ECE 400
Spring 2008
Professional Development Assignment #1
Career Goals and Lifelong Learning
Due: 11:59 PM, Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Submit a pdf. file on blackboard.purdue.edu
Description:
Many of the course presentations are intended to provide some perspective on how you
can turn your Purdue Electrical and Computer Engineering degree into a successful
career. In large part, the message being delivered is that one must always be striving to
improve oneself and one’s abilities. In this assignment you are asked to evaluate your
current skill set, short-term career goals and long-term career goals, and to consider
how you might best enhance your opportunities to achieve success, be it in or out of
engineering.
Assignment:
In an essay format (this means writing paragraphs containing complete sentences)
having a total length of no more than two (2) pages, please summarize the issues
listed below:
1. What are your short-term professional goals for the first five years following
graduation from Purdue ECE? (i.e., job? military service? graduate/professional
school?)
2. Honestly evaluate whether your current skill set is sufficient to achieve these
goals. If it appears you may require additional skills to achieve your plan, how
might they be obtained?
3. What is your long-term professional goal?
4. What additional skills, knowledge or experience will be required to achieve your
long-term career goals?
5. Frankly assess whether Purdue ECE has (or is likely to have) given you a
sufficient base with which to pursue your short- and long-term goals. What
experiences best contributed to achieving beneficial skills? What additional
experiences might have left you more ready to pursue your goals?
Grading Criteria:
Your assignment will be graded out of 20 points, broken down as 3 points for effectively
addressing each issue above (15 points total) and 5 points for formatting, grammar,
spelling, and clear writing.
*Note: if you neglect to put your name on every page, your assignment will not be graded.