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Personal Strategic Career Plan

Personal Strategic Career Plan

Samantha Gonzales

EHRD 614

Dr. Beyerlein

Texas A&M University

September 20, 2020

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Personal Strategic Career Plan

Introduction

Ever since I was in middle school I’ve been given assignments like this to plan my future

and set goals for myself. Every single essay or vision board that I have done has stated goals

with little to no thought as to how I would reach them. I’ve always carried the thought that I’ll

figure it out as I go or it’ll just happen for me. After my first semester of college I realized

nothing will happen for me if I don’t plan to make things happen for me. The reading’s in this

course (and some previous courses) have taught me new perspectives on how to plan for my

future and chart a course that leads to my goals.

Since I switched majors in my sophomore year of undergraduate studies, I’ve been

contemplating the exact career path I want to take. I started with wanting to go into training and

development and become a trainer because I enjoyed teaching and helping people reach their

potential. Then I found organizational development and wanted to become an OD consultant and

help organizations grow and then find another organization to help to fulfill my new passion for

constant change. Then there was a time when I decided I wanted to go into the Air Force and

work in personnel. I believed I could bring about positive change into the military and perform a

job that required selfless service I desired. Now with rising racial tensions and change on the

horizon I want to go into diversity and inclusion and help organizations promote inclusive

cultures that support employees of all backgrounds.

When I switched my major to HR I thought I was finished. I would work in HR and

that’s all I had planned, but now I find myself envisioning my future and it’s always different.

The truth is I don’t know what my end goal career title looks like because I’m still learning a lot

about myself and my education is constantly showing me new sides to HR and people that I

never saw before. I do know though what kind of work I want to do though. To me the title is not
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

the end goal it’s the impact and kind of work I get to do. I want to create positive change in the

world and make people’s lives better. In all the career end goals I listed above I get to do both of

those things even if the titles and specific duties are different. The more I learn about myself and

start working in actual HR positions I believe I will learn which career title is right for me.

In order to reach any of the end goals I have described I have to prepare myself with

experience, knowledge, and professional development. Reaching these goals requires me to do a

needs assessment of myself and find gaps in the skills needed in order to become an agent of

change. The strategic dashboard from Ahead of the Curve will let me highlight the important

goals and challenges I will need to take on before I can reach my goals. Each area adds more

twist and turns to the path, but at the end of the path is my dream career if I can get past the

windy road.

Customers

In any role within HR that I take my customer will be the employees of the organization.

In the future I will have positions at every level of HR and at each of these levels my purpose

will be to serve the people that help the organization succeed. Depending on the role that I have

my customers' needs will change. It’s important I develop skills in all areas of HR and hopefully

take on a generalist role in order to be familiar with any need an employee may need. As a future

HR professional the customer, in my opinion, is the most important part of the job. Human

Resources is meant to serve as an advocate and guide for employees which means our role is

solely dependent on the people we serve. Without employees we are out of a job. Developing

stronger leadership, technical, and communication skills will help me better serve my customers

and hopefully reflect positively on the organization. My experience in entry level positions and
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

education will help me become more knowledgeable which helps customers receive better

service.

People

It’s important in any industry to have a network of people to help you. Talent and

strengths are important to finding success, but mentors and colleagues can be just as important.

Whether it’s learning new skills or finding new opportunities, people are a great asset for

professional development. One of my top 10 career goals is to create a good network of business

professionals. I want this network to consist of peers and mentors. My peers can serve as

constructive critics and help me practice my soft skills. Mentors will help with my professional

development and provide me with opportunities. It’s important for me to also learn how to rely

on my network. I don’t like to ask for help or favors, but this often gets me in trouble when I

need it. That’s what a network is for and I should use my network to help me and I should help

others in my network when I can as well.

Human resources is all about people which means this refers to all aspects of my goals

and career. Whether it’s the people I’m working with or the people I am serving it’s important I

learn communications skills in order to help solve their problem and collaborate with colleagues.

It’s important for me to develop a professional personality that will allow me to relate to

colleagues and help employees. I’ve heard in many interviews that they reject the smart students

that can’t hold a conversation. Having some charisma will go a long way with people and aid in

getting change done.

