Dan Robinson Marketing 4-24-2012 Section 1 Situation Analysis Career Search Branding yourself is one of the most difficult things you can do in life. It represents the beginning of starting a career and establishing your credibility. It takes a lot of effort to discover your specific brand, so I will take a step by step approach in order to advertise myself. I can get a great grasp on my future by starting from the the very core: values. 1 . Self-Reliance 2. Communication 3. Determination 4. Accountability 5. Decisiveness 6. Hard Working 7. Efficiency 8. Loyalty 9. Individuality 10. Trust
Values may be seen as ways to accomplish a mission or achieve a certain goal. Individuals as well as organizations may shoot for specific values and goals in order to reach a level of success, including myself. I would not alter any of these values because, to me, they act out of universal importance towards anything I am striving for. In this case, I am establishing necessary values in the general field of business. In choosing the most important values towards my life in regards to my possible career choices, I asked myself what would it take to be the ultimate employee or eventually mployer.
The answer came down to a self-reliant, communicative, and determined person. These values that I would bring to the table are the cornerstone of a great career. In order to allow yourself to reach your full abilities, you must be able to rely on yourself to complete the tasks at hand. This first value falls under a psychological category because an individual must understand and be able to rely of yourself before moving forward. “Whether you are self-employed or working for a firm, you are in charge of your career (Brand You 8). Every one in a company must also be able to ely upon their own work in order to bring a sense of diversity and accountability to tne workplace. Dlverslty ana accountaDlllty are sllgntly less Important values Decause they stem off of self-reliance. The second most important value is the ability to communicate ideas that come from the individuals’ self reliance throughout employment. This communication allows each employee to relay their diverse opinions and create a wide spectrum of views.
The third most important value is determination to fulfill goals and reach for the next best thing at all times. Anywhere n business, determination is required because of the high high level of competition. The increasing number of business students in this field is growing rapidly, and in order to succeed, these values must be displayed in a unique and eye-catching way. I am most interested in these business positions that require overcoming competition to climb the ladder, including marketing, accounting, and finance.
This would allow me to show the little things and smaller virtues I am capable of accomplishing. I am also interested in investing and self employment. The self employment would give e the ability to display my self-reliance, communication, and determination skills. Ultimately, the goal of accessing all necessary virtues is the foundation of branding myself in business. Planning My Career A future in my professional activities relies upon myself accomplishing these virtues.
I plan to accomplish this by focusing on personal goals towards reaching a certain happiness and standard. My mission is to make a difference in the world of business during my generation in order to leave something for future generations to base their studies off of. My ultimate goal is to become self-reliant in my own ompany due to growth in the fields of accounting, marketing, and financing. The basic framework of my career will be to apply my self in this world by attributing my core virtues to gain knowledge based around these studies.
By maintaining a strong goal of improving the following skills, I will allow myself to succeed: Daily analyzing problems meeting new people motivating others reading using computers Often advising people analyzing data goal setting handling money knowledge of concepts and principles selling ideas setting performance standards taking decisive action sometimes assembling equipment uditing financial data defining problems encouraging people product promotion public speaking I am most comfortable with defining and solving problems, motivating others, and setting performance standards.
This allows me to take control of most situations that occur and lead others towards the correct coarse of action. I would most like to improve my abilities to sell ideas, speak out publicly, and advise others. Speaking out is a necessary skill for any product promoter while it is also vital in announcing a plan. This range of communication skills would allow me to improve and grow in all aspects of business. If I improve this business tool and pair them with my strongest skills I can be a scary asset for any position in business.
I have decided to specify marketing as the field of business regarding the following research: find recent trends occurring in my favorable career. The advantage of establishing trends in a field of business allows a company to be prepared for necessary changes to products or services in order to compete in the economy. I have compiled the top 4 trends delivered by Sookie Shuen from an article on business2community. com.
