Developing self for career development involves the process of clarifying personal values through discovering of the relationship between career aspirations and personal interest, work style, career values and skills. Self-assessment is exceedingly essential in the process of self-development and should be conducted periodically. Since personal interests and aspirations changes over time as a person learn and develop new skills. Developing self enhances a lifetime progression in which a person develops ideas about personal career identity. If we were to note developmental changes that have occurred in the last few years, we cannot afford to remain static in self-development. We are normally faced with numerous career decisions throughout our lives. However, not all career options can be viable towards our development. Therefore, it is crucial to take personal responsibility in our career development through self-assessment in order to ensure that an individual is on the right footpath in our personal development.
Self-awareness is essential in personal career development; it makes a person to be aware of personal strength and weakness. This is an essential step towards understanding personal career development needs. In most cases, business enterprises are often criticised for lacking a strategy, but the fact is that its people/employees who usually lack a personal strategy. Most of us often allow life to develop around us and only take opportunities as they arise. Nevertheless, if we can understand and develop our internal self, it is possible to master the innate discipline and values that steer our personal development. Through this, we will be able to develop our life goals and ways in which we can successfully achieve our career aspirations.
Self-awareness in my career development as a shoe designer will involve understanding of self in a way that permits understanding of the thing I aspire to accomplish. Self-awareness normally enables a person to control himself/herself in certain situations. For instance, a shoe designing manager who is aware of his/her quick temper when dealing with people during stressful circumstances will be able to remain composed in difficult circumstance. When the manager realises that the team he manages is not going to achieve designing targets, he will be in a position to control his emotions and lead the team through required steps.
Being self-aware requires self-reflection about self with regard to personal actions, interactions, feelings and thoughts. Self-reflection with regard to career aspiration needs to be undertaken by self, and other individuals or people who can provide guidance. It is a good practice to reflect on, especially when things go wrong. It is also beneficial to reflect when things turn out well than expected. In career development strategy, self-awareness will permit me to gain more self-control and to make better decisions. I will also cultivate flexibility and confidence when adopting a shoe designing career development approach. For instance, in shoe designing industry, confidence and flexibility are essential due to constant changes that are evident in the industry. In shoe designing industry, there are numerous challenges such as developing and changes of shoe fashion trends, and challenges when conceptualising a new shoe design. However, through self-awareness, I will effectively manage the above challenges in a positive and less anxious way. Shoe designing is an interdisciplinary career that is intrinsically led and applied in nature. Therefore, effective communication and interaction are imperative in the industry. Self-awareness is essential in enabling an individual to develop interpersonal skills and to interact better, communicate effectively and create effective relationships that are essential in the shoe industry.
Self-awareness plays a vital role in career strategy development since an individual is normally able to pinpoint their self-strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats through self-analysis and reflection. One of the best methods of identifying personal strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats during career strategy development is through a complete of SWOT analysis. This will help me to understand the area that needs further improvement in shoe designing career development. All these things will impacts on the both the type and success of personal development I might opt to undertake. SWOT analysis will involve assessing my personal strengths, weakness, opportunities and threat in relation to shoe designing career strategy.
Strengths
I am a creative person and I believe my creativity will enable me to design shoes that will impress my clients. In addition, this will enable me to develop a new perspective on the shoe brands in the foot wear industry. I have strong interpersonal skills that will ensure effective communication with my clients and my design team. I believe that I have an exceptional ability to understand clients’ needs in the footwear industry. This capability ensures me that I will find the right marketing angle in the industry. Furthermore, I have a strong eye for aesthetic detail, a skill that is essential in becoming a professional shoe designer. I have foresight and a flair for fashion with regard to new market trends. I have a professional background in programming. This skill will assist me to integrate paper based sketches with the CAD software.
Weakness
I have a strong compulsive need to perform my duties and responsibilities in order to remove them in my “to do” list. This normally affects the quality of work. This is a concern, especially with regard to my shoe designing career strategy that requires perfection and accurate designing. Furthermore, the same compulsive need to get thing done usually cause a lot of stress, particularly when I have to execute many tasks. I also get nervous while presenting new ideas to clients. This is a concern since it may influence my way of persuading clients to embrace my new shoe designs. Nervousness also normally takes passion out of my presentations; this is likely to affect my shoe design presentations to the public. In addition, I have exceedingly poor time management skills and I am often easily distracted. I also find myself over analysing everything even aspects that are not crucial towards my personal development.
Opportunities
One of the major competitors in the shoe designing industry has recently developed a reputation of providing poor designing services to clients. This is a critical opportunity for me to deliver quality services to the customers in order to expand my designing scope in the market. I will also be attending a leading shoe designing conference. This will give me an opportunity to create strategic networks with other designers. Furthermore, the conference will expose me to the most modern and prominent shoe designing trends and techniques. In my workplace, our designing director is currently going for a leave. Covering her duties as a director will give me an opportunity to develop essential management skills that are critical for successful shoe designing career development. Starting a shoe designing company will also be an opportunity since it will permit actualisation of my skills.
Threats
One of my colleagues with more financial capability is also considering entering into shoe designing industry. In my perspective, he is a threat, because he might stiffen the competition in the industry. The current economic climate is also another threat to my career aspiration development; it has resulted to slow growth in the shoe designing industry. This is a threat, especially to a person intending to enter the designing industry for the first time. My health is another personal threat that will significantly influence my career development.
