Semester 2 202212023 Session Assignment 1 20% (Individual Assignment) Due date: 5'11 May 2023 Creating the Five-Year Resume Instructions to student: Step 1: o Create a current resume that identies where you are professionally and educationally. Step 2: o Create a resume that represents what you want your resume to look like in ve years. The gure attached provides a template of the ve-year resume that can serve as a guide to help in completing this part of the exercise. a You can identify the entries for your veyear resume in a variety of ways. You should not create your ve-year resume in a vacuum. It is important to talk to a number of professionals in your desired eld in creating this resume. a You may also acquire the resumes of individuals who presently have or have had the position(s) that you aspire to possess. You may use old want ads to identify jobs you would like to have in the future. You may also want to talk to seniors who are recognized in their eld by the faculty or who have been highly sought after by employers. - If you are unclear as to what career you wish to pursue, there are a variety of ways that you might explore possible careers. One career exploratory exercise is the Career Wheel (Laker, 2902). See the uploaded le on eleap. Step 3: 0 Identify your short-term and long-term goals. You identify these longterm goals by conceptually subtracting what is on your current resume from what you have on your veyear resume. a The difference is what you plan to achieve in order to reach your veyear goals. These goals then serve as a basis for developing a series of more short- term, specic goals that would need to be accomplished in order to achieve your long-term goals. Research on goal setting has found that to be most effective. goals should be specic and measurable. It is extremely benecial that you create some way of measuring your progress in accomplishing these goals. Step 4: o Create a series of action plans and identify the resources needed to complete them. 0 You need to address the following questions: 0 What is going to be done? 0 When will it be done? o What resources will be needed (time, money, emotional and physical support, experiences, and opportunities)? 0 If an internship or practical experience is necessary, you need to ask: When will it occur? Who will it be with? Who can help with acquiring such an experience? 0 Your ve-year goals can then be broken down by year, by what will be accomplished in each of the 12 months of that year, and then into each of the 4 weeks of each month, and so on. All decisions concerning education, career, internships, job choice, and other actions should support and be in alignment with your overall goals. Step 5: 0 Discuss how you will implement your action plans. Remember: Action planning is a dynamic process and thus is subject to change; the veyear resume serves only as a starting point. Step 6: - Summarize what you have learned from this exercise. You need to prepare a final paper that outlines how you have performed each of the previous five steps of this exercise and the conclusions you have drawn. Template of the 5-year resume Objective Name, Address: . What is your career objective? City, State and Country . What are your goals? Have you changed your name? . What do you want to do in Name . What's your address? another five years? Address . In what city and state do you City. State, Zip Code, Country live? What country do you live in? Professional Experience . What positions have you had? . What jobs have you had? What Education were your duties and . What additional education or responsibilities in those jobs? degrees have you obtained? . What work experiences have you What schools have you attended had? or graduated from? Who have you worked for? What . What courses have you taken? wore their positions, titles, . What areas have you majored or responsibilities, ofc? Objective minored in? . Who has served as your coach or Who have you studied with? mentor? Education . What certifications or professional What titles have you had? designations have you earned? . What companies have you worked for? Professional Experience What industries have you worked Professional Activities in? Professional Activities . What professional organizations . What success have you had in have you joined? these various jobs? . What positions or offices have . How has that success been Volunteer Activities you had? measured? . What activities have you worked . What accomplishments or awards on or headed? have you achieved? Personal Interests . What specific accomplishments or successes have you had? . How have these been measured? Vo lunteer Activities References . What awards or honors have you . What activities have you engaged paired? in as a volunteer or for charity . What presentations have you purposes? made to professional organizations? What role did you play in such . What have you published? activities? . What has been published about . What were the results of yours' YOU? and others' activities? What pro bono work have you . Have you served on any boards done through your professional of directors? organizations? D 2005 Dennis R. Later, PAD References Personal Interests Who will be your references? . What are you now interested in? . What positions and titles will . What are your hobbies? they have? . How have the personal aspects of Who will they know? your life changed in the last five Who will know them? years? . What will they know about you? . What will they say about you? Output: 1. Current resume - 10 marks 2. 5Y resume - 30 marks 3. Goals - 20 marks 4. Action plan - 20 marks 5. Implementation plan - 10 marksAssessment Rubrics Exemplary Above Average Adequate Current Resume Step 1 10 marks Fills one page without overcrowding. Uses reverse chronological order when listing items. The objective or summary describes a specific short-term career goal. Resume includes a minimum oftwo experiences with three bulleted skill descriptions each. Contains uneven white space or does not fill up the page. Listing items in reverse chronological order is inconsistent. The objective or summary vaguely describes a short-term career goal. Only includes one experience or experiences have only a couple of skill descriptions each. Has obvious unused "white" space, or is too long. Several lists are not in chronological order. The objective or summary provides the reader with little understanding of writer's goals. May contain terms like \"duties included" and "responsibilities included Has significant unused "white" space [more than ya page) or is more than 2 pages long. Experiences and listings are not organized well and information is difficult to find. The resume contains no objective or summary. Does not contain skill description. 5V Resume Step 2 30 marks Goals Step 3 20 marks Fills one page without overcrowding. Uses reverse chronological order when listing items. The objective or summary describes a specific short-term career goal. Resume includes a minimum oftwo experiences with three bulleted skill descriptions each. The goal is detailed and focuses on specific skills, behaviors, and/or knowledge strategic to goal achievement. Measures have been identified that will demonstrate learning, results, and/or progress as related to the described goal. The goal set forth is realistic in nature, motivating, challenging, and can be achievable within the designated time frame. There is a clear process described to support achievability. Time frames are specific and link to the measures. Contains uneven white space or does not fill up the page. Listing items in reverse chronological order is inconsistent. The objective or summary vaguely describes a short-term career goal. Only includes one experience or experiences have only a couple of skill descriptions each. The goal is personal and addresses areas of weakness as identified by the wellness inventory assessment. There is a lack of focus and detail regarding the specific skills, behavior, and/or knowledge strategic to goal achievement. A method of measuring has been identified but it does not directly link to or connect with the described goal. A general time/date is present and links to the measures. Has obvious unused "white" space, or is too long. Several lists are not in chronological order. The objective or summary provides the reader with little understanding of writer's goals. May contain terms like \"duties included" and "responsibilities included The goal is personal and addresses areas of weakness as identified by the wellness inventory assessment. Details are not provided regarding the specific skills, behavior, and/or knowledge strategic to goal achievement. The method listed for measurement is rather general and does not directly link to or connect with the described goal. The goal set forth is not realistic in nature. The time/date is present but it does not link to the measures. Has significant unused "white\" space (more than V: page) or is more than 2 pages long. Experiences and listings are not organized well and information is difficult to find. The resume contains no objective or summary. Does not contain skill description. The goal is unrelated to personal growth and does not address areas of weakness as identified by the wellness inventory assessment. The goal displays no specificity as it is general and vague. There is no method of measurement listed. There is no time frame present. m_ Above Average Action Plan Step 4 20 marks Plan includes goals and objectives specific to assessment results; objectives are clear, specific, measureable and attainable. Plan includes goals and objectives specific to assessment results. Plan of action statement is included. Plan of action statement is not included. Implementation of Action Plan Step 5 10 marks Grammar 81 Mechanics 10 marks The implementation plan gives a clear and detailed path for the capstone and is seamlessly integrated into the overall plan. Essay is free of distracting spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors; absent of fragments, comma splices, and run-ons. The implementation plan gives a clear path for the capstone and is feasible. Essay has few spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors allowing reader to follow ideas clearly. Very few fragments or run-ons The implementation plan is broadly defined, is missing some necessary details or is not feasible. Most spelling, punctuation, and grammar correct allowing reader to progress though essay. Some errors remain. The implementation plan is incomplete or missing. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors create distraction, making reading difficult; fragments, comma splices, run-ons evident. Errors are frequent. THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME: A CAREER PLANNING EXERCISE Dennis R. Laker Widener University Ruth Laker Laker Associates For most college students, lack of career planning wastes time and resources and may result in years of "career drift." Lack of planning can also lead to deception once students begin seeking career-related employment. Faced with a competitive job market, some students inflate and exaggerate their resumes. The five-year resume exercise helps students avoid these difficulties by developing a future ori- entation toward their career goals. Students create the resumes they would like to have in five years. This exercise encourages both self-management and proactive- ness. The exercise, sample questions, and a template are provided. Illustrations of student feedback, benefits, and suggestions for faculty are presented. Keywords: career planning; career management; five-year resume; career; exercise; career; college student; resume; career drift Alice: Would you tell me, please which way I ought to walk from here? Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to go to. Alice: I don't much care where. Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't matter which way you walk. -Louis Carroll (n.d., p. 89) Author's Note: Parts of this article were presented at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 24, 2001, and the the International College Teaching & Learning Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4-8, 2004. We would like to thank two Journal of Management Education anony- mous reviewers and Margaret Robinson at the Widener University Writing Center for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. Correspondence should be addresssed to Dennis R. Laker, Widener University, 129 Quick Center, School of Business Administration, One University Place, Chester, PA 19013; phone: (610) 499-4512; e-mail: drlaker@mail. widener.edu; Ruth Laker, www.sevenstarspress.com. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION, Vol. 31 No. 1, February 2007 128-141 DOI: 10.1177/1052562906290525 @ 2007 Organizational Behavior Teaching Society 128Labor. hiker! THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME 129 The day I entered graduate school, a professor told me that I was there because of what I had done ve years ago and dtat where I would be in ve years would be determined by what I did today. I was surprised by this statement. The link between the present and the future is obvious for most but noticed by few. This lack of awareness is true of most students' eorts at career planning. A frequent lament of many parents, faculty, and even of students them- selves is that students do not plan their careers beyond picking their college or university and choosing their major. Although students will eventually decide on and pursue career goals, their efforts are often quite haphazard. Rarely do they realize that what they do today has implications for their professional development and future career opportunities. This lack of real- ization leads to a failure to plan and limits their ability to be proactive in their career pursuits. Indeed, a future orientation in one's vocational devel- opment is a sign of maturity, yet little has been done in career planning to address this concept or promote a future orientation in career counseling (Savickas, 199]; Whan, 1995}. When students are encouraged to take a future orientation, they develop a better sense of the continuity between their past, present, and future (Marko 81. Savickas, [998]. Research has shown that many college students are uncertain about how to establish a professional career (Collins, [998]. Many of those entering the workforce are poorly informed and subsequently ill prepared. For instance, research has shown that newcomers to the workforce are not knowledgable about potential careers, opportunities for career advance- ment, or what their specic skills and interests are (Brousseau 81. Driver, [994; Lyon 6; Kirby, 2000-). The first author has used this exercise for more than 20 years with more than 1,000 students and has found it helped them better understand the impor- tance of career planning and showed them how to be more proactive in devel- oping and managing their professional development. The exercise asks students to design their future in synchrony with their desired objectives con- cerning life, family, and environment. Students create the resume they envision having in ve years, including the jobs, positions, experience, education, and references the student would want to have by then. This process helps students visualize their future on paper. The differences between the current resume and the ve-year resume identify the goals to accomplish within the next ve years, and these goals create a series of targets in developing an action plan. Such planning leads to greater career success and overall life satisfaction. The resume format is used because students are quite familiar with the resume, and it plays such a critical role in their future employment. Practical exercises in resume writing are routinely provided in colleges and are rated most highly by college students when compared with other pedagogical I30 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION I February ZED? activities (Schroth, Pankake, Sr Gates, I999). The current resume represents a professional snapshot of who the student is. The veyear resume, in con; trust, is a picture of who the student wants to become professionally. The stoning point in creating the veAyear resume is in identifying where one is now, where one wants to be, and how one is going to get there. in this way, the fiveyear resume helps to make career planning a conscious and system atic process. It serves as a map to guide students in making employment and career-related decisions and in creating action plans to help them achieve their career objectives. The use of ve years is somewhat arbitrary. In reality, any number of years could be used, but we have found ve to be both a man ageable time period and the minimum needed to be of practical usefulness. This exercise may be of interest to individuals who are trying to actively plan and manage their own careers and to professionals who work with students and have an interest in helping them to develop professionally. The first author has generally used this exercise as part of a management or human resource class taught to sophomores, juniors, seniors, nontraditional students, and graduate or professional students. The veayear resume could also be used as a standalone exercise for career exploration. This exercise also addresses two other careersrelated issues some students face: career drift and misrepresentation. Career drift usually occurs in the absence of personal proactiveness and self~initiative. By not planning their careers, most students' efforts at professional development become unstructured and fragmented. Their careers appear to be rudderless, falling to the mercy of various forces. all seemingly out of their control. From our perspective, it is important that an individual creates his or her future rather than merely accepting it. Jack Welch. ex-CED of General Electric, expressed this point this way: \"Manage your destiny, or somebody else will." Proactiveness decreases the likelihood of sitting back and letting something or someone else manage your destiny. Paradoxically, despite their lack of planning, research suggests that students want both