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Personal Growth

How to Develop a Personal Plan of Growth

Becoming a compelling candidate from where you actually are, not where you think you should be. Written from my own experience combined with research and real perspectives from hiring managers and recent graduates.

Developed by Hasiba Hasin Royesh, Bucknell University, Summer 2026 Research Project, supervised by Professor Darakhshan Mir

A note before you start

I want to be upfront about where I am coming from with this guide. I have not had a traditional computing internship at a tech company. I have done undergraduate research across multiple areas, built a real platform for a nonprofit organization, held leadership roles on campus, worked as a Teaching Assistant, and spent a lot of time figuring out what I actually want from a career in computing. That is not the resume most computing students are told they should have. But it is a real one, and I think it is more useful to write from that honest place than to pretend I have credentials I do not.

I also did research on what the current computing job market actually looks for, because my experience alone is just one data point. What I found is that the advice I would give based on my own journey is pretty well supported by what hiring experts and recent graduates are saying in 2025 and 2026. This guide combines both.

What the job market actually looks like right now

Before talking about how to become a compelling candidate, it is worth understanding what compelling means in the current context, because it has changed significantly.

Entry-level computing roles feel scarce in 2025 and 2026. Recent data shows that over 41% of recent computing graduates are underemployed, and the unemployment rate for recent computing graduates sits around 6.1%, higher than many would expect for such a popular major (Extern, 2026). Entry-level roles are reportedly down over 50% from pre-pandemic highs (Extern, 2026). With more graduates than jobs, a degree and Grade Point Average alone will not set you apart.

What gets you hired now is combining your degree with evidence of applied skills, whether through internships, externships, research, or independent projects. Cold applying to hundreds of postings rarely works. Students often confuse activity with progress. Success comes from being strategic: targeting roles, using referrals, and building credibility with actual proof of work (DeMott, 2025).

By 2030, artificial intelligence tool proficiency, system design thinking, and product sense will be standard expectations. Pure coding ability remains important but is no longer sufficient on its own, you need to understand the "why" behind the "what" (RightWay Admission, 2025).

This matches what I experienced. I was applying broadly and getting mostly silence. The problem was not my qualifications, it was the strategy. The research I am doing this summer on ethics-aligned careers found the same thing from the academic side: computing departments push students toward prestige-seeking paths and the students who want something different have to do that work entirely on their own, without the same career center support or recruiting pipeline (Kirdani-Ryan, Ko & Borisova, 2023).

Where most students go wrong, and where I went wrong too

For most of my sophomore and junior year I was applying to jobs the way a lot of computing students do: broadly, quickly, and with more attention to the number of applications than the quality of any one of them. I was following what people around me seemed to be doing. I was applying to companies that sounded impressive rather than ones I actually wanted to work for. I was writing cover letters that did not sound like me because I did not know what I actually wanted to say.

The result was mostly silence. And for a long time I thought the problem was me, my Grade Point Average, my experience, my qualifications. But it was not. It was the strategy.

Patrick Stevens, a software engineer who documented his job search honestly, described the same turning point. He graduated with three internships in the Seattle area, one of the strongest tech markets in the country, and still could not get responses through mass applying. What changed things was uploading his personal projects to GitHub and adding the link to his LinkedIn. Recruiters started reaching out because they could see actual work. Then networking helped him get past automated screening. Then targeted preparation for specific job postings helped him succeed in interviews. Each of those was a different problem requiring a different solution. Recognizing that is more useful than just applying harder to the same approach (Stevens, 2019).

The lesson is not to apply more. It is to apply smarter, to the right things, with real preparation behind each one.

What actually makes a compelling candidate in 2026 and 2027

Based on both my research and my own experience, here is what actually stands out, combining the hiring manager perspective, recent graduate experiences, and current market data.

Proof of applied work, not just credentials

One of the biggest shifts in computing hiring is that employers are focusing less on titles and more on what you can actually do. Real projects, even ones that are not at famous companies, demonstrate applied ability in a way that a transcript cannot.

One hiring manager who wrote about what he actually looks for in fresh computing graduates put it plainly: transcripts are of very limited value in the corporate world. A grade in Data Structures and Algorithms does not tell him what you can actually build. What he wants to see is proof of real individual contribution, something you built or solved on your own, not a group project where it is unclear who did what (Bramani, 2021).

