Professional Development Plan Report: Analyzing Career Aspirations

This report presents a comprehensive personal development plan (PDP) designed to assess career goals, current skills, and areas for improvement. The report begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of personal and professional development, followed by an analysis of potential ...Read More

Harvard

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
PART 1: Career Goals.................................................................................................................3
PART 2: Current Reality.............................................................................................................4
PART 3: Options for Progression................................................................................................5
PART 4: Way Forward................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Possession of personal and professional skills, abilities and knowledge are immensely
essential for an individual to operate successfully at any operational job within any business
industry of the world. It is also immensely important for an individual to consistently focus on
their personal and professional development in order to grow themselves and their careers
(Shaheen and Hameed, 2020). This report analyses the inadequacies in my personal and
professional abilities towards my career ambition and evaluates how these can be improved in
order for me to grow and develop myself professionally and personally in the future.
MAIN BODY
PART 1: Career Goals
There are present several career choices available to me based on my skills, abilities,
competencies and knowledge base. The preferred industry where I wish to work is the hospitality
industry because I have prior experience of operations within the hospitality industries and enjoy
the working environment which allows for me to be creative and work independently towards
my and the business’s objectives. The three career choices available to me pertain to the
following:
Hospitality Manager: A hospitality manager overlooks and manager all the entire operations of
a hospitality business such as hotels, resort etc., delegating the various tasks amongst their co-
workers while also supervising their performance in order to identify lapses and address them in
order for the hospitality business to operate successfully with optimum performance and
efficiency.
Hospitality Marketer: A marketer within the hospitality industry promotes and advertises the
services offered by the hospitality business organisation to the customers in the external markets
in order to generate interest amongst the customers and convert them into making a financial
transaction with the hospitality business organisation.

Customer Service Representative: A customer service representative is responsible for
representing the hospitality business organisation to the customers and ensure that they are
provided optimum standards of customer service by the hospitality business organisation
(Lejeune, Beausaert and Raemdonck, 2018).
From amongst these available career options, my preferred career relates to becoming a
hospitality manager at a successful hospitality business organisation such as Marriott, Hilton etc.,
as I possess all the hard and soft skills required for this job position and also possess adequate
management and delegation skills which are immense important for a hospitality manager.
PART 2: Current Reality
I have conducted and collected dedicated feedbacks from 5 different individuals as part
of the “Ask 5 People” exercise that was to be undertaken. The 5 individuals whom I collected
feedback on my skills and abilities were 3 teachers, 1 counsellor and 1 superior, which allowed
for me to procure relevant information from a variety of different sources and individuals. Based
on the feedback, I have created the following personal SWOT matrix, which details my personal
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Strengths:
Based on the “Ask 5 people” exercise and
feedbacks, I have evaluated that my personal
strengths include various hard and soft skills. I
possess various hard skills such as effective
knowledge of all managerial theories and models,
knowledge of various team building models and
other hard skills such as budgeting, accounting,
financing etc. I also possess soft skills such as
innov,ative and creative thinking, confidence etc.
Additionally, my strengths also relate to my
developed delegation and managerial skills.
Weaknesses:
On the basis of the feedbacks procured through the
“Ask 5 person exercise” I have evaluated my
personal weaknesses relate to my inadequate and
undeveloped time management skills, effective
communication skills in English, which is my
second language and my team work skills
(Dahmarde, Khodabakhshi and Rad, 2018).
Opportunities:
Making use of my identified strengths using the
feedbacks collected, I have the opportunity to make
use of my developed management and delegation
Threats:
In order for me to become a competent and
successful hospitality manager, I am also required
to place focus on developing my personal

