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February 29, 2024
- Writing Your Career Goals Essay
Check out all the blog posts in this series:
- Identifying the Ingredients of a Winning Essay
- Finding a Theme for Your Statement of Purpose
- Revise and Polish Your Application Essays
Your career goals essay demands a laser-like focus. A personal statement, by contrast, allows for some flexibility in its content, though you can – and often should – discuss your career goals. But a career goals essay has a particular and packed agenda. In fact, the prompt for a career goals essay could actually include multiple questions, and in such cases, you want to make sure you address each of them.
For example, in 2022, Kellogg asked applicants to its one-year program to respond to the following prompt: “Please discuss your post-MBA career goal, the current experience you will leverage to support the transition, and the Kellogg 1Y opportunities that will help you reach this goal.”
This prompt has three parts: (1) What do you want to do post-MBA ? (2) Why is the 1Y program appropriate for you? And (3) what experience has so far prepared you to succeed in your target role?
So, always pay close attention to your target school’s prompt to ensure that you answer all the questions within its “single” question.
Three elements of a successful career goals essay
In addition to having a distinct theme , your career goals essay should achieve the following:
- Highlight specific career achievements. Choose from your most notable or defining experiences. These could be related to your work, community involvement, or extracurricular activities. The experiences you select should showcase your leadership skills , creative thinking, collaborative abilities, and personal reflections about what you learned or gained.
- Explain why your experiences and influences make your career goal a logical and wise choice.
- Demonstrate why you are suited to a particular field as a result of your education, experience, abilities, and enthusiasm. Ideally, the material you choose to include will also allow you to prove your knowledge about industry trends and suggest how your abilities and strengths can help you contribute to that field.
It’s a very tall order to achieve all this.
Putting these elements together to create your goals essay
Let’s take a look at a sample MBA Goals Essay and see how these three key elements are incorporated.
You should be able to easily recognize why the writer’s opening is attention-getting for all the right reasons. The writer introduces herself as the supremely busy executive she visualizes becoming in the future. She trades large amounts of stock, rushes off to a Zoom conference, hurries downstairs, flags down a taxi, then hops on a plane. As she describes this whirlwind of activity, we can practically feel her heart pumping.
After establishing her voice and personality in this opening, she offers context for her MBA goal. Notice that in writing about her work as an accountant for a major firm, she provides relevant details, including how many years she has been in the field, her bilingualism, and her specialty area as an auditor. This information is her springboard to explain why she is pursuing an MBA: she’s bursting out of her limited role as an accountant. Her eyes and ambition are set on a larger playing field as an international investment manager.
Write an essay, not a list or CV
Outstanding career goals essays are not lists of an applicant’s roles and achievements. Instead, they have a narrative flow and arc that convey the candidate’s palpable excitement about their career choice. This writer’s enthusiastic, dreamy first paragraph achieves this, and she returns to that image at the end, where she paints her idealized (if frantically busy) future. She also proves her seriousness by noting that she registered for the CFA exam.
Connect your career goals to your reasons for choosing a particular program
Many essay questions, especially those for MBA programs , will ask why you have chosen the school you’re applying to. Be prepared to respond knowledgeably and enthusiastically. And the only way to become knowledgeable – and enthusiastic – is by visiting campus in-person or virtually, attending student recruitment meetings, participating in forums, reading student blogs, watching videos of students speaking about their experiences, communicating directly with students and/or recent alumni, and otherwise doing your homework. As part of your research, make sure you have familiarized yourself with the courses and specializations that are relevant to your goals.
Summary Tips
- Focus on answering each and every question asked in a career goals essay prompt. Often, there is more than one.
- Highlight specific achievements vividly and in a way that shows that your career choice is logical for you.
- Do the research so you can write about why the school is a good fit for you and do so with genuine enthusiasm.
In the next post in this series , we’ll explain how to take all this advice and apply it to create an exemplary first draft.
Work one-on-one with an expert who will walk you through the process of creating a slam-dunk application. Check out our full catalog of application services . Our admissions consultants have read thousands of essays and know the exact ingredients of an outstanding essay.