Products

It’s difficult to look at the area of HR and find tangible products as a result of your work.

We deal with people by offering them guidance, development, and resources, not new products
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

and services. With that being said though, HR professionals need tangible products to prove their

efforts will help an organization and this can be done using reports and data. For my future

potential careers I will need to develop strong research skills in order to prove my profitability

for the organization. In order to get funding for a new training program I’ll need to prove it’s

effectiveness and expose the gaps in the current one. Being in an area of business that doesn't

directly make money for the business means my ideas have to be pitched just like products and

services except you’re pitching long term benefits that aren’t promised.

Resources

As much as I like to rely on myself to reach my goals, I know I will need a little help

along the way. My resources will include my network, data, and soft skills. My network can

serve as team members providing assistance or my mentors can give me constructive criticism to

help improve my work. My network is an important resource to help support me through my

goals. Whenever I get lost or I’m stuck I can rely on a strong network of people to help me find

new open doors or guide me to other resources that will take me one step further.

I can also rely on my education and professional development opportunities. The

knowledge I am acquiring in school will act as a resource in the future when I run into issues

with strategics planning or change. I can refer to essays I wrote or books I read to help remind

me of techniques that can help me get back on track. I can also rely on the research skills I will

learn and put them to good use collecting and analyzing data. Data will help me make more

informed decisions that will benefit myself and stakeholders.

Processes

In order to reach my career goals I will have to adopt a set of processes in order to ensure

I can reach the end result. Developing good professional habits will aid in reaching many of my
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goals. I need to be consistent and have discipline in my work, As a student I have to create a

process for how I organize my schedule and how I study. The most difficult part for me is not

creating a process, but sticking to it. I’m great at creating a plan and thinking of possible

outcomes, but I struggle to have discipline in sticking to a process that I know can help me. In

order to help myself with this problem I try to start small when tackling a new goal. When I

started teaching myself Spanish I started by learning for 10 minutes a day. After I was

comfortable and consistent with that I bumped it up to 15 minutes. Soon enough I’ll be able to

commit to longer periods of time and hopefully master the language.

You

Part of maintaining a successful career and being able to maintain yourself and your

needs. In order for me to find success I will need to find ways to cope with my stress. I have a

classic Type A personality which is great for working hard, but this means I’m prone to stress

which can later cause health issues. I’m currently trying new things every week to see what

keeps me calm to help myself in the future when I will potentially hold a high-stress diretor

position.

In order to continuously improve myself I’d also like to learn how to accept constructive

criticism better. I tend to fight against criticism because I want to maintain a perfect image of

myself. However, I have made strides toward letting go of those hindering perfectionist thoughts

and learning from my mistakes versus deflecting them. It’s important for me to constantly keep

learning even after I leave formal education and would to learn other skills such as Spanish. I

live in San Antonio and unless my options take me away then I will probably stay here. San

Antonio has a large Spanish speaking population and many jobs require you to speak Spanish,
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

especially in HR. This skill would raise my value to employers and open up more opportunities

for me in this area.

Sponsors/Stakeholders

My current sponsors and stakeholders are my parents. Without their support I would not

have been able to get an education and be here today. They invested time, money, and much

more into my development. They expect to see results in the form of a good career and happy

life. Their gain from my success is the hope that I will return the favor of support as they retire

and that they will no longer need to financially support me.

My future sponsor and stakeholders will be my employers. No matter where I work, my

position, or who I work I will have to show results. My employer will invest time and money

into my growth, training, and benefits. They will expect to see improvements in my work and a

stronger commit to the organization's success. It will be my responsibility to show my employer

that their efforts paid off and that I am an asset to the team. The resources given to me will also

help me personally with future positions and opportunities.

Conclusion

I believe that these goals and strategies will help me succeed and reach my full potential.

Most of these goals will be completed within the next 10 years and aid in my life long goals of

happiness and selfless service. I may not know exactly where I want to end up, but I know what

kind of mark I want to leave on this Earth. I want my professional endeavors to reflect my

personal values and make a difference in the world. When I say make a difference I don’t mean

by becoming rich and famous for philanthropy (although that would be nice). I want to make a

difference in the lives of the people I work for. I want to aid the progrssive changes organizations

will realize.
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

I hope to use this plan for the next 10 years and that it helps me create the career that best

suits my life. After 10 years it’ll be time to create another plan and chances are it’ll be totally

different. I may not even have one of the jobs I described wanting to have. As long as my goals

create progress and joy in my life that’s what matters to me. Now it’s time to get to work on my

plan.

