Professional Career Practice 4: Self-Assessment and Action Plan

This report, submitted by a student, details a professional career practice assignment. It begins with a self-assessment, exploring personal attributes, employability skills, strengths, and areas for development. The report then includes an informational interview with managers from Altium Limited, analyzing industry trends and the impact of automation. The student reflects on the interview's influence and presents a comprehensive career action plan, outlining goals and strategies for professional growth. The assignment covers various aspects of career planning, from personal branding to networking and long-term development, demonstrating the student's understanding of career management and the ability to synthesize information from diverse sources. The student identifies personal strengths, weaknesses, and strategies to improve skills, including multi-tasking and cross-cultural team collaboration. The report highlights the importance of continuous learning and adaptation to the changing work environment.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL CAREER PRACTICE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive summary
In this report, an interview is conducted with Altium reported. The interview with one
senior-level and mid-level manager is conducted to understand the strategic and tactical
trends of the industry. The answers of the interview are listed and it has been depicted
the multiple ways by which the interview has increased my level of interest in the field of
software and management. The report also presents an action plan for my career.

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Table of Contents
1. Self assessment Summary.......................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................... 3
DISCUSSION............................................................................................................... 3
MY CAREER AND ME EXERCISES........................................................................3
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS....................................4
Highlights from my findings-......................................................................................5
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT..........................................................................6
2. Informational Interview Report..................................................................................9
Introduction................................................................................................................... 9
Discussion.................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 12
3. Career planning reflections.....................................................................................13
Action Plan..................................................................................................................14
4. Copy of advertisement............................................................................................16
5. Selection Criteria.....................................................................................................17
6. Cover letter............................................................................................................. 23

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1. Self assessment Summary
Introduction
Self Reflection of career needs will help me to contemplate my strength and
weakness and will enable me to draw a career path for myself. There are many
exercises which are practiced by me to understand my skills. These exercises have
helped me to analyze the arenas of personal attributes where I am extremely good and
the areas where I should improve. Choosing a right career is very important for me. I
can choose a right career only by aligning my personal skill sets, attributes and areas of
interest with his career options. Choice of a wrong career can be detrimental for me as I
might feel stuck and unhappy with a bad career choice. Self-reflection of career needs
will not only help me to choose a right career option but will also help me to pave my
career path and foster my personal development (Bloch and Richmond 2015).
DISCUSSION
MY CAREER AND ME EXERCISES
1. The exercises are about certain questions related to Values and Skills,
Personal Branding, Networking, Performance and Long Term Planning. The exercises
are also about analyzing different Skill Sets. Self-Reflection exercise on career needs
involve asking me questions on my personal values and skills as personal core-beliefs
should be in alignment with career needs. Asking me questions like what are my core
values, how do I derive my sense of purpose, am I more intrinsically motivated by sense
of achievement or extrinsically motivated by external rewards like money, question on

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Personal Branding like if I will be able to market myself well and make a tailor-made CV
for my career needs, questions on Networking like am I utilizing all professional
networking options like online recruiters, head-hunters and career fairs will enable,
questions on Performance like how well I can exploit my opportunities at work ,question
on long term planning like do I have a professional development plan will enable be
understand my career needs. Also I should analyze my skills for my career needs. The
skills on self-assessment should include the ability to review my academic and research
skills, research environment skills, research management skills. Reviewing my key-
transferrable skills like personal effectiveness skills, communication skills, networking
and team working skills and career management skills will aid me on my self-
assessment of career needs. Most of the exercises are available on Human Resource
Books, Templates provided by professors and the internet. The exercises were really
useful as they helped me to analyze my skill sets on multiple arenas as well as I could
contemplate n my core values and personal branding which has enabled me to
understand my career needs better.
2. The surprising fact that I discovered while doing the assessment was that I could
discover my core values and was able to discover my subconscious beliefs that were
subdued for a long time.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
3. The things Identified about myself –Personal Attributes- My personal attributes
is that I am more intrinsically motivated by sense of self-fulfillment and achievement.
External motivating factors like financial rewards do not drive me to a large extent. I am
also self-reliant and I am willing to learn and improve myself continuously. I have

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demonstrated self-discipline, flexibility and openness, creativity and innovation on
multiple arenas during several activities undertaken during my internship and university
projects. I am able to develop and maintain good professional network with my peers
and superiors. I have demonstrated my good emotional intelligence on several
occasions during group projects and I was able to understand and interpret behaviors of
my team members and was able to give them feedback in an effective way. I also
demonstrated good listening skills. I am committed to my professional development and
I can set realistic goals for my career which I will be able to achieve. I have a good
balance of emotional intelligence as well as analytical skills. My core values is and
sense of my purposed is based on the principles of integrity and hard work. I constantly
try to upgrade my skills to survive in the professional front as well as I am a good team
player. I try to ensure that the overall objectives of my team are achieved (Spencer
Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey 2013).
Highlights from my findings-
MY STRENGTHS
I have discovered that I was good at time management. I was able to complete
all the research projects undertaken in the university and during my internship projects
within specific deadline. I also demonstrated my leadership skills by taking the lead role
during all group projects and I was able to co-ordinate with my team members well
during each project undertaken. I have discovered that I have good research skills; I am
able to analyze data and have demonstrated my critical ability on multiple tasks during
my internship project. I am also able to manage projects by demonstrating this by timely
and accurate submission of all my projects in the university. My research management

