Career Action Plan (CAP)

A career action plan lists your professional goals and your plan to achieve those goals. Making a career plan enables you to make smart decisions as you prepare for the real world – be it activities, or clubs to join, or internships and jobs that you plan to pursue.

Here’s an example/sample of a Career Action Plan (CAP)

My short-term goal – next three years

Why I want to achieve this?

I want to achieve a distinction in my degree as this will help me not only get a good job but a job of my own choice. Not many students are able to leave with a distinction so, achieving this it will open my doors to many opportunities. This will also help me get an advantage over other students to get a good job and the which I would be happy doing.

Achieving a distinction will be a very good motivating factor for me on my life and I will always know that I have to work hard to achieve and stand out from the other students. I mainly want to get a job in the marketing department to show my creativity and put in my innovative ideas to help achieve the company its goals and objectives. This will help me grow and develop as a person and also help me groom myself in a better way professionally.

If I successfully achieve a distinction in my degree in the next three years it will not only open doors of opportunities up for me and give me the first mover advantage in getting a good job, it will also help me grow as an individual and help me gain confidence as I take time to open up with people and gain a good network around with new, different people as marketing is a job where you not only can show your creativity but also get the opportunity to socialise with many different people and gain different kinds of ideas and knowledge from them.

The factors that could cause me to not successfully achieve a distinction in my degree could be that I get distracted very easily by things such as television, social media or friends. Once I get distracted it becomes difficult for me to get back on track with doing my work. Balancing the university work life becomes difficult and because of which maintaining a healthy social life may also distract me. I will have to make sure to keep all these factors in check so I do not end up degrading my marks because of which I may not be able to achieve my future goals.

The threat of not achieving a distinction in my degree within three years time would close almost all doors of opportunities for me. All companies would prefer to have employees with a distinction as it has a good impact on their company reputation as well. There is no room for failure for me in this case as it would not only become difficult to find a job but also to find a job of my own choice. It is very vital for me to get a distinction in my degree within the three years.

The actions I will take to achieve this?

My university is my main priority at this point. I am going to make sure to give quality work and put in all my creativity and handwork in my assignments. I will keep a schedule of my deadlines and try to aim to finish them before the deadline date so I can keep on improvising it as and when I get feedbacks from my teachers to achieve higher grades. I will make a plan for every month to see what assignments I have lined up and how I am going to divide my time for each assignment and complete each of them before their submission dates.

I will remain optimistic and keep on motivating and encouraging myself so I can improve myself and will continue to progress through my personal development plan and work on my weaker areas such as mathematics, poor long-term planning and poor academic skills. The more the motivation I will have the more I will be able to stay focused and committed to my task and help me achieve better grades.

I am going to make an effort to try go out of the box and try to gain knowledge from other sources and other ways and not only what I have been taught in my classroom as this will help me not only gain extra knowledge about the things going on around me but this will help me with my application. It expands my knowledge and opens my eyes to what is happening around me and at the same time helps me achieve higher grades at my university.

Resources that will help me to achieve this

To get a distinction in my university degree as I have decided to set a schedule for my assignment deadlines I will need a pen, notepad, calendar to keep track of when and how I will need to finish the assignment and also the university submission details to know the deadlines of my assignments.

Further, as I decide to work on my weaker areas and gain extra knowledge I will need my personal development plan, pen and internet access for further reliable research ideas into development. A pen and notepad will always be handy with me to note down my learnings and what more I would need to improve on.

My target date for review and completion

• My date for review: Twice in a month.
• The date of completion: Mention the date/year

Reflection

At this point I know I am on the right track on achieving a distinction in my degree as I am getting good grades in my assignments and I know if I put in more efforts towards working on my weaknesses I can totally achieve my goals and objectives within the three years.

My career goal within the next five years

To get a job in the marketing department at Elle Company.

Why I want to achieve this?

Elle is one of the top fashion and lifestyle magazines. Since I was a kid, I have always been interested and fashion and having being looking at all these magazines and it has always been my dream to work for a company like this and by working in the marketing department of such a company, my network will become strong as Elle is a big and highly reputed brand and working with Elle I will be sure of my job security.

Marketing for Elle will help me meet new and reputed people and this may also help in opening up doors of opportunities for me.

Getting a job in the marketing department at Elle will bring many positive outcomes in my life such as helping me in getting a good promotion as Elle is well-established brand and their brand image is too strong in the market outside. Getting a promotion in such a company would result in me getting a higher paid job role as a marketing manager. This would also help me get good fringe benefits or rewards compared to other employees working in a not very highly reputed company. Working with a company like Elle I will not have to be worried the job environment or health and safety issues, basically I will not have to be concerned about job security.

