Personal Swot

Joel Williamson

Professor Joseph Patton

Personal SWOT and Goal Exercise

13 November 2016

1. Perform a basic SWOT analysis on yourself and career. List the most important 3-5 for each category. Use numbering or bullet points to list these.

• Strengths:

• I am naturally a very hard worker. I would say my greatest strength would be my work ethic. I always try to work to my best ability no matter what the situation may be. I hold myself to the highest standard which enables me to perform as best as I can.
• I have a very strong network of connections all around the world. I’ve lived in Illinois, California, and Florida and have met many successful people who have unlimited connections. I was in the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon which opens up an unconstrained amount of connections all around the world. I have a very successful family business that’s located in Dubai.
• One of my talents or natural born gifts would be my communication skills. I’m a very outgoing person which makes it easy to talk to other people. I do not get nervous or shy when I have to make a presentation in front of people. I maintain eye contact effectively and do not use filler words.

• Weaknesses:

• One negative work habits would be my procrastination. I usually wait till the last day to work on an assignment. This could really affect my performance in a work environment.  I also think it has to do a little with senioritis but it still is something that should be improved.
• Nowadays, having your bachelor’s degree is great but having your master’s degree is what sets the competition apart from others. I do not have a master’s degree which would be a weakness.
• I have a tendency of getting stressed out sometimes when I have too many tasks to do.

• Opportunities:

• I have a job offer in Chicago for becoming the general manager to one of my colleague's restaurant. The salary I’m being offered is a little lower than I want but I’m sure it can be talked upon.
• The company I used to work for is a small startup company. They are growing every day and they are looking to expand. They have plans to open up a new office in San Diego and are looking for people who have experience with the company to be the manager of that office. It could be a huge opportunity for me after I graduate.
• A lot of companies have been looking for younger employees who are fresh out of college and have the potential of performing well.

• Threats:

• I’ll have two very general degrees, Marketing and Management, and there is going to be a lot of competition when getting hired
• The present economic climate has caused a sluggish growth in the marketing industry. Many firms and companies have laid off employees. It can be hard to find a company that is hiring.

1. Write one well-stated and clear career goal that you have for the first 12-24 months after you graduate.

I do not know exactly what job I want to have after college yet so it’s hard to state a specific goal towards a career. What I do know is that I want to have a salary of at least $70,000. My salary might not start at that figure but I want to be able to work for a company where I can work my way up and be able to make that much within the first two years of being with the company.

1. Why do you have this goal? How does achieving this goal help you get what you want in life?

I have this goal because I want to make a lot of money. I want to make enough money to be able to support my family, have a comfortable home, and have a nice car. If I’m making $70,000 within the first two years out of college, I’ll be able to save a lot of money and be financially stable to when I do have a family and want to have a comfortable home.