more career planning time with advisers (Alexitch, 199?) and approaches that use an interactive method in order to help them explore career goals via academic planning (Broadbridge, 1996}. Lyon and Kirby (le00} advocated me perspective that professors have an obliga ation to help students develop the skills necessary to be successful and satised in their future careers. This includes the intellectual and content4 related expertise acquired from their classes, as well as the skills related to career exploration, job search. and professional development. We. too, believe it is the responsibility of professors, advisers, and counselors to help students actively with such planning and to provide them with the tools they need to focus on their future and help provide the direction they greatly require. hiker. Laltcrf THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME l3l The ve-year resume, although introduced by an adviser, counselor, or professor, emphasizes the importance of career self-management. an expectation consistent with ntost organizations today (Kossek, Roberts, Fisher, & DeMarr, 1993). Front this perspective. the organization is respon sible for providing the resources and possible opportunities, but the indie vidual has to show the initiative and proactiveness necessary to make the best use of what is provided. This orientation is also consistent with the concept of the protean career If Hall, 1996: Mirvis 3: Hall, [994] as well as the increasingly boundaryless nature of professional careers (Arthur Sc Rousseau, 1996). Seifsdirection, selfinitiative, and proactiveness are by products of this exercise. The second careerrelated issue addressed by this exercise is misrepre sentation on students' resumes. Many students reach their senior year only to find that their resume lacks the punch of their competition. Because it is obviously too late to go back and do the things they should have done, students omit, fabricate, or exaggerate their accomplishments, experiences, or education (Hall, 2000). Simply put, they lie on their resumes. Lies are almost always grounds for elimination front the applicant pool or dismissal if the individual is subsequently hired. Many times such misrepresentations occur because students did not think to do what they needed to in tlte past, in order to obtain the type of employment they want in the present. To avoid this situation, we routinely recommend that freshmen and sophomores review the resumes of successful seniors and alumni in their major and examine current job ads as well. This process allows the younger students to see what will be expected of them in the future before it is too late. This article presents instructions and six steps involved in the veyear resume exercise, including a template for student use, followed by tips and recommendations for faculty and career professionals. We then discuss benefits that students have derived in completing this exercise and conclude with some observations based on the rst author's use of mis exercise for more than 2i} years. Student Instructions and the Six Steps in the Five-Year Resume Exercise Therst step is to create a current resume that identies where students are professionally and educationally. The current resume serves as the start4 ing point for career planning and represents where students are now and what they have achieved to date. Instructions for the current resume are in Appendix A. The second stay; is to create a resume that represents what students want their resumes to look like in ve years. The new resume should include any I32 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION I February 2E1]? additional educational credentials and degrees, memberships in professional organizations, job titles, professional certifications, honors, awards, previous jobs, publications, presentations, and volunteer activities. Appendix B pro vides a template of the fiveyear resume that we give students for this part of the exercise. It includes a number of questions for students to answer. Students identify information for their ve~year resume in a variety of ways, including interviews, ads, exercises, and mentoring. We do not recs ommend that the students try to create their veyear resume in a vacuum; indeed, they cannot. I. We encourage students to talk to professionals in their desired eld. These interviews help students identify what is possible and necessary for them to achieve their careerrelated goals. 2. Most students acquire resumes of individuals who have or have had the posi- tion(s) that they aspire to. 3. Some students use old want ads to identify jobs they would like to have in the future. Once the position has been lled, they query the employer as to what the successful candidates had on their resumes. 4. Younger students often focus on what their resumes would look like upon graduation. In this instance. students talk to seniors who have been recog nized in their eld by the faculty or who have been highly sought after by employers. For students who are unclear about their career goals, we recommend career counseling and an exercise in career exploration. One career exploratory exercise is the Career Wheel (Laker, 20oz). Through this exer4 cise, students validate or invalidate their beliefs and assumptions about the careers they are contemplating or actively pursuing. The goal of the Career Wheel is to help students make a ntore informed careerfjob choice. Although it can help students identify potential careers, its primary purpose is to provide students with a systematic plan for exploring the careers in which they are interested. The Career Wheel exercise relies on both self reection and on making contact with professionals in the field. It uses inforntational interviews in the true sense of the word, rather than as ploys to seek employment (Laker, 2002}. A second approach for exploring career opportunities is to view potential careers through online mentoring (Whiting 3: de Janasz, 2004}. This approach also allows the student to explore a variety of careers and career paths. The