Developing A Successful Career Path: Understanding The SODI Model

This assessment item is designed to be used by you as an ongoing working document to assist you in identifying appropriate organisations that are matched with your career goals. If you will be completing an internship, you will also build on this document in subsequent internship assessment items. Your Professional Development Plan is designed to help you think through potential opportunities and pitfalls to better prepare you for such possibilities.

The first three concepts of the SODI career planning model are the basis for this assessment. These include: Self awareness; Opportunity awareness; and Decision making and planning. 

Self-assessment is one of the most important aspects that students must be taught at their school levels. This helps the students to get a deep insight into their own personality. They get to know the areas of their strengths and the weaknesses. This really helps them a great deal to take the proper steps for improving their weaknesses and also for improving their areas of strengths. This is one of the best and innovative methods of career planning. This helps the students to develop their career path for the future. They are able to get a clear insight into the kinds of a career that are suitable for them. At the same time, they are able to work on all their characteristic features that are needed for the achievement of their goals. One of the most important kinds of the model that students might choose for their career development is the SODI career planning model.

This gives a clear insight into the 4 key features of an individual like self-awareness, opportunity awareness, decision making and planning, and implementation. I have also undertaken several self-awareness tests and psychometric tests. One of the most import tests that I have taken is the Myers Briggs type and this has really been very helpful for my personal development. I have got the ISTJ personality type as my score.  I have been able to connect myself with the various characteristic feature of this type. This has been very helpful and I deep insight into the strengths and weaknesses of my personality and how I can work on them.

I have to be aware of different qualities with my personality type so that I can work on the strengths and the weaknesses. I aspire to establish myself as a good professional position in the future. It is for this reason that I have to keep a strict eye upon the strengths and weakness of my personality type, the values and motivators, the emotional intelligence, leadership style and also the way I approach the concepts of power and politics around me.

The Myers Briggs type tests have been very useful for me and it has been very beneficial for me. This has helped me for understand ding my persona in a better and in a deeper way. I have got the ISTJ personality type and I feel that it is really matching with the characteristic features that are present within me. I usually try to do that what needs to be done. In other words, I am very dependable. I respect the hierarchy above me in my professi0nal fields and abide by their decisions. I always give the due respect to my seniors and my bosses and try to learn from them. I have a strong sense of duty and responsibility. I always keep a strong commitment towards my work. I make sure that I am doing the right thing at the right time. However, I feel that one of the drawbacks is that I never take any risks or any chances. Be it with my money, my professional decisions or that of others.  

I usually try to avoid any kinds of risks. I always like to keep everything organized and get all the works done in a proper organized order. This will help me to become very successful in my future career. As I want to be a detective or a successful manager or a top executive in my future, I need to be very organized and get all the work done within the right time. I will also need to maintain the proper hierarchy for solving any particular issue or any cases that come into my hand.  I have to gain the trust of my co-workers that is my teammates and by superiors and support them throughout.

I feel that one of the greatest things that encourage and motivates me in life is the belief and trust that people invest in me. This makes me feel more encouraged to take up the challenges and give my best to solve these problems. As I want to become a police inspector or a crime detective in future, I need to make sure that people are actually keeping their faith or their trust within me. This will help me to take up the tough challenges and solve them in an effective manner. Some of the important values that are present within me are honesty, direct or a straightforward nature, responsibility, calm and practical nature, and other such abilities. These abilities will surely help me to become a well-established manager or a top corporate official in my future days. I will be able to stay honest towards my entire Endeavour and will maintain my responsibility throughout. I will give in my 100 percent to make sure that the work is being done properly and in a sound manner.

ISTJ have a habit of thinking about the worst things or the negative consequences that can happen. I can connect this with my own personality. I am usually an over-thinker. I keep on going into the deep thoughts and start getting the vision of something bad or worse happening. For an example, if some of my close ones are out and are getting late in returning home, I get these feelings that they might have suffered through some accidents and might have got into trouble.

I have to keep this in mind that this habit is detrimental for my profession. I will have to fill my mind with all the positive thoughts and positive feelings. If I continue to over think it will harm my mental health and it will also be wastage of energy. So, I will always try to take short breaks whenever I feel that I am o rethinking or I am getting any overcritical negative vision. Taking short breaks will help me to keep my mind refreshed.

I feel that being an ISTJ, I am a transactional leader. I always abide by the hierarchical order above me and I like to maintain clarity or a transparency in my work. I like to maintain the roles and responsibility assigned to me so that I gain a good reputation in the workplace.

I am not really in support of the idea of being a leader. However I will always try to maintain a proper and thorough support to my leader and my co workers as well.  As I am an explorer and I like to face challenges, I might get an opportunity to become a leader. Given a chance, I will not be able to step back. I will take up the opportunity and make sure that I am giving my 100percent to fulfill my responsibility. I will always try to work in such a way that I can become an inspiration for all my team mates.

Being an ISTJ, I usually prefer the republican or the democratic form of Government, In other words, I want people to have equal rights. There must be a proper organized order maintained in the democracy and all the people must be given equal rights and opportunities. This will surely help me to be an ideal manager in the future. I will be able to look after the needs and the demands of my employees and will not be affected by any kinds of partiality or biases.

I will make sure that the employees do not fear my power. I will also not involve myself into any kinds of politics that will harm the morale of my team mates. I will try to make sure that the political order that is followed in my organization is one of the democratic kinds. In other words, I will always like to see that all are getting the equal rights and opportunities. Even if I stay in power, I will not abuse my subordinates. I will always try to hold their hands and guide them in the most difficult situations.

I believe that the critical approach is both in positive and negative at the same time. This is because while taking some important decisions in life, one needs to be careful about the social norms or the social structures that have been created around us and that influence many of our decisions. However, I have also realized that while taking some important decisions the critical thinking becomes one of the most important factors as it helps me to easily find out the pros and cons of the steps that I am going to take further.

I have tried to analyze the skills that are present in mine. In other words, I have always been keen on analyzing the strengths and the weaknesses that are present in my personality. I believe that this will surely help me in taking the right decision regarding the industry or the job field that I will be taking up in the future. I have also considered the Jungian Theory for this art. I have seen that it mainly deals with the energy, perception and the judgment factor. I am not much of an extrovert. So, I will have to work over my communication skills if I am to become a successful manager.

 In other words, I will have to speak with so many people at the same time. I will have to look after the needs and demands of the employees and at the same time, I will also have to look after the clients. As far as the perceiving is concerned, I am not really a healer of the wounds of people, In other words, I am not really a sensible person in every instance, there have been instances where I have said some very harsh or rude words and have unknowingly hurt the sentiments and the emotions of many people. This can turn out to be one of the most negative factors for my future profession. So I think that I will have to work on this factor and improve as well. If I want to become successful as a manager then I will have to work on this particular aspect. As far as my judgment skills are concerned I think that I always abide by the rules. This is both positive and negative for my career growth.  

I will be able to maintain a proper decorum and a kind of discipline in the organization where I will be working. This might also turn out to be negative as I might not take into consideration the opinions that are given by others. This is really important for a successful manager to make sure that he or she is valuing their employees and giving proper heed to the other customers. As far as the thinking capacity is concerned, I feel that I am a thinker and I always try to support my thinking by the means of logic. This is also relatable to the fact that I am of a very practical nature. I do not like to accept the age-old traditional norms without questioning them or thinking about them in a critical manner.

Being an ISTJ, I will try to find a job in such a sector where I can interact with people and carry on some investigating work. I might choose location outside my comfort zone. As I am an explorer and I am in a habit of taking chances, I will prefer some new job location in some new country. This also has a direct influence on my decision making and my planning ability. It is for this reason that I have moved to a new place for getting my graduation. I have taken a logical and practical stand on this aspect. I have thought that I cannot really keep on sticking to one single place for some emotional reasons. I have to explore and move out to many different places that will be benefitting me and my career.

