Question

Read the following article: How To Conduct A Personal SWOT Analysis:

An effective process companies use to assess themselves and their competitors and formulate their strategies is an analysis called “SWOT.” But this exercise isn’t just for businesses. It can be helpful for job seekers and those who are looking to climb the career ladder, too. Here’s how the process works…

After you’ve defined your career aspirations and goals (see my previous blog on how to do this), the next step is to understand more about yourself and your external environment. This is where the SWOT analysis is helpful. It stands for:

S = Strengths (internal)

W = Weaknesses (internal)

O = Opportunities (external)

T = Threats (external)

This process captures information about your internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. Key to completing your SWOT analysis is to treat your career as a business and yourself as a competitive product.

Strengths

To help you understand your strengths, picture yourself as a competitive product in the marketplace. A personal strength is an asset to you as a product and can be used as a way to differentiate yourself from others when interviewing or trying to obtain your next promotion. Examples of strengths: Strong project management skills, ability to improve or reengineer processes, experience and training in presenting to large audiences, proven successful sales abilities.

Weaknesses

A personal weakness is a liability or an area of opportunity for growth. These are characteristics you could improve upon to increase future job opportunities. Examples: Disorganized, uncomfortable speaking in front of groups, tendency to procrastinate, poor listener.

Opportunities & Threats

When thinking about your opportunities and threats, I always find it easier to begin with the “threats.” Try comparing yourself to people you’ll likely compete against for that next job or promotion. Then, as objectively as possible, judge your threats and determine possible ways to overcome them. Here are some examples:

Threat: Other candidates have college degrees

Opportunity: Go to night school and finish my bachelor’s degree

Threat: Colleague X is much better at presenting in front of groups

Opportunity: Take a speech class or join a program (such as Toastmasters); seek out opportunities to present in front of audiences

The purpose of the personal SWOT analysis is to identify actions you can take to best meet the requirements of the job or promotion you are seeking. Comparing your strengths and weaknesses to the job requirements will identify gaps and help you prepare to be the best candidate for the position to which you aspire.

Throughout my career, I’ve used this SWOT analysis every time I’m applying and interviewing for a new job. Going through this exercise helps me ensure I’m prepared for the interview and gets me ready to answer tough questions from interviewers (such as, “Describe your biggest weakness”). Following this process also allows me to anticipate areas that could be potential issues during the interview.

So if you need a little boost in your job search or to obtain that coveted promotion, try using the personal SWOT analysis exercise to sharpen your strengths, improve your weaknesses, identify opportunities for development and neutralize or overcome your threats.

Answer the following question:

What did you learn from the SWOT and Personal Mission Statement articles, particularly as it relates to your own career development? Did the activity results support your career goals (are they a good match) or does it seem like adjustments need to be made to your long term career plans? You may want to take a look at your employer's Mission Statement. How does it align with your personal mission statement?

Answer 1

Career Objectives

• Become a successful HR leader
• Handle a large team of employees efficiently
• Start my HR Consultancy

Based on the career objectives, I have framed my professional goal statement.

Career Goals Statement: I aspire to become a successful HR leader, being able to handle a large team of employees efficiently and start my own HR Consultancy

Career Mission Statement: To empathize with the employees and value their skills and capabilities as human capital is the most important asset of any organization.

Based on the career goal statement, I have planned certain strategies that I will follow to attain the goals. This can be considered as my IDP (individual development plan).

Career Strategies:

• I am working on my communication and leadership skills so that it helps me once I join office
• I am trying to build my network of professions on various platforms. This will be beneficial for my HR consultancy.

Given below is my personal SWOT Analysis to identify the skills and experiences that will complement my job aspiration.

Strengths:

• Good Communication Skills
• Problem Solver
• Good Negotiation Skills

Weaknesses:

• Procrastination and Time Management Skills
• Emotional Quotient
• Street Smartness Skills

Acquire

I have chosen the philosophy of converting one’s weakness to strength as my life mantra. Every person’s life has some or the other weakness. One should never run away from his weaknesses. Instead one should embrace the weakness and convert it into strength. A strategic tool called SWOT analysis is the best way of embracing this mantra in your life.

Plan

In my thoughts, time management is one of my greatest weaknesses. I am not able to keep a track of time and often end up in spending more time in a process, than is desired. Another weakness is that I am too emotional. I take everything to my heart, which often affects my work. After identifying, I will try to evolve my personality to work on my weaknesses.

Do

I have thought of following a time tracker for my daily activities. This way, I will be able to keep a track of time that I am spending in each process. For every class, I will try to be proactive and reach 10 minutes before its commencement. Even I will try to finish my assignments on time, by doing regular work, rather than exerting in the last minute. For tackling my emotional conscience, I have thought that I will try to be practical in my life. I will try to take things lightly. Sometimes, ignoring things also works.

Study

I have planned to read books focused on time management and employ the strategies referenced in my life. I will also keep a track of my personal SWOT analysis to identify any weakness that crops into my life over time. It is critical that one recognizes his weaknesses in the nascent state before it becomes a habit.

Act

I have been tracking my time and now I am able to finish my assignments way before the deadlines. Sometimes, I do get late for the morning classes, but I am working on my time management skills and one day, I will rule my time. My friends have observed that I have become emotionally stable over time. I have understood that not everything must be taken to heart and this mantra has really worked well in my life.

I have recently joined the Southwest Airlines as an HR Manager. The mission statement of Southwest Airlines is to deliver the highest quality of customer service indulged with a sense of warmth, individual pride, friendliness and company spirit. This is quite similar to my career mission statement as both have given value to the customer and customer responsiveness can be considered as the most critical value.