skills in addition to my various hard and soft skills
to become an effective and competent hospitality
manager within a successful hospitality business
organisation. As all the strengths possessed by me
are essential for successfully operating as a
hospitality manager, I have the opportunity to
pursue a career as hospitality manager, which is
also my preferred career ambition.
weaknesses identified through the “Ask 5 persons”
exercise. Failure of me developing my weakness
can result in me pursuing the career ambition of
becoming a hospitality manager, but failing to
successfully operate as one, as my weaknesses
relating to team work, communication and time
management skills are also quite important skills
that are required for an individual to become a
successful and competent hospitality manager.
PART 3: Options for Progression
In order for me to develop myself personally and professionally and become a successful
and competent hospitality manager at a large hospitality business organisation, I need to develop
and bridge my skill gaps which relate directly to the personal weaknesses that I have identified in
my personal swot. In order for me to be able to become a successful hospitality manager, I need
to emphasise on improving my personal weaknesses and skill gaps relating to my time
management, team working and communication skills. In order for me to effectively improve my
weaknesses and develop myself professionally, I have designed the following Personal
Development Plan, which details the initiatives I need to undertake with the intention to
improving and bridging my skill gaps, resources required for the initiatives and time duration.
The personal development plan is as follows:
Skill to be
Developed
Initiatives to Develop Skill Resources
Required
Time
Duration
Time Management
Skills
I can improve upon my inadequate time
management skills by creating and adhering to
dedicated time sheets, time schedules and routines.
Doing this will effectively allow for me to identify
which tasks were conducted by me in a timely
manner and which tasks associated with me
mismanaging my limited time resources (Stewart,
2016). Time sheets and schedules will also allow
for me to keep a strategic track of the remaining
Time sheets,
daily schedules,
routines, clock
2-3
Months.

time that I have left for task completion, allowing
for me to be able to more effectively and efficiently
manage my limited timing resources, which would
develop my time management skills for my
professional development.
Team Working
Skills
In order for me to focus on and develop my
incompetent team working skills, I am required to
practise working as part of a team towards some
shared goals and objectives, with the overall task
being divided amongst the team members on the
basis of their individual skills and knowledge base
(Maguire and Blaylock, 2017). Practising working
in a team will allow me to gain valuable experience
in relation towards how to cooperate with others in
a cohesive manner so that multiple individuals are
able to achieve a common shared objective.
Team or group
of individuals to
practice with.
1-2
months.
Effective
Communication
Skills
I can improve upon my inadequate communication
skills through various methods all of which would
result in my personal and professional development.
I can learn from English dictionaries and
thesauruses in order to expand my limited
vocabulary which would improve upon my
inadequate communication skills in English. I can
also take up the habit of reading English
newspapers, magazines and novels in order to
enhance my familiarity with the English words and
grammar. Further in order to develop my
ineffective communication skills, I can also join
dedicated English coaching classes, which are
specifically designed towards improving speaking,
listening, reading and writing skills in English,
which would effectively improve my overall
communication skills.
Thesauruses,
Dictionaries,
English
newspapers,
novels,
magazines etc.,
coaching classes
3-4
months.

PART 4: Way Forward
 I am required to improve and enhance my inadequate time management skills. I can
measure my progress by creating dedicate time sheets and schedules, comparing my
performance with the past performances in order to measure my progress. When I am
effectively able to manage my limited time resources, then I would have attained the
objective. Improving my time management skills is highly relevant towards my personal
and professional development as this would allow for me to complete tasks on time. Time
allotted for achieving this objective is 3 months.
 I am required to enhance my team working skills. I can measure my progress by
comparing future team performance with past team performance. When I able to
cooperate cohesively with other then the objective would be attained (Rimmer, 2018).
This is highly relevant as a hospitality manager is required to cooperate cohesively with
others. Time duration for this is 2 months.
 I am required to improve my communication skills. I can measure my progress by trying
to communicate effectively with others in English. This is highly relevant as a hospitality
manager is required to communicate effectively with customers and co-workers. Time
period for improving my communication skills is 4 months.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of the report, it can be concluded that following the personal
development plan that I have created would effectively allow for me to bridge the gaps in my
own skills and abilities, helping me achieve my career ambition and objectives. This report
analyses the career choices available to me and selects my preferred option. Then the report
creates a personal SWOT that identifies my personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. Further the report designs a personal development plan enabling me to effectively bridge
my skill gaps. Finally, the report creates three objectives for me to achieve in the future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dahmarde, H., Khodabakhshi, M. and Rad, G.M., 2018. BIRJAND TEACHING HOSPITALS
NURSES'ATTITUDE TOWARDS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
Pharmacophore. 9(3). pp.25-29.
Lejeune, C., Beausaert, S. and Raemdonck, I., 2018. The impact on employees’ job performance
of exercising self-directed learning within personal development plan practice. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-27.
Maguire, W. and Blaylock, P., 2017. Preparing a personal development plan for all members of
the dental team. British Dental Journal. 223(6). pp.402-404.
Rimmer, A., 2018. How do I prepare a personal development plan?. Bmj. 363. p.k4725.
Shaheen, S. and Hameed, M., 2020. Personal Development Plan (PDP). Middle East Journal of
Family Medicine. 18(4).
Stewart, J., 2016. Personal development plan. In Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management.
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.