By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She is also the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools . Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
Related resources:
- The Winning Ingredients of a Dynamic MBA Goals Essay , a free guide
- Grad School Personal Statement Examples
- Focus on Fit , podcast Episode 162
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Career Goals Essay For Scholarships (With Examples)
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Scholarship programs often want you to write a career goals essay to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll apply your education to a specific career path. This helps show a scholarship committee why you’re seeking funds for the next step on the path toward your success. Answering “what are your career goals” effectively can help increase your odds of impressing landing a scholarship opportunity. If you’re a prospective student applying for scholarships, this article will provide tips on how to write a career goals essay, along with essays on career goals examples to help you get an idea of what scholarship committees are looking for. Key Takeaways: When you’re writing a career goals essay, make sure to write about the goals that are relevant to the scholarship. Be honest and use your own voice to stand out in your scholarship essay. Go into detail about how the scholarship will help you achieve your goals. In This Article Skip to section What is a career goals essay? Why scholarship essays ask about career goals Example career goals essay prompts Career goals essay examples Tips for writing a scholarship essay about career goals What to write in a career goals essay if your goals have changed Career goals essay for a scholarship FAQ References Sign Up For More Advice and Jobs Show More What is a career goals essay?
A career goals essay is a personal written explanation that discusses your background, why you’re interested in participating in the program, and what career you’d like this degree to lead into. A scholarship essay functions to explain why you want to achieve your professional goals and how you intend to get there.
In almost every application process, a portion asks the candidate to answer an essay question. When applying to an educational program, like an MBA, the essay prompt usually relates to your career goals .
Why scholarship essays ask about career goals
Scholarship essays ask about career goals to assess your enthusiasm for the program, learn more about how the scholarship will help you, and ensure that you’ve considered how the program will help you achieve your goals for the future:
Assess your enthusiasm. Passion is important for scholarship administrators, and if you’re able to articulate your enthusiasm for a specific career path , it will show that you’re determined to meet the requirements to reach that goal. The most specific and well-thought-out your essay is, the easier it will be for a reader to understand your devotion and commitment to the program and the field it will allow you to enter.
Learn how the scholarship will help you. Having a firm grasp of your career goals is great, but it’s equally important that you express exactly how the specific program relates to those goals. This shows that you’ve researched the merits of the program and understand exactly how it fits into your professional goals.
Show you’ve considered your future. This goes along with the first two points — show that you know how to set goals and consider the path toward achieving those goals, and you’ll have an easier time convincing the reader that you’ll know how to set goals while participating in the program. They’ll see that you know how to prioritize education because you have a clear vision for navigating your career path.
Example career goals essay prompts
While some scholarships might come right out and simply ask, “What are your career goals?” most will rework the question into something different that still accomplishes the same goal.
Below are some examples of career goals essay prompts that a scholarship program could pose to its applicants:
Discuss your career goals. Many scholarships prefer the most direct approach when giving an essay prompt to their applicants. This type of question gives the candidate a lot of wiggle room to discuss their passions, motivations, and career goals.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years ? This question is often used as a prompt for a career goals essay because it gives the applicant a timeline to describe their aspirations. It forces them to be realistic about where their career will be and how they will accomplish this within the next ten years.
How will this scholarship contribute to your professional success? A scholarship committee wants to be sure that the money they’re giving will contribute to a student’s overall professional success. This question asks about the applicant’s game plan in the long-term and evaluates how this program is going to assist in their future.
What is your dream job ? Since a dream job is often categorized as a person’s career goals, this is a common question phrasing in scholarship essays. Asking about a candidate’s dream job answers whether this program aligns with the student’s long-term career goals.
What matters most to you and why? Sometimes, a scholarship essay prompt won’t ask about your career or future at all. Instead, they’ll ask a question like this that assesses your motivations , values, and character.
Career goals essay examples
Use these examples of career goals essays for scholarships to help write your own. Pay special attention to how they’re organized, rather than the content, to inspire your own career goals essay:
Career goals essay example 1 – Discuss your career goals
When I was six years old, I was riding bikes with my older sister around our neighborhood. She had just taught me how to ride, and I was excited to have to freedom to explore with her. When she was rounding a particularly difficult bend to see around, a car happened to be coming along at the same time. It struck her. That bike ride changed our lives forever. Over the next year, I went with my sister every Tuesday and Thursday to her physical therapist ’s appointments to help her regain walking strength. Watching her physical therapist patiently assist my sister back to becoming herself awoken something in me. A passion for helping others in the same way eventually turned into a career goal of becoming a physical therapist myself. I decided to get my bachelor’s degree in exercise science. After graduating in 2019, I knew that the next step for me was to attend a graduate program in physical therapy. I was accepted to Lassell University Master of Science in Rehabilitation Services. This presented me with my latest goal along my career path, and I’m eagerly waiting to start. This scholarship would help me afford the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Lassell University class of 2023, allowing me to continue working towards my ultimate career goal of becoming a physical therapist and helping others to become themselves again.
Career goals essay example 2 – Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In ten years, I will have been successfully running my own construction business for about five years. I’m currently a second-year student at the University of Texas, pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. I decided to get my MBA because I knew it would be a positive asset toward my long-term career goal of owning a construction business. In my high school years, I worked as a construction apprentice for a local business. I loved many aspects of the business, such as building something from nothing. I knew that I wanted to incorporate this work into my long-term career, but I didn’t want to work as an apprentice . This led me to pursue business. In ten years and with the help of this scholarship, I will have graduated with my MBA almost a decade prior . After graduation, I plan to take a business administration internship with a carpentry business to help myself get a footing in the field. After about two years of this, I will have started my own construction business.
Career goals essay example 3 – What matters most to you and why?
The people I surround myself with matter most to me. Whether it be my relatives, friends, or professional acquaintances, I always care the most about the happiness of the people around me. Making the people around me happy matters the most to me because I truly because we find our happiness through others. I believe that this drive to make a positive impression on the people around me is what drove me towards a career as a nurse . I always thought of hospitals as places where people need someone to support them and make their day a little happier. I wanted to be one of those who spend their careers positively impacting people in need. This scholarship will enable me to finally afford nursing school and go after my dream job full force.
Career goals essay example 4 – What are your short- and long-term career goals, and how will earning this degree contribute to achieving those goals? Please provide a minimum of 200 words.
My short-term career goals involve working directly with underprivileged young people to increase the literacy rate in my community. As a student of an underfunded and understaffed school, I’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact early literacy education makes on long-term achievement. It broke my heart to see my peers embarrassed at their struggle with reading at an advanced age, and this shame added another dimension to their lack of opportunity. Being a literacy educator for young people would allow me to serve this community directly to show them not only the necessity of strong written communication skills, but the joy of reading for pleasure. This program focuses specifically on early literacy, and would provide me a direct route to a career in serving the community I hope to serve. As for long-term career goals, I hope to one day create a program where socioeconomically parents can bring their children for literacy education, not only to increase their ability to navigate the world of language, but also to instill confidence and joy in the written word. What drew me to this program was that it also has administrative, legal, and business dimensions that would set me on the path toward achieving this goal.
Tips for writing a scholarship essay about career goals
Here are some tips to keep in mind for writing a career goals scholarship essay:
Write about goals relevant to the scholarship. Although you may have many different kinds of goals for your personal and professional future, a scholarship essay only discusses objectives that are relevant to the program you’re applying for.
Be honest. Applying for a scholarship is stressful because the applicant’s education is usually reliant on receiving these funds in one way or another. Even though it’s tempting to exaggerate your skills or pretend you’re more passionate about something than you are to make yourself a more competitive applicant, it’s a bad move.
Use your own, unique voice. The essay portion of a scholarship application is your chance to stand out by using your voice. Nobody else, regardless of their academic or professional achievements, is you. Make this clear in your career goals scholarship essay by keeping your unique written voice engrained in the words you produce.
Be specific. A big reason that scholarship committees ask applicants to write a career goals essay is to determine how prepared they are in planning their long-term professional goals. They aren’t interested in providing a scholarship to students who aren’t going to follow through with their career plans.
Explain long and short-term goals . Even if the essay prompt asks you to describe where you see yourself in ten years, you still need to tell them the steps leading towards this picture of success.
Include the short-term goals that add up to your larger career objectives in your essay response. Explain how accomplishing the smaller goals gives you an advantage when tackling long-term ones.
Explain how the program and scholarship will help you. Before writing your career goals essay, consider how this program and scholarship will help you in your career. The answer to this question is essential.
Follow the essay formatting guidelines. This may sound obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget this step when your essay is finally flowing and when you’re scrambling to get it submitted on time.
Check, double-check , and triple-check the essay guidelines for content, word count, and formatting requirements. If you miss any of these steps, your essay may be immediately disqualified no matter how good it or the rest of your application is.
What to write in a career goals essay if your goals have changed
Many times career goals essays are written by students who have already completed at least some college or are applying to a post-graduate program and need more money to continue.
There’s a good chance that your career goals have changed since you started or graduated college. For example, say you wanted to be an engineer , so you got your undergraduate degree in engineering but realized you didn’t like it after working in the industry for a few years.
You decided that nursing would be more up your alley, and now you’re applying for a scholarship for a nursing program. While this isn’t unusual, it can make it more difficult to write a career goals essay since your past work doesn’t necessarily match your future goals.
In this case, you’ll simply need to explain why you changed your career path and why this next one is the best choice for you. Share your decision-making process to show that you haven’t taken the switch lightly, and talk about what you’ve already done to try to pursue this path.
Career goals essay for a scholarship FAQ
How do you write a career goal for a scholarship essay?
You write a career goal for a scholarship essay by sharing your passion, explaining both your long- and short-term goals, and relating your goals to the scholarship.
Explain why you want to pursue the career you’re pursuing, where you hope to be in the future and how you plan to get there, and how the scholarship will help you do this.
How do you describe your career goals in an essay?
You describe your career goals in an essay by explaining what you want to do in your career, why you decided on this career path, and what you’ve done so far to make that a reality.
You can usually work these factors into any prompt you receive, so think through them before you start writing so that you can use them as an outline of sorts.
What are career goals examples?
Examples of career goals include:
Working as a grant writer for a nonprofit organization.
Becoming a department manager and eventually an executive in your field.
Owning your own plumbing company.
Caring for underserved communities as a nurse practitioner .
What are some goals for success?
Some goals for success include growing in your role, building your network, and finding joy in the job. Most careers don’t just happen overnight and require you to set the right milestones that work best for you. Not everyone will have the same goals for success.
How do you start a career goals essay for a scholarship?
You can start a career goals essay for a scholarship by directly answering the prompt. Most scholarship prompts include a word count of between 200 and 500 words, so it’s essential that you immediately respond to the prompt. Attention-grabbing sentences and narratives can be helpful for setting the scene, but an efficient and direct answer will show a clarity of mind that helps enhance the quality of your answer.
BLS – Career planning for high schoolers
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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.
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Career Essay
Career essay generator.
How do you see yourself 5 or 10 years from now? That question kicks start your imagination and make you visualize yourself in your future career. Maybe you are thinking about it now, but you are likely confused about expressing it in words. Unlike other essay writing , writing your career essay is exciting because you are writing about yourself, your plans, passion, and aspiration. Learn how to make your career essay impressive by reading this article.
10+ Career Essay Examples
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What Is a Career Essay?
A career essay is a text people write to detail their goals or plans for the future. In this essay, people talk about the career they want in the future and the things they have achieved so far. People often ask you to write a career essay when you send an application letter for a scholarship or submit your resume for a job.
How To Write a Rousing Career Essay
You should write your career essay seriously because it might be a deciding factor for your future. That said, in writing your essay, there are a lot of things to consider and a process you need to follow. Your end goal in writing your essay is to convince people that you are determined to walk the talk and make the things you wrote in your descriptive essay to reality.
1. Devise an Engrossing Title
The first thing to think about when writing an essay is coming up with an attention-grabbing title. When people read your essay, they pay the most attention to your title. Also, another benefit of coming up with your title first is that it will serve as a guide for you for the whole essay.
2. Introduce With a Hook
After devising a title, deliver the next blow with an introduction that piques their curiosity. To do that, begin your essay with a hook. Your hook can be a quote, a question, or you can even provide a statistic. If your introduction is good enough, it will secure the engagement of your readers.
3. Organize Your Ideas
Writing an essay is like taking your readers for a ride. You need to set the vibe and organize the flow of your thoughts. Don’t start too strong it might make the rest of your essay bland. You need to properly build up the development of excitement and make sure the order of your ideas makes sense.
4. Polish Your Essay
Finalize your essay by proofreading it. When people talk about their passion, they tend to talk too much and include several unnecessary things. Make sure not to do that. Omit all the details that don’t contribute to the overall impact of your reflective essay. Also, don’t forget to review your text for grammatical errors.
Why is career planning important?
People hustle every day to reach their dream careers. Having a target career gives you a direction and sets your path. Planning your career is essential because being indecisive about it might negatively impact your life. Not having a fixed goal is like not having an end destination. Preparing for it would also make your career action plan achievable.
What is a career genogram?
A career genogram traces back an individual’s family tree and examines the career timeline they pursued. The scope of this genogram reaches the grandparents, extended family, and even the person’s close friends. This graphic representation is helpful when a person has a hard time deciding about his or her career development plan .
What is career assessment?
Career assessment is the process of identifying what career would work best for you. Most assessments are in the form of a questionnaire . It includes questions about your interests, your skills, your hobbies, and your strengths. These are some examples of questions that would help assess your future career. The result of your career assessment might give you ideas on what path to take.
