Developing personal career strategy - MBA Student Exchange

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that include components for making changes or improvements (courses, experiences, etc.) necessary for achieving your career goals. • By becoming familiar and comfortable with your inventory of accomplishments, you develop increased confidence in your abilities. This translates directly to increased confidence during your networking and interviewing activities. • Employers view your past behavior as the best predictor of future behavior. For this reason, your resume bullets and interview responses will be constructed around your previous accomplishments. Thus, this assessment will not only inform your career decisions and planning, but is also an inventory of the data you will later incorporate into your marketing plan and communications (resume, cover letters, interviews, and networking). Because we all have different levels of difficulty reviewing our histories, or viewing our work activities as accomplishments, the list below is intended to provide you with some insight into what constitutes an accomplishment, to jog your memory about what you have done, and to begin the process of analyzing each accomplishment. Remember that your accomplishments do not have to be directly related to a job. They could also be demonstrated while you were in college, working in your community, or during a volunteer experience. Have you ever: • Been promoted or given increased responsibility? (Why? Result?) • Been given an award or received special recognition? (Why?) • Managed, supervised or trained employees? (How Many? Who? Results?) • Managed some type of work group or department? (How Many? Who? Results?) • Increased the efficiency of something? (Of what? How? Results?) • Enhanced the effectiveness of something? (Of what? How? Results?) • Improved the quality of something? (Of what? How? Results?) • Increased production? (Of what? How? Results?) • Met or exceeded goals? (What? How? Results?) • Solved difficult problems? (What? How? Results?) • Created, developed, or designed something? (What? How? Results?) • Decreased expenses? (Of what? How? Results?) • Increased revenue or profits? (Of what? How? Results?) • Increased production? (Of what? How? Results?) • Increased sales? (Of what? How? Results?) Page 18
• Managed a budget? (What size? How? Result?) • Reduced downtime? (Of what? How? Results?) • Developed a new process, system or procedure? (What? How? Benefit?) • Achieved something for the first time? (What? How? Benefit?) • Identified problems overlooked by others? (What? How? Benefit?) • Identified opportunities overlooked by others? (What? How? Benefit?) Step #3 DE-CONSTRUCTING YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS: By going through the process of de-constructing your accomplishments, you achieve several important outcomes: • You develop insight into the knowledge, skills, and abilities that enabled you to achieve these notable performance achievements. • You identify the core interests that previously engaged and motivated you. • You begin to identify themes in your activities that will inform your choices about what you would be motivated to do, and enjoy doing, in your career. • You inventory data about yourself that you can incorporate into marketing yourself as a future achiever (resume bullets, networking introductions, and responses to behavior-based interview questions). • You develop compelling and persuasive “stories” to use in response to behavior-based interview questions that demonstrate how you have added value in the past, which also incorporates specific information about you that is vital in hiring decisions. As you review your stories, you are likely to begin identifying themes or patterns in your past successes. You are likely to see that there are certain types of activities, tasks, or projects that you found particularly engaging (interests), motivating (values) and/or enjoyable (interests, skills, and/or values). Knowing your career interests, skills, and values is vital in focusing your studies and job search on particular business functions (Finance, Marketing, etc.), and/or targeting particular industries. “Non-business” interests may also be crucial in targeting particular industries. For example, a strong interest in automobiles may be a sufficient basis for focusing your career in the automotive industry. In addition, this personal interest in the industry is also likely to differentiate you from other viable candidates for a position. The same may be true for interests in entertainment, consumer products, fashion, manufacturing, technology, and so on. In each case, you are simply a better “fit” for the product or service of the organization because this is a personal motivator. In your review, you are also likely to see that there are certain skills and abilities that you not only applied successfully, but also enjoyed using. In contrast, we all possess skills that we have developed and successfully applied in our previous activities, but we Page 19
Page 1 and 2: DEVELOPING A PERSONAL CAREER STRATE
Page 3 and 4: a lifetime.” Our goal is to provi
Page 5 and 6: STAGE IA - EXPLORATION: SELF-ASSESS
Page 7 and 8: the subsequent steps to create your
Page 9 and 10: STAGE IB - EXPLORATION: MARKET RESE
Page 11 and 12: management and your academic pursui
Page 13 and 14: All Together,” which provides spa
Page 15 and 16: DEVELOPING YOUR PERSONAL CAREER STR
Page 17: APPENDIX A PAST EXPERIENCES For the
Page 21 and 22: APPENDIX A SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS M
Page 23 and 24: STEP #3 DE-CONSTRUCTING YOUR ACCOMP
Page 25 and 26: APPENDIX C ANALYSIS OF PERSONAL STY
Page 27 and 28: APPENDIX E Personal Career Vision &
Page 29 and 30: Statement of Target Position/Goals:
Page 31 and 32: Promotion (Action Plan Example):
Page 33: Your present - What are you doing n

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