Free Essay Sample on Career Management

According to business dictionary career management is a life-long, self-monitored process of career planning that involves choosing and setting personal goals, and formulating strategies for achieving them. Career planning is the process whereby you analyze your abilities and interests, goals and objectives and devise or come up with a structure or steps to follow to achieve your long-term career plan. Each and every person has an important aspiration they hope to achieve. The future can provide unexpected ride but having a career plan that is solid acts as a guide to where you want to be. A career plan acts as a guide in a persons development regarding careers. It helps achieve your goals at ease as well as essential for our personal growth and development. Planning for the future ensures that you dont lose motivation along the way (Lock, 2005). As I develop my five years career plan, I will expound on the following aspects and how they relate to my career plan: self-assessment, industry analysis, skills development and goals and targets. Self-assessment helps you to be enlightened and gain more information on what career best suits you, your skills, interests and values that are related to your career. Self-assessment mostly focuses on one's likes, dislikes, priorities and strengths as long as long as your career is concerned. It also focuses on what one need to be emphasized more so as to build the career. Industry analysis here one looks at where his particular industry is going and the opportunities in it. In industry analysis one may consider the S.W.O.T analysis whereby you will in details look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that relate to your career plan. Skills development here one needs to look at the skills he/she need to develop in his/her endeavors to make his career success. Goals and targets this is the targets, goals and objectives one need to have achieved in the duration of the establishment stage of his career and the withdrawal stage (Reardon, 2008).

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Self-assessment

In five years time I am highly anticipating and working on being a qualified and competent retail business manager in retail industry. For one to be a good retail business manager, he must be a leader and be able to work together with others in an effective and efficient manner. Currently I am working at a local firm as an assistant supply chain officer and my current occupation is helping me gain the necessary leadership skills as well as managing, interpersonal, statistical and communication skills. As a way of polishing my potential to be a good retail business manager, I am also taking leadership short course at a local training center so as to help me polish my leadership and communication skills and any other relevant skills that pertain to developing a good retail manager out of me. This training program will take at least nine months. Enrolling in this training program is one choice I made and I am certain that it will affect my five-year career plan positively. It will also help me to stay relevant in my career in future. As a part of self-assessment I have surrounded myself with already established retail managers as well as business managers from other business sectors. This is essential and relevant since we share the same goals and objectives as long as my career is concerned and they will assist me in one way or another to achieve my five-year career plan. This will be made possible by the knowledge and skills they will impact in me as long as my career is concerned. I have also connected myself with other young ambitious people with the same career interests as myself. They are motivating me to keep pursuing my career plan. In my endeavor to achieve my five years career plan I thoroughly assess my needs as long as my career plan is concerned. The following are the findings resulting from the assessment: I have needs to be achieved as long as this career plan is concerned, for example need to gain necessary skills and experience as long as my career plan is concerned. I have things I expect to accomplish. Some of these things are the set goals and targets that pertain to my career plan. I also have some needs that relate to power such as the need to acquire leadership and communication skills that will help me in attaining my five-year career plan.

Industry analysis

The retail industry is rapidly growing in todays world. It is full of profit making opportunities. In the United States alone retail sector features the largest percentage of large, lucrative retailers in the world. It remains the biggest and the most successful private employer sustaining most of the middle-class people especially in the urban centers. Among the most open and available opportunities that highly contributes to the expansion and growth of retail industry in future include global urbanization. There is a historic shift of the worlds population from rural to urban. This will in future increase consumer incomes and increase customer concentration that will in turn present lucrative opportunities for the retail sector. Another opportunity is an enhancement of efficiency in the supply chain. This provides an important opportunity for retailers to minimize or eliminate inefficiencies and compete on cost that is very critical considering that companies in consumer markets with little growth highly compete for market share. On the other hand retail industry is efficiently embracing innovation and technology as well as newly launched products and services. Research shows that in future businesses will be highly characterized by new technology as well as constant innovation of products and services. The fact that retail industry is embracing this innovation and modern technology is very promising since it shows that the industry will still be thriving in future despite other industries that are not embracing the same diminishing. In five years time my goal and objective as far as my career plan is concerned is to be an established business manager in retail industry managing big, competent, successful and reputable retail businesses. This will be enhanced by the skills and knowledge I am currently gaining in my current job as an assistant supply chain officer as well as from the local training program. My zeal, love and campaign on the need for businesses to employ the modern technology and embrace innovation as long as products and services are concerned will also substantially contribute to the achievement of my career plan (Roth well $ Payne, 2005).

