Introduction
Nearly everybody spends a lifetime pursuing happiness and inner gratification; searching for peace. A huge cluster of humanity has been plunged in vain pursuits of redundant dreams, addictions, and even other people, fervent to fill the futility that haunts them. Ironically, the only place we ever need to search is within. The inner self must blend with the outer world for our individual goals to be realized. I found out a long time ago, that I must discover the right ecology to make a perfect match between what comes naturally to me and what the world needs from me. In other words, my career mission can only be accomplished by unifying my greatest job aspirations with my employer’s profound hunger for my skills.
I envisage a spiraling climb in my professional ladder as a financial analyst, until I clinch the prized accolade of a financial manager in a banking institution. Certainly, my working milieu will afford me a chance to further discover and polish my life ambition and purposes. Blending my goals and aspirations with the organizational vision will bolster my motivation, passion, and energy for work.
The massive task that will broach my preliminary days at the workplace will be the comprehension of my intrinsic needs about my work background. Thus, I will be in a position to discard disempowering relationships and augment a gainful network of loving support to help me achieve stability and supplement productivity. Through a systematic career plan, I will be able to achieve financial abundance as I pursue my passion, making a positive contribution to humanity.
A career is not about distress and struggle; it is about living life to the fullest doing what you love (Lore, 2003:pp 67). To achieve this, I will have to hedge any limitations and bottlenecks in my career path. To utilize my creative gifts, special talents, and acquired skills I will have to delve into a thorough self-introspection to ascertain my challenges, threats, and opportunities(Levitt,2006: pp113). Being in tune with what works or does not work for me, will enhance a conscious decision on the journey to pursue self-development. Courage will be an absolute necessity, so I can take full responsibility to develop, train, and transform the self to fit in a daunting challenge packed work environment.
Taking Stock Of The Self
Self Assessment
Unearthing the self is an intimidating, yet very essential journey for all career beginners. It all starts with a simple question; where am I and where do I aspire to be? To answer this question suitably, I will have to take a deep look within and consciously decide the kind of person I am and then get my external reality to harmonize with the inner being. A deep honest look at the self will reveal my strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (Kregler &Thuesen, 2002: pp 319).
I know for sure that being endowed with good communication skills, a factor which gives me a team advantage. Further, am a positive thinker with an undying spirit, failure has never been an option to me, and yes failure never cows me down. This makes me an uncompromising hard worker although I can get irritable at times especially when assigned work with sloppy or lazy people.
Thankfully, I have had various leadership opportunities that have aided to tone down my emotions. One time I played the role of youth leader and amassed stupendous management skills namely, organizational, planning, and people coordination. Further, working with the youth helped me to become more collaborative and patient with others. I learned how to cope with the four personality dispositions, how to mobilize resources to increase profitability, and the establishment of rapport at the workplace. Some lessons came the hard way; poor planning always led to mistakes and failure.
Hasty decisions hurt my subordinates eliciting losses. Several times I made ridiculous choices which and educed several negative feedbacks from my subordinates. Some thought that I planned too much and lacked the initiative to carry through all my plans. And others still thought I was a bit high-handed.
Individual Career Goals And Objectives
Professional growth
In the working environment, change is constant. It is only natural for all professionals to change and grow with increased dynamism at the workplace, to adapt to the market forces and trends in the sector. I would like to grow in my career by updating my academic knowledge and skills to remain at par with the market drift. Moreover, I would like to keep on upgrading my skills to avoid being phased out by new technology and developments in the market. To further hone my credibility in my professional field I will obtain special certification in accounting fundamentals and international finance. In the due course, I will plan to attain exceptional efficiency in my working environment as I maintain a harmonious balance in my thoughts, actions, and feelings.
Financial Aspect
I will seek a well-paying employer, lest I become underpaid and demoralized. In many instances underpaid workers become bitter and riotous, they lack the incentive to work willingly and independently. On the other hand, overpaid workers tend to be indolent and may not necessarily offer the value for their remunerations. Therefore, I will be keen to earn only as much as my position is worth for the organization is working for so that my morale for work will be protracted.
Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is top on my agenda as an employee; it will be the driving force behind my work output. I am not satisfied I will most certainly not perform according to the stipulated expectations. Of course, this will not be an excuse to impede my career advancement process, but I will work in a place where am at ease and satisfied with my job obligations.
Fresh Work Experiences
I would like to work in a highly dynamic environment which gives me room to grow and expand my vision. Trying out new things will help me to progress and get ahead in life (Rice, 2007: pp 214). New experiences always add to the personal richness in terms of insight and wisdom. I would like to accumulate knowledge concerning various cultures, meet new people, and familiarize myself with global business trends. New experiences will bolster vast knowledge and increase my level of tolerance to help change or mold my business perspectives (Simonsen, 2000: p125)
Job Stability
It’s only logical to work for a stable organization to ensure that my cash inflow will not be in jeopardy. I would like to work for a growing modern banking institution with a proven success record. Working with a stable institute will help me to delve into personal growth and advancement rather than worrying about my basic needs. Further, it will motivate me to exert my skills in an endeavor to realize the institutional goals.
Ideal Work Environment
I manage to work well in a team environment. When there is a heavy workload, with little or no cooperation from team members I tend to get stressed up. I hate working under pressure and detest despotic supervisors. A collaborative team environment is my ideal work set-up, planning is my key, I like scheduling my work in advance to avoid stress and ineptness. In my career, I will have to focus on how to increase patience and courage to broach offenses at the workplace.
I will have to tone down on my stringent working schedules for they can overwhelm me physically at times and stir animosity at the workplace. To minimize unnecessary conflicts I will have to work on my temper and evade work antagonism.
Am well aware that personal development is hard work, it only comes with patience coupled with determination and consistency (Kirk, 1998:pp83). There are no quick fixes to individual development; hasty fixes never last for they have no foundation. Am a person who values, organizational integrity, and transparency in the workplace. I would like to polish my inner confidence so that I can speak and act confidently irrespective of the person or situation I have to address. I would like to work on my personality so that I can become a bit daring to venture into new opportunities rather than walk on the common ineffective route.
I believe in pleasant co-existence. It is my firm conviction that everybody can be fruitful for as long as they are given a chance to grow and express themselves amicably. I aspire to inculcate the culture of free flow communication where people will be allowed to express their ideas and opinions without being intimidated. Adversity and acrimony at the workplace are certainly inevitable. Am convinced that employees and leaders can make the best out of every conflict, before reacting to any clash at the workplace it is important to step back and get the facts right to avoid biased judgment.
Conflict resolution should be done with somber minds to utilize the event as both a learning and growth opportunity. To avoid conflicts, at the workplace I desire to formulate a mechanism of focusing on my energy and circumventing chaos which always results when I lose temper.
Personal Change And Development
Confidence building
Confidence is self-assurance, with it everything is possible, and it dares an individual to make radical decisions to churn forth deep-seated positive changes. I would particularly like to work on my poise so that I can command respect from others as they see my worth and appreciate my contributions at work. With amassed confidence, I will be in a position to blaze new opportunities to propel me towards my career ambitions. My vision of becoming a chief financial manager in a banking institution will finally shine forth, as I muster the courage to believe in my intuitive abilities and assimilate them at the workplace. I will be groomed to live more consciously and summon the courage to confront the unfaceable elements of my life.
Honing my Assertiveness
Assertive people are aggressive what they determine in their minds they achieve, they are never inhibited by fear or challenges. As an aspiring financial manager, I should be in a position to spawn ideas and defend them, any kind of external opposition or criticism should not intimidate me. Assertiveness will give me an edge, so that I will be able to make decisions and account for them, commanding respect from my comrades so that my participation and contribution will not be overlooked or discarded without an explanation. Fear will be washed away as I garner authority to lead the organization and the subordinates triumphantly; a leader has got to choose for himself and live on his terms (Simonsen, 2000:pp76)
Time Management
The adage is true, time is money. A good employee must be able to manage his work and finish it within the stipulated time. I purpose to manage my time by developing a scheduled work routine. After breaking down the routine I will divide my activities into manageable tasks to enhance efficiency. Every time guzzling activity will have to be erased from my schedule. I will never submit to a mediocre mentality, rather I will choose to improve the quality of my work life through proper time management and discipline.
