Career and Employability Analysis - Essay Example

? Personal Development Portfolio Goals Action Success Criteria Target To solicit graduation affiliated to a 1st degree or at the least with a 2:1 rating To be regular and prompt with my classes and course presentation. To focus on the very fundamentals of the concepts and disciplines being pursued by me. To be prompt with my submissions and assignments. Not only to have a theoretical knowledge of the concepts, but also to have a practical and pragmatic insight into the concepts and the way they function in the real life. Once I manage to secure a degree with a high score and the commensurate practical understanding of the concepts being studied by me, I will positively be able to secure a placement with some of the finest and esteemed companies, but will also be endowed with the requisite self confidence and a positive sense of self worth. This degree will also furnish me with the skills that will enable me to function efficiently and optimally in the organizations I work in the future. The third year will be completed in June 2013 To solicit a job in some reputed and big firm like Microsoft, Apple, HSBC, Google, Toyota, etc. To be willing to be mobile while hunting for jobs and to be willing to work at places which do full justice to my aspirations and skills, either in the UK or in some other country. To draft a perfect and practical CV and covering letter by procuring the services of some good professional organization. To proactively look for job opportunities in prestigious companies located across the world. To prepare for the interviews by seeking help of my teachers and colleagues. To actively engage in online tests designed by the professionals affiliated to placement firms. I am quite confident that once I manage to come out with an engaging CV and covering letter and submit it to the selected companies, I will definitely get calls for interviews and assessments. Besides, the pains I will take in drafting my CV and covering letters and the hard work I put in the preparation for my interviews and assessments, this will bolster my chances of ending up with a desirable job in a good concern. Also, the hard work I have already put in grasping the conceptual aspects of my course and in understanding their practical ramifications, I am sure I will be able to meet any professional responsibility that will be assigned to me. November 2012 till January 2014 To make out time for participating in the real time businesses being carried on by my family members in the UK, to try to acquire the organizational skills, which will strengthen my theoretical knowledge and to seek a firsthand experience as to how businesses operate To dedicate a minimal of 12-15 hours helping some family member engaged in a business in the UK. To so organize my schedule that it may not hamper my studies. To work hard for the acquisition of organizational skills, to actively engage with the customers at least on weekends and also to study the strategies being pursued by the competitors so as to be able to understand how consumer choices and expectations have a direct influence on the way businesses operate. Once I acquire multiple skills through my degree and by practically engaging in family businesses, I am confident that this will not only hone my career possibilities, but will also enable me to graduate to running my own business in the near future. These efforts will hone the entrepreneurial skills lying dormant within me. This practical engagement in a family business will facilitate me with skills and abilities in varied aspects of the business world and will also help me thoroughly understand as to how capitalist economies and markets work. June 2013 Engaging experiences; The very process of seeking employment in a big company like Microsoft or Google will not only directly help my career prospects, but will also allow me to seek higher positions in comparatively upstart companies expected to do well in the times to come. First and foremost to seek a placement in a big and reputed firm to bolster my brand appeal and then to keep on hunting for further placements in other companies were I can expect to secure higher placements, better skill enhancement opportunities, much opportunities to polish my people skills and better remunerations. To keep on updating my CV and covering letter in the light of the extra knowledge that I acquire while working. Pursuing this approach will certainly endow me with success; however, I believe that in a professional scenario it is practically not possible to pre-guess everything in advance. Hence, I will foremost focus on two things that are to keep on enhancing and upgrading my skills and to be ready to embrace chance, whenever I come across it. Working in a reputed firm will not only help me acquire skills that will better my chances as an employee, but will also endow me with the practical confidence required to metamorphose as a professional in the future. Job experience in an established firm will further better my career prospects. August 2014 Pursue a part time Masters degree. Apply with UCL, LBS or LSE for seeking a part time Masters in Finance and Marketing. To be thorough, meticulous and organized with my application. To secure impressive grades in graduation and to manage to secure an impressive reference from my immediate employers. January 2015 KILLS TRACKER for LEVEL 6s (Word version) You should complete the FIRST FOUR SKILLS: Communication Working with Others Improving own Learning and Performance Problem Solving Rate your ability in each of these key skills by using the scale 0 - 10 for your assessment: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 no ability started but need able to do this competent competent and supremely at all/ more practice with some help without help able to help others expert never tried You should identify the level where on the scale you think you are and also comment on what evidence your assessment is based in the space beside each component part of the skill. Evidence needs to be hard evidence eg results or feedback from tutors or employers. 1. Communication a). Person to Person(s) communication (competent means with a variety of audiences, speaking fluently and confidently, involving and listening to others) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based I am really quiet deft in the communication aspects of the business. Of late I realized that culture plays an important role in the verbal and nonverbal aspects of interpersonal communication. So being working on my cultural literacy, I am quiet adapt at communicating with people affiliated to varied origins. b). Producing a variety of written documents (competent means using appropriate format, accurate information, appropriate spelling, punctuation and grammar) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based With practice and a concerted skill acquisition, I am now expert in churning out a wide variety of documents with marked grammatical and vocabulary related accuracy. c). Using charts, diagrams and other illustrations to support person to person(s) and written communication (competent means using accurate images, appropriate to the topic and audience) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based I realized very early in my course that illustration markedly adorned and helped communication. So I am quiet apt at using charts, diagrams and statistics to bolster the textual aspects of my presentations and communication. Besides, being actively engaged in some family businesses, I have further acquired some skills in the illustrative aspects of communication. d). Finding information from different written sources (competent means choosing appropriate sources, extracting relevant information and collating from different sources) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based This is really an aspect of communication and academics which I am really good at. I am conversant in culling out information and references from textual and non-textual resources and in methodically citing those sources. 