Five Year Career Plan
Introduction
Once we enroll into the university for higher studies, every minute we live is crucial to our career. I do not intend to drop out of college nor do I intend waste my money by just holding a degree on my hand and not knowing where to go. To make our time as a university student we are ought to develop a five year plan for our career so that we know exactly how to best utilize our current time period and know exactly where to head to once we graduate.
I am to become an Electronic Engineer and see myself as a part of a multinational organizational working for my dream job.
How do I plan to achieve this goal?
I have skills, time and techniques to manage that ought to enable me to get to where I want to be in the next five years.
The first step was to enroll in to the Electronics and electrical department of the University of Derby. That I already have done. What do I do now? This I now have to analyse.
An Electronic engineer uses human senses and expertise to transmit and process information through a wide variety of technological gadgets that we normally use and the ones that can bring about a change in the environment both the natural and the business/economical.
Will be a good electronic engineer? A swot analysis would help me in analyzing my position.
SWOT Analysis
Career planning is nothing less than along term strategy that would govern and manage our future, and the best way to assist this strategy to use the strategy matrix known as SWOT analysis.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. SWOT would determine the efficiency of the strategy we aim to adopt for my career choice. It would show my position compared to the possibility of getting a victory or defeat. (Dev Seeker)
If I end up with more weaknesses than strengths, then it would be obvious that electronic engineering is certainly not my calling. So let’s begin.
Strengths
I love mathematics! Likeness for Mathematics is crucial to become an electronic engineer. The education that I am getting from the University of Derby puts me at par for the job. They are offering a four year course with hands-on experience of the professors and the alumni to learn from.
Secondly, I have the ability to generate independent and genuine thoughts. I am creative, innovative, imaginative and a visionary. All of which constitute a good electronic engineer.
My scores so far suggest that I have an above-average intelligence level together with capability to conduct logical reasoning.
Thirdly, I possess good job hunting skills.
Weaknesses
When I leave for the job hunt, I would not be having any job experience so that would be a minus on my part. The university of Derby does not offer work placement facility so obtaining work experience and getting a final job would be my own doing.
Opportunities
There is scarcity of the skills I posses in the electronic industry producing electronic gadget and technologies. I have options in working in changing work designs, line management and digital signal processing in private consultation firms, development laboratories and in government organizations. I can also open up my own company with my own unique ideas for gadgets. Threats
My class fellows and the students from other universities with the same education background who contain better work experience and fast job hunting skills may pose a threat to me while I search for a job of an electronic engineer.
By the time I graduate, the idea that I may have to open up my own company, may get outdated, as we live in a world with fast changing technology.
Time Management
The University of Derby offers a four year course. During which I would have to accommodate time for internships so that I can obtain enough work experience by the time I graduate.
But I would not get a job the very next day! To do so, I would have to manage time efficiently.
Time management would require me to keep a track of all the job opportunities and internship opportunities as they sprung up in the newspapers and on the internet.
Follow up to class schedules, so that I don’t end up wasting my time in repeating courses. I would take the courses specializing in the field of Electronics in my second year of my four year course.
And once I graduate, the whole fifth year would involve managing time in scheduling for job interviews.
Sources of Information
For planning a career it is very crucial to have a data bank to gather and analyse and act upon the facts I gather up from various sources of information regarding my career plan.
My sources of information are:
1. My professors at the university of Derby2. My parents3. The internet4. Newspapers
Information Analysis
What information have I got so far regarding Electronic Engineering?
Electronic engineering supplements human senses and their skills through brining about changes in the technological aspects of work and commerce. There are several branches of electronic engineering that I can opt for.
After four years I can work for a private company, a government organization and start my own company.
I have the energy, the creativity and the skills to become a successful electronic engineer.
What have I learned so far?
Questioning Techniques and Listening Techniques
Questioning and listening are very important to attain the right information regarding the career and how to proceed upon it. They would uncover my misunderstandings and solve my problems.
I ask open and closed ended questions. Open, which do not require a framed and constrained answer and can be as big as it can be. Closed on the other hand would answer in either yes or no.
Good listening skill is as much about listening as about speaking, so I listen carefully as to whatever my parents, teachers, guiders in short say to me or answer me regarding my queries of the career that I have chosen.
Conclusion
I want to be an Electronic Engineer in the next five years. I have the skills to get the job. I will spend four years in studying for the degree in Electronic Engineering, at the University of Derby and search for the job in the fifth year.
References
Bereau of Labor and statistics, [online] accessed on 22 August 2009, from <http://<www.bls.gov>
College Grad.com [online] accessed on 22 August 2009, from http://www.collegegrad.com
Career Descriptions 2009 [online] accessed on 22 August 2009 from <http://www.career- descriptions.co.uk/electrical-and-electronic-engineer-career-description.htm>
Dev Seeker [online] accessed on 22 August 2009, from http://www.devseeker.com
UW Parkside – HR Management [online] accessed on 22 August 2009, from <http:// www.uwp.edu/departments />
University of Derby [online] accessed on 22 August 2009