Essay: SWOT Analysis for Career Development and Personal Skills

This essay presents a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis conducted on the author to assess their personal and professional development. The introduction highlights the importance of career development and the role of SWOT analysis in identifying areas for improvement. The discussion section details the author's strengths, such as creativity and adaptability, and weaknesses, including communication and management skills. Opportunities like multitasking and decision-making are also explored, alongside threats such as competition and changing professional standards. A Personal Development Plan (PDP) is then outlined, focusing on improving communication and management skills through workshops and training. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of continuous self-assessment and skill enhancement for achieving career goals. The essay demonstrates a practical application of SWOT analysis and the creation of a PDP to foster personal growth, providing a structured approach to self-improvement and career advancement.

SWOT Analysis Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Career development process is an ongoing organised and formal procedure which is
undertaken by all individuals at some point of time in their lives. It is important for every person
to develop a career for themselves for their personal and professional growth. Career
development is an activity of identifying the all different needs of individuals, recognizing their
abilities and setting career goals accordingly so that they can achieve the best for themselves.
This assignment is based on and highlights the need for personal development and their
importance in context of development of better and potential professional skills (Bush and et. al.,
2018). In this report, SWOT analysis is performed, which is a tool to identify the strengths and
weaknesses of an individual which enables them to acquire better opportunities and mitigate the
effects of potential threats on their career and professional development. Also, a thorough
Personal Development Plan (PDP) is prepared which reflects all those skills which needs to be
improved for acquiring better position in career or at workplace. This assignment is based on
myself, in which I am performing SWOT analysis for determining my strengths and weaknesses.
According to results of SWOT analysis, I have prepared a PDP to improve the areas on which I
lack.
DISCUSSION
Personal development is a process of improving oneself through adopting various
activities which will enhance the skills of human beings and help them to grow in their personal
and professional lives. The growing need of success for an individual have increased the need for
personal development, it assist in obtaining more qualified and higher level of knowledge or
education. Personal development is an ongoing process which takes place frequently and
individuals takes step to improve their skills and abilities (Tattum and Tattum, 2017). For my
personal development its important for me to know and identify all the skills I have to acquire
better opportunities and learn more. SWOT analysis of myself is conducted for determining all
strengths and weaknesses I have and accordingly what opportunities I can acquire for further and
better development of myself.

SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a framework of four factors which covers different scenarios enabling
individuals to analyse themselves and develop better skills for moving forwards in career. SWOT
is an abbreviation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. These elements are
further divided into two categories internal and external. An individual have some strengths
along with weaknesses, through there strong points and abilities they can grow and attain all
objectives. Along with it, they have some weaknesses too on which they need to work so that no
hurdlers come in way of their personal and professional growth (Etongo and et. al., 2018). The
main aim and goal of conducting SWOT analysis is to evaluate past, present and future of an
individual career goals.
Strengths- These refers to internal components on which individual have some control
and can be improved or changed accordingly. Strengths of an individual refers to those
behavioural and professional skills which are of positive nature and strong. These factors are
controllable and assist them to enhance their personal skills by developing better learnings.
Weaknesses- These are the negative factors which are harming an individual, their
growth and development. Weaknesses are also internal to an individual which are unfavourable
to them and becomes a barriers in skill development and goals achievement. Weaknesses and
their effects can be reduced by an individual but they cannot be completely vanished, as every
human being have some weaknesses which are inseparable from them.
Opportunities- Next, element of SWOT analysis is opportunities or further possibilities
which an individual have to learn more and acquire more effective and efficient skills which help
them to grow more and attain all aims (Mohezar, Moghavvemi and Zailani, 2017). Opportunities
are external and sometimes internal factor which has positive impact on individuals and their
lives if they acquire the best chances at the correct time. Opportunities enhance the chances a
person or human beings have to increase their knowledge and perform in an effective manner to
grow and move towards better goals.
Threats- The last component of SWOT analysis tool highlights and identifies all the
threats associated with an individual which are hindering their aim or attaining enough potential
skills and move further in their career. Threats are all those elements which imposes negative
impact on the person and creates hurdles in their path of personal and professional development

