Strategic Career Design - 1800 words (Nanj: 27/07/2021)

SCD1003: Strategic Career Design – Assessment Task Sheet

Assessment 1: Career Plan

Due Date: Friday 20 August 6pm

1. Please note the following milestones to be followed to ensure you complete by the due date:      1. Draft Career Plan (for feedback only) to be submitted on the day of your class week commencing 2 August, 2021 (3 marks).      2. Final Career Plan (for rubric marking only) to be submitted Friday 20 August, 2021 by 6pm (37 marks)

Weighting: 40% of total marks.

Employability skills targeted: communication, critical thinking, creativity, confidence (self-awareness), curiosity (on-going learning).

Career Management skills targeted: self-awareness, use of career services and information, career decision making.

Word count: 1800 words. A 10% leniency applies if over or under than the word count.

The word count excludes: the coversheet, contents page, reference list and the appendices. Use size 12 font and line and a half spacing.

Your career is a journey – not an end destination…

Strategic career management is a reflective, on-going planning process of identifying and implementing incremental, realistic short-term and long-term career goals. A career plan should be realistic, cohesive, and adaptable; it also needs show evidence of thoughtful planning to illustrate a practical pathway to attain your career objectives. Furthermore, it must be supported by the provision of an alternative pathway to mitigate possible personal change of circumstances as well as alteration in the labour market conditions… the future of work.

Instructions: You need to develop a Career Plan for yourself for the next 2-3 years.

Format : An information report with sub-headings to address the following:

1. Who you are: (professional and personal life): discuss your values, your career motivations and your purpose / outlook on life. Identify what meaningful / purposeful work is. Discuss external influences on your career decision making. Use the Your Compass activity, Inheritance factor reflections, Odyssey Plans and other self-reflective activities we have encouraged you to engage with this semester.

2. A career vision statement – a succinct statement outlining your ultimate career ambitions. Include your values & outlook / purpose of work. For instance: “An ethical entrepreneur whose business projects are considered from an environmental and economic perspective to work towards greater global sustainability”.

3. A professional profile summary statement that can be included as part of your professional identity on digital platforms (e.g. profile summary for LinkedIn). Use adjectives to describe yourself and identify your employability skill strengths. Market your self – “An enthusiastic, hardworking and an initiative-driven first year Commerce student at Curtin University with a passion for accountancy, seeking to engage in an increasingly dynamic finance sector”.

4. An Employability Skills Self-Evaluation. Identify the skills you possess; the skills you will need; and the skills you would like to develop. Use the EmployABILITY survey results, the Belbin inventory, Week 1 lecture slides and any other employability skill reflections you may have completed in your tutorials to assist with this.

5. Outline your career goals (major & minor / short term & long term). Discuss how you are going to achieve them by identifying the required steps and a possible time frame. Your major, long-term goals can be split into smaller, incremental steps. Use the Career Goal Setting information sheet for further elaboration.

6. Produce 2 timelines (your main pathway and an alternative pathway) as visual representations of your career plan over the next 2-3 years. Include major and a number of minor goals to provide sufficient detail. Use the Career Goal Setting information sheet for assistance.

7. Outline a long-term career vision. This will frame a picture for the next 5 years . Although it may be fairly vague or general at this point in time, it is a space for on-going development in your career plan. Your Odyssey plans will also be helpful here.

8. Explain how you are going to ‘future proof’ your chosen career goals. Is your career at risk (refer to the impact of the future of work; industry reports)? What are you going to do to ensure you remain employable?

9. Appendices: include copies/snapshots of your compass activity, Odyssey plan and other self-reflective activities to support your plan.

10. Referencing – use a minimum of 6 academic sources of information – industry reports, journal articles, academic books. No websites. Your list of references should be the last page of your report. Please follow Chicago 17B format.

How to incorporate academic sources of information (references).

a. Introducing a concept – provide a definition. For example: employability skills, career goals, career vision, professional digital identity etc.

b. Developing ideas – provide a more sophisticated explanation of a concept (reference it) and then explain it in the context of your career plan. For example: the importance of career networking; the value of possessing a particular employability skill; the impact of professional digital identities on employment prospects.

c. Concluding with your long-term career vision, you may wish to include an inspirational quotation which articulates your career outlook.

11. Authentic feedback – Please note: This section is not to be included in your draft submission. You only complete this section and include in your final submission. After reflecting on the formal workshop activities on feedback and the specific feedback you received from the teaching team on your draft career plan answer the following two (2) questions: (1) How did you use your feedback to improve your assignment (Career Plan)? – 100 words maximum. (2) What have you learnt about the role of feedback? – 100 words maximum.

Report Structure (organisation)

Format: Information report . This means we do not require recommendations or an abstract.

The following is the structure to be followed:

1. Career Plan Coversheet Template provided.

2. Table of contents with numbered pages.

3. Introduction – introduces the topic (importance of career management) and gives some background information about the topic. Provide contextual background – the future / precarious nature of work (environmental) and your contextual background (personal). States the aim and purpose of the investigation (to construct a realistic, considered, adaptable career plan) outlines sections of the report. (Outline the nine elements of the plan).

4. Discussion of the nine elements of the Career Plan using headings (this is the content of your report). Discuss how each plan element will assist in constructing your career plan. Use references and appendices to justify your career management decisions.

5. Conclusion – summary, what the report achieved – did it meet its aim, the significance of the findings (is the plan realistic, cohesive, adaptable? Have you discovered the plan differs from your original vision? If so, explain), and a discussion and interpretation of the findings (what did you learn about yourself whilst writing the plan – provide a sophisticated comment to illustrate this in your concluding statement of the conclusion; it is the last thing a marker will read – make it impactful).

6. List of references - a list of sources of information referred to in the Career Plan. This needs to be supported with in-text citations in the plan. A reference list and in-text citations are inter-dependent; you cannot have one without the other.

7. Appendices (these are attachments, such as ‘Your Compass’, Odyssey Plans, Inheritance factor reflections, Belbin Inventory, any tables, pictures etc that are generally too large to include in the body of the report). Refer to these as (See Appendix 1) in your writing. Appendices do not count toward your word count.

8. Authentic Feedback – include your responses to the reflection questions asked on the feedback element of this assessment (sub-heading 11). This section is NOT included in the word count.

Good luck and show off your conceptual learning in your Career Plan!