The Career Opportunities in Various Fields and the Rise of Wealthy Businessmen - Essay Example

Introduction Ever since the beginning of the twentieth century, many people have been focused on pursuing careers as a means of making ends meet or as fulfillment of their dream jobs. The industrial revolution in the early nineties opened up many career opportunities in various fields. It started with the rise of wealthy businessmen who got their wealth from industries and agricultural farms. This means that their business grew exponentially, therefore, providing more opportunities for people to be employed. In modern time twenty-first century, there has been an increase in the pursuit of careers by various individuals. One other factor that has fueled this drive is the education system that increased the knowledge base of many scholars. This system of education allows one to specialize in whatever field he or she wants to build their career on. Engineering, medicine and architecture are among many of the array of careers available currently (Leslie, 2002). It has, therefore, become vital for people to plan their career paths in advance and apply efforts to make it happen. Those who do so make many achievements in their career compared to those who do not. In order to plan, one needs to assess their strengths and weaknesses and make a sound decision, based on these factors, on the plan that will guide one’s career. Failure to do so will result to poor career choices and wastage of one’s potential and talent. In this respect, this essay illustrates my personal career development plan in the field of Marketing. My dream job is to be a marketing Executive and this essay will illustrate the steps that I will be undertaking to actualize this dream, the challenges that I will likely face, and means of mitigating such setbacks. Additionally, I will also provide sound advice to undergraduates on issues related to career choices. Literature Review As I have mentioned earlier, my dream career is to be a Marketing Executive. What does it entail to be a Marketing Executive? Well, a Marketing Executive deals with promotion of products, services or even ideas through the use of marketing strategies and even campaigns. This means that they need to have a sound idea on whatever product they are marketing. It is for this reason that they work extremely closely with the product development, so as to understand the product/service/idea they are marketing. Since their job also involves promotion, they often carryout research as well as planning of their products. Public relations are also key in their area of duty since they intend to sell these products to individuals; therefore, they need to develop a good relationship with their clients. To organize campaigns, Marketing Executives need to be good at organizing events and participating in them, as well. It is such interactive role that has inspired me to pursue such a career path. However, this is not the whole spectrum of duties undertaken by a Marketing Executive. Other roles include preparing and managing marketing budgets, evaluation of marketing events in their efficiency and dealing with the media on marketing related issues. It is, therefore, pertinent to note that to be a Marketing Executive, one need to sharpen their skills in communication, problem solving and analytical skills, be exceptionally creative and be able to pay attention to details. Career planning methodology Career planning methodology is a guide that directs how one will be able to achieve their dream career(Leslie, 2002). It is a series of steps that one is willing to go through so as to achieve their final objective. In essence, for to be a Marketing Executive, there are ladders that one needs to climb in order to get there. It is not a position that can be attained overnight. Continuous effort must be placed so as to achieve it. My personal career plan consists of several stages. These stages are crucial in the sense that they will offer invaluable experience needed to handle the demands of such a position. They are also beneficial in boosting one’s interpersonal skills, communication skills, creativity, among other useful competencies. These steps are as following; 1. Working in as a sales person in a reputable organization. Once I clear my undergraduate studies, I will seek to be employed as a sales person. A sales person is one of the lower ranks in any business organization. However, it will be necessary for me to start at this level since the position requires more or less a qualified academic background. Experience in such as apposition is often not necessary and that is part of the reason I can easily qualify for such a role. Additionally, the position will also offer me invaluable experience and knowledge to tackle various situations. For instance, my interpersonal communication skills will be improved since a sales person deals directly with customers on a day to day basis. I will also get the opportunity to apply what I learnt in college in the field hence benefiting from the courses I under took. My ability to handle disappoints and other field challenges will also be improved since such occurrences are normal when working as a sales person. 2. Working in a marketing research company. After working as a sales person for approximately one and a half year, I will seek employment as a market researcher in a reputable company. By this time, my communication and confidence level will be improved, therefore, opening up to new challenges in the marketing department. As a market researcher, I will be ready to learn the various marketing strategies employed by organizations as well as have a better understanding of marketing segments that are available. I intend to work in this department for another year so as to be conversant with logistics involved in marketing. However, it is crucial to note that it will not be an easy ride to be a marketer since most organizations often employ individuals with experience in that field. My solution to this is to seek an opportunity as a volunteer or on an attachment basis if I fail to get formal employment. 