third step is for students to determine their short~term and longlterm goals. Students identify longuterm goals by conceptually subtracting what is on their current resume from what is on their vesyear resume. (See Appendix B for illustrations.) The difference identities what they need to achieve in order to reach their veyear goals. These goals then serve as a basis for developing a series of shortterm, specific milestones that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the long-term goals. hiker. Lakcrl' THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME 133 These milestones should reflect both what is valued by individuals and their perceptions of what potential employers will value. These milestones help to both guide behavior as well as validate the actions and resources needed to achieve them. Research on goal setting has found that to be most effective, goals should be specic and measurable (Locke St Latham, 1990). In identifying meir goals, it is extremely benecial for students to measure their progress in accomplishing these goals. The questions in the template in Appendix B can be very helpful in showing students how to measure progress. The measurement of career progress in this exercise should be based upon me student's specic action steps or careerurelated activities, as identied in the fourth step. in almost all cases, the measure ment of goals should be individualized, not normalized, and should have meaning to the individual student rather than to anodier person. The frmrrh step is to create a series of action plans and identify the resources needed to complete these action plans. In order for students to do this, they need to address the following questions: What is going to be done? When will it be done? What resources will be needed (time, money, emotional and physcial support, experiences, and opportunities)? If an internship or practical experience is necessary, students need to ask: When will it occur\"! Who will it be with? Who can help with acquiring such an experience? The fiveyear goals can then be broken down by year, by what will be accomplished in each of the [2 months of that year, and then into each of the 4 weeks of each month, and so on. All decisions concerning education, career, internships, job choice, and other actions should support and be in alignment with overall goals. For example, students might forgo a party to do well on a test, to get higher grades in college. to get into graduate school. They may take a \"prep" course to obtain higher scores on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE), or Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). They may save money one summer in order to take a nonpaying internship the next. Such planning helps students to link their present deci sions to their long-temt goals. Widiout identifying what those career goals are, the students' decisions in these areas would be guided by a variety of factors, many of which could ultimately hinder or even derail the students' pursuit of their career goals and possible opportunities. The h step is for students to discuss how they will implement their action plans. Goals can and do change, and students will need to make adjustments in their action plans, but they still can follow through in a sequential fashion. We have found it benecial for students to periodically examine their action plans to see if they are on target or if their target has changed. Some choose to do this at regular intervals, others after major events in meir life. Action planning is a dynamic process and thus is subject to change; the fiveyear resume serves only as a starting point. 134 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION / February 2007 The sixth step is to have students summarize what they have learned from this exercise. Students prepare a final paper that outlines how they have performed each of the six steps of the project and the conclusions they have drawn. Most students use this summary to reflect on their experience and either validate or invalidate their career choices. At this time, we also ask each student to evaluate the exercise by answering the following four questions: 1. What difficulties did you have in completing this exercise? 2. How did you resolve these difficulties? 3. What do you consider the benefits of this exercise? 4. What do you consider the disadvantages of this exercise? Tips and Recommendations for Faculty and Career Professionals This exercise is designed to be a semester-long project. A shorter time frame seems to be considerably less beneficial for the students. The exer- cise requires a great deal of self-reflection and time to ponder and clarify career goals and the path to achieve them. This time also provides the students with an opportunity to contact various professionals in their field by using their school breaks and vacations to interview people near their homes or elsewhere. One needs to provide the opportunity for weekly or biweekly discus- sion of the exercise. During the semester I often have the students discuss their experiences in completing the exercise as well as any problems that they might be having. I usually ask the students to discuss their experi- ences as part of a dyad or triad. Then as a class, they summarize their experiences and their comments on the board or on a flip chart. I found that students vicariously learn from each other and that frequently one student's success can go a long way in encouraging another student to try something different. During this time, the faculty can also provide any necessary guidance or support to a student or students, or present a perti- nent story or illustration. This is not an exercise of convenience. The professor should encourage students to identify the specific individuals or type of people that they would get the most out of talking with. Too frequently, students want to interview only those people that they already know or who are physically or emotionally convenient. The criteria for interviewing someone is not the ease of completion of the exercise but, rather, who would provide the student with the greatest benefit of information. The student usually needs to go beyond the personal, professional, or organizational worlds with which he or she is most familiar. I usually present stories and illustrationsLakcr. Lakc'ri THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME 135 from previous classes of students who were successful in completing this exercise. Such illustrations are especially benecial in helping students develop greater selfefcacy and thus go beyond their comfort zone. Most of these illustrations focus on individuals who were initially quite anxious about contacting someone that they did not know. These illustrations are usually quite vivid and describe how the students' feelings of anxiety. doubt, or uncertainty can immobilize them and lead to avoidance and pro crastination in completing the exercise. I have collected and read students' thoughts prior to contacting someone and their relief and surprise once their efforts have been successful. I have also had students from previous classes come and discuss their experiences in completing the exercise. The illustra tions point to the lack of experience that most students have in this area and how their lack of experience leads to dysfunctional and fearful thinking. I also help my students prepare and practice what they will say or write to prospec tive contacts. In some instances, I suggest that they initially contact someone that they know personally, such as a parent or sibling of a friend. I will have them discuss this experience with the class and then have them, through suc cessive approximation. identify and contact people that they do not know. With few exceptions. these efforts always prove successful. This exercise iteips students to expand their awareness of various careerrelated activities and Lil? vel'cpmenr. In creating the fivesyear resume. many students discover the signicance of career development and man agement activities. One area frequently discovered is that of the profes sional organization. As undergraduates, most students see such extracurricular activities as merely additional lines on meir resume. As they pursue the potential benefit of such organizations for their future, they see exactly what they can obtain from such professional affiliations. Besides the obvi ous networking and social opportunities. students learn that professional organizations also provide educational seminars and resources, employ ment listings and referrals, opportunities for pro bono developmental pro- jects, internships. leadership opportunities. and opportunities to share common problems and successes. In reection, many students have told me that they feel quite fortunate to discover these benefits sooner rather than later in their career, or even not at all. This is c sei'jidirecred iecmirtg experience. The faculty must explain to the student what selfsdirected learning is, and the student will then dene what he or she should do within the framework of the exercise. This is not your career. It is very critical that the faculty not project their own values and judgments onto the career aspirations of their students. From our experience, some rather motivationally and intellectually gifted students chose career objectives that seemed too much below what they could reasonably aspire to, and others chose career objectives too far above. I36 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 1' February 2007' However, one has to remember that these are their careers. and our role is to provide guidance, not judgment. A fradit'r'rmaf evafuarr'rm (hfthis err-smite is di 't'trft'. We found it extremely difficult to evaluate die content of the five-year resume in the traditional sense of looking for a correct or desired response. Instead. we focus on whether and to what extent the student completed each of the various steps of the exercise. All six steps should be part of the evaluation process. Students are also required to seek input from our Career Planning and Services program on campus. They review and advise students in me cre ation of their current resume. We have also required students to take their vehyear resume to a separate professional in the eld for that individual's review and input. Judging the efficacy or benefits of this exercise should not be restricted to only whether there is a demonstrable impact on their stated careerrelated goals. The success of this exercise is not that they achieve the objectives that they listed on their fiveyear resume per se but that they understand and appreciate the value of career planning and that they can be proactive in terms of daeir career management. Many students. upon com pletion of this exercise, come to the conclusion that they are pursuing the wrong career and switch majors. a decision that is better made sooner than later and a testament to the effectiveness of the exercise. Student-Identied Benets of the Five-Year Resume Through our experiences, we have found this to be a novel way of help ing students become better aware of the signicance of planning in the process of effectively managing their careers. Most students come to real- ize that what they do today influences where they will be tomorrow and that this will make a difference in their personal and professional lives. Students were routinely asked to evaluate and comment on the effectiveness of this exercise. In general, students found this exercise to be benecial in three significant ways. First, students have found the ve-year resume to be an excellent way to identify career-related goals and to subsequently create an action plan for moving toward those goals with condence. Students also found it easier to put their goals on paper with this exercise than through previous efforts because me written goals become more tangible. Second. this exercise made the students think of what kind of additional education, professional experience, and activities they would need to acquire in order to achieve their career objectives. Through this exercise. most