The first is the surrounded by the value of determination, in which management ust stay focused during tough economic times; a broader web based marketing presence is vital to being ahead in the game. “More and more companies will link up their activities to create a truly coherent brand across multiple channels (Shuen). ” This will continue to make the process of buying faster and much more simple. If a consumer sees a product they like on any type of media (TV, computer, phone, etc. ) they will be able to purchase it within seconds.
This opportunity is available to all businesses that want to create an online store, which is highly suggested according to this trend. This network based marketing will also make it easier to receive reviews and feedback from customers: “Companies can stay ahead by embracing and facilitating how their customers interact with them on social media (Shuen). ” The next important trend to pay attention to is the increase of user-generated content. Marketing teams throughout all businesses must influence the capability of consumers acting as advertisement for their own product.
In the end, a company wants to get its product out their in a way that could potentially advertise itself for free! A third trend is the focus on mobile marketing, such as products and services dvertised over cell phones: “mobile marketing is a trend that businesses can’t afford to ignore (Shuen). ” This opportunity cost creates another cheap and quick solution for businesses that will attract a larger base of consumers. The last major upcoming marketing trend is the decreasing gap between social media and business brands.
This further influences the importance of user- generated content, out over soclal networks IT a Duslness aec10es to respond to tnls trend this will further increase the customer base of a company attracting a wider culture and demographic. The ultimate goal of preparing for marketing trends is to increase the long-term revenue of the company. SWOT Analysts 1 . Strengths: Quick reaction time to consumer trends, determination to fulfill needs and wants of consumers, and using computers to establish online media credibility. 2.
Weaknesses: Lack in communication towards a wide group of consumers, less global awareness of products and services, and lack of computer web based programming skills. 3. Opportunities: Capable of expanding business globally via the Internet, changing market and competitive environments that allow consumer tastes o change, and better understanding of customer wants and needs through social networking and online databases. 4. Threats: Competition in field of marketing decreases control over consumer decisions, must remain focused on trends to make necessary changes to strategies, and ability to keep up with altering consumer wants and needs.
Three career objectives that I would like to accomplish within 5 years go as follows: Gain comfortability in the specific field I enter. Establish my credibility amongst higher authority in a marketing company. Get promoted to higher paying, increased responsibility, and self organized Job. Choosing the Right Work Environment Naturally, one wants to work in an environment that suits his abilities, accomplishments, and goals. My ideal work environment begins with a little friendly, but aggressive competition.
An innovative environment would be appealing as well since innovation leads to competition of new ideas. Competition stems from my roots as an athlete; the only thing that would make my team happy was to win a championship, the highest accomplishment. The idea of team work is huge for me to feel comfortable; others may input new ideas while expanding off of mine making my responsibilities less extreme. However, my contribution must be valued and acknowledged in order for me to agree with my environment.
A lifetime of employability is also comforting because no employee wants to have the stress of possible unemployment. Some skills such as communication must be improved for me to advance myself towards higher standards in the work place, which is a large goal of mine. The location of my work environment does not matter a great deal to me seeing as how I have moved around much of my life. I would prefer to work in the United States because it would remove a language barrier, increasing my abilities.
If I were to go utside of this country for work, it would have to be in a Spanish speaking country, because it would not be difficult to further my 6 years of education in this field. By analyzing all of these ideals, I can endorse the fact that I need to be in a place where selT-rellance stems OTT 0T communication, ana I can consult otners tnrougn motlvatlng ideas and opportunities in order to feel comfortable in my work environment. Career Information and Research Marketing has two main categories of positions: client side marketing and agency side marketing.