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skills also included by ability of using Information Systems for proper database
management and I was able to present information accurately. I also demonstrated
various skills related to discipline on research like my ability to contemplate different
research methodologies and my understanding of the law and ethics related to research
were appreciated during all my research proposals and projects submitted in the
university. I have also demonstrated ability to present my research both in written and
oral formats in front of audiences making use of audio-visual aids. The academic
communication skills were demonstrated by me on multiple occasions as I was able to
present my thesis and reports to audiences and press.
Employability Skills-I have several IT and Computer Skills. I am well versed with several
programming languages like C and Java; I also speak three foreign languages French,
German and Spanish. I am also able to work in teams by collaborating with each team
member and I can finish my projects within deadline.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
My professional development would require identification of my personal
weakness and challenges and the strategies to overcome them. I have found
challenges to work on multiple tasks at a time. I strive to achieve perfection and so I am
find it extremely challenging to multi-task. The global workplace is extremely challenging
and multi-tasking is the need of the hour. I would like to improve my multi-tasking skill
sets and in order to do so I would divide my project goals into several parts and would
like to work on all the two three parts simultaneously. I often find it difficult to work in a
multi-cultural environment and so I will try to overcome my personal stereotypes and
would not like to be biased and judgmental about any particular race, culture or religion.

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In order to increase my ability to work in a multi-cultural team I would like to
undertake student exchange programs. Student exchange programs will enable me to
study in a multi-cultural environment among students of various nationalities. This will
make me more familiar with the culture and history of different nations. Undertaking
student exchange programs will help me overcome my weakness as I will be able to
work in teams with people from different countries and will develop cultural tolerance.
Though I have good technical skills yet I would like to develop my skills further by
undertaking more courses on programming languages. I would also like to improve my
analytical skills more so that my skills are aligned with the rapid change of global
technology. I would like to learn managing data and analytical tools of data science.
Learning to manage and interpret data and enhancing my computer related skills will
enable me to survive in the competitive workplace. I need to constantly adapt my skills
to the changes in the work environment and undertake learning and self-improvement
as a continuous process.
Conclusion
From the exercise of self-reflection on career needs I have discovered a lot about
my personal attributes and skills. I could review myself on multiple skills like research
skills, communication skills and technical skills. I could discover my core values and my
primary source of motivation. This enabled me to discover my sense of purpose and I
could align my career goals with my inner values and principles. I was able to identify
my strengths. Identification of personal strengths is of paramount importance as my
strengths will increase my confidence level and will help me to market myself to the
outside world. To survive in this global environment team work is of extreme

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importance. I could contemplate that I have overall good emotional intelligence and
have demonstrated my ability to collaborate with my team members on multiple areas.
However I have discovered my weakness on certain arenas which needed immediate
attention and improvement. To improve my ability to work in a multi-cultural team, I plan
to undertake student exchange program and develop cultural tolerance. Also to succeed
in my professional development plans, I accepted the fact that learning and upgrading
skills is a continuous process.

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2. Informational Interview Report
Introduction
I am conducting an interview with Altium Limited- a pubic software company in
Australia. This interview will help me to understand the recent technological and
management trends in the software, electronics and global world. This interview will
help me in developing my networking skills and will also improve my communication
skills. The interview will be conducted with one person of mid-level management and
another person of senior level management in the Altium Limited organization. This will
help me to analyze both the strategic as well as the tactical goals of the organization.
The time place of the interview will be Sydney Australia and the time of the interview
was be afternoon 2 PM on August 28, 2017.I managed to get contacts of the mid-level
manager and director of the software department from my professional networking
circle. One of my close peers works in the organization. The role of the director is to
develop business strategies while the mid-level manager focuses on tactical plans. The
interview process took two hours.
Discussion
Questions asked to the Director, Mr. Alex
1) How do you think automation is going to affect the software industry?

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Answer- Automating including machine learning, big data and artificial intelligence are
examples of disruptive technologies. Artificial intelligence has made reading of
thousands of data and developing insights faster than humans. These insights are free
from biases and are more logical. Also automation is free from human errors like rest
breaks and bridge of concentration and can be extremely beneficial for the society as
productivity will increase exponentially. However, entry level workers constantly need to
elevate their skills as their jobs will be at risk due to automation of entry level jobs.
2) How silo-effect is minimized in Altium?
Answer- Silo effect is minimized in Altium by following a flexible organizational structure.
An open communication model is followed and silo effect in the organization is
minimized by ensuring cross-talent utilization and all the departments work together in
close collaboration.
Questions asked to the Manager, Mr. Perter.
1) How do you ensure that creativity and innovation is fostered within team members?
Answer- Creativity and innovation is fostered within team members in Altium by
enabling the team members to collaborate among each other. Team members are
encouraged to come up with innovative ideas and suggestion boxes are allotted to them
to acknowledge their innovative ideas. Brainstorming and activities like mind-mapping
are undertaken by team members to foster creativity and innovation in product
development.
2) How do you ensure that teams can sustain the rapid change of technology?