Building a platform for a nonprofit organization, contributing to a research project, developing something that a real user actually uses, these things tell a story about what you can do. The key is being able to show and explain your specific contribution, not just the project.

Upload your projects to GitHub. Add the link to your LinkedIn and resume. According to Stevens (2019), this single change is what started getting him noticed by recruiters after months of silence from mass applying.

Genuine networking, not just connections

Do not just add random LinkedIn connections. Build genuine relationships through conversations that actually go somewhere. The right connection can lead to opportunities you would never find otherwise.

Every useful opportunity I have found this summer came through a person, not a job board. My research position, my understanding of public interest technology as a field, the resources I now know about, all of it came through conversations with professors and through the research community I joined. Professors pointed me toward things I would never have found on my own. Older students who had been through the process recently told me what it was actually like.

Specificity over volume

Candidates who use warm introductions, project portfolios, and targeted applications see a much higher response rate than those relying on easy apply buttons (Extern, 2026). A job list that sends over 1,000 postings per day during peak season sounds like abundance. What it actually produces is a lot of generic applications and mostly silence.

The students who get responses are the ones who applied to fewer things with more care, who read the job description carefully, researched the organization, and wrote something that actually addressed what they were looking for.

Being able to articulate what you bring and why it matters

This is the hardest one to teach and the hardest to shortcut. An employer reading your application or sitting across from you in an interview is asking: does this person understand what we need and do they have something real to offer it? Answering that question well requires knowing what you have done, knowing what you want, and being able to connect the two clearly.

I have found it challenging to draw the connection between experiences like student event planning or campus leadership and my technical background. But the connection is almost always there. Working with people from different backgrounds, organizing things that require communication and coordination, showing up consistently for a community, those are real skills. The work is learning to articulate them clearly rather than just listing them.

What a personal plan of growth actually is

A personal development plan is not a five-year spreadsheet with every career decision mapped out. Most of those plans become outdated within six months. What actually works is something more honest and more flexible.

A career development plan outlines four things: where you are now, where you want to go, the gap between those two things, and the route to close that gap. The value is not in having a perfect plan, it is in having thought seriously enough about each of those four things that you can make better decisions when opportunities come up.

The most effective plans create alignment between what you want and what is possible. They connect your unique interests, values, and strengths to the opportunities available in the field you are actually pursuing.

Step 1: Do an honest self-assessment

Before thinking about job titles or grad school programs or application deadlines, spend some time with yourself. The questions I found most useful were not the polished ones from career guides. They were the uncomfortable ones.

I spent a lot of time going back and forth with myself, asking questions of why and why not to see if I actually liked or hated a particular direction. The answers kept changing. That is fine. The point is to keep asking until you have something honest, not something that sounds impressive.

Tools like a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis can help you get a clearer picture of where you actually stand. Combining self-reflection with feedback from mentors and professors gives you a more complete and accurate view than either alone.

One thing I realized: I was confused and not confident for a long time partly because I was comparing my path to everyone else's. Stopping that comparison and asking what I would want to pursue even if everything changed was what actually helped things get clearer.

Step 2: Take a real inventory of what you have actually done

Most students undervalue their own experience because they are comparing it to an imaginary ideal, the student who had three prestigious internships and built five apps. That comparison is not useful and it is usually inaccurate.

Take a real inventory of everything you have done. Not just the things that feel obviously relevant. All of it.

For me that meant looking honestly at research projects across very different areas, from studying solar energy development in Northumberland County as a freshman, to investigating the ethical implications of the Boeing 737 MAX software failures, to an education technology surveillance project, to my current research on ethics-aligned careers in computing. None of those followed a straight line. But together they show a consistent pattern: I am consistently drawn to the intersection of technology, society, and ethics. That pattern is more interesting and more honest than any single credential.

It also meant counting things that did not feel like career experience at the time. Working as a student event planner for the Center for Access and Success at Bucknell, which supports first-generation and pathway scholarship students, taught me how to organize, communicate across different groups, and show up consistently for a community. Serving as secretary of the Association for Computing Machinery's Women's chapter gave me experience in how professional organizations work and how to contribute to a field I care about. Working as a Teaching Assistant changed my relationship with the material I was teaching and with the students I was helping. These things are real. They count.

