Professional Development Plan

Currently, on my professional development plan, I plan to continue to fully dedicate my time to my education to pursue a bachelor’s degree in marketing, with my expected graduation date being in December 2026. During this time, in the summers, I plan to get career experience in marketing through online courses (e.g., Coursera) to develop new skills and internships to put my learned skills from my college courses to use. The internships I am particularly interested in working in are for startups or smaller companies that want to grow, preferably those with ethical business practices that align with my values, like diversity, the fair treatment of employees and customers, and sustainability.

This will also hold to the companies I would like to work for full-time. Following my graduation from San Jose State University, my goal is to secure my first full-time marketing job in an industry I am passionate about, related to my hobbies and interests in the entertainment industry, such as music, sports, and video games. Once I land the job, I plan to work this role for 1 to 2 years to serve the company, gain connections, and gain experience as I build my portfolio. As I plan to explore my career options in the marketing field around 5 years after graduating, I want to move on to work for a company that has remote work or offers working abroad, as I want to gain global experience to not just build my portfolio or grow their business, but to aid in my growth as a person, unrelated to the job in itself.

Throughout the semester, I have strengthened my various skills related to marketing, but versatile in all careers, including teamwork, communication, project planning, coordination, time management, and creative thinking. To develop these skills, I plan to take online courses on my own time to strengthen my skills, such as courses that teach the proficient use of Canva, Excel, and Adobe, to name a few. This will help towards my plans to do internships in the summers that will apply these new skills. Additionally, I plan to do small marketing projects on my own terms to help small local businesses and to gain experience.

Networking in the marketing field is crucial to jumpstart a career, so I will start building my network firstly through peers already in the business courses I take. I can also also join one of the various business clubs on campus and attend networking events to meet other students. Additionally, I will use LinkedIn to grow my network and connect with more students, recruiters, and other professionals.

I will firstly develop my niche by developing my own personal brand online through my own projects. These works will be developed to the point where I will have my own personal style and reflects my interests. It is also important that I connect some of these projects to my core values because it is part of what makes a niche, such as sustainability, ethical business practices, and social justice.