Theories, Concepts, Frameworks and Techniques That Aided Me in Exploring My Career Strategy
There are numerous concepts or theories that have been put forth by various scholars to describe career development strategies. Although, there is none in particular that describes the broad and all components of career development, looking at each one of them can assist one to make conversant choice on the career strategy to use. In an error of economic globalisation, people have become affected by a range of work associated concerns. In my journey of self-actualisation through several work and life related roles and my aim of being my own boss, my career strategy in shoe designing was informed by several career development theories.
Holland’s Theory of Vocational Personalities
This theory acted as a career guide for me. It offered me a simple and an easy typology framework in developing my career interest of shoe designing company. Holland stipulates that a vocational interest is an expression of one’s personality and that vocational interests can be conceptualised into six typologies. In this case, choosing a career in the shoe industry was a vocational interest for me. According to Holland’s theory of career development, these typologies are realistic, investigative, artistic, enterprising, social and convectional. Identifying the typology that one belongs to help in choosing a certain career path. When I evaluated this theory, I felt that I fell under the realistic typology. In this typology, the person is genuine, practical and conforming. My resemblance to these typologies summarised my career interest in shoe designing. According to this theory, Holland claims that people seek developing their career in an environment that will allow them to exercise their abilities, skills and be in a position to express their values and attitudes. Developing a shoemaking company will give me an opportunity to fulfil all these attributes of this theory.
Social Cognitive Career Theory
Social cognitive career theory offered me a comprehensive framework to understand my career interest and choice. The framework in this theory is grounded in self-efficacy theory. This theory describes the development of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a dynamic set of beliefs that are linked to performance, activities and domains. Self-efficacy expectations influenced my initiation of maintaining a career in shoe designing industry or company. My self-efficacy was shaped by my personal performance accomplishment, social persuasion by my family members and vicarious learning or my learning experience. According to this theory, outcomes from a certain activity of behaviour are the motivating factor. My career expectation is that the shoemaking company will grow and amass profits. My personal goals were also in line with this theory. Social cognitive career theory stipulates that personal goals are the intentions to engage in a certain activity to generate an outcome.
Developmental Self-Concept and System Theory
This theory was formulated by Super. He proposes that career or vocational development is a process of developing and implementing a self-concept. In my case, a self-concept is a career in the shoe industry. According to this theory, a person will choose a career that he feels will express his self-concepts. Developing a career in shoemaking company will offer me a chance to define my self-concept. Supper’s concept of career development includes the economic factors that influence career. According to this theory, economic influence is manifested in a family status and life. My need for financial independence was guided by this theory. One of the chief elements of the systems theory framework is that all aspects of influence in attaining or developing a career strategy are considered. In my career development, these influences ranged from personal beliefs in shoe designing. These influences also incorporated much broader dynamics such as geographical location, political decisions and socioeconomic status of my target customers.
Indication of How to Use My Career Strategy in the Next 3-5 Years
The above theories provided me with frameworks, concepts and techniques that helped me in deciding to start a career in shoe designing. However, making a decision on what to do with a career in 3-5 years can be quite difficult. However, deciding where to take a career is the first step towards having a successful career strategy. These theories will help me to make an informed decision on my shoe designing company. Holland theory of vocational personality’s emphasis identifying an area of interest, the framework formulated by this theory helped me in evaluating several career options. After critical examination, I finally settled on a shoe designing company. In the next 3-5 years, I intend to develop this interest of shoe designing company. I plan to open up new outlets that will stock the shoed manufactured. Although there will be challenges such as market competition, Holland theory will be instrumental in the identification of significant and minor interests. For example, it is possible that in the next 3-5 years, I will develop new interests, but since a career is a long time decision, this theory will help me to remain focused on the shoe designing.
The strategies presented by these theories will enable me in the next 3-5 to effectively manage my shoe designing company. My next 3-5 years career development plan is to uphold the development of the company I own. In the next 3-5 years, my strategy will help me in effectively managing my employees. It is important to mention that during my reflection I was able to determine that I am capable of managing a group of people. My strategy will also be instrumental in helping me to identify the company’s strengths, weakness and opportunities as time passes.
How I Analysed, Evaluated and Reflected My Career Strategy
Before coming up with a career in shoe designing company, I used various method of self-assessment to establish my strength and weaknesses.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
This is a psychometric questionnaire designed tool or instrument that helps a person in choosing and managing a career change. This self-assessment tool was instrumental in helping me to reflect and choose my career in shoe designing. This assessment tool helped me in effectively identifying my career potential. The four dichotomies formulated in this assessment tool were vital to me. They enabled me to know my personality. The dichotomies in this assessment tool are extraversion vs. introversion, sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, judging and perception. A critical evaluation of these dichotomies enabled me to realise that I prefer extraversion. I was able to identify that I focus more on details and facts. A critical reflection on the MBTI dichotomies influenced my career choice.
The Johari Window
This is another tool that I used to improve my self-awareness. This tool of assessment relied on feedback and disclosure given to by people who surround me. This tool is divided into four quadrants. The four windows depicted by this tool are open, hidden, blind and the unknown area. This reflection tool enabled helped know various aspects that I have never known about myself. The open area window guided me in identifying what I know about myself. The blind area enabled me to know what I do not know, but other people know. The hidden area enabled me know myself better and learn what others are not aware. The unknown area was hard to determine. To identify what other people know about me, I sent several questionnaires to my friends and asked them to describe what they know about me. Some described me as a dedicated person who does not give up easily.