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The GRADUAN team shares some tips on how you can use SWOT Analysis and marketing principles to plan your career.

At some point in your studies, you would have come across the well-known strategic planning tool - SWOT analysis. It is widely used to examine strengths and weaknesses of internal environments, and opportunities and threats in external environments.

Interestingly, you can also use SWOT analysis in planning your career. This involves examining and analysing your own strengths and weaknesses and exploring the opportunities and threats in your chosen career path.

Begin by asking yourself the questions in Table 1. Your analysis should provide you with insights into some of the factors and aspects of your career planning that you can capitalise on, improve or analyse further (Table 2).

I N T E R N A L
Your Strengths	Your Weaknessess
What are your advantages? What do you do well? Why did you decide to enter this particular field? What were the motivating factors and influences? What have been your most notable achievements? What are your success attributes? How do you measure your success? What knowledge or expertise will you bring to the company you join that may not have been available to the organisation before? What is your greatest asset?	What could be improved? What do you do badly? What should you avoid? What are your professional weaknesses? How do they affect your job performance? (These might include weakness in technical skill areas, leadership or interpersonal skills.) Think about your most unpleasant experiences in school or in any past jobs and consider whether some aspect of your personal or professional life could be a root cause.
E X T E R N A L
Opportunities in Your Career Field	Threats in Your Career Field
Where are the promising prospects facing you? What is the "state of the art" in your particular area of expertise? Are you doing everything you can to enhance your exposure to this area? What formal training and education can you add to your credentials that might position you appropriately for more opportunities? Would a post-graduate or another graduate degree add to your advantage? How quickly are you likely to advance in your chosen career? Useful opportunities can come from such things as: Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and industry-specific scale Changes in government policy related to your field Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, etc.	What obstacles do you face? Are the requirements for your desired job field changing? Does changing technology threaten your prospective position? What is the current trend line for your personal area of expertise? Could your area of interest be fading in comparison with more emergent fields? Is your chosen field subject to internal politics that will lead to conflict? Is there any way to change the politics or to perhaps defuse your involvement in potential disputes? How might the economy negatively affect your future company and your work group? Will your future company provide enough access to new challenges to keep you sharp - and marketable - in the event of sudden unemployment?

Note: The SWOT analysis table is adapted from the article, 'Using SWOT Analysis in Your Career Planning', by Randall S Hansen and Katharine Hansen.

Most people find it difficult to identify their weak areas. But it is important to be able to do so because, in order to become better, you need to improve your weak areas. In fact, it is a key step in undertaking your career planning.

Try to remember some of the comments you received from your peers and teachers when you were in school. Make a list of words that describe you best. This could give you some idea of your weak areas. Be brutally honest and realistic about yourself.

To understand the numerous opportunities and threats in your chosen field, read newspapers, watch the news and business programmes on TV, surf the net, or talk to your career counsellors.

The answers that you get from doing the above should help you to draw up a road map with various possible paths that you can take in your career planning.

From here, you should have a fair idea of your road map and the possible paths that you can take in planning your career. Learn how to use your strengths to negate or overcome your weaknesses. Find out how you can take advantage of the opportunities available, while avoiding the threats that may exist in your chosen field. In order to become better, you need to improve your weak areas.

I N T E R N A L
Strengths Some factors that you may capitalise on to your advantage:	Weaknesses Some factors that you should improve upon:
Work experience Education and extracurricular activities Strong technical knowledge within your field Specific soft skills (e.g. communication, teamwork, leadership skills) Personal characteristics (e.g. strong work ethic, self-discipline, ability to work under pressure, creativity, optimism, a high level of energy) Good contacts/successful networking Interaction with professional organisations	Lack of work experience Low GPA, wrong major Lack of goals, self-knowledge or specific job knowledge Weak technical knowledge Weak skills (e.g. leadership, interpersonal, communication, teamwork) Weak job-hunting skills Negative personal characteristics (e.g. poor work ethic, lack of discipline, lack of motivation, indecisiveness, shyness, too emotional)
E X T E R N A L
Opportunities Some external factors that you can utilise to your advantage:	Threats Some negative external conditions, the impact of which you may want to control:
Positive trends in your field that will create more jobs (e.g. growth, globalisation, technological advances) Opportunities you could have in the field by enhancing your education (further studies) Field is particularly in need of your set of skills Opportunities you could have through greater self-knowledge, more specific job goals Opportunities for advancement in your field Opportunities for professional development in your field Career path you've chosen provides unique opportunities Geography Strong network	Negative trends in your field that diminish jobs (downsizing, obsolescence) Competition from your college graduates Competitors with superior skills, experience, knowledge Competitors with better job-hunting skills Competitors who went to schools with better reputations. Obstacles in your way (e.g. lack of advanced education/training you need to take advantage of opportunities) Limited advancement in your field, advancement is cut-throat and competitive Limited professional development in your field, so it's hard to stay marketable Companies are not hiring people with your major/degree

You have already done your SWOT Analysis and should therefore be able to understand yourself better and know how you can plan your career. You need to learn to use the information you have gained from such analysis to market yourself effectively. Believe it or not, when you are applying for jobs and attending interviews, you are actually striving to market a product - yourself! Therefore, you must learn to package yourself to appeal to your potential employers in terms of your strengths and your knowledge of the external environment. As in most things in your life, you need to prepare yourself with adequate planning. The process should involve answering the following questions:

What is your ideal job? What are some other positions you could accept? What is your five-year career goal? Ten-year?

What are the companies and organisations you're going to target to obtain your objectives-your ideal job? How will you communicate with these firms?

According to marketing principles, marketing strategies should be turned into specific action programmes that answer a number of questions including: What will be done? When will it be done? Who is responsible for doing it?

At the end of the day, whether you have successfully 'marketed' yourself or not, you would have learned the most basic things about yourself - your strengths and weaknesses. Such understanding of your 'internal' self will be beneficial to you, even in your daily life. Once you understand yourself better, you will become more open-minded and flexible. These are traits often lacking in fresh graduates today.

Once you understand yourself better, you will become more open-minded and flexible. These are traits often lacking in fresh graduates today.

Analysing You

by GRADUAN.com.my

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