and betterment. They are external forces which are not in control of human beings they can just
take measure to reduce the effects of these threats.
SWOT analysis of myself:
Strengths Weaknesses Innovative and creative- My personal
strength is that I am very creative. I
keep my mind open for seeking new
knowledge and develop practices which
are new and innovative so that I can
stand out from others in my
professional and personal life. Ability to adapt in every situation-
Another, strength of myself is I am
very flexible and easily adapt to
change. Some people face problems
while moving in unknown
environment. But I am very
comfortable and actually enjoys facing
and working in different environments
and culture. It enables me to develop
more understanding and enhance my
skills by learning new things and ways
of doing things and performing various
tasks.
 Communication skills- This is one of
the biggest weaknesses of myself. I
have very poor communication and
conversational skills. Sometime it is
difficult for me to start a conversation
with another person or group of
individuals. This is the skill, where I
lack and due to which I missed several
opportunities.
 Lack management skills- Another very
harmful and weak skill of myself is I
lack in managing my tasks and
priorities. Its important for very
individual to manage their work and set
their priorities according to their goals.
I am very weak in planning my work in
relation with their importance and this
is one of the biggest weaknesses of
myself. It hinders me from attaining my
aims and bring delays in my work.
Opportunities Threats Multitasking- The most effective and
potential opportunity I have is to
develop more skills and knowledge
which assist me and enables me to
perform several tasks at a time. This
 Competition- This is one of the biggest
threat which is faced by every
individual in all types of fields and
working environment. With every
passing day competition is increasing

multitasking skill will also help me to
overcome my weakness of lack of
management (Shahba and et. al., 2017).
Multitasking skill will also enhance my
mindset and allow me to work more
efficiently. This skill is developed by
me with the help of my seniors, they
guide me towards right path and help
me in attaining all objectives. Decision making- Further, another
possibility I have is to develop better
decision making skills. This will
enables me to work more effectively
taking appropriate decisions in
whenever needed. It will enhance my
knowledge of different situations and
assist me to take rapid and correct
decisions in difficult or urgent
situations and for my career.
aggressively, people are becoming
more competitive. Everyone wants to
achieve the best for themselves and
bring huge harm as for attaining aims
human beings go beyond ethical means
and willing harm anybody for their own
good.
 Changing professional standards-
Another threat which I am facing
currently is changing standards of
professions and professionals. For
instance, earlier technology was not
important and therefore employees are
not expected to be tech-friendly, but
now with enhancing use of technology
an increasing technological
advancement, organisations require all
updated and skilled employees which
have master in technology.
Personal Development Plan:
OBJECTIVES/
SKILLS
SUCCESS
CRITERIA
ACTIONS IMPLEMENTATION
Communication
skills
I will start conducting
effective
communication with
my staff members and
other people in my
workplace (Grit,
2019). I will take
For developing better
communication skills I
will be taking some
workshops in which
they specifically work
for better development
of conversational skills.
I will participate more
in group conversations
and take initiatives to
start communication
with other in my
workplace. I will also
indulge myself more

feedbacks from my
colleagues and my
team mates.
with other staff and my
colleagues to get use too
of this new
environment.
Management skills My seniors will assist
me in acquiring and
developing this skill.
Therefore, at first I
will seek their
opinion about my
improvements and
learnings.
In order to attain better
management ability and
power I will be
attending some training
programs, which are
established for those
who face issues
managing their work
and other team
members.
First will implement my
learning and knowledge
on myself by taking
effective measure to
manage my work and all
related tasks (Grant,
2017). After doing so, I
will start managing my
team and other members
who are associated with
me in my workplace.
CONCLUSION
From this report it is concluded and summarised that personal and professional
development is an essential activity. It is an ongoing and continuous process which takes place
regularly as individuals nowadays keep working on themselves and keen to learn new things and
seek new skills. A very effective tool which enables individuals to analyse themselves before
seeking any new knowledge is SWOT analysis. This model has four elements which assist them
learn about their strengths and weaknesses and accordingly acquire present opportunities and
take measure to mitigate the impacts to the lowest level of those potential threats. Moreover, a
Personal Development plan (PDP) is also provided at the end to develop skills in order to
overcome all the weaknesses of an individual such as enhancing management skills by attending
training sessions.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bush, T. and et. al., 2018. Mentoring and continuing professional development. In Mentors in
Schools (1996) (pp. 121-143). Routledge.
Etongo, D. and et. al., 2018. Assessing the effectiveness of joint forest management in Southern
Burkina Faso: A SWOT-AHP analysis. Forest policy and economics. 90. pp.31-38.
Grant, J., 2017. The good CPD guide: A practical guide to managed continuing professional
development in medicine. CRC Press.
Grit, R., 2019. Managing your competencies: personal development plan. Routledge.
Mohezar, S., Moghavvemi, S. and Zailani, S., 2017. Malaysian Islamic medical tourism market:
a SWOT analysis. Journal of Islamic Marketing. 8(3). pp.444-460.
Shahba, S. and et. al., 2017. Application of multi-attribute decision-making methods in SWOT
analysis of mine waste management (case study: Sirjan's Golgohar iron mine,
Iran). Resources Policy. 51. pp.67-76.
Tattum, D. and Tattum, E., 2017. Social education and personal development. Routledge.