References

Stowell, S. J., & Mead, S. S. (2017). Ahead of the curve: A Guide to Applied Strategic

Thinking. Sandy, UT: CMOE Press.

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Personal Strategic Career Plan

Appendix A- Goal Hierarchy Exercise

Write down a list of 25 career goals. Reflect on them and circle the five highest priority goals.

1. Earn a Master’s in HRD and MBA

2. Earn SHRM certifications
3. Attend NCORE again
4. Work for an organization that allows autonomy in my work
5. Learn from classes and research on how to improve social justice efforts in organizations
6. Improve my writing skills
7. Improve my technological skills
8. Have a strong network of business professionals
9. Improve my leadership skills
10. Find unique ways to serve my community
11. Work for a non profit organization or the government
12. Learn more about change initiatives and how to implement them
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

13. Become an officer in the Air Force

14. Become a director of training and development
15. Become an OD consultant
16. Become a director of diversity and inclusion
17. Learn from constant feedback
18. Become an agent of positive change for a High Performing Organization
19. Earn a manager or supervisor role to gain leadership experience
20. Earn an HR coordinator role to gain more HR experience
21. Find a community service organization to join and serve
22. Find a job that allows me to travel
23. Learn Spanish and ASL
24. Develop strong research skills
25. Find lifelong stress management techniques

Prioritize the five remaining goals based on their being interesting and important to you, then
rate them twice on a 1 to 10 scale from least interesting and least important to most interesting
and most important, so each goal has two scores.

1. Earn a Master’s in HRD and MBA

a. Interesting: 8

b. Important: 9

2. Earn SHRM Certifications

a. Interesting: 7

b. Important: 8

3. Work for an organization that allows autonomy in my work

a. Interesting: 9

b. Important: 10

4. Learn more about change initiatives and how to implement them

a. Interesting: 9

b. Important: 9

5. Become an agent of positive change for a High Performing Organization

a. Interesting: 10
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

b. Important: 10

Prioritize the five remaining goals based on their being interesting and important to you, then
rate them twice on a 1 to 10 scale from least interesting and least important to most interesting
and most important, so each goal has two scores.

6. Earn a Master’s in HRD and MBA

a. Score: 72

7. Earn SHRM Certifications

a. Score: 56

8. Work for an organization that allows autonomy in my work

a. Score: 90

9. Learn more about change initiatives and how to implement them

a. Score: 81

10. Become an agent of positive change for a High Performing Organization

a. Score: 100
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Personal Strategic Career Plan

It took me about two or three days to put together this list of goals. The reason it took so

long was because it took a lot of self-reflection to figure out not just what I wanted to

accomplish, but what it would take to reach my flagship goal. It’s easy to say I want to have a

director position and be happy. However, this list of goals required me to reflect on what goals

I’d have to reach before I could reach the end goal. Each of these goals will help me reach the

next goal which will hopefully one day lead to the ultimate goal of living my dream life.

In the next five years I hope to have achieved most of my low level goals. I’m already

working on my Master’s in HRD and I plan to start my MBA as soon as I’m done with this

program. However, my SHRM certifications will take some time and experience in the

workplace before I can achieve that. In the meantime though I hope to also start an entry level

HR position, most likely an HR coordinator role, and start practicing my soft skills that I want to

develop. I also hope during this time to start developing my network and learning from

professionals on how to affect change and make an impact.

In the next 10 years I hope to have achieved all of my goals except possibly my flagship

goal. During the next 10 years I hope that my experiences, networks, and education have given

me the tools and techniques I need to confidently implement change in an organization. At this

point in my life I may not be a director or executive level HR professional, but I will master my

leadership and management skills so I can eventually move up to those positions. At this point

I’d like to be working at an organization that values my want for independent work. I enjoy using

my creativity to solve problems and working together with others to think outside the box. I want

to be in an organization that values this trait in me and let’s me use it.