The moment people read your career essay, they often rate how likely you are to succeed. Show them a piece of your mind that would erase all their doubts about your success. They say manifesting works wonders, so manifest the future that you want best by composing a rousing career essay.
Text prompt
- Instructive
- Professional
Write a career essay on the benefits and challenges of a career in medicine.
Discuss in a career essay the skills needed for success in the digital marketing field.
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3 Chevening Essays: Career plan
This is an underrated essay. Anyone can write a career plan essay, but not everyone can write a winning Chevening career plan essay. As a leadership training award, Chevening is investing in your studies with the belief that you will return and apply your leadership skills in your home country.
How exactly do you want to impact your country? They want to know every plan for the next ten years. Mention your main post-study goal. Then break it down into three: short-term (1-2 years), mid-term (3-5 years), and long-term (6-10 years) goals.
Explain what you want to achieve in detail (as many details as you can fit in a 500-word essay). Make sure everything flows. Make sure one point leads to another. One story should lead to another.
Imagine this: You are a potential asset. I (the British Government) want to invest in you. Sell your pitch to me on why I should do that and why you will yield a great return on investment. Convince me why I should spend a hefty amount of money on you. Forget everyone else. It is your vision I want to see and invest in.
Make sure to use concrete goals and statistics. Numbers, names, dates. Make sure your passion is communicated well and felt by your readers.
Mention what the UK government is doing about your career goals in your country and link it to what you intend to do. Mention how you want to partner with the UK government to achieve that.
If you find it hard to get a project that the British government is doing in your field, I will advise you to research a person recognized by them who practices in your field and suggest partnering with him.
This is not just a winning strategy for you to write a winning Chevening career plan essay. This should be what you believe in and are set to do.
- Give real thought to how you intend to make the most of the opportunity to study for a master’s degree at a UK university.
- Share detailed examples of your short, mid, and long-term career goals.
- You will get extra points if you can link your career goals with any of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
- Make sure your goals are ambitious but realistic. Walk the assessors through a clearly defined plan for achieving them.
- Outstanding applicants demonstrate genuine enthusiasm about making a lasting, positive contribution to their home countries and have clear ideas about achieving it. Steer away from describing motivations to pursue a master’s degree as a stepping stone to studying for a Ph.D.
Check the newest Chevening Scholarship essay examples: click here .
“Career plan” Chevening Essay Example 1
See also: Ultimate Chevening Scholarship Resources
Upon completing my master’s degree in the UK, my immediate goal is to leverage the knowledge and skills I’ve acquired to significantly improve the public health landscape in Tanzania. My first step will be to collaborate with local NGOs that focus on public health initiatives, with a particular emphasis on addressing systemic challenges in rural areas. I have previously partnered with these organizations, but with my enhanced skills, I will be better equipped to drive innovative approaches, such as integrating digital health solutions to improve accessibility and quality of care in remote regions.
My primary focus will be on supporting Tanzania’s HIV/AIDS program. With Tanzania ranking among the top 30 high-burden countries, addressing this public health challenge remains critical. My plan is to initially take up a leadership role within the National Department of Health, focusing on improving the healthcare delivery system in rural provinces where resources are limited. With the advanced knowledge I will have gained, particularly in public health strategy and healthcare management, I will contribute to designing and implementing targeted interventions to reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, while ensuring the program aligns with international best practices. A key aspect of my contribution will be ensuring that gender-sensitive approaches are integrated, as women and girls remain disproportionately affected by the epidemic.
In addition to working on the national HIV/AIDS program, I will prioritize the training and mentoring of healthcare professionals, particularly doctors and nurses in rural health centers. Capacity-building will be crucial in ensuring sustainable improvements to patient care, and I will draw on my newly acquired skills in leadership and medical education to establish a continuous professional development program. By creating a network of well-trained healthcare providers, I aim to foster long-term resilience in the healthcare system, ensuring that even after my involvement, the quality of care continues to improve.
Looking ahead, my three-year goal is to contribute to the establishment of a specialized HIV/AIDS clinical care center, a project that has been in the pipeline but remains unrealized due to a shortage of professionals with the necessary expertise. This center will not only provide comprehensive care to patients but will also serve as a hub for research and innovation in HIV/AIDS treatment, enabling Tanzania to develop locally relevant solutions to the epidemic. My role will be to provide strategic leadership in the planning and execution of this initiative, drawing on my training in health systems management and infectious disease control.
