Career Research Assignment: Self-Reflection & Career Action Plan

Question

Task:
Overview
Prepare a report on career research assignment demonstrating an awareness of the knowledge, skills and experience required by a recent graduate to enter a chosen area of graduate employment. The research required to prepare the report will support you in your future career planning and decisions. This report will provide the basis of the information for your self-reflection and career action plan report –

A. The Task – What You Are Being Asked To Do

• You are required to identity an area of graduate employment that you would consider for when you leave university. This could be EITHER a profession (for example marketing/Finance/Accounting/HR) OR an industry you are interested in (for example retail, sports & leisure, public sector, not-for-profit, travel and tourism.) Your research should be either in an area you aspire to work within or maybe an area that you want to understand more about.
• Your research in your chosen profession/industry should include likely future trends in graduate recruitment, and should equip you with the knowledge to write a summary of the key skills, knowledge and experience expected from graduate applicants.
• You are encouraged to use both primary and secondary research for this assignment. Primary research might include attending events run by the careers team, and/or events run by the professional bodies, or else through personal contacts. It might also include information from the guest lecturers for the module. You could consider talking to managers at work, if you have a parttime role, or else friends and family to enhance your understanding. Include in the appendix a log detailing who you contacted for primary research.
• Having identified the profession/industry, you are then required to identify one current job being advertised that you would be interested in applying for in the future. This will form the basis of the second assignment. The advert should appear as an appendix, which you should refer to as necessary within your report. It is important that this is a graduate level job, and not one for an individual with many years’ experience.

Answer

Executive Summary
As evident in this career research assignment, the recent needs of the retail business are for the employees who are well aware of the markets risk and have the potentiality to deal with the uncertain situation without any kind of issues. The use of social sites like LinkedIn was used for the developing networks and interacting with the people so that the better understanding about the skills needed. During a general discussion with a manager of Tesco store, I was unformatted that the use of Big data is done by the marketing team. The individual with the efficient skill of communication has the better prospect of growth in the marketing profession. The attitude of the leadership is helpful for the marketing experts

The recent job vacancy in Bridgestone Corporation for the post of Assistant marketing manager is taken into consideration by me. The employment is full time and is located in the UK. The experience will help me to develop my experiences in the retail business. The job opportunity is huge as the business is operating internationally. The responsibilities of the jobs have the ability to increase marketing skills and allow me to handle different real problems.

Inroduction
Awareness about the skill that is needed to build an efficient career after graduation is essential. This provides an opportunity to develop personal skills that might increase the prospect of acquiring desirable employment. Keeping a watch on the vacancy and building network are needed so that the idea about the industry requirements is transparent and the individual is able to develop skills to fit best as per the business requirements. It thus ensures recruitments without much delay. In this section, I will be inspecting the industry trends of the retail industry. I am interested in the marketing profession and thus take measures in building effectively in understanding the skill or the knowledge that are essential for fetching and effective employment after graduation. The outline of the current vacancies and the appointment of the vacant position to my employment interest is demonstrated in the study in an effective manner.

Methodology
The study was completely primary in natures. The use of self-skill audit wasdone in the processof developing a better knowledge about the personalstrength and weakness. The use of interactions with the managers of reputable business was done. The use of social sites like LinkedIn was used for the developing networks and interacting with the people so that the better understanding about the skills essential for the marketing experts can be developed for increasing the price of success in future carrier. The LinkedIn chat with Aj Melvin has been effective in creating a better measure in addressing the skills that are needed to develop experiences and increased the section prospect to develop effective profession in marketing pression.

Analysis:
General trends which will impact on my chosen profession/industry.
Zhu and Gao (2019) commented that the working environment has undergone a huge change in recent times. The execution of pandemics has made the working measures very systemic in the retail industry. The customer's needs to be kept informed about the new product ranges that the retail stores are proposing. This is helpful in developing better customer's engagement. For a marketer, the industry provides a huge scope as the execution of excellent marketing of the new discounts and offers are being the key aspects of attracting customers. In the recent era, the competitiveness in the retail business is in need of effective promotional methods. Ramanathan et al. (2017) commented stating that marketing in the retail business is allowing them to keep their customers informed about all the key activities performed by the retail business and thus ensure that the popularity of the business is developed over the masses. During a general discussion with a manager of Tesco store, I was unformatted that the use of Big data is done by the marketing team so that they can understand the trends among the customers and thus propose the best marketing measures that have the ability to convince customers.