Skills development

In line with my career plan, there are various skills I need to develop and polish so as to emerge successful in the retail industry in future. The following are skills I am currently striving to perfect and develop so as to build and bring up a successful retail business manager from who I am today in five years to come. Customer service this is critical and essential for all personals in the retail industry. Retail is always about ensuring that the customer is happy and has a super excellent experience all the time. This means that this skill is very critical and a must. I am already polishing this skill by ensuring that I make my current customers happy as much as possible by offering them awesome reception and customer services. People leadership this is the ability to lead your team as a leader or a manager in the best possible manner. As a retail manager, your team will comprise of diverse workforce i.e. inexperienced employees, stubborn employees etc. as a manager you will need to lead by example, devise ways of motivating your employees, be able to assess your employees strengths and potential, create a team spirit and atmosphere with an aim to bring all your employees together and work as a team. You also need to be in charge of employees training and development, with fairness and patience be able to handle delicate cases that pertain to your business operations. Sales experience as a retail manager you must ensure that all your employees whether an associate or a person in the management team has the sales skills. This calls for you having examples ready to prove that you are capable of turning a browser into a buyer. You must have the impressive power to make customers buy goods from your business. Resilience a retail manager needs to be robust enough and flexible to deal with daily variations. Ability to handle ups and downs is very vital since the industry has a lot of uncertainties that can lead to burnout. Organization successful retail managers must be highly organized, excellent planners and strong troubleshooters since this industry is dynamic and requires one to stay on top of everything that is going on. Communication a retail manager needs to develop good communication skills so as to communicate in a clear and efficient manner with employees, customers and other managers.

Goals and targets

The business dictionary defines a goal as an observable and measurable outcome having one or more objectives to be obtained within a more or less fixed timeframe. It also sets a target as the value of an economic variable that policymakers regard as a best possibility and use as the basis for setting policy. As a manager in a retail industry, one needs to have set goals and targets to work towards achieving at the set time-frame within a career plan. In my five years career plan I also have goals and targets that I have set so as to make me a successful retail manager at the end of this five years period. Some of my set goals include: Efficiency since the choices I make right now will in one way or another affect my overall five-year career plan, I always consider making this decision wisely and execute the programs I choose with a lot of efficiency and effectiveness so as to bring the best outcome possible. Growth one of my main is concerned with my growth from the current position I am right now to where I want to be in the next five years as long as my career plan is concerned. Advancing my academics the other goal I have that will help me achieve my five-year career plan is developing my academics by obtaining my masters degree as well as my doctorate. This will grant me an excellent platform to acquire knowledge and skills necessary for achieving my goals and objectives as long as my five years career plan is concerned. So as to achieve my five years career plan, I have divided my goals into three parts i.e. short-term goals (within six months), mid-term goals (next year) and long-term goals (within five years). My short-term goals include, obtaining my masters degree, completing the training program I am currently pursuing and obtaining my certificate in leadership skills etc. My mid-term goal includes: I will become involved in leadership programs and forums to become a manager. I will also work closely with other retail managers so as to gain much knowledge and manager qualities to help me in future. Enroll in a doctorate program at a well-known university. Lastly but not least, my long-term goal includes: achieving all my goals and targets that pertain to the achievement of my overall five-year career plan.

References

Lock, R. D. (2005). Taking charge of your career direction. Belmont, CA, USA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Reardon, R. C. (2008). Career development and planning: A comprehensive approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Rothwell, W. J., Wang, A. W., & Payne, T. D. (2005). Career planning and succession management: Developing your organization's talent ; for today and tomorrow. Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers.