Career Plan Essay

During the five week course of Business Communication and Critical Thinking, there were activities at the My Career Plan page on University of Phoenixes website that were required to be completed for the week. They were Career interests Profiler, Competencies, Work Culture Preferences and Reasoning Aptitude. This Author will discuss those activities that were taken and completed during this course. The discussion will also be tailored around how this course applies to the career plan. Career Interests Profiler The first activity was the Career Interests Profiler. Before the My Career Plan can give ideas as to the possible career paths for this author, a series of questions needed to be answered in order for the profiler to tailor the careers according to the answers given. Upon the completion of answering the questions, the profiler had identified three specific characteristics for this author. They were: artistic, realistic and enterprising. Below these were possible career paths that correlated with the three characteristics. Amongst the top picks were arts, designs, entertainment, media and sports. Innately a creative person, this author agrees with majority of the matches given. Critical thinking is an imperative aspect when looking at the arts and design careers. Innovation is key and requires a large amount of focused and creative perspectives. Competencies The second activity was the competencies section. This activity is to uncover the personal behaviors, skills and abilities to drive performance at work. The results from this activity were formulated by yet another series of questions to accurately identify the test takers specific competencies. Results from this test were similarly accurate as well. Organization, following instructions and innovating were among the top strengths for this author. All of these strengths are important in the world of business and communication, and also assist in the ability to critical thinking. Work Culture Preferences The third activity was Work Culture Preferences, which helped to uncover the personal ideal work culture and discover where this author would perform the best. The results form the questionnaire stated that this authors work culture is Leadership intensive, Supportive and Expert. These are cultures in a working atmosphere that are very agreeable to this author. The need for leadership, along with ongoing support from that leadership is imperative. Also, the need to be a valued member or superior in the working environment is equally as important as the others. Reasoning Aptitude Lastly, Reasoning Aptitude was the final activity required to complete the My Career Plan activities. The results form this was the same as the competencies earlier described. The objective was to formulate a personal aptitude range to career exploration. The only addition to this section stated that this author was focused. Conclusion This author sees the importance to the My Career Plan. Knowing this information can allow the user to generate a clear idea of the desired work environment in a career that suites the needs and strengths of the student. Blindly searching for a career path without knowing what interests, competencies, work culture and reasoning aptitudes align with the student can be very difficult, and next to impossible.