Career Success

Offered By: University of California, Irvine via Coursera

Course Description

Overview

This series of courses will help you build, develop and hone the essential skills needed to improve your employability and advancement in today’s dynamic workforce. The courses in this Specialization may be taken in any order. Each course can also be taken independently. The Specialization concludes with a Capstone project that will give you the opportunity to integrate and apply the skills you have gained throughout the courses to your individual and organizational needs.

Syllabus

Course 1: Project Management: The Basics for Success
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. This course combines the essential elements of Project Management and Team Leadership into one ... Enroll for free.

Course 2: Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. You will be able to gain and apply your knowledge and understanding of personal and ... Enroll for free.

Course 3: Finance for Non-Financial Professionals
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. Impact your financial decisions and learn how to affect the performance of your unit's ... Enroll for free.

Course 4: Communication in the 21st Century Workplace
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. The workplace is more diverse than ever before. As the world population grows and our ... Enroll for free.

Course 5: High-Impact Business Writing
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. Effective writing is a powerful tool in the business environment. Learn how to articulate your ... Enroll for free.

Course 6: The Art of Negotiation
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. The art of negotiation comes into play daily in the life of employees at all levels and in ... Enroll for free.

Course 7: Fundamentals of Management
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. Are you about to enter the workforce? Are you an emerging professional? Are you new to your ... Enroll for free.

Course 8: Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. Problem-solving and effective decision-making are essential skills in today’s fast-paced and ... Enroll for free.

Course 9: Essentials of Entrepreneurship: Thinking & Action
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. Success in business can be greatly enhanced with an understanding of key entrepreneurial ... Enroll for free.

Course 10: Career Success Project
- Offered by University of California, Irvine. The purpose of the Capstone Project in the Career Success Specialization is for you to apply ... Enroll for free.