The first question you must ask yourself before deciding where you ant to end up is: Would you rather work for an agency or in a more public directly related environment? “There is no clear cookie-cutter answer and obviously the answer depends on the marketer’s personality, talents, interests and in particular their motivations (Marketing Lowdown). ” To begin, we will look at client side marketing, which designates someone “working for a commercial, public sector or charitable organization (MMM). ” According to the article The Big Decision: Agency vs. Client Side? rom Marketinglowdown. com, “the answer depends on the marketer’s personality, talents, interests and in particular their motivations. According to my personal values I would have a better fit in a agency side marketing position, but my goals leave me yearning for a client based position. The responsibilities display similar qualities amongst both choices, but the opportunities and requirements is where they begin to differ. One could choose the thrilling rush of a sales pitch for client deals and using communication and technical skills to wow their clients.
This would be an opportunity in any client side marketing position which are described as follows: marketing assistants operate day to day tasks with the hopes of a promotion; arketing coordinators carry a little higher of a responsibility while analyzing research, directly working with agents, events, or promotional campaigns; product managers see out the management of products or services being marketed; marketing managers have an even higher responsibility where they oversee the responsibilities of lower level positions; and lastly a marketing director acts as the driving force and role model behind this client based marketing caste system making it the most senior position. Deciding to accept a Job in this category would work better with my personal values such as self-reliance, communication, and etermination. However, it may require more responsibility and risk because of the more personal essence of the Job. The other category is agency side marketing: a diverse position where the employer has the ability to meet with advertisement, media, PR, and market research agencies to gain knowledge and trends throughout the market.
The division of labor amongst this category goes as follows: an account manager is responsible for working in an agency environment with goals of providing strategic support and organization towards an agent or agency account; a market researcher analyzes uantitative and qualitative research in order to support the clients looked after; and a PR position is required to handle accounts of agents as well. Choosing to fulfill the requirements of a agency side marketing opportunity would be less personal and up close to the action. It would act as a behind the scenes way of engaging marketing strategies. This may act as a more stable Job depending on the responsibilities simply because it deals less with one-on-one interactions. My Tlnal aeclslon would De to accept a Joo In cllent Dasea marketing, Deglnnlng as a marketing assistant and moving up the ladder. The reason for this is because I would feel more comfortable and capable of working directly with the clients.
This responsibility would allow me to accomplish my goals of moving up in the company and receiving a higher paying salary while relying on my self. The upcoming marketing trends stated earlier will help me further review my decision. More web based marketing will present itself in the upcoming year. This will effect client based marketing by forcing all agents to expand client advertisement online. Another trend to pay attention to while focusing on clients is the user- generated importance. Marketers should push the clients themselves to participate in marketing their products or services. A third trend stresses mobile based marketing where agents will encourage the expansion of product advertisement on cell phones.
The last trend to take note of is the increasing recognition of products and services over social networks. Agents will have to work with their clients towards spreading their business through social medias. Client based marketing positions will have to focus more on client based issues and personal interaction with clients to improve marketing strategies. Why Employers Buy If I were to choose a career in something other than marketing, it would involve finance or accounting. I have experience in finance operations in a small, local corporation. This encouraged me to look into the specifics of running a larger corporation while maintaining a general idea of running any company.
An accounting job would allow me to integrate the finances into business accounting. I could determine ratios that would act as marketing research for future finances in the business. Analyzing trends in this field would improve my understanding of leadership and decision making in business. If I were to choose a specific activity in this industry, I would choose a management accountant position over public accounting, internal auditing, or government accounting for several reasons. The first contradicts my reasoning for choosing client based marketing: I would rather accomplish this task with a stable Job instead of having an opportunity to work for someone.
Within this realm of accounting, I would decide to be an accounting clerk or a bookkeeper because I have superior skills in mathematics and statistical analysis. This Job security would make me feel the most comfortable in this environment. Management accounting interests me because I’m more than capable of book keeping and handling quantitative data. The responsibility would be higher because I would be handling larger sums of money and more difficult book keeping which gives me a thrill that would keep me focused. If I were looking for more information about these Jobs, I would further investigate companies that I would be interested in. After researching this, I would call the human resources department of each. Human Resources is extremely helpful in the hiring and employment processes. Every organization wants to attract, motivate, and etain the most qualified employees and match them to Jobs for which they are best suited. Human resources, training, and labor relations managers and specialists provide this connection (HR). ” This would give me all the necessary information to Tina out more aDout speclTlc Joo actlvltles so I can put my SKIIls to good use arter all. The values I chose in the beginning of this essay correlate with the Job opportunities I have labeled. I have been involved in sales and business my entire life through the admiration and experience of my family owned business up to my personal work experience in sales. The values I most admire have been ingrained in me since I was born, and my goal is to put them to good use in marketing.