The increasing globalization and the international expansion of the retail business have developed the need for effective marketing (Krasyuk et al., 2020). It is essential for the marketers to understand the market needs and thus ensure the positive promotional measures are taken into considerations. In a link in connection, a marketer suggested doing a marketing course which is also ability online [Refer to appendix 1]. This is effective in developing efficiency in marketing and thus ensures that the retail business is able to develop its prominence in the competing markets environment. Betzing et al. (2018) stated that the retail business is in need of technologically aware staff. With the increase in technological up-gradation and the smart serve execution to provide better satisfaction among the customers, the need for staff to have effective technical skills are essential. The well learned and experienced employees are the first priority for the retail business as the experienced staff are playing a vital role in maintaining the efficiency of the service execution process. The recent needs of the retail business are for the employees who are well aware of the markets risk and have the potentiality to deal with the uncertain situation without any kind of issues. Madakam et al. (2019) commented that the idea of cloud computing or AI is an essential part of the retail business. The marketing team needs to be effectively inspecting the different measures used by the rival business and therefore adopt the best marketing practices to fetch profitability. The recent pandemic has showcased the unorganized business in the retail industry. Thus, post-pandemic strict measures are taken to work with technological expert employees having the ability to deal with workplace complexity in the real stores in a well-organized manner. During the Linked In chat, the marketers mentioned that the recruiter is looking for employees having practical experiences working in a critical work situation and have an excellent problem-solving attitude after the recent COVID 19 uncertainty [Refer to appendix 1].

The skills / knowledge and experience required
Personal skill for marketing expert in the retail industry

• Effective communication skills
  Okoro et al. (2017) stated that the marketer needs to have an effective skill of communication. It is essential for the marketer to develop a stronghold on the languages used for the promotion. It is helpful in developing better measures in creating promotional efficiency. The individual with the efficient skill of communication has the better prospect of growth in the marketing profession.
• Creativity and Problem-solving skill
  Schiele and Chen (2018) commented that creativity in the marketing of brands is essential. This is helpful in creating sources of attraction. It is a must for the marketer to have a creative idea in building promotional campaigns and at the same time solve the issues that are encountered during the marketing execution. The smart approaches in dealing with the market situation and thus framing outstanding promotional measures are essential skills that the marketers need to adopt.
• Data analysis & Analytics
  The needs of the technical skills are effective. Lies (2019) commented that the needs of big data evaluation had become an effective part of the marketing and in the retail sectors, the marking experts having the ability to evaluate the data are having huge prospects of getting employment in the retail sectors. The competitiveness within the retail business is increasing, and during the Linked In consecration, I was asked by the marketing experts to develop my skills in the data analysis exerts.
• Leadership
  Opute et al. (2020) stated that leadership had been one of the essential requirements for any job role. In the context of marketing experts, the recruiter is willing to employees having excellent skills of leadership. The attitude of the leaders is helpful for the marketing experts to deal with the adverse work satiation and thus ensure effective decision making in creating marketing agendas.
• Project management
  The skills of project management are essential for marketers so that they can handle difficult situations and take action to handle risk. As the duration of the marketing campaigns is very limited, so the skills of project management are considered essential. Levin et al. (2019) stated that marketing experts with excellent skills in project management are able to develop better growth in the marketing profession within the retail industry.

Areas of knowledge and expertise

• Technical skills
  Hole et al. (2018) mentioned that the needs of technologies are a must for the marketing professionals so that they can deal with the competitiveness in the retail market. The evaluation of the big data analysis is determined to be helpful in developing better prospects for growth in the marketing profession. The technical skills in marketing professions are determined to be effective in fetching employment in reputable retail businesses.
• Tools of Marketing
  Gomes (2018) mentioned that the idea of tool marketing is essential. The online tools of marketing are determined to be effective in fetching better creativity in planning and executing marketing measures. This knowledge and experiences are helpful in developing better prospects of growth in the competitive business environment.

