career planning and development assignment on development of social science skills
Question
Task: How to master the social scientist skills using career planning and development assignment research techniques?
Answer
Introduction
A group of individuals who are involved in social interaction comprises of a society. As per the current career planning and development assignment situation, the societal dynamics are changing. The needs and desires of people within the society are changing as well as evolving. In such scenario, social scientists help people understand how they can interact with other people within the society and build solid relationships. In recent times, it can be found that social scientists are growing their interests in studying social phenomena with the help of longitudinal methods that are intensive. Moreover, social scientists are also known for loving mind games (Moats and Seaver, 2019). Universities and colleges also focus on training individuals so that they can become skilled social scientists. Thiscareer planning and development assignment report aims at reflecting upon my learnings throughout the session. Moreover, this report also focuses on discussing skills, attributes and behaviours that I should built to develop my career.
Reflection on weekly learnings
To reflect upon my weekly learnings, I have leveraged Gibbs’ reflective cycle model. This is a six-step model that can help me broadly reflect on my learnings. Gibbs’ reflective cycle model has been chosen because it helps students to easily reflect on problem-based learning (Sekarwinahyu, et.al., 2019).
Description
Ourcareer planning and development assignment instructor has divided the entire topic into different sessions. Various topics that are related to social science and career development have been taught in this learning session.
Feelings
When the career planning and development assignmentsession started, I was finding it difficult to cope up with the learning procedures. This increased my levels of anxiety. With the progress in the sessions, I have started to understand the objective behind this study and this made me feel better and valued.
Evaluation
During this learning session, I came to know that, social scientists are not only responsible for building relationships among people in the society. They are also responsible to include themselves in various political, economic and other societal events within the society.
Analysis
This learning session and weekly journal entries have helped me to know about skills that I should focus on developing to become an effective contributor in the society.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be said that this career planning and development assignmentlearning session has helped me to gain relevant knowledge about skills, attitudes and behaviours that I should develop to get success in my career.
Action plan
In my opinion, I should focus on participating in workshops and seminars that can help me to become an effective contributor in the professional field. I should also emphasize on building networks to become a prominent social scientist.
Reflection on my personality
This career planning and development assignmentlearning session has helped me to reflect upon my personality in a broader way. Differences in thinking, behaving and communicating among individuals within the society reveals their personality. Personality of an individual is built with traits and these traits are marked as powerful predictors that have an impact on education, work and other societal work of that particular individual (Bleidorn, et.al., 2019). The objective of this section of the report is to reflect upon my personality with the help of career development theories.
In my opinion, I focus on gaining knowledge from my past experiences. All these past experiences of mine have helped me and motivated me to develop my personality. It also has an impact on my attitudes and behaviours. This trait of mine can be aligned well with the Social cognitive theory that has been proposed by Albert Bandura. The objective of this theory is to connect behaviourist with cognitive learning theory (Ilmiani, Wahdah and Mubarak, 2021). Thus, it can be said that I have always focused on recollecting my previous experiences then decide to take actions. In my opinion, this trait of mine have both positive and negative aspects. Recollecting past experiences and taking major decisions can help me to avoid mistakes. On the other hand, any negative experiences in my past have always pulled me back to take any major risks.
I think, my views on life and society as well as my opinion towards certain things have changed over a certain period of time. My perceptions towards the world have also changed. This trait of mine can be aligned with the self-concept theory of Donald Super. According to this theory, an individual gains career maturity with the help of vocational training. This maturity further changes the perception and self-knowledge of an individual (Abdinoor and Ibrahim, 2018). Thus, it can be said that learning various aspects of social science, my perception towards various events and situations of the world has changed. I have learnt how factors like political instabilities, economic fluctuations and other societal issues impact lives of people across the world. My perception towards people’s behaviour in various social contexts have also changed during this learning session. On the contrary, in my opinion, this trait of mine have helped me to unlearn all my past experiences and learn new things in a new way. This can be sometimes become difficult for me because I have to deal with old situation in new ways.
Reflection on my career goals
The mind-set of achieving something in life is an integral part of an individuals’ career goals. Students tend to set their career goals during their academic journey. The value of an academic tasks not only have an impact on the learning behaviour of a student but it also has an effect on their career goals (Mok, Bakaç and Froehlich, 2021). In my opinion, the primary career goal of mine identified during this career planning and development assignment is to develop a professional network that is strong. Strong professional networks help an individual to connect with various professionals from the industry (Mauldin, et.al., 2019). In my opinion, a strong professional network can further help me to get a job immediately after completing my course. Moreover, constant interactions with industry professionals can also help me to understand the required employability skills and behaviours that is should built so that I can add value to my company. I was browsing my LinkedIn account. Over there I have found a huge number of professionals are giving career advices to fresh graduates and students. From this I have got my inspiration.
In addition to this, one of the most desires and long-term career goals of mine observed on this career planning and development assignment is to develop a leadership position in my company. Leaders and their style are closely associated with the success as well as failure of an organization (Al Khajeh, 2018). I have always watched videos and interviews of renowned leaders like Steve Jobs, Indra Nooyi, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and many more. Their perception towards the world, their empathetic nature, strong attitude and aiming to disrupt the way of doing business have always inspired me to hold a strong leadership position in my company.
