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TASK3CareerPlanningGuide.docxJGM1: Task 3 Career Management Career Planning Guide
CAREER PLANNING GUIDE
Purpose: To create a career plan that identifies the steps necessary (including obtaining professional and academic skills, education and experience) to reach career goal.
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Steps for Your Plan
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Ideas and Resources
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Notes
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Action Items/Goals
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Log in to LinkedIn Learning
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To ensure that you are able to access all resources within this guide, please first log in to LinkedIn Learning with your WGU credentials.
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Identify & Examine Your Career Goal
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Write down your career goal. If you do not have a clearly defined career goal, begin by first completing the Career Exploration Guide.
Ask yourself these important questions to the right and view How to Identify Your Career Goal (LinkedIn Learning video, 3m 50s). *
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CAREER GOAL (Long-Term) To become a(n) ___________________________ in one of the following industry/organizations of interest: ______________________________ by (date) ________________.
Examine your goal: Why? In what field? What kind of expertise and experience do you have to offer?
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Example: Identify and examine career goal by January 15th.
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Learn the Goal-Setting Process
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View Setting SMART Goals (LinkedIn Learning video, 2m 53s) *
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Define the acronym SMART in SMART goals: S: M: A: R: T: Provide an example of a long-term goal: Provide an example of a short-term goal:
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Example: Review the goal-setting process by January 20th.
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Conduct a Gap Analysis
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Complete the gap analysis on the next page to determine what is needed to prepare you for your career goal. Review the following videos to help you: Identify Employer Needs (LinkedIn Learning video, 3m 21s) * Identify Your Gaps (LinkedIn Learning video, 2m 39s) *.
Research position descriptions to gain a clear understanding of the tasks, skills, functions, and experiences required for your career goal. Job Search: Use the national or college-specific job boards to identify and review three positions that match your career goal and use the job descriptions to assist in conducting your gap analysis. · Research the career steps of professionals in your field of interest to formulate a potential career path to reach your career goal. · Review this article on .
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Skills needed:
Experience needed:
Education needed:
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Example: Complete a gap analysis and define the skills, experience, and education needed to reach your long-term goal by January 23rd.
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*Please note: As a student and alum of WGU, you have free access to all LinkedIn Learning trainings. In order to view a course in its entirety, you will need to sign in. Click on this sign-on link. You will need to login with your wgu.edu email.
GAP ANALYSIS
Using a job description for your desired role, list the skills, knowledge, and qualifications required for the position in the Employer Need column. Next, indicate how closely your profile matches these requirements by writing "strong" or "need" in the I Have column. Then write specific examples for your matches. Further, write action steps you need to take to further develop any gaps. Finally, indicate what resources will assist you in completing these action steps.
Role: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Employer Need
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I Have (Strong or Need)
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Example
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Action
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Resources
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Advanced Excel Skills
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Need
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N/A
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Seek out and complete Excel training Identify opportunities to use Excel more in current job
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LinkedIn Learning Current employer
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Potential Resources
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How to Gain Experience Graduate School
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Networking LinkedIn & Social Media
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5. Build Your Plan
Long-Term Career Goal
To become a ___________________________in one of the following industry/organizations of interest: ______________________________by ________ .
Short-Term Career Goals
Create a minimum of three short-term goals related to the action areas identified when completing the gap analysis. Plan to review your long-term and short-term goals regularly and to set new short-term goals as you move forward with your plan.
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SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) Short-Term Career Goal
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Completion Date
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Barriers and Supports
Even with careful planning, you will face unexpected challenges along the way to reaching your goal. Examples of barriers are lack of support from spouse or boss, young children, childcare, elderly or sick parents, any type of disability, finances, etc. If you prepare in advance for possible obstacles it will be easier to overcome them if they occur.
List any barriers you can think of and identify your strategy of how to deal with each one as they arise.
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Possible Barriers
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Possible Support Strategies
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Adapted from WGU Career & Professional Development | www.wgu.edu/careerservices | [email protected] | 1-877-214-7008 Page 1