3. To work as a marketing officer. After gaining valuable information as a market researcher, I intend to seek employment as a marketing officer in a reputable multi-national organization. The reason why I prefer a multi-national company is that it will offer me the know-how of dealing with different cultures. As a marketer in a reputable organization, it is vital to know how to deal with clients of different cultural backgrounds. Multi-national companies will offer such a platform, and as such my experience and knowledge will be undoubtedly vast. However, it is necessary to note that securing a marketing position in a multi-national organization is not an easy task as most job seekers often target such organizations due to their good remuneration. My resolve to this situation is to seek advice from those already employed in such organizations on how best I can get an opportunity to work in a similar company. If I secure the position as a marketing officer, I intend to work for about three years before seeking a higher position in the organization. This will offer me the much needed experience as I look for better and high office positions that will ultimately lead to my dream job. 4. To work as a marketing manager. Once I get the necessary experience, I will aspire to be a marketing manager. My experiences in different positions in an organization will offer the much needed knowledge to seek for such a position. As a marketing manager; I intend to learn how to manage human resources. This includes motivating staff and delegation of duties among other duties. It is essential to learn how to deal with human resource since such knowledge will be useful in managing an organization as an executive. In this role, I also intend to get an opportunity to lead a marketing team of at least fifteen people. This will provide me the knowledge needed in managing people. I intend to work in such a position for about five years. It may seem a lot of time, but in order to learn human dynamic and managerial skills, it is crucial to take ample time and learn to handle different situations that may arise in such a position. It will also be my last stage in achieving my dream goal as a marketing executive. 5. Seeking employment as a marketing executive. This is the final step I will take and it will be actualizing my dream goal- to be a marketing executive. It will take me approximately ten years to get to this dream but with persistence and hard work, I believe it will be achievable. It will not be an easy ride to achieve this since there could be other challenges that may come up that were not anticipated before. Analysis Getting a dream job is one of the many dreams of any undergraduate student. It is for such aspirations that people often pursue studies as undergraduate students in order to realize such dreams. However, pursuing undergraduate studies alone does not merit one to be qualified to chase their dream jobs. It is important for such students to understand the challenges one may expect in such careers. In our case, we shall be analyzing the challenges that affect modern careers and how their impact on our dream job. Additionally, we shall take a brief look in the dynamics of a managerial career in the twenty first century and try to understand how they too can impact on our career choices. Dynamics of a managerial Career in the 21st century There is a tremendous change in management over the past several years. These dynamics have been brought about by changes in our work environment. In the past, managers had a daunting task or controlling their enterprises due to their complex nature and shrewd leadership styles. In most cases, the managers were the actual owners of the businesses the managed. However, a lot has changed in the 21st century. Managers now have to deals with a completely different work environment unlike before. To begin with, they need to undergo a rigorous training and recruitment exercise so as to determine if they are up to the task before-hand. Additionally, the burden of managers has been reduced through the introduction of assistants and other team leaders. These individuals work under the overall manager and report to him directly. Another important aspect to consider is the advancement of technology. Technological advancements in the 21st century have reduced the work loads of managers tremendously. Most of the managerial duties such as holding duties or passing of information has been made easy through the introduction of computers and teleconferencing equipment. This has not only reduced their work load, but also increased their efficiency as managers. Factors affecting graduate career options. There are many factors that affect one’s choice of making a career option. It has become increasingly difficult for undergraduates to be able to make decisions based on sound judgment regarding their career paths. This has been affected by both internal and external factors within ones environment (Leslie, 2002). We shall, therefore, take a look at such issues and assess how they may impact our future careers. Internal factors are individual traits that may affect ones judgment in selecting the right career path. They may include the following; a) Having fear or anxiety. Some of the undergraduates do have fear in choosing the careers they want to pursue. This is often brought about by the notion that he or she may end up choosing a wrong career that could jeopardize one’s dream or talent. If one is elevated and starts expressing fear, it may have the effect of making one lose confidence in whatever career is preferred. On the other hand, if one is on a lower level, fear has the effect of creating confusion and hence making it impossible for the student to make a sound decision on their career path. b) Conflicting values. There is the belief that when one achieves their dreams jobs, they may not get the necessary reward they had expected. On the other hand, one may be faced with the problem of failing to get a job after pursuing their dream