The factors that could stop me from getting a job in the marketing department at Elle can be if I do not get a distinction in my degree as a well-established company would prefer to have employees with distinctions in their company and there is lot of competition in the outside world. I will have to have a proper work-life balance as external factors could reduce my efficiency and productivity and this could lead to lack of motivation and would make me not want to do the work even though I would really want to do it. I will have to keep my life in check at all times so, my personal life does not affect my professional life.

The threat of me not getting a job in the marketing department of a big company such as Elle would be that I would have to apply for jobs that are smaller than this. This would lower my self-esteem as such companies may not have a stable life cycle and would not be sure of how long they can last in the market as they have competitors such as Elle which eventually puts my job security on stake and would affect my family and me due to financial issues. Hence, I will have to do everything to achieve my goals not only for financial reasons but because I am very passionate about this particular job and working at such a well-known company would be a big achievement for me.

The actions I will take to achieve this

• I will make sure to take out time every day and sit and research about Elle for the next five years. I will take out all the background information and how the internal structure and functions work in order to expand my knowledge about the company I am so passionate about working in.
• I will inter act with a few people working in this field and some people working for Elle to gain people’s opinions and this would also help me network with different people and they will see how passionate I am to work for them.
• I will also do in-depth research about how the marketing department works so I am prepared for what I am getting into from before and this will help me be confident when the time comes when I actually have to start working for Elle.
• During my holidays I would make sure to get a work experience within the marketing sector of Elle. This will help me gain work experience and will open my eyes to the outside world and how it really functions.
• While getting a work experience I will make sure to get feedbacks from my colleagues and managers so I can work on my weaker areas.

Resources that will help me to achieve this

The resources I will need to carry out in-depth research into the Elle organisational background is:

The official Elle website as it will be a legit and reliable source.

Pen and paper to record the information I need.

Pen and notepad to note down the information and opinions I gain from other people working for Elle for a long time.

The resources that I will need to carry out work experience within the marketing department of Elle is:

• A diary so I can record all the knowledge I have gained each day and what I have learned at the end of each day.
• A notepad to list down all the weaknesses I figure out which I have to work on and the duties I need to carry out so I do not forget.

My target date for review and completion

• My date for review: Twice every three months.
• The date of completion: Mention date/year

Reflection

I know I am on the right track for getting a job within the marketing department at Elle. I just need to focus on getting proper knowledge about what work and skills I will require to get the job and mainly focus on getting a distinction in my degree.

My career goal within the next ten years

To be the head of the marketing department at Elle.

Why I want to achieve this

I want to achieve this because I know I am capable and have the potential to do it. I believe in giving a 100% in whatever task or job I do that is why I would see myself be the head of the marketing department at a big company like Elle. Being the head of such an important department would help me achieve self-actualisation looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It would be one of the greatest achievements for me for a lifetime. I am very passionate and motivated towards being the head of the marketing department at Elle.

If I successfully achieve my aim of being the head of the marketing department at Elle I will benefit from fringe benefits and higher salary and respect and appreciation due to working at a higher position in the company. This is my dream and I will do everything it takes to achieve this.

The factors that could stop me from becoming the head of the marketing department at Elle could be lack of motivation, not enough work-life balance, starting a family, health issues or other personal factors that may rise that time in my life.

The threat of me not becoming the head of the marketing department would be that I would be working in the marketing department and working for so many years in the same position would make the work monotonous for me and I would lose focus and not give that much effort in doing my job as my aim is to achieve a higher position within ten years. I would also lose out on motivation as I would feel like I am not being able to move ahead and eventually other factors such as marriage or starting a family may get in the way. I need to keep up with the motivation and determination towards my work and prove my potential to everyone so I eventually do not lose interest in my job.

The actions I will take to achieve this:

• I will research on ways or techniques of becoming a good leader and what leadership style will work better for me.
• I will research on what skills I will need for becoming the head of the marketing department at Elle.
• I will try to gain feedback from different people so they can see and judge my potential and see that I am skilled enough to be the head of the marketing department.
• I will do all my research which includes not only the marketing department but all the departments and how Elle operates so I have all the information about the company I am working in.
• I will work out on different motivation strategies to stay focused.
• I will manage time between my personal life and work life so they both do not come in each others way.

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Resources that will help me to achieve this

The resources that I am going to need to enable me to research into being an effective leader/manager are:

• Legit academic sources for reliable information such as by the company themselves or a university website.
• Pen and paper to note down the information.

The resources I am going to use for proper time management:

• A calendar to set dates for important events so I can divide time between personal life and work life.
• Pen and paper to note down where I have to be at what time and when.

My target date for review and completion

• My date for review: Once every six months.
• The date of completion: Mention date/year.

Reflection:

I am very confident and know for a fact that I am capable of handling a whole marketing department at a big company like Elle as I know I am on the right track and turn out to be a good leader. I have to keep my life on track and maintain a good work-life balance to achieve the goals I have set for myself. I am extremely motivated and thrive for high marks which equal success.

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