The challenge, and this is something I am still working on, is drawing the connection between these experiences and the technical work you are presenting yourself as being able to do. That connection is not always obvious but it is almost always there. Part of building your plan is practicing how to articulate it.

When I was involved in different things around campus, there were times I got more invested in those activities than in job applications. But I later realized those experiences were actually building things that matter to employers, communication, leadership, community commitment, and a sense of purpose beyond just technical output.

Step 3: Set goals at multiple time horizons

It can be overwhelming to compare where you are today to landing your dream job. Breaking your plan into smaller, more achievable milestones makes it manageable. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals help transform vague aspirations into concrete steps you can actually track.

Here is how I think about the different time horizons:

Near term (next three to six months): What specific things do I want to have done? Not vague goals like "get better at networking" but concrete ones: apply to three fellowships in a specific area, connect with two alumni doing work I find interesting, revise my resume to be tailored for specific roles rather than generic, read one report per month from an organization doing work I care about. These should be things you can check off.

Medium term (one to two years): What do I want to be doing and learning? For me this means applying to both graduate school and jobs simultaneously and being honest that I do not know yet which path I want more. The medium-term goal is to be in an environment where I am learning from people whose work I respect and doing something that connects technology to the kinds of social questions I care about. Your medium-term goal does not have to be certain. It just needs to be directional.

Long term (five to ten years): Decide what is most important to you in life and in work. This will help you decide what kind of organization you want to be part of long-term and what values and culture you want to avoid. For me the long-term goal is to be doing work that contributes to how technology gets built or governed in ways that are more equitable and accountable, whether in research, tech policy, or a mission-driven organization. The specific job title matters less than the direction.

Having a rough sense of direction, even one that changes, makes short-term decisions easier. It gives you a filter. When an opportunity comes up, you can ask: does this move me in the direction I actually want to go?

Step 4: Build deliberately, not just busily

Research on professional growth suggests that roughly 70% of learning comes from on-the-job experiences, 20% from relationships and mentorship, and only 10% from formal training like courses and certifications (VerifyEd, 2025). This means the most valuable things you can do for your growth are not additional courses, they are real experiences and real relationships.

Busyness is not the same as growth. Being in ten clubs is not the same as being meaningfully invested in two. Applying to a hundred jobs is not the same as crafting five strong applications for roles you actually want.

The question to ask when considering any opportunity is not "will this look good?" It is "will this teach me something I want to know, connect me to people I want to learn from, or help me do work I care about?"

On research experience specifically

Doing undergraduate research, even in areas you later move away from, builds skills that are transferable to almost anything. You learn how to sit with uncertainty, ask better questions, find information that does not show up easily, and communicate what you found to people who were not in the room with you. Those skills matter in industry, in grad school, in nonprofit work, in policy work, in almost anything you might want to do after graduation.

Research experience is also one of the strongest things you can have on a graduate school application, and it opens the door to strong letters of recommendation from professors who actually know your work.

On campus involvement and leadership

The leadership and community roles you take on in college are not just extracurriculars. They are practice for the workplace. Working with people who have different backgrounds and different goals than you, organizing things that require coordination and communication, showing up consistently for a community, all of that is real experience. The challenge is learning how to articulate it clearly rather than just listing it.

I served as a Teaching Assistant and as a student event planner working with first-generation and scholarship students. I was part of the Bucknell TEAM program, served in the Association for Computing Machinery's Women's chapter, and built close relationships with professors who guided me outside of class. At the time I did not always think of those as career-building activities. Looking back, they built things that cannot be taught in a classroom.

Step 5: Get your resume to a place you are proud of

A few honest things I learned about resumes:

The career center is a real resource. I went several times and received useful feedback. The consistent note was that I had a solid background and meaningful experience but I needed to tailor my resume to specific roles rather than listing everything and letting the reader figure out what is relevant. That advice is worth taking seriously.