careers. It is these conflicting values that bring about confusion when selecting a career choice. Experiences from other individuals facing the same problem may aid in increasing this conflict in values, thus forcing one to make poor career choices. This means that one may end up pursuing a career choice not because of their liking, but because of these conflicting values. c) Low confidence levels. Lack of confidence plays an important role in career selection. This means that one may desire to pursue a particular career path but due to low confidence levels, he or she may opt not to because they do not believe that they are suited for such a job. Additionally, they may not have the zeal to believe that a particular dream job is attainable and hence they regard it as some else’s job. Such individuals often don’t dream big and end up choosing meager job than what is suited for their potentials. d) Conflicting interests. It is one of the leading factors affecting career choices among students. It often occurs in circumstances where an individual in multi-talented in different areas and therefore has a dilemma in identifying a particular career path that one is suited. These individuals may have an array of career options to choose from but the problem often lies in making the wrong career choice that would not satisfy his dreams and aspirations. External factors; these are circumstance in the environment that one is in that has an impact in their career choices. They include; a. Lack of information One common problem with candidates is that most of them do not have the right knowledge in career choices. They may not have the right guideline to help them chose the best career choice suitable to their talents. They therefore make career choices based on their vague understanding of careers, which in many cases are not the right choice(Leslie, 2002).Others may be too confused to choose a career path due to lack of sufficient knowledge. Such individuals may not have the right guidance from individuals with knowledge in career choices. b. Influence from other individuals It is common for undergraduates to be influenced by other persons on their choice of career. This influence could be done directly, whereby one is requested by individual to take a particular career path. The other form of influence is by emulating careers which others, mostly friends of close family relatives, are doing. Peer pressure, as it is also referred to, can influence one to make a terrible career choice in life. c. Too much information As the old adage goes, too much information is dangerous. This saying is true because having so much information my lead to confusion on the kind of career path one should pursue. On the other hand, having too much irrelevant information is dangerous since it may guide in making the wrong choice of career. Too much information may offer an array of options to choose from but this only confuses the candidate more than it guides him or her. Impacts of challenges on career choice As we have mentioned earlier, there are factors that affect the choices of our careers. These factors have an impact in our career choices in a number of ways. Firstly, they may result in dissatisfaction in one’s career. This means that the career path someone had chosen may not fulfill the expectations of the undergraduate student. This, therefore, results to a boring and stressful work life (Leslie, 2002). Another challenge is difficulty in coping up with the demands of a particular career. There are those individuals who may have chosen careers blindly without understanding the challenges involved in such career paths. This may force one to change careers later in the future or continue with the career line but under very stressful circumstances in the job environment. Lastly, it may result to loss of valuable talents or opportunities on the part of the undergraduate. Poor career choices my make an individual to waste his or her talents if they did not choose a career that best suits their skills. Additionally, one may miss an important opportunity to succeed in a particular career that would have best suited them. Recommendations It is important to note that a career plan may not work exactly as it was intended to. However, they are still important to any undergraduate since they offer a guide on how one can achieve their dream goals. It will also help one know where their talents lie hence making the right career choice. Seeking guidance from relevant and qualified persons regarding career paths is of paramount importance. It is such professionals or experienced persons that understand best a particular career one may be interested in. These individuals, to some extent, may also assist one in getting to know which career best suits them, based on their talents and skills. Many undergraduates assume that getting their dream jobs based on their skills alone will lead to a successful dream career. This is not often the case. They need to understand that there are other challenges involved and that they should be prepared to face and address them. They should also be aware of the expectations of such careers so that they may not end up being disappointed at the end. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important for one to build his or her career. This will not only provide a source of income to an individual, but also bring about a sense of satisfaction. When people are satisfied with what they do for a living, it reduces stress levels and makes life interesting and worth living. In order to achieve this, one should be able to formulate a guideline that will assist them in achieving this goal. Consultation with the relevant persons is also critical so as to get sound advice regarding one’s career path. Above all else, one should be steadfast and hardworking so that they may be able to achieve their dream jobs in future. References LESLIE, J. B. (2002). Managerial effectiveness in a global context.Greensboro, N.C., Center for Creative Leadership. http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=7502 Read More