Reference no: EM133727416
Overview
The assignment consists of an individual plan for continual professional development that requires an informal presentation, draft with peer review, and an action plan. The intent of this assignment is self-awareness, research, planning, action, and reflection on professional skills as they connect to career selection. Your final plan should be 5-7 pages, double-spaced, and include at least three sources to support your content/findings.
We want you to leave the course with an awareness of how you plan to spend you next few years here at Mason to better prepare your resume for your future success. What activities will help you grow and experience what you need to in order to reach your end goal.
Professional Development Plan
Introduction
Discuss why you are interested in pursuing a degree in business (or another selected area). What major (accounting, finance, information systems and operations management, management, marketing or other) are you most interested in and why? What would be your ideal job upon graduation? Try to provide more than just a surface-level discussion-do some serious self-assessment here.
Industry Skills Requirements
What specific skills are needed for the job or career field of your choice? Your response to this question should be based on research. Plan to utilize databases such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) and O*NET (https://www.onetonline.org/) as well as at least one professional business source (see approved list below) that tells why these skills, or the one skill you plan to develop, is relevant in today's business world. Be sure to use APA-style in-text citations to indicate where you got your information. Use at least three different sources for your information.
Articles may be taken from the following: The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek.
Please note that you are expected to act on your professional development plan for this semester and write about what you accomplished in the reflection portion of the final version of this paper.
Below is an example of what your Action Plan should look like. Copy the headings on the side and top but put your own bullet points into the gray areas. You should have at least two items in each timeframe.
Reflection
Conclude your plan by answering the following:
Did you accomplish the things you planned to do during this semester? Why or why not?
What challenges might arise in the future as you attempt to execute your action plan? What is your backup plan?
How will you apply the knowledge learned from this assignment to school success and your future career? Give specific examples.