In the longer term, I aspire to contribute to broader public health efforts in Tanzania, aligning with the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) mission to ensure healthy lives and well-being for all. By focusing on combating antimicrobial resistance and tackling neglected tropical diseases, I will work to develop cross-sector partnerships that bring together local governments, international donors, and the private sector. These efforts will not only improve health outcomes in Tanzania but also contribute to global health security, making my work relevant both locally and internationally.
Essay Sample 2 for Chevening Career Plan
I intend to put the new skills and knowledge I will have acquired from my education in the UK into good use in Kenya. Therefore, as soon as I return to the country, my immediate short-term career goal will be to use my new qualifications to search for a job commensurate with my master’s degree course. The position I already have in mind is that of a Personal Financial Advisor, as it is a financial/economics advisory role that interests me. I will also seek a job as a Financial Analyst, Budget Analyst, Management Analyst, and any other related job.
I anticipate that getting my first job after returning home will not be too difficult, given my existing professional experience and the master’s degree I will have obtained. Moreover, since I have already built excellent relationships at NIC Bank, it will be the first place I seek employment. In whatever new job I secure, I can put into practice everything I learned in the UK. My medium-term career goal is to establish a consultancy company where I will provide expert advice on everything business, finance, accounting, and economics. This will present an admittedly daunting yet rewarding challenge as it will be the first time I will be stepping out of formal employment to run my own business. This I plan to venture into after about five years of employment.
By this time, I expect to have gained enough knowledge and skills and should have saved enough capital to sustain my business for at least one year. This one-year grace year period will allow me to roll up my sleeves and build the necessary foundation for the business from the ground up before it becomes profitable and sustainable on its own. I quite look forward to this challenge. I will give myself about ten years in this capacity to develop my skills, expertise, and a strong network of professionals in the corporate world and government before eventually applying for a senior position such as Chief Financial Economist in the National Treasury. This is my ultimate long-term career goal. By this point, I will be in a much better position to use all the information I have accrued from my education and work experience to provide the requisite expert advice that the government and government bodies need.
These plans coalesce with everything the UK currently engages in Kenya. The UK has quite a healthy economic relationship with Kenya, even in the face of Brexit. It continues to export goods from Kenya and make significant investments in the country. For instance, in May 2019, the UK government committed to funding various high-impact projects across the nation, investments that are worth KSh14.5 billion (approximately £113,655,360). This came after a proposal to establish a UK- Kenya Economic Development Forum, which shall meet biannually.
Example 3 for Career Plan Part of Chevening
According to a 2017 report by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, over 70% of Kenya’s poor and hunger-stricken people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Growth in the agricultural sector has been estimated to be over ten times more effective in reducing poverty compared to growth in other sectors in developing countries. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the sector employs over 40% of Kenya’s population. This could increase if more efforts are directed there, which is why I seek to build on my experience with poor rural communities to pursue a career in International Development. This will impart me with knowledge and skills to influence policies on poverty reduction through small-scale agriculture, rural development, and research.
In the short term, I see myself starting a community-based organization in Murang’a County that will transform agriculture into a viable business for rural small-scale farmers. I will achieve this by seeking partnerships with the county government and relevant social enterprises such as Juhudi Kilimo to increase smallholder farms’ productivity, enhance marketing systems and offer business, safety standards, and technical skills training. These initiatives will turn small-scale farms into businesses, link them to regional and global food chains and create job opportunities.
I plan to serve in the next Murang’a County Government as a County Executive Committee Member in charge of Agriculture and Cooperatives. In this role, I will work with the County Assembly to improve the reliability of water supply for irrigation for small-scale farmers, build more wholesale market sheds, employ more extension officers, identify and invest in first-mover crops and improve feeder roads to support agriculture.
In the long-term, with experience and skills gained in the local government, I plan to serve as a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly, chairing the Agriculture, Trade and Cooperatives Committee. In this role, I will build on my success with the County Government to work closely with the Executive arm of government to spearhead legislation to transform Kenya’s Agricultural sector to ensure food security and create more jobs. I will lead negotiations with United Kingdom Multinationals such as Marks & Spencer to increase their fair-trade products in Kenya and rope in more tea and coffee factories in their supply chain. In addition, I will advocate for Diageo to replace imported grains with local crops such as sorghum and cassava for their beers. This will promote trade between Kenya and the United Kingdom, deepen our relations and create jobs in the country. By following this career progression, it will be possible to make necessary adjustments based on my experience and the prevailing circumstances.