I recognize that my values and skills must improve in order for me to accomplish my ultimate goals such as communication and product promotion. Regardless of the differences between my skills and requirements from the Jobs I have listed, sales will always be my true calling. Section 2 Marketing Objectives 6. 1 : Analyzing Your Strengths Looking at characteristics and values seen amongst my own personality creates much more difficulty than looking at those of someone else. When I look at myself I ee what I could be or I may exaggerate my own abilities to a certain extent. While trying to be true to myself, in developing a list of strengths and weaknesses, I discovered that I have much room for improvement. My own analysis begins with my ability in the field of communication.
I do not consider this an immediate weakness because I do have a strong capability to communicate via letter or electronically. After all, I have worked with computers and written works since I was in grade school. Classes such as typing or even English classes have improved these abilities to a standard that I consider one of my trengths. My education and work experience with computers, which is one of my greatest strengths, pushed me to improve my non-verbal communications. However, my disability to communicate verbally with a team deserves recognition. I have worked with teams on a sales floor, but my ability to lead a team verbally could improve.
I noticed this during public speech classes in college as well as being outspoken aurlng group meetings at tne workplace. This leads me into the next area to work on: Teamwork. I do not discredit myself to the full extent when it comes to this skill because I have worked in teams throughout y educational career as well as work. The area I look to boost in team work is the capacity I have to lead in group efforts. In order to improve this skill set, I also need to advance my own initiatives. Getting started is one of my largest weaknesses; I find trouble in initiating conversation in group work or beginning projects at certain dates. This reflects it self in my organizational incompetence.
This sounds bad because I would like to stress the fact that I am a terrible organizer; I procrastinate until the last minute on many occasions since my organizational skills are not the est. The turn around here is that once I get started, it is hard to stop me until I finish. Once I have developed an initiative, my motivational strength carries me throughout the rest of any project. This could be due to the strong work ethic I acknowledge in myself. My ability to finish a project or to accomplish a goal portrays itself in my work; since I was born I have always been motivated to increase my abilities and do better. I have worked while going to school full-time since my sophomore year of high school; the first year I was eligible to work in the first place.
This drive to maintain high grades in class and keep a steady income for myself mirrors my work ethic. This leads into the next strength I have improved over my working career: Flexibility. My motivation to work and educate myself at the same time has helped me organize my time better. Change and flexibility is nothing new to me seeing as how I go to school and work more than 1,000 miles away from where I lived my entire life. Another strength I would like to certify is my honesty and integrity. My reliability on responding to questions or statements with an honest answer is something I like o pride myself on. I understand that lying labels itself as something morally wrong, and I have too much pride to label myself with that burden.
All of these strengths and weaknesses helped me better understand my set of skills. After working in sales for several years, traveling for educational reasons, and relying on myself to achieve certain goals, I can honestly say that I am more than capable of growing into a professional. I have uncovered several tactics that will encourage me while attempting to improve my skills. By keeping myself motivated and maintain a steady Job I can mprove my core skill set. This will allow me to work better in groups and gather initiatives. Working in groups during class will also help with my focus towards team work. A large room for improvement signifies itself in my public speech.
I will continue to work on leading in group discussions and volunteering to speak out when possible. This will excel my growth in communications significantly. Another activity that I will attempt is keeping a Journal on me at all times to record important information. Hopefully, this will increase my organizational skills. Working on teams is he last objective I will encourage myself to fulfill. By grouping these activities with the skills I currently show strength in, I will force myself into achieving any goal I put forth. 6. 2 Developing the Right Skills wnlle vlsltlng an onllne JOD Doara, I was aDle to Olscover a ton 0T OITTerent possibilities that are ready for employment at this very moment.
