Order Of Professional Development Project

Order Of Professional Development Project
The purpose of this project is to provide you with a practical and meaningful opportunity to spark (or advance) your career. To accomplish this purpose, you will: (1) research a potential career or internship within an industry (or specific company); (2) engage in a meaningful networking activity; and (3) write up some reflections about the whole process. More information for each part is found below, as well as in various documents on D2L.
Part 1 – Research
· Selecting a career, industry, and/or company
· The purpose of this project is to provide you with a practical and meaningful professional development opportunity, therefore…
· This is not necessarily about a dream job, position, profession, etc.
· Although it can be
· You will select a career, an industry, and/or a specific company with which you might reasonably:
· Land an internship in an upcoming semester
· Pursue a job to begin right after you graduate
· Note that you are not looking for job openings, but rather are seeking a broader picture of the career, industry, and/or company
· Research the career, industry, and/or company
· MTSU Career Center ( https://www.mtsu.edu/career/index.php)
· Has information career paths of specific majors
· You can also connect with a career adviser
· Lightening Career Link ( https://www.mtsu.edu/career/LCL.php)
· MTSU’s recruiting software platform for professional positions requiring a college degree
· Also has info on internships
· MTSU Access to CareerShift ( http://www.careershift.com/?sc=mtsu)
· Research companies, contacts, and job titles
· Also has a job board
· O*Net Online ( www.onetonline.org)
· A repository of information for over 900 jobs
· You will need to visit this site to do a portion of this project detailed below
· Occupational Outlook Handbook ( www.bls.gov/ooh)
· Hundreds of occupations and descriptions of pay, job growth, responsibilities, and more
· Vault ( www.vault.com)
· Find information on companies, jobs, rankings, graduate schools, and internships
· Writing up Part 1
· Discuss the following in your written assignment:
· Job challenges and salary trends
· The knowledge, skills, and abilities needed
· Education and experience required or desired for this position
· Typical career path and work environment
· How this new information affects your career planning
· Discuss how you used the above resources to gather this information
Part 2 – Networking
This portion will require you to engage in a networking activity. Specifically, you will conduct an Informational Interview with a working professional from the industry or company for which you would like to work or intern.
· Locate the document on D2L called ‘Informational Interview’
· Review the document and make plans according to its content
· The main steps for this process that will be expounded on in the document are:
1. Identify someone to interview
2. Prepare for the interview
3. Initiate contact
4. Conduct the informational interview
· Either face-to-face or via teleconferencing (e.g., Zoom)
5. Follow-Up
· Writing up Part 2
· Discuss who you interviewed and how you went about contacting them
· State their job title, their main responsibilities, their educational background and work experience, etc.
· Discuss what it was like for you to set up this interview
· Were you nervous? Did it go better than expected? Was the person receptive to meeting with a student?
· Discuss the actual interview
· What are some things you learned?
· Did anything surprise you?
· How did what you learned from the interview compare with what you learned from Part 1?
· Include the list of questions you asked as Appendix A in your final draft
· Discuss the steps you took to follow-up
· Did you send an email or hand-written note to this contact?
· Were you able to connect on LinkedIn?
· Do you have any future plans to interact with this person?
· Include your follow-up note as Appendix B in your final draft
· Take a picture of the hand-written note you sent and include the picture in Appendix B
· Take a screen shot of the follow-up email you sent and include it in Appendix B
Part 3 – Reflections
In this section, you will discuss the things you learned from this project.
· Reflections on the process
· What are the main takeaways you have from going about conducting this project?
· What it easier or more difficult than you thought? Was it more or less rewarding than you thought it’d be?
· What did you learn about the importance of networking?
· What did you learn about the importance of professionalism?
· Did anything surprise you?
· Reflections on leadership
· Through your research (e.g., data gathered from O*Net Online) and interview, you should have a decent understanding about what it means to be a leader in this industry, career, and/or company
· What skills do you already possess that would ma