Evaluation:
The recent job vacancy in Bridgestone Corporation for the post of Assistant marketing manager is taken into consideration by me. The employment is full time and is located in the UK. The position is effective in providing a huge prospect to my career as it fits best as per my desires. The job role as an assistant marketing manager is intersecting as I will get an opportunity to learn about the marketing aspects. The job profile demands both online and social media marketing and thus will be helpful in developing my understanding of the real business environment and the proper measures of developing marketing prospects. The business is seeking to provide mobility. The experiences in this industry will help me to develop my ability to understand the customer’s behavior and their thinking pattern. The experience will help me to develop my varied in the retail business. The job opportunity is huge as the business is operating internationally, and this will prove huge experiences, and I will be able to learn from experts. It will provide me with opportunities are to understand the international customers and thus execute high-level marketing measures that will allow me to fetch experience in developing a better career in the marketing profession. The job opportunity will allow me to be to explore myself and allow me to develop my experiments in getting better employments in the future. The responsibilities of the jobs have the ability to increase marketing skills and allow me to handle different real problems. The knowledge will be a positive reflection in my CV and thus allow me to develop efficiency in the marketing profession within the retail industry [Refer to Appendix 2].

Conclusion
?The identified skills and knowledge are helpful in fetching better prospect of growth for the marketing experts. The vacancy for the marketing experts is effective in creating of an individual with both academic knowledge and practical experience. ?This will be a great source of learning for me. I am able to develop my experiences and thus understand the real working environment in an effective manner. The strategies that I will learning during the employment will allow me to develop my experiences and thus ensure a stable marketing measure.

References:
Betzing, J.H., Beverungen, D. and Becker, J., 2018. Design principles for co-creating digital customer experience in high street retail. In Proceedings of the MultikonferenzWirtschaftsinformatik (pp. 2083-2094).

Gomes, J.D.S., 2018. SAPANA: creating a marketing tool for social enterprises (Doctoral dissertation).

Hole, Y., Pawar, S. and Bhaskar, M.P., 2018. Service marketing and quality strategies. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN), 6(1), pp.182-196.

Krasyuk, I., Yanenko, M. and Nazarova, E., 2020. Conceptual and strategic framework for the digitalization of modern retail as part of innovative marketing. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 164, p. 09006). EDP Sciences.

Levin, E., Quach, T.N. and Thaichon, P., 2019. Enhancing client-agency relationship quality in the advertising industry–an application of project management. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Lies, J., 2019. Marketing Intelligence and Big Data: Digital Marketing Techniques on their Way to Becoming Social Engineering Techniques in Marketing. Career research assignment International Journal of Interactive Multimedia & Artificial Intelligence, 5(5).

Madakam, S., Holmukhe, R.M. and Jaiswal, D.K., 2019. The future digital work force: robotic process automation (RPA). JISTEM-Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management, 16.

Okoro, E., Washington, M.C. and Thomas, O., 2017. The impact of interpersonal communication skills on organizational effectiveness and social self-efficacy: A synthesis. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 4(3), pp.28-32.

Opute, A.P., Iwu, C.G., Adeola, O., Mugobo, V.V., Okeke-Uzodike, O.E., Fagbola, O. and Jaiyeoba, O., 2020. The COVID-19-pandemic and implications for businesses: innovative retail marketing viewpoint. The Retail and Marketing Review, 16(3), pp.85-100.

Ramanathan, U., Subramanian, N. and Parrott, G., 2017. Role of social media in retail network operations and marketing to enhance customer satisfaction. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Schiele, K. and Chen, S., 2018. Design thinking and digital marketing skills in marketing education: a module on building mobile applications. Marketing Education Review, 28(3), pp.150-154.

Zhu, G. and Gao, X., 2019. Precision retail marketing strategy based on digital marketing model. Science Journal of Business and Management, 7(1), pp.33-37

Appendices:
Appendix 1: Linked Profile of the marketer

I had a chat with Melvin about the skill needed for marketing profession and what are the recent criteria for selection. He is very humble and guided by with his work experiences.

Appendix 2: Job Vacancy

Appendix 3: Email

The manager of a company with 5 years experiences has suggest me fir skill development

Appendix 4: Suggestion from per

3 peers were asked to evaluate my skills.