Describe your work with specificity. Lead with the things you have actually done. Describe projects with impact verbs and technical specifics. "Built a platform for a nonprofit managing a hierarchical structure across multiple user roles using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Supabase" tells a reader something real about what you can do. "Worked on a project" does not.

Club leadership, tutoring, and research coordination all belong on a resume when framed clearly. The question is not whether the experience counts, it is whether you have explained it in a way that makes its relevance obvious.

Tailor to the specific role. Tailoring is not faking. It means reading a job description carefully, identifying what they are actually looking for, and presenting your real experience in a way that makes the connection clear. It means pulling forward the experiences most relevant to this specific role and putting other things lower or removing them.

A resume that tries to show everything often ends up showing nothing clearly. A resume tailored to a specific opportunity shows that you understand what they need and have something genuine to offer it. The career center can help you with this, bring a specific job posting and ask for targeted feedback.

One hiring manager said it directly: transcripts are of very limited value. He does not look at them. What he wants to see is what you built, what problem you solved, and what your specific contribution was, not what grade you got in a class (Bramani, 2021).

Step 6: Use the resources around you, actually use them

This is the part most students skip or underuse. I include myself in that.

Talk to your professors outside of class. Not just about coursework, about what they see in the field, what paths they know about, what they think about your interests. Faculty have networks and knowledge that career center websites do not capture. Ask them specifically to connect you with people doing the kind of work you are interested in. Most professors will help if you ask with genuine interest and a specific question.

Building a close relationship with professors who know your work well also sets you up for strong letters of recommendation, which matter enormously for graduate school and for certain competitive fellowships.

Go to the career center and take it seriously. Get your resume reviewed. Ask specifically about the kinds of roles you are interested in, not just general advice. Ask if they know of alumni doing work in areas you care about. Bring a specific job posting you are considering and ask for targeted help tailoring your materials.

Use platforms actively, not passively. Set up job alerts for specific roles and organizations on LinkedIn and Handshake. Follow organizations doing work you find interesting. Connect with alumni who are doing what you want to do and send a genuine, specific message asking for fifteen minutes of their time. Public interest technology-specific job boards like benzevgreen.com/jobs and techjobsforgood.com, and communities like the All Tech Is Human Slack, surface opportunities that never appear on LinkedIn.

Build genuine relationships with people a few years ahead of you. Talk to recent graduates and people two to five years out of college who are in roles or paths you are curious about. Their experience is recent and practical in a way that generic career advice cannot be. Ask them what they wish they had done differently. Ask what they did not expect. Their honest answers are worth more than most career guides.

Figure out what kind of candidate you actually want to be

Not what kind you think you should be. What kind you actually want to be.

For me the answer to this took a while to get honest about. I want to be someone who is strong and knowledgeable in my field but also someone who cares about the greater good, especially for communities that are marginalized or underserved by the systems being built. I want to come across as someone who is willing to take risks, who is flexible, who does not fall apart after a failure, and who stays humble after a success. I want to be determined and mission-driven and responsible with my time and commitments. I am genuinely curious, I learn from my mistakes, and I get excited about things I do not know yet.

That is the candidate I want to be. Writing it down was actually useful because it gave me something to check my applications against. Is this cover letter written by that person? Is this resume presenting someone who looks like that? If not, something needs to change.

I had a hard time sometimes distinguishing between "do I care about having a job and making money regardless of what it is" versus "do I want to do something I actually care about, and what is that thing?" That tension is real and it is worth being honest about. Both things matter. The question is how you balance them in a way that does not leave you applying to things you do not want just to have a number.

The honest summary

Becoming a compelling candidate is not about accumulating credentials. It is about knowing who you are well enough to show up clearly and honestly, having done enough real things that you have something genuine to say, and being able to connect your experience to what you are pursuing in a way that makes sense to someone reading your application or sitting across from you in an interview.

That takes time and honesty and some willingness to follow what you actually care about rather than what seems safest or most impressive. It is harder than mass applying. It is also more likely to work, and more likely to lead you somewhere you actually want to be.

Never give up even after rejection. Confidence takes a hit, but you have to learn from it and keep going. If you prepare and put in the work, and if you are looking in the right places for the right things, you will find your path (Stevens, 2019).

References

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