Leading By Example
An excellent leader has got to live by his creed, his values, beliefs, and attitudes should be exuded in the decisions he makes and the actions he takes. Perfection isn’t my point here; the point is getting into a practical positive path to steer my team members towards a stipulated goal. As a leader, I will stand out as a crusader of truth, the reality by eliminating any falsehood and escapism at the workplace. Where there is a problem I would like to confront it and possibly resolve it before it becomes a malignant impediment. I will work keenly to bring forth oneness and unity of mind to steer the other team members towards our organizational objectives.
By exercising authority, I will be able to lead others in the concession of the organizational life and make clear decisions to realize the organizational vision (Lore, 2003: pp 42). I expect to spur the spirit of courage amongst my subordinates so that they will learn to take action despite the fear of failure. Leading others by example will help me live authentically expressing my genuine creativity.
Strategies For Fitting At Work Place
Understanding My Competency
I must accrue all my efforts towards the acquisition of the vital skills for my work task ahead. Unskilled people are shaky and incompetent, since I already have the right skills for work, I will take the necessary steps to learn the fundamental techniques necessary to increase my work output. In the cases where am severely unskilled, I will establish a rapport with the management concerning training possibilities. For immediate purposes, I will be open to appeal to a senior coworker to gloom me with the new tasks allocated to me.
Appreciating Self-Worth
Self-worthiness is not necessarily feeling good about the self, it is a feeling attained after finding relevance in things that cultivates growth (Levitt, 2006:pp98). Self-worthiness will help me to commit to the goals that gratify my efforts. I will endeavor to find meaning in the organizational goals at hand to deduce job satisfaction from my daily chores.
Individual Discipline
Every strong-willed person has got the potential to fulfill his dreams in life. I will enumerate realistic goals and follow through with them by exercising self-discipline. With a work plan, it is always possible to achieve dreams and goals. Achieving my goals will bolster my confidence and help me to be more determined and productive.
Working Under threat of Failure
To achieve greatness, we must all confront our fears. Nobody attains greatness in my comfort zone; I must stretch my credulity to be able to remove any barriers and walls of resistance against my career goals. I will allow myself the freedom to fail because failure will allow me to learn when am wrong (Kirk, 1998:pp143) Failures broached at the workplace will increase my chances of success as they will help me to work and adjust my plans. When I fail and fall I will rise again after experiencing the true sense of my competence.
Conclusion
Success is failure turned inside out; unless we stretch ourselves out of comfort zones we are not in a position to grasp our true potential. I will be willing to compromise, adjust, and take risks at the workplace to find out what works or does not work in my career. Running from fear doesn’t work; I will confront my fears and learn through mistakes to be able to achieve my full latent. I know with all the certainty that I will live the life I have always desired. My rigorous planning and willingness to adapt to change will steer me to fruitful terrains as I watch in awe, my life unfolding in all its glory.
References
Kirk, J. J., 1998. Interactive Work Training for Career Development. New York: McGraw.
Kregler, O. and Thuesen, J.M., 2002. Personality Types In Relation To How we Live, and Work. New York: Dell Publishing.
Levitt, G. S. 2006. Making Your Career Happen. Your Career: How to make It Ohio: Thomson.
Lore, M. S. 2003. Changing Your Career Path and finding your purpose. New York: Fireside.
Rice, G. J. 2007. Career Choice Points. Palo Alto, CCalifornia: Davies-Black Publishers.
Simonsen, P. 2000. How To Navigate Your Career Systematically. New York:Brown Publishing Company.