students realized for the first time that their professional education and development must continue after college or graduate school. Finally. students saw this exercise as a good way to initiate important career-related Laker, Laker / THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME 137 discussion with significant others both in their personal and professional lives. In this way, the exercise led to the involvement of others in their career development, and they frequently acquired mentors and internships through this process. These benefits are illustrated by the following sample of students' comments. This assignment gave me an opportunity to organize my thoughts, goals, and dreams into a plan, sort of a checklist for the future. When I see on the paper what I want to accomplish and where I want to be, it is easier to determine the steps to get there. I see this exercise as a way of looking at my values, pri- orities; [it's a form of] self-analysis. I found the Five-Year Resume exercise to be very beneficial. My desire to advance didn't really have a foundation on which to work from. I didn't have a "true" blueprint that accurately identified the goal. .. . This was a fun and interesting exercise, and I am glad you assigned it. This exercise really helped me to examine my future. Have I taken the right steps to be in that position? What additional steps do I need to take? I enjoyed the assignment, and it helped me organize my career goals. I found it very challenging to think out the step-by-step details of my career advancement. I always knew where I wanted the final rest point to be, but I never really took a long look at what specific direction I would use to get there. I found that this was a very challenging and eye-opening experience. What I liked is that by writing down my goals, I have a very good chance of achiev- ing them. With my day-to-day activities I would not have taken the time to do this very important exercise. This exercise "reenergized me." I am not sure if this is where I will be in five years, but it gives me some sort of basis to try and gear my future. It really made me think about my future and where I wanted to be in five years. This exercise forced me to look at my life and set goals for the next five years. It made me realize that I am the only one that can take care of my career plans. Though I have a general idea of what I need to do to reach a position of greater responsibility, I have never discussed with my supervisor the specifics about the training I need or the time frames in which to accomplish certain steps in the development process. I have since done so. I found this exercise to be both rewarding and challenging. It forced me to really think about my personal and professional goals. It really made me visualize where I could be in five years as well as determine what I needed to do to get there. Questions like would I be married and where would I live made me think about personal goals that I have put on hold while attending college. It forced me to take a look at all aspects of my future.I38 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION 1' February 2W? I feel the key part of this assignment was the personal assessment of my cur- rent skills and how they needed to match or possibly be enhanced to the skills required for those positions I aspire to in the future. The assignment helped me to uncover those areas I would need to develop in order to reach my goals. It also enabled me to realize that these goals are achievable provided I follow a plan. The ve-year resume helped me map out such a plan. This exercise, overall1 left me feeling very excited about my future! It made me realize that the real world is not very far away. It's amazingI actually decided to use vacation time to get some useful experience at a client's business. Summary The fiveyear resume is a tool designed to assist students in both prepard ing for and designing their future. This exercise asks the student to visualize their future by designing a resume that they would like to have in ve years. Dne's cturent resume denes both where they have been and where they are now. The veayear resume denes where they want to be, and the action plan identies what they need to do to prepare themselves for their professional future. As evidenced by the students' comments. this exercise encourages a great deal of reflection. For some. such reflection can be difcult or anxiety producing. This response is understandable because this exercise implicitly forces students to question what they are doing in terms of their future career. Many students do not realize the future implications of their present actions and decisions. and they need faculty and other professionals to actively teach them how to plan. Planning forces the individuals to link dieir present life decisions to their overall career goals and objectives. The key is to help students realize mat career planning can affect their future. The major goal of the veyear resume is thus to empower the students by engaging them in the process of selanalysis. self-direction, and selfmanagement. The veayear resume is only a starting point. Career planning is never nal; it must be structured and yet must always remain exible. [I has to be structured to enable one to identify and pursue die steps or activities neces- sary to accomplish one's goals. It must be exible because career planning is a dynamic process. It is doubtful that most of the students' resumes in ve years will look exactly like the ones they have created in this exercise. For many. their goals will change as the individuals' needs or circumstances change. More frequently than not. the greatest benefits from this exercise are in the questions it raises in the students' minds, enhancing dieir sense of empowerment to seek answers to those questions and in becoming aware that what they do today affects where they will be tomorrow. Laker, Laker / THE FIVE-YEAR RESUME 139 Appendix A Student Instructions and the Steps in the Five-Year Resume Exercise The first step is to create