OGL 482 Pro-Seminar II

Unit 3 Assignment:
Career Plan
By
Skyler Ray

Section 1: Creating your BHAG

Following the information in the “Good to Great Connections” PowerPoint presentation and all
of the additional information provided under the content area, and taking your Personal Mission
Statement development efforts into consideration, carefully develop your own personal long-
term BHAG (***one amazingly HUGE, your world-changing goal***). The timeframe for your
BHAG is 10-25 years out, however, it will depend upon your age. For example, a 55-year-old
person might be closer to the 10-year BHAG, whereas a 30-year-old or younger person should be
considering a BHAG 25 years out. This BHAG may be related to your overall life/lifestyle
aspirations, or it could be related to some organizational, protean, or entrepreneurial vision you
have for the future. Dig deep and go beyond the job. That is up to you. What it needs to be is
BIG! HUGE! REALLY HAIRY! STRETCH YOURSELF! LOOK BEYOND A GRADUATE
DEGREE! LOOK BEYOND A JOB! HOW WILL YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS
WORLD?

1) What is your BHAG (***one amazingly HUGE, your world-changing goal***)? THIS
SHOULD NOT BE A JOB BUT YOUR MISSION IN LIFE!

In the next 25 years, I will strive to have a family and own my own property. My

BHAG would be raising a family and instilling the core values that I have developed over

the years. I have a wide variety of values and skills that I believe will help pave the path

for my family to live great lives and to overcome challenges. To own property, one must

be able to manage all the responsibilities that come with it. Being able to successfully

build a family and own property is a world-changing goal of mine.

1
 2) Why is this your BHAG?

Growing up my family seemed to be close and supportive of one another. During

my toughest times, I thought I would get the support and guidance that I once saw at a

younger age. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to get the support I needed from them.

When my fiancé and I started dating, I saw strong family values that I hadn’t seen in a

long time. Without hesitation, they gave me all the support I needed and because of that, I

was able to run into many opportunities. These new relationships allowed me to network

and find these amazing opportunities. The reason why this is my BHAG is because

family is a great resource for support and guidance. I never want my future family to feel

that they aren’t supported. Having that reassurance that when times are tough, you always

have your family to lean on is something that I want to provide.

Owning property has always seemed like a dream to me but as I get older, I want

this dream to become a real goal of mine. I have always lived with many responsibilities.

At a young age, I had to be dependent on myself and figure out how to do well for

myself. Having to balance work and school was a great strength of mine because I needed

to make money to put a roof over my head and getting my degree was incredibly import

to me. Because I was able to do both these things successfully, I was driven to work

towards my goal of owning property. My abilities of staying organized, being

responsible, and being motivated will help me reach my goal of owning property.

3) How does your BHAG align with your vision statement from Unit 2

(As a person, I value awareness, creativity, compassion, discipline, leadership, and trust.

My goal is to allow others who I surround myself with to see all these values in me.)

2
 My vision statement above shows the things I value. These values will help reach

my BHAG goal of having a family and owning property. When I become a father, it is

important that the values that are listed in my vision statement are demonstrated around

my family. I think it is important to develop family values. Being compassionate,

disciplined, creative, and building trust are key for me and my family to stand true to. Not

only does this help with building family values but these also help me reach my goal of

owning property. Demonstrating these values in my life will help me stay on the path to

accomplishing my goals.

4) How does your BHAG align with your mission statement from Unit 2?

(I will dedicate my life to continue my personal growth and being an impactful leader.

With my drive, motivation, and commitment, I will accomplish my personal and

professional goals.)

My mission statement above shows my dedication in life and how I will

accomplish my personal and professional goals. My mission statement correlates with

my BHAG. Personal growth is an important value to me and being able to provide

support and care for my family will be a big accomplishment for me. Being a father

comes with man hats and one I think I will be great with is being a leader for my future

kids and my soon to be wife. Being a leader always comes naturally to me. I feel the

most comfortable when I can provide direction, support, and knowledge to those around

me. I believe this will also help me with owning property as well. Stepping up managing

property responsibilities will be a great new challenge for me. Drive, motivation, and

commitment are values that will help me overcome these new challenges and allow me

to accomplish my goal.

3
 5) List your top five (5) obstacles in order from number 5 being least difficult and
number 1 being the most difficult you need to overcome in order to obtain your
BHAG and explain the relevance of each one.

Obstacle 1: Financial Stability - Being financially able to own property in San Diego

California will be tough. I will need to save enough money for a down payment and also

budget for monthly mortgage expenses.

