem-solving skills
 Difficulty in managing time
 Problem in estimating right budget
for projects
 Lack of experience in leading
Opportunities Threats

6
 Growth opportunities in the field
 Learning skills developed through
MBA
 Reliance on online courses to
improve advertisement skills
 Increasing competition between
enterprises
 Difficult to appeal to newer
generations
There are gaps between my current skills and the skills which I required to develop in order
to become a successful manager of an advertisement company. The first thing which I have
to focus on is developing my management skills in terms of time and finance management.
These are the two key requirements which advertisement managers are required to develop
to ensure that they are able to effectively use their ideas to develop successful
advertisement campaigns (Carmichael and Cleave, 2012). I find it difficult to manage time
even during my academic career as I tend to get lost in the learning experience that I forget
to meet the deadline on time. I also find it difficult to correctly estimate the budget for a
project to ensure that it did not go overboard. I also did not have experience learning a
team or a company which makes it difficult for me to ensure that I am able to bring
everyone on the same page.
However, I have creativity skills which are crucial for me to develop advertisement
campaigns which target to my audience. I also have effective presentation skills which go
along with my positive attitude which assist me in ensuring that I am able to influence a
wider audience. I also like to solve problems which I face by using my skills and knowledge. I
will face difficulties in this career due to increasing competition between advertisement
agencies. The advertisement corporations also find it difficult to appeal to newer audience
as they have different taste when it comes to advertisements (Kilian, Hennigs and Langner,

7
2012). However, there are substantial growth opportunities in this field which I can exploit
through the skills and knowledge which I developed through MBA.
Personal development plan
In order to fill my current deficiencies in terms of key skills required to become a successful
advertisement manager, following is a personal development plan.
Skills Mechanism to acquire such
skills
Outcomes of activities
Time management Reading books and watching
online courses on time
management topic
It will take around 6 to 8
months to develop this skills
Budget management  Learning finance
management skills by
joining classes and
online courses
 I will estimate
budgets for small
projects for practice
This is an on-going skill which
I will continue to improve
through time
Developing skills to achieve career goals
Based on the above mentioned development plan, I will focus on closing the gap between
my current skills and skills required for me to become a successful manager of
advertisement company. Due to effective creativity and presentation skills, I will be able to
get the job which I wanted and also made an agreement with new clients. However, I have
to develop my time management and budget management skills to ensure that I will be able
to develop by academic career. I will develop time management skills by reading books on
this topic and watching online courses on this topic. These options will assist me in

8
developing my time management skills over a period of 6 to 8 months. I will continue to
practice these skills during my academic career to ensure that I am able to master them. In
the case of budget management, developing my skills is a bit difficult.
I cannot develop this skill by reading books; instead, I have to join classes in which I learn
the skills of mastering budget management. I have to learn how to make forecasts and
estimations regarding budgets for products which are suitable for my clients and me. I will
also rely on online courses since they are easily available whenever I need them. After some
time, I will also focus on estimating budgets for smaller projects for practicing my skills to
ensure that I am able to develop them. In order to master this skill, I will have to continue to
develop them for lifetime since I will face new challenges every time I set a budget.
However, I am sure that dedication and hard work will allow me to achieve my targets.

9
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are various skills and competencies which are required to become a
successful manager in an advertisement company. Some of these skills include creativity,
the ability to present ideas, people skills, teamwork, problem-solving skills, money
management, time management, and decision making. There are various learning events
which contributed to developing my skills and competencies. I developed the skill of
presentation and teamwork while studying for MBA degree. However, there are various
skills which I have to develop in order to become successful manager in an advertisement
company. Two of these skills include time management and budget management which I
will have to develop to become an effective manager. I will develop these skills by reading
books, joining classes and learning from online courses. I will also practice these skills on
smaller projects to ensure that I am able to effectively develop these skills. After developing
these skills, I will be able to successfully achieve my career goals and become a successful
manager in an advertisement company.

10
References
Ahsan, K., Ho, M. and Khan, S. (2013) Recruiting project managers: A comparative analysis of
competencies and recruitment signals from job advertisements. Project Management
Journal, 44(5), pp.36-54.
Carmichael, D. and Cleave, D. (2012) How effective is social media advertising? A study of
Facebook Social Advertisements. Internet Technology And Secured Transactions, 2012
International Conference, pp. 226-229.
Freimer, M. and Horsky, D. (2012) Periodic advertising pulsing in a competitive
market. Marketing Science, 31(4), pp.637-648.
Jugenheimer, D.W., Kelley, L.D., Hudson, J. and Bradley, S. (2015) Advertising and public
relations research. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kilian, T., Hennigs, N. and Langner, S. (2012) Do Millennials read books or blogs? Introducing
a media usage typology of the internet generation. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(2),
pp.114-124.
Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N.D., Wells, W.D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L. and Spence-Stone, R.
(2014) Advertising: Principles and practice. London: Pearson.
Rossiter, J.R. (2012) Advertising management principles are derived mostly from logic and
very little from empirical generalizations. Marketing Theory, 12(2), pp.103-116.