a current resume that identifies where you are profes- sionally and educationally. The second step is to create a resume that repre- sents what you want your resume to look like in five years. Appendix B provides a template of the five-year resume that can serve as a guide to help in completing this part of the exercise. You can identify the entries for your five-year resume in a variety of ways. You should not create your five-year resume in a vacuum. It is important to talk to a number of professionals in your desired field in creating this resume. You may also acquire the resumes of individuals who presently have or have had the position(s) that you aspire to possess. You may use old want ads to iden- tify jobs you would like to have in the future. You may also want to talk to seniors who have been recognized in their field by the faculty or who have been highly sought after by employers. If you are unclear as to what career you wish to pursue, there are a variety of ways that you might explore possi- ble careers. One career exploratory exercise is the Career Wheel (Laker, 2002). The reference for this exercise appears below. The third step is to identify your short-term and long-term goals. You identify these long-term goals by conceptually subtracting what's on your current resume from what you have on your five-year resume. The difference is what you plan to achieve in order to reach your five-year goals. These goals then serve as a basis for developing a series of more short-term, specific goals that would need to be accomplished in order to achieve your long-term goals. Research on goal setting has found that to be most effective, goals should be specific and measurable. It is extremely beneficial that you create some way of measuring your progress in accomplishing these goals. The fourth step is to create a series of action plans and identify the resources needed to complete them. You need to address the following questions: What is going to be done? When will it be done? What resources will be needed (time, money, emotional and physical support, experiences, and opportuni- ties)? If an internship or practical experience is necessary, you need to ask: When will it occur? Who will it be with? Who can help with acquiring such an experience? Your five-year goals can then be broken down by year, by what will be accomplished in each of the 12 months of that year, and then into each of the 4 weeks of each month, and so on. All decisions concerning education, career, internships, job choice, and other actions should support and be in alignment with your overall goals. The fifth step is for you to discuss how you will implement your action plans. Remember: Action planning is a dynamic process and thus is subject to change; the five-year resume serves only as a starting point. The sixth step is for you to summarize what you have learned from this exercise. You need to prepare a final paper that outlines how you have performed each of the previous five steps of this exercise and the conclusions you have drawn.140 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION / February 2007 Laker, D. (2002). The Career Wheel: An exercise for exploring and validating one's career choices. Journal of Employment Counseling, 39, 61-72. Abridged from Laker, D. (2005). The five-year resume: A career planning exercise and work- book. Unpublished manuscript. Kimberton, PA. (610) 499-4512, drlaker@mail.widener.edu. A published version of this workbook will be available in fall 2006 from Seven Stars Press, www.sevenstarspress.com. Appendix B Five-Year Resume Questions Objective Name, Address . What is your career objective? City, State and Country What are your goals? . Have you changed your name? Name What do you want to do in . What's your address? another five years? Address . In what city and state do you City, State, Zip Code, Country live? . What country do you live in? Professional Experience . What positions have you had? . What jobs have you had? What Education were your duties and . What additional education or responsibilities in those jobs? degrees have you obtained? What work experiences have you . What schools have you attended had? or graduated from? Who have you worked for? What . What courses have you taken? were their positions, titles, . What areas have you majored or responsibilities, etc? Objective minored in? Who has served as your coach or . Who have you studied with? mentor? Education What certifications or professional What titles have you had? designations have you earned? What companies have you worked for? Professional Experience . What industries have you worked Professional Activities n? . What professional organizations . What success have you had in Professional Activities have you joined? these various jobs? . What positions or offices have How has that success been Volunteer Activities you had? measured? . What activities have you worked What accomplishments or awards on or headed? have you achieved? Personal Interests . What specific accomplishments or successes have you had? How have these been measured? Volunteer Activities References . What awards or honors have you What activities have you engaged earned? in as a volunteer or for charity . What presentations have you purposes? made to professional organizations? What role did you play in such . What have you published? activities? . What has been published about What were the results of yours' you? and others' activities? . What pro bono work have you Have you served on any boards done through your professional of directors? organizations? 2005 Dennis R. Laker, PAD References Personal Interests . Who will be your references? . What are you now interested in? What positions and titles will . What are your hobbies? they have? . How have the personal aspects of . Who will they know? your life changed in the last five Who will know them? years? . What will they know about you? . What will they say about you? Abridged from Laker, D. (2005). The five-year resume: A career planning exercise and workbook. Unpublished manuscript