Obstacle 2 : Maintaining my career – Being in a competitive industry, my biggest fear is

being bought out as a smaller organization and losing my job security. This will have a

huge impact on my future family as I might struggle to provide for them.

Obstacle 3 : Maintaining Motivation and Drive – If I do indeed want to have a family and

own property, I need to stay focused on that goal. Throughout life’s various obstacles, it

can be hard to constantly stay motivated. If I lose motivation and drive, I will disappoint

myself and those around me that I love. But these are my biggest dreams, and it is

imperative that I remain dedicated, focused, and motivated towards my BHAG.

Obstacle 4 : Maintaining healthy relationships – If I want to have a family one day, it is

important that I continue to work on my relationship with my current fiancé. We want to

ensure that our relationship is stable for the long run.

Obstacle 5 : Staying Healthy – Being an active person, I put myself in situations that

could cause me to miss work due to illness or getting hurt. This will impact my ability to

save for my future family and buy my own property.

4
Section 2: Career Vision
Consider your long-term vision for your career. Respond to the following questions, and make
connections to your personal mission statement, your BHAG(s), the themes you developed in
Unit 2 and the textbook/supplemental readings (as applicable).

Answer the following:

1) Analyze the type of career you want to have, in terms of an organizational career or
a protean career, and make sure it is clear you understand the concepts as outlined
in the textbook. Why?

My long term vision of the type of career I want to have would be maintaining my

career in the tech industry. Being in the tech industry has been extremely competitive and

I had to learn many mew things that I was not used to. There were a couple

organizational career paths I could have taken but I decided to stick with Industry paths.

To be more specific, I see myself sharpening my skills set and increasing my knowledge

in the Operations Department. Since personal growth is an important value of mine, the

past 5 years with the company I have worked for, I have been promoted multiple times.

My most recent promotion was becoming a manager. For me, it does not stop there. My

long-term goal would be to become the director of operations. Climbing the corporate

ladder has been clearly visible with my journey so far and I will use my core values to

help me pursue my long-term vision.

2) Analyze your career with an explanation as one that moves you up the organization
or one you develop seeking alternative career paths. If you see yourself taking an
alternative career path, which one(s) sounds the most likely? Why?

I potentially see myself seeking an alternative career path in the future. I would

seek an industry path. In the textbook Career Management & Work Life Integration by

Brad Harrington states “Increasingly, people are coming to identify with a broad industry
5
 sector rather than a specific organization” (Brad Harrington, pg. 102). Having leadership

skills and experience with managing operations would help me find an industry with an

operations role. It does not have to be specific because of my abilities to learn on the go

and me valuing personal growth. If I were to seek an alternative career path, it would be

to put myself in a better financial situation for my future family. Financial stability is

important to me so if seeking an alternative career path means creating better financial

stability, I will likely pursue that to help me meet my personal and professional goals.

3) Discuss and explain if you see yourself working an alternative or flexible work
schedule/arrangement? If so, which ones and why?

Working with a fixed work schedule or working with a flexible work schedule

does not matter to me. I have worked with a fixed work schedule in the past and I

performed well and showed up on time. Currently, I work for a company that offers a

flexible work schedule. Some people take advantage of that but I approach it as a fixed

schedule. It is not required to come into the office and there is limited micro managing.

Management trusts their subordinates to put in their eight hours and to be productive. I

am one of the few employees that shows up to the office every day because I personally

am more productive when I work from the office. My mission statement states my

motivation and commitment will help me reach my goals. Because I stay true to my

values, I have been able to increase my personal growth and work to reach my BHAG

goals.

Section 3: Long-Term Strategy

Develop a strategy for moving toward your ideal future work/life situation and the realization of
your BHAG(s). Consider the timeframe for your BHAG(s). Provide a vivid description of life
“the way it will be” once your BHAG is realized.

6
 1) Critically think about and then list out (not a narrative format) the interim steps or
milestones you have laid out for yourself that will aid you in reaching your BHAG
(you should have at least 10 to earn a rating of excellent and be referenced by time)

1. Receive Promotion with current company. (5/31/2023)

2. Marry my fiancé. (12/31/2024)

3. Receive my bachelor’s degree. (4/30/2023)

4. Open a savings account to save for purchasing a home (property). (12/31/2023)

5. Pay off 50% of the principal balance of my student loans. (12/31/2033)

6. Save $30,000 in the next 10 years to ensure financial stability for my future family.

(5/31/2033)

7. Build new networks through my current organization. (6/30/2024)

8. Identify the area and community that I want myself and family to live in. (8/1/2028)

9. Gain property management knowledge to ensure confidence in owning property.

(12/31/2030)

10. Open a saving account for future kid’s expenses. (1/31/2025)

2) In addition to career-related roles, consider your other life roles in relation to your
career goals. What are the 3 most precious things you are willing to sacrifice,
besides time, to achieve your BHAG? Why?

A life role of mine is maintaining relationships. Specifically, some of my

friendships I have. In order for me to achieve my BHAG, I will have to sacrifice

maintaining these relationships. For me to stay on track, I have to keep my head down

and stay focus on what matters the most for me. At this time in my life, I have strong

7
 relationships and these people understand my journey and my commitment to achieving

my life goals. This doesn’t mean that I will no longer have these relationships, it means

that I will be more focused on preparing for a family and being financially smart so I can

save up for a home.

My second important life role of mien would be pursuing my hobbies. This is

something that I am willing to sacrifice because my hobbies of mine can get expensive.

My hobbies will never go away so staying motivated towards accomplishing my BHAG

goals and not spending a lot of money on my hobbies will help me put that money to my

savings. This will be a tough sacrifice, but I believe in the long run, I will be thankful for

making my goals a priority in my life.

The third thing I am willing to sacrifice would be traveling. Traveling has been

something I have not really been able to experience. It’s an important thing to me to be

able to make new experiences and memories. I do believe there is a specific time in my

life for me to do exactly that but now is not the time. That is why this is something that I

am willing to sacrifice. Not only does traveling cost a lot, but it also makes me step away

from work which can mean I am either falling behind or not bringing in money. These

are big factors for me to think about because my goal is to be financially ready to start a

family and as well as purchasing a home.

Section 4: The one to two year plan

Using a SMART goals-based approach, as well as project planning and management skill best
practices, create a detailed project plan for at least two specific goals. At least one must be
related to your long-term BHAG. The other may be related to some other aspect of your career

8
development or career-life integration. Both of these goals need to be things that you are
passionate about accomplishing.
Your selected goals and SMART plan (see SMART goal information provided in the unit)
should be structured based on a one to two-year timeline. It should include specific milestones,
action items, sub-tasks as well as task-related interdependencies as applicable. With respect to
each goal, critically think about what specific things you will do in the next one to two years to
achieve these goals.

Develop a clear and detailed SMART plan, with facilitating goals and steps/actions required
to accomplish your selected goals. It should be evident, by looking at the format and structure
of your plan, that you have developed some significant skills respect to project management.
Include Gantt charts (T) or other visual project representations as you see fit, and be sure to
address your approach to tracking/measuring your progress (M).

1) What is your #1 Goal? (at least one of the following must be related to your BHAG)

My number one goal is to be financially stable in order for me to meet my BHAG. Saving

money will help me pursue my BHAG.

a. Specific: Saving $30,000 in the next ten years to help purchase a home and for

family expenses.

b. Measurable: In order to save $30,000, I will have to put $3,000 into savings over

the next ten years. To measure this, that would mean putting $125 into my savings

account every pay check which I get twice a month.

c. Attainable: This goal is attainable for me as I am fairly strict with my money. If I

am willing to sacrifice things in my life to help me save more, this will allow me

to feel confident on saving $30,000 in the next ten years of my life.

d. Relevant: This goal is relevant for me to achieve my BHAG. If I am not

financially stable and do not save my money, it will be very difficult to purchase a

home and being able to financially take care of my future family.

9
 e. Time-Based: My goal is to save $30,000 in the next ten years. Taking that into

consideration, I should meet this saving goal by March 2033.

2) What is your #2 Goal? (at least one of these must be related to your BHAG)

My number two goal would be paying off half of my student loans.

(Insert your #2 Goal above and provide short answers below describing your goal in

terms of the SMART model. Finally, provide a Gantt chart using the tools provided).

a. Specific: My goal is to have half of my student loans paid off.

b. Measurable: I will be able to measure my student loan progress by coming up

with a strict monthly payment plan to ensure I am on track. I will also be able to

measure when a good time is to make several larger payments to help meet my

goal.

c. Attainable: This goal will be attainable as I work hard, and I am also strategic

with how much money I am spending so I can prioritize my monthly payments.

10
 d. Relevant: Being able to create a time frame to have half my student loans paid off

will help me develop a strategic monthly plan for my student loans and allow me

to feel confident in saving for a future home for my near future family.

e. Time-Based: I will have half my student loans paid off by December 2033 if I

follow my strategic plan.

11
 References

Harrington, B., & Hall, D. T. (2007). Career Management & Work-Life Integration. SAGE

Publications, Inc. (US).

https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781452278940

12