Skill development for achieving career goals
The primary career goal of mine is to develop a strong professional network. To accomplish this career goal, I need to primary develop strong networking skills. Strong networking skills can be developed with the help of both verbal and non-verbal communication. The process used by an individual to transmit, share and interpret information is known as communication skills (Shahid, 2022). Formal communication with professionals can help me to gain insights about the current business environment. Moreover, I need to also focus on active listening skills. Active listening skills are responsible for developing positive relationship and it also helps in removing any kind of conflicts (Moreira and Montes, 2021). In my opinion, active skills of listening can help me to understand the viewpoint, perceptions and experiences of industry professionals. This can further help me to learn about the industry expectation which can help me to develop my skills.
In addition to this, to become an effective leader in my company, I need to primarily focus on problem-solving skills. The ability to generate a new idea by removing any kind of barriers or obstacles can be marked as problem-solving skills (Kin and Kareem, 2019). In my opinion, both society and business environment has been facing political uncertainties, fluctuations in economy, pandemic and many more issues. Thus, to become an effective leader a guide a large number of followers or employees amidst these challenges, I should focus on developing skills of problem-solving. Moreover, I need to develop my personality in such a way so that I can inspire and motivate people effectively. I can develop an inspirational personality by being more empathetic and kinder towards my followers.
Reflection on current skill sets
In my opinion, I have the ability to collaborate with my friends and peers and emphasize on continuous learning. Collaboration in workplace have helped managers to make their workplace more transparent (Bernstein and Turban, 2019). This is one of the major reasons skills of collaboration has gained importance in recent times. Moreover, I have always been keen to learning. My willingness towards learning new topic or new skills have always helped me to learn several things. On the contrary, it often become difficult for me to maintain positive attitude. I sometimes become anxious and worried about my career because the pandemic has a major negative impact on employment across the world. I also find it difficult to adapt in certain situations. Since, events in the world have become very volatile, therefore, to survive in such scenario, people should focus on developing adaptability skills. Employee adaptability skills have helped me in initiation of digitization in the modern world (Sony and Mekoth, 2022). This is one of the major reasons, I should focus on building skills of adapting.
career planning and development assignmentstage 1
The objective of career development award is to help students develop high-quality skills that can further guide towards securing a good position in the professional world. Moreover, stage 1 of the career development award helps students to develop an academic career i.e., independent. In my opinion, my problem-solving skills and adaptation skills can help me to focus on continuous learning. This can also help me to gain new experiences. Moreover, the skills that I intend to develop in future can help me to develop my career and secure my position in the professional field.
PDP
Short term goal – Developing networking skills
Long term goal – Secure leadership position
Elements |
Actions needed to meet objective |
Time frame |
Strengths · Effective communication skills · Prominent skills of active listening |
· I should work on non-verbal communication skills. |
2 months |
Weaknesses · Anxious at certain situations · Introvert |
· I should remain focus and start interaction with my peers to remove anxiousness. |
2 months |
Issues · Removing past experiences is difficult. · Lack of industry experiences |
· I should focus on gaining industry experiences by working as an intern. |
1 year |
Gaps · Critical thinking skills. · Team building |
· I should research a subject matter. · I should ask questions to my professor more frequently. · I should know team goals and have positive mindset to develop team building skills. |
6 months |
career planning and development assignmentSMART Goals
This goal setting helps an individual to develop an objective mindset that further help them to achieve future goals (Giol, 2018).
Specific |
I want to hold a senior manager position in one MNE. |
Measurable |
I want to hold this position in the next 7 years |
Attainable |
I will develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. |
Relevant |
I have always dreamt of becoming a CEO in one of the MNEs. |
Time-based |
I will start developing my skills in one month |
Conclusion
This career planning and development assignmentreport aimed reflecting upon my learnings during the course. The report has undertaken Gibbs’ reflective cycle model for conducting the reflection. A detailed learning on skills required for becoming a social scientist have been taught in this learning session. From the report, it can be found that I am emphasizing on developing my professional networking skills. Moreover, these skills will be further leveraged by me to become an effective leader in the near future. These are my short- and long-term goals respectively. While analysing my skills, I have understood that in the current scenario, I need to focus on developing my critical thinking abilities and problem-solving skills. This can help me to reach my career goals without any hindrance or barriers. At the end of the career planning and development assignmentreport few skill gaps of mine have been mentioned in the form of a template. Actions that should be undertaken to reduce these gaps have also been discussed.
Reference List
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Al Khajeh, E.H., 2018. Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of Human Resources Management Research, 2018, pp.1-10.
Bernstein, E.S. and Turban, S., 2018. The impact of the ‘open’workspace on human collaboration. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1753), p.20170239.
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Giol, E., 2018. SMART goals in artistic management. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Series VIII, Performing Arts, career planning and development assignment11(2), pp.103-108.
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Kin, T.M. and Kareem, O.A., 2019. School leaders’ Competencies that make a difference in the Era of Education 4.0: A Conceptual Framework. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(5), pp.214-225.
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