Executive Career and Professional Development CW2 Portfolio Assignment | SUSS

Assignment Format

CW2 Portfolio of Tasks: What Employers Want Analysis AND Future Success Action Plan

Coursework Submission:

Deadline: 9th August 2025

Assessment Criteria

Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and Understanding assessed in this assignment:

• Identify and evaluate gaps in knowledge, skills, and competence, linking to insights regarding one’s personal and professional development agenda, based on sound data and experience.
• Critically engage with theories, models and ideas that inform an understanding of professional practice, including those related to ethics, individual and corporate behaviours, diversity, sustainability and social responsibility.

Learning Outcomes: Skills and Attributes assessed in this assignment:

• Reflect on the enhancement of professional practice, using analytical tools and techniques such as SWOT and STARR.
• Synthesise the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for a management career in a chosen field.

Transformational Opportunities:

E.g., Use LinkedIn Learning to improve skills

• Develop and use reflective skills to identify transformational experiences
• Develop STARR examples that can be used for job applications and interviews
• Develop a plan for personal, career and professional development post-graduation

Feedback /Marking criteria for this Assignment

Performance will be assessed using HBS Grading Criteria (Rubric)

Detailed Brief for Individual Assignment

Assignment Title: Portfolio of Tasks: ‘What employers want’ analysis and a Future Success Action Plan

Description of the assignment, task, content, and structure:

PART A: ‘What Employers Want’ – a reflective analysis of 5 key skills, based on your career research and self-assessment, with STARR examples (around 300 words each for each skill, so approximately 1,500 words in total) to demonstrate your experience.

PART B: A Future Success Personal Action plan (equivalent to 500 words), relating to your personal, professional and career development, looking ahead to 3 to 5 years from MBA graduation

Detailed Instructions

PART A

‘What Employers Want’ – a reflective analysis of 5 key skills, based on your career research and self-assessment, with STARR examples (of approximately 300 words each) to demonstrate your experience.

• Use the template provided for this task on the assignment information page. Identify the industry/role you aspire to progress into.
• Look at the list of core skills in column 1 of the table and identify at least 5 that you think are most relevant to your chosen field and career (using your research from CW1 to help you). For each of your chosen skills, use your research to identify one or two more detailed requirements relating to this skill to your chosen field/industry. Add some brief points on these under ‘field-specific requirements’ in Column 1 (for each skill you have chosen) to tailor the requirements to your specific field/role.
• Now, rate your current experience (column 2) relating to the requirements of this skill: circle the number that most accurately represents your current skill level: 1=no experience; 2=some experience, below average; 3=some experience, above average; 4 = very experienced
• Using the STARR format (see below), write brief examples of your experience that demonstrate your current skill level for each of the areas you have chosen. These examples could be from your MBA studies (column 3) or, ideally, your own work experience (column 4).
• Consider the gaps in your skill level and identify ways in which you might gain more experience (column 5).

Be honest with yourself when completing this grid so that you can generate actions from this task to feed into your Future Success Action Plan. This is particularly important in recruitment activities as employers want concrete evidence of your knowledge, skills or behaviours and will not recruit you if you cannot provide it.

Examples should ideally be no more than 2 years old and must have a conclusion (i.e. not be an ongoing situation).

You are expected to write approximately 300 words for each of the 5 core skills. As STARR examples are useful for responding to interview questions, it is better to be succinct and focused in your responses, so we do NOT expect more than 300 words per skill.

Part B:

A Future Success Personal Action plan (equivalent to 500 words), relating to your personal, professional and career development, looking ahead 3 to 5 years from MBA graduation.

You should develop a Future Success Action Plan (equivalent to 500 words) outlining your specific goals relating to your career and your personal and professional development, detailing the required actions to achieve them.

Use the template available on the assignment information page to set three or four goals, looking ahead 3 to 5 years from graduation, with associated actions. Your goals and actions must be Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic and Timebound (SMART).

Specific guidance for your Action Plan:

• Use the template provided for this task on the assignment information page. The template headings are as follows:

• Identify three or four goals, looking ahead 3 to 5 years from the end of your MBA
• Your goals should include personal development of skills and confidence as well as career aspirations and professional development. A rationale should be provided for each goal – your research findings from Coursework 1 and/or your identified skills gaps in PART A of Coursework 2 will help you here.
• Make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic and Time Bound):

Each goal should be broken down into at least three specific and measurable actions required to achieve it, along with realistic deadlines.

• Be concise and clear – bullet points are a good way of writing an action plan, do not write in essay style or long sentences.

Academic Integrity, Plagiarism and Essay Mills

• For all references, use Cite it Right, Harvard style.
• Unauthorised use of artificially generated material (AI) in researching or presenting material for an assessment is an academic misconduct offence if you use AI tools in producing your assessment unless the use of AI tools is expressly permitted. However, even if expressly permitted, where you do not declare that you have used an artificial intelligence tool(s) in the production of your assessment, or you are dishonest about the extent to which such tools have been used, you will have committed academic misconduct.