Courses

10 reviews
6-7 hours
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Are you about to enter the workforce? Are you an emerging professional? Are you new to your role in the organization? All prospective new employees benefit from understanding management principles, roles and responsibilities, regardless of position. Now you can acquire an in-depth understanding of the basic concepts and theories of management while exploring the manager's operational role in all types of organizations. Gain insight into the manager's responsibility in planning, organizing, leading, staffing and controlling within the workplace. It’s never too soon to plan your professional path by learning how the best managers manage for success! Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Describe the difference between managers and leaders 2. Explore the focus of a manager’s job 3. Cite the required skills for a new manager’s success 4. Describe the five functions of management 5. Explain the new model management operating philosophy 6. Describe the hierarchy of planning 7. Use the SMART goal setting technique 8. Discuss the concept of evolution of leadership 9. Explain how customer satisfaction is linked to controlling 10. Discuss the power of building a network
11 reviews
8 hours 22 minutes
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Problem-solving and effective decision-making are essential skills in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing workplace. Both require a systematic yet creative approach to address today’s business concerns. This course will teach an overarching process of how to identify problems to generate potential solutions and how to apply decision-making styles in order to implement and assess those solutions. Through this process, you will gain confidence in assessing problems accurately, selecting the appropriate decision-making approaches for the situation at hand, making team decisions, and measuring the success of the solution’s implementation. Using case studies and situations encountered by class members, you will explore proven, successful problem-solving and decision-making models and methods that can be readily transferred to workplace projects. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Identify key terms, styles, and approaches to effective problem-solving and decision-making 2. Explain both the affordances and limitations associated with problem-solving and decision-making 3. Reflect on how mindset and personal bias influence your ability to solve problems and make decisions 4. Explain and discuss how organizational decisions or non-decisions impact personal development, team dynamics, and company-wide performance 5. Articulate how both good and bad team decisions can benefit your professional growth
7 reviews
5 hours 8 minutes
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Success in business can be greatly enhanced with an understanding of key entrepreneurial characteristics and competencies solutions. This interactive course provides potential entrepreneurs with the knowledge of succeeding in an entrepreneurial opportunity. Topics include: how creativity, opportunity and feasibility are best evaluated; business strategies for new businesses; importance of a business plan; achieving success in a new business. At the end of the course students will have the skills and confidence to evaluate starting a business, in addition to becoming more enterprising in how they approach their roles should they decide to work in organizations. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Learn about the many faces of and contexts for entrepreneurship 2. Learn about the entrepreneurial process and how to manage it 3. Learn about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and your own potential to be one 4. Learn to recognize opportunities to generate and assess your own business idea 5. Explain the business planning process 6. Apply entrepreneurial approaches, concepts and methods to your own business idea 7. Learn about the operational issues in developing new business ventures
6 reviews
10 hours 33 minutes
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The workplace is more diverse than ever before. As the world population grows and our connectivity increases, it is common to work alongside colleagues from different generations, life experiences, cultures, genders, orientations, and religions. The increased diversity coupled with the shift toward remote and hybrid work environments means it's more critical than ever to develop appropriate communication strategies and practices. This course will teach you to identify and adapt your own communication style to not only increase team productivity, but also build bridges with colleagues from all backgrounds. By the end of this course, you will be able to: 1.Identify your own communication style 2. Describe methods to increase effective communication 3. Discuss how changing demographics affect workplace communication 4. Differentiate between the five working generations and their communication preferences 5. Identify the communication benefits of different work environments, such as in-person, virtual, or hybrid 6. Discuss effective techniques for communicating with a diverse workforce 7. Implement a flexing communication strategy to better communicate with one’s workplace team
8 reviews
6 hours 57 minutes
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Effective writing is a powerful tool in the business environment. Learn how to articulate your thoughts in a clear and concise manner that will allow your ideas to be better understood by your readers. Improve your business writing skill by learning to select and use appropriate formats for your audience, use the correct medium and adjust your writing style accordingly, as well as identify your objective and communicate it clearly. You'll also learn to spot, correct and avoid the most common writing pitfalls, and gain valuable experience analyzing, writing and revising a wide spectrum of business documents. From a simple email to a complete report, learn how to put good business writing to work for you. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Write effective business communications, including bad news, good news, persuasive writing, presentations, emails, memos, business reports and press releases 2. Learn how to edit and proofread business documents 3. Learn how to write for a global market
8 reviews
5 hours 50 minutes
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The art of negotiation comes into play daily in the life of employees at all levels and in every position. Participants explore how current approaches to negotiation strategy and tactics are used, what negotiation entails, types of negotiation relationships that exist from hard bargain to win-win, to fully partnered relationships and personal ones. The course explores the personal and behavioral characteristics of an effective negotiator. Participants discuss how empowerment, power, and authority affect the negotiation process and outcome. Topics include how important it is to plan and prepare for a negotiation session. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Learn about the nature of negotiation and how it differs from selling 2. Gain awareness of the basic doctrines of negotiation and barriers to effective negotiation 3. Explain the role of authority and how to address it in negotiations 4. Explain the role of power in negotiations and how to address power inequities 5. Explain the positive and negative influences of empowerment 6. Learn the different “stances” or negotiation styles negotiators might adopt 7. Demonstrate the factors that influence which negotiation style is implemented 8. Describe the personal and behavioral characteristics of an effective negotiator 9. Demonstrate your grasp of emotional intelligence and how it impacts the effectiveness of a negotiator 10. Assess your own values and personal style and how they affect the negotiation process 11. Learn about the critical importance of planning and preparation in the negotiation process
14 reviews
6-7 hours
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Impact your financial decisions and learn how to affect the performance of your unit's profitability and of your organization. In this course gain a basic understanding of finance and accounting concepts to drive your organization's growth. Upon completion of this course, you will have gained general financial knowledge and an in-depth understanding of the impact of your decisions outside your functional area. Content of the course includes selected aspects of finance from a non-financial specialist perspective. Specific topics include: financial analysis; planning, forecasting, and budgeting; cash flow, and strategic financing. This class will be interactive and will require the active involvement of the participants in finance related activities. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Explain the importance of finance and interpretation of financial information 2. Apply the concepts of accounting and finance to analyze financials 3. Learn about key accounting and finance terms 4. Examine financial statements by using key ratios 5. Explain the importance of budgeting process 6. Learn about key components needed to improve profitability
43 reviews
10 hours
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You will be able to gain and apply your knowledge and understanding of personal and professional awareness, organization and commitment, and use the tools, methods and techniques that you have learned in goal setting, prioritization, scheduling, and delegation to overcome time management challenges and enhance productivity. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Learn to plan effectively to achieve your personal and professional goals 2. Learn to recognize and overcome barriers to successful time management 3. Identify specific time management tools and use them effectively 4. Manage resources both effectively and efficiently 5. Keep your sense of perspective to prevent and manage crises 6. Learn to delegate effectively 7. Learn to manage expectations and say “No” when appropriate
26 reviews
8-9 hours
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This course combines the essential elements of Project Management and Team Leadership into one course. Through class engagement and reflection, you will acquire further understanding of the responsibilities of leadership and become better prepared to apply this knowledge to the project environment. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Learn about the role of high performance teams and leadership in project management 2. Learn about the tools and techniques for developing and strengthening high performance teams and team members 3. Learn about the stages in project cycle 4. Apply best practices to develop competencies and skills in planning and controlling projects to ensure successful outcomes 5. Learn how to monitor project activities and assess progress 6. Learn to communicate proficiently to report project status and performance to stakeholders and contribute to organizational knowledge base
1 review
3 hours 30 minutes
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The purpose of the Capstone Project in the Career Success Specialization is for you to apply the methods and techniques you learned in the series of courses to a personal experience, giving you a way to communicate your value to potential employers. You’ll focus your communication, management, negotiation, problem solving, business writing, time management, finance, entrepreneurship, and project management skills into a single project that demonstrates your career readiness. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Apply the methods, techniques and skills you have learned throughout the Specialization to add value, every day, to your organization by effectively gathering, synthesizing, analyzing and presenting information 2. Develop and hone your critical thinking skills as you evaluate ideas, concepts, approaches and assumptions to arrive at a practical, yet innovative, solution to an organizational problem 3. Learn to skillfully use a powerful strategic planning tool 4. Effectively communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to senior-level decision makers

Taught by

Dave Nagy, David Standen, MBA, Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP, Patricia Bravo, MBA, SPHR , Rob Stone, PMP, M.Ed. and Sue Robins, M.S. Ed.