The digital artefact that I have been completing with fellow BCM325 students Callum Harvey and Kelsea Latham, is the UOW Digital Media Society (DMS).
As a result of pitch feedback, our collective project has evolved into a more individual approach. My focus is narrowing in on the role DMS has in the future of work. Over the coming weeks, I will be developing a comprehensive Career Development Plan (CDP). The CDP is a document for DMS members and students seeking careers in the broad field of communication (journalism, media, digital, marketing, creative). The CDP is based on research discussing in-demand skills and how to stay relevant in these industries for the future.
The CDP will also explain how DMS is involved in this process through our workshops, networking opportunities and work experience connections. I have also iterated my outlook on the short, medium and long term future to focus on the contribution that DMS has to both the members and the current executive team.
Reference list:
Cheetham, Jock 2019, ‘Work beyond 2020: the future of journalism’, Charles Sturt University, 11 January, viewed 2 May, <https://insight.futurestudents.csu.edu.au/work-beyond-2020-the-future-of-journalism/>.
Colbert, A, Yee, N & George, G 2016, ‘The Digital Workforce and the Workplace of the Future’, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 59, no. 3, p. 731.
InVision 2019, ‘How to future-proof your creative career’, InVision, 24 January, viewed 2 May, <https://medium.com/inside-design/how-to-future-proof-your-creative-career-dcb012ccaa83>.
Leung, I 2018, ‘Marketing Jobs In 2018: High Demand Roles And Skills Needed To Stay Relevant’, Piktochart, viewed 2 May 2019, <https://piktochart.com/blog/marketing-jobs/>.
Alex Mastronardi 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
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Hi Alex,
It’s fascinating to see a Digital Artefact that is targeted to university students. It’s evident as the co-founder of the University of Wollongong Digital Media Society (DMS) that you are dedicated into helping media, journalism and communication students throughout their degree; by creating a document that highlights the in-demand skills and emerging roles in the workforce, that students studying a communication degree can look into to assist in job seeking or as you call it a Career Development Plan (CDP).
The concept of the CDP is a great idea, but is the only way for students to access this resource is by going to a DMS event? If so, I suggest you create a website or blog to allow students who can’t make it to allow them to still have access to your materials in a digitalized format. As having a place where you can display your findings online will open up more chances of exposure to the DMS. Though your artefact isn’t business related here’s an article that covers the “Importance of a Website” https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/importance-of-a-website/. Though I assume you already know the importance of a website, there are some key pointers that you can learn from this article if you do decide to publicize your work online.
Going over the CDP in your Beta presentation it’s evident that you’ve done your research on emerging roles and skill-sets that jobs are seeking for in the future, for journalism, marketing and communication students. Has the aspect of the future of behavior come to mind? This academic source goes over “future work self” and how behavior plays a major role in career development. I suggest you check Chapter 3 “Career adaptability” as it goes hand in hand on what you have already researched. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001879114001316
UOWLIBRARYLINK: http://ey9ff7jb6l.search.serialssolutions.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/?genre=article&ID=doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.005&issn=00018791&title=Journal%20of%20Vocational%20Behavior&volume=86&issue=&date=20150201&atitle=Future%20work%20self%20and%20career%20adaptability%20in%20the%20prediction%20of%20proactive%20career%20behaviors&spage=20&pages=20-27&sid=EBSCO:ScienceDirect&au=Taber,%20Brian%20J.#?
This unique approach to the DA is exciting as majority of Digital Artefacts I’ve seen are intended for the audience on the World Wide Web. Really excited to see where DMS goes after this project!
-Eric
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Hey Alex!
It is so interesting to see the direction that you are taking with your DA and the DMS! It is quite clear that this is something that you’re passionate about and the charismatic vibe that the DMS put out online will definitely help with boost both workshop attendance and new member sign ups.
I love the idea of the CDP! This is not only relevant to students but also will be extremely helpful for them. Where will you be documenting the CDP or will it be something that you will demonstrate through workshops/seminars. Maybe it could be shared in your facebook members group or even a blog for those who don’t have facebook.
Maybe you could also attempt to get feedback from members either through email or the facebook group to see what they would prefer.
Here’s a helpful link on creating a CDP https://performancemanager.successfactors.com/doc/po/develop_employee/carguide.html
I’d also like to ask if the club will be handing out generic CDPs in the fields of Journalism, Communications, Marketing etc. or will you offer a one on one sit downs with the club and it’s members to help them get where they want to be? It will be so interesting to see where the DMS heads from here as it has already come so far.
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Hey Alex,
This is a really impressive and expansive digital artefact! The Career development plan (CDP) is a very good way to help boost your societies member and audience base. However, you will need to have active and consistent advertising to successfully market your society. I believe I remember you and a few other founding members talking one of my lectures late last year about what your society is all about and how it can help students who are doing a digital social media major/minor.
In your beta you mentioned that the digital and social media society accepts students from all courses, this is a very good way to show that you aren’t exclusive to any particular discipline. To add to this you could develop a specific CDP for each aspect of social and digital media, marketing and journalism and if possible hold workshops and work experience opportunities for those other aspects.
I get the feeling you’re open to constant redevelopment of the CDP’s you are currently constructing, I found a few sites that have a few ideas on how to retain and keep members and new members engaged and coming back for more. I hope this is helpful for you and I can’t wait to see where this goes in the near future!
https://getlighthouse.com/blog/career-development-plans-manager-struggles/
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/steps-to-create-a-career-development-plan-1917798
Tim.
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Hi Alex,
It’s really interesting to see this approach to a Digital Artefact! Creating and running a university society must have been a big task to get up and running, but with already over 170 members, is a really great effort! As someone who finds it really daunting to one day have to enter the ‘real world’ workforce, having access to research like this would be greatly beneficial to help prepare me for this (future me thanks you).
The idea of a career development seems fundamental to your project, a key point to think about is how you are going to present this and where, do you plan to present your finding on your blog? Or are you thinking somewhere wider and more accessible to students outside of Communications and Media degrees and even further outside of Wollongong? Another note, I think it would be beneficial to also present your findings in a simplified table; e.g. categories of jobs/skills and attributes most important within your findings and predictions. As it seems as though you have already prepared and done tremendous amounts of research, it would be interesting to see the contrasts to how these types of roles used to be in our present time, file:///Users/nicolacarnevale/Downloads/Marketing%20and%20Communications%20Career%20Prospects%20and%20Trends%20Report_final%20for%20web.pdf, in comparison to your predictions on what these roles may require based on the possible new skills and assets employees are looking for.
This is a fascinating Digital Artefact! That I can say has an abundance of relevance to university students as a whole and something I look forward to seeing develop as it will be highly beneficial for myself individually. Great work!
– Nicola
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