leadership

MGMT 4200 LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS

Professional Development Project

The purpose of this project is to provide you with a practical and meaningful opportunity to spark (or advance) your career. To accomplish this purpose, you will: (1) research a potential career or internship within an industry (or specific company); (2) engage in a meaningful networking activity; and (3) write up some reflections about the whole process. More information for each part is found below, as well as in various documents on D2L.

Part 1 – Research

· Selecting a career, industry, and/or company

· The purpose of this project is to provide you with a practical and meaningful professional development opportunity, therefore…

· This is not necessarily about a dream job, position, profession, etc.

· Although it can be

· You will select a career, an industry, and/or a specific company with which you might reasonably:

· Land an internship in an upcoming semester

· Pursue a job to begin right after you graduate

· Note that you are not looking for job openings, but rather are seeking a broader picture of the career, industry, and/or company

· Research the career, industry, and/or company

· MTSU Career Center ( https://www.mtsu.edu/career/index.php)

· Has information career paths of specific majors

· You can also connect with a career adviser

· Lightening Career Link ( https://www.mtsu.edu/career/LCL.php)

· MTSU’s recruiting software platform for professional positions requiring a college degree

· Also has info on internships

· MTSU Access to CareerShift ( http://www.careershift.com/?sc=mtsu)

· Research companies, contacts, and job titles

· Also has a job board

· O*Net Online ( www.onetonline.org)

· A repository of information for over 900 jobs

· You will need to visit this site to do a portion of this project detailed below

· Occupational Outlook Handbook ( www.bls.gov/ooh)

· Hundreds of occupations and descriptions of pay, job growth, responsibilities, and more

· Vault ( www.vault.com)

· Find information on companies, jobs, rankings, graduate schools, and internships

· Writing up Part 1

· Discuss the following in your written assignment:

· Job challenges and salary trends

· The knowledge, skills, and abilities needed

· Education and experience required or desired for this position

· Typical career path and work environment

· How this new information affects your career planning

· Discuss how you used the above resources to gather this information

Part 2 – Networking

This portion will require you to engage in a networking activity. Specifically, you will conduct an Informational Interview with a working professional from the industry or company for which you would like to work or intern.

· Locate the document on D2L called ‘Informational Interview’

· Review the document and make plans according to its content

· The main steps for this process that will be expounded on in the document are:

1. Identify someone to interview

2. Prepare for the interview

3. Initiate contact

4. Conduct the informational interview

· Either face-to-face or via teleconferencing (e.g., Zoom)

5. Follow-Up

· Writing up Part 2

· Discuss who you interviewed and how you went about contacting them

· State their job title, their main responsibilities, their educational background and work experience, etc.

· Discuss what it was like for you to set up this interview

· Were you nervous? Did it go better than expected? Was the person receptive to meeting with a student?

· Discuss the actual interview

· What are some things you learned?

· Did anything surprise you?

· How did what you learned from the interview compare with what you learned from Part 1?

· Include the list of questions you asked as Appendix A in your final draft

· Discuss the steps you took to follow-up

· Did you send an email or hand-written note to this contact?

· Were you able to connect on LinkedIn?

· Do you have any future plans to interact with this person?

· Include your follow-up note as Appendix B in your final draft

· Take a picture of the hand-written note you sent and include the picture in Appendix B

· Take a screen shot of the follow-up email you sent and include it in Appendix B

Part 3 – Reflections

In this section, you will discuss the things you learned from this project.

· Reflections on the process

· What are the main takeaways you have from going about conducting this project?

· What it easier or more difficult than you thought? Was it more or less rewarding than you thought it’d be?

· What did you learn about the importance of networking?

· What did you learn about the importance of professionalism?

· Did anything surprise you?

· Reflections on leadership

· Through your research (e.g., data gathered from O*Net Online) and interview, you should have a decent understanding about what it means to be a leader in this industry, career, and/or company

· What skills do you already possess that would make you a good leader in this industry, career, and/or company?

· What skills do you need to improve and/or develop to become a good leader in this industry, career, and/or company?

· What can you do to develop them?

· What leadership concept(s) from class would be applicable to this industry, career, and/or company?

Part 4 – Preparing to Submit

This step is all about reading, rereading, and proofing your paper. I am a big stickler on grammar, spelling, etc., so you will want to ensure that you paper reads well before you submit it.

· You MUST run your paper through Grammarly

· JCB students have access to Grammarly Premium

· Should have received an email at beginning of semester

· Do this well before final draft is due

· Submit screenshot of Grammarly confirmation as APPENDIX C

Miscellaneous Stuff

· Please check Teams/D2L for resources (underneath the “Professional Development Project” module)

· Steps to the informational interview

· Potential interview questions

· A template for how your report should be organized

· Please cite your sources properly, which includes using quotes for verbatim phrases of 4+ words

· Remember that quotes require a page or paragraph number in the citation

· Include a reference page if you have paraphrased or quoted a source

· Format the references following APA style

· Use Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1” margins, single spacing, and MS Word