I am always a very logical and practical person while making any kinds of decisions. I usually take time in this king about certain things and reaching any decision. This is because I am always in sear h of over details for the sake of analyzing any particular situation. However, I always make sure that the decision which I am making at the end of the day is very firm. As far as the Jungian theory is concerned I am of a thinking nature rather than that if a feeling nature. In other words, I like to think about each and everything in my life with life and rules rather than feeling about anything deeply. This might be of a sharp contrast to the other personality types who often have a very deep emotional kid of nature. A good example can be the INFP type who is also known as a healer. Howe ever as far as the MBIT or the Myers Briggs theory is concerned the ISTJ type is not really devoid of any emotions or feelings.

They have emotions but they do not really try to display it in front of other people. As a result of this people really do not get to know if they are sad. So, I believe that I get emotional at times but I do not really like to display it in a big way. In other words, I often try to guide those kinds of feelings and emotions and look at everything with a very judgmental, logical and a rational kind of a view. I have realized that getting a graduation degree from any of the renowned Universities in Australia will surely be very good for my career. So, I have thought of changing my geographic location. I have realized that I cannot really carry on my studies being unpaid. As the expense is really huge so I have to take up any part-time jobs that will help me in supporting myself economically. I will be able to gain a good amount of experience and also create a certain kind of financial support for myself. I have also decided that I will be undertaking some management training and classes that will really be very helpful for my future. As I am doing an internship in one of the MNCs, I will also try to seize each and every opportunity of attending the training and the skill development sessions. I believe that this will surely be very helpful for me and my career as well.

To become a successful manager in any of the top MNCs of Australia or other parts of the globe

I will make sure that I am being able to achieve this goal within a span of about 2 years that is after getting a graduate degree in management. This is also one of the realistic goals as it is my dream to establish myself properly and get a good salary with a good position as well. I believe that this is also measurable as I will be able to keep a track of my performance in this coming year.

To increase my status in my professional career and make sure that I am giving due respect to my co-workers

I will try to achieve this goal within a time span of 1 year. This is a specific goal because gaining a status and respect within one’s workplace is important for working in a sound and peaceful manner. This is very realistic goal as maintain a status is indeed very important for getting a proper respect from the co workers and the other employees as well. This is also a measurable goal as I will keep proper feedback f my own work and the kind of  respect that I am getting from others.

To keep a logical, practical and a proper insight and also develop a sense of feeling like empathy

This is a realistic goal as personal relationships matter a lot in the path of life. This is also specific in nature as I will be taking up some specific methods for developing my personal and professional life. I will try to stay transparent and logical so that I can properly maintain my employee relationships. This is time bound in nature as I will try to develop on this aspect by taking time of 3 months. This is also attainable because if I maintain a clarity and honesty the people around me, they will help me in working over this aspect.

To take out some time in interacting with people with an open mind and getting to know their points of views

This goal is specific in nature because in my leisure time within the company, I will try to interact with all my co workers. I find this goal to be measurable as I can easily measure the improvement on this goal by keeping records of my progress in knowing people. This is also attainable as I will be able to fulfill this objective by interacting with people during my free time in the office. This is also realistic in nature as knowing the co workers are one of the essential aspects of ideal leadership.

To make sure that I am developing an open mind in order to understand the views of others, followed by incorporating the same in my learning style

I find this goal to be specific in nature as learning and educating oneself is the key to proper success. This is also measurable in nature because I will work on the method of my learning and education within a span of 6months. This is also attainable in nature as I will work hard and try to enrich my knowledge in all the aspects. This is realistic is nature because an ideal manager needs to educate himself at each and every aspect so that they can perform well.

So, it can be concluded that ISTJ is one of the popular kinds of personality types as has been defined by the Myers Briggs test pattern. Like all other types, this personality type also has some positive and some negative aspects as well. I will try to find out and work over the areas of my strength like developing a practical and logical approach. However,, on the other hand, I will also be working on the negative aspects that are [present within me. I will try to work over my stubborn nature. I will try to come out of the strict rulebook and develop much more open approaches. In other words, I will be meeting with many different people belonging to many different mindsets. I will try to interact with them and understand their view and opinions. Last but not the least I will try to take things easily rather than overthinking. Overthinking is only known for making the situations even more difficult. So, I will try to get out of this harsh feeling of catastrophic thinking. This will help me in having a very calm, peaceful and organized mindset.

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