It was a relief to discover such easy access to a ton of available Jobs. My first objective was to find a job in the field of accounting, and then decided to start with something that required a higher level of experience and responsibility. After visiting wrww. monster. com, I stumbled upon the Job titled Account Specialist for MSN Communications Inc. The one characteristic that drew me in was the fact that it is a leading company in the field of technological services. Since I have worked a sales Job in this type of business, I perceived that it would be a great fit for me. The next step I took in locating a Job that interests me was analyze the summary and description of the Job itself.
The responsibilities required performance of general accounting activities along with reports under sales orders, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. This furthered my interests since my knowledge of accounting thus far in my educational career specifies in these fields. Once I had an idea of the general Job description, I took a look at the required skills necessary to fit the Job’s description. The specialized knowledge needed to fit the employer’s needs came down to computer knowledge in Microsoft Office Suite, familiarity with accounting software, ability to learn new skills, provide excellent customer service, be able to work well in a team, and the motivation to learn new accounting skills.
After analyzing these requirements and comparing them with my skills and alues, I developed the conclusion that I would be well suited for this Job after a few adjustments. I already have strength in computer knowledge, especially in Microsoft Office, after working in the computer sales department at Best Buy. However, a review of some accounting software would be vital before Jumping into a Job interview for this position. Since this position also requires a good balance of customer service, I could display the outstanding customer reviews I acquired while working at Best Buy. My determination to learn and improve would also be seen as a good fit for their necessary skills. My teamwork and communication throughout the company would need improvement in order to work well with others.
Overall, a review of computer knowledge and a brief overview of the required accounting knowledge are the two advancements I would need to accommodate for my plan of development. 6. 3 My Career Journal Using wrww. monster. com as a resource is highly valuable for any one looking for a specific Job in any industry. The ability to narrow your search and seek out the requirements, descriptions, and environments that each Job upholds gives any Job searcher a great advantage. The reason I chose this Job search engine was because it reated an image in my head of what the Job would end up, because of the detail put into the listings. After finding a web site that I liked, I chose to search for a Job in accounting. This would give me descriptions of specified openings in the field of study that I am working on.
The reason behind this choice of education is based on my background In matnematlcs ana Tlnances. wnlle I was a cnlla, I got Tlrst nana experlence In now to run an entire small business. This pushed me to expand my knowledge of business, but I remained focused on accounting or finances because of the mathematical expectations. The skills that these types of Jobs search for are inherent in my upbringing. It is relieving to read the requirements for a Job and not worry about many skills that I have not wanted to build. The requirements match my skill set almost perfectly in this field of business because of my knowledge of business and computer software.
The other characteristics I have built over recent years, such as communication, team work, and motivation, have expanded my brand tremendously. By fitting all of this together, I can establish myself in the world of accounting. The strongest characteristics that I possess are that of motivation, problem olving, and having a great work ethic. Looking back on my career at Best Buy helps put this in perspective. I consistently improved sales numbers month after month (showing outstanding work ethic), developed customer service that could take care of any problems that would come to the table, and became a department leader by encouraging and motivating others. In order to capitalize on these abilities, I have to choose the right environment in which I can excel.
By developing a resume that labels my strengths, I can put a great first impression of myself in the Job market. Once I have been offered a Job, problem solving and great work ethic will begin immediately to create a good reputation. Once I have established myself in the work environment, I can motivate and encourage others to set higher and higher goals. This will exemplify myself as a leader throughout the group. Also, by setting a good model for others to follow, I will establish my capability to handle higher responsibilities and give a performance worthy of recognition. In the end, my plan of development is to allow my skills to brand me in a way that I could not perform in simple communication.