2. Working with others a). Planning complex work with others, agreeing objectives, responsibilities and working arrangements (competent means ensuring clear goals and realistic objectives for working together, clear responsibilities and taking on appropriate tasks within agreed resources and providing progress reports). Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based I am really apt at creating a work environment that is imbued with trust and accountability. However, as per me, it takes some effort in building support around shared ideas and approaches. While working in the confectionary business of my uncle, I displayed ample ability in team work and group communication. b). Seeking to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships over an extended period of time, agreeing changes to achieve agreed objectives (competent means: organising and carrying out tasks so you can be effective and efficient in meeting your responsibilities and produce the quality of work required, establishing and maintaining cooperative working relationships, agreeing ways to overcome any difficulties, exchanging accurate information on progress of work, agreeing changes where necessary to achieve objectives) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: I strongly believe in the maxim that it is mostly the cooperative temperament in a team that churns out positive results. I am capable of working cooperatively in teams which have members affiliated to varied origins, goals and aspirations. While working in the confectionary business of my uncle, I was many a times able to harness my communication skills, listening ability and a cooperative bent of mind to usher in cohesion, synergy and success while dealing with assignments. 3. Improving own learning and performance a) Agreeing targets and planning how these will be met (competent means: seeking information on ways to achieve what you want to do, identifying factors that might affect your plans, using this to agree realistic targets with appropriate people and planning to manage your time effectively) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: I believe that practically speaking, career enhancement is much about skill acquisition. Success is a matter of habit and one really becomes expert in a skill which one practices on a continual basis. So I ardently look for opportunities and work environments that provide opportunities for learning new skills. While engaged in the confectionary business of my uncle, I acquired many skills like communicating with customers, understanding customer expectations, team work and communicating across cultures. b) Taking responsibility for your learning by using your plan and seeking feedback and support from relevant sources to help meet targets (competent means: managing your time effectively revising your plan as necessary, seeking and actively using feedback and support from relevant sources to help you meet your targets and selecting and using different ways of learning to improve your performance, adapting approaches to meet new demands) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: While working at the confectionary business of my uncle, I realized that soliciting and responding to the feedback played an important role in skills enhancement. However, being engaged in a family business, I was lucky to have mentors who were mostly forthcoming with their feedback. I regularly solicited the feedback from these mentors and made it a point to proactively respond to this feedback by making commensurate changes and improvements. 4. Problem Solving a). Defining the problem (competent means: identifying, exploring and establishing main features of the problem; and agreeing conditions for a successful solution) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: I am quite good at engaging with problems in a methodical, reasonable and analytical way. I believe that problem solving is primarily about the way one perceives a challenge and the way one identifies the opportunities hidden behind a problem. During the 2nd year of my course it was mostly me who helped his friends engage with problems in a methodical and systematic way. b). Identifying solutions (competent means: considering a range of solutions, selecting an appropriate solution and reviewing the process for identifying solutions) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: As far as the concept of solution identification is concerned, I believe in taking things from the soft handle. Eventually in solution identification, it is mostly those solutions that garner maximal team support and participation are able to yield results. Working as a manager in my uncle’s business involved multiple HR issues, and most of the times I was able to identify solutions that culled employee approval and commitment. c). Carrying out solutions (competent means: devising a plan for carrying out the solution, obtaining agreement for required resources, carrying out the plan and reviewing progress) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: As already mentioned, I mostly opt for solutions which accrue maximal team support and commitment, so many a times the solutions identified by me manage to turn out into real success. However, there are times when a solution may seem averse to many team members irrespective of being promising but hard. At such times I realized that it is the leadership skills of a manager that play a pivotal role in attracting team participation. d). Evaluating outcomes and methods (competent means: evaluating outcomes against agreed conditions for success, evaluating methods used, reviewing implementation plan and checking procedures) Level: Evidence on which your assessment is based: This is an aspect of business which I am really deft at. While working as a part time manager at my uncle’s business I advised my uncle to extend special rebate to a particular customer. I had a hunch that this customer was quiet important. After much discussion, my uncle agreed to my proposal. Much to our satisfaction, this particular customer not only turned out to be a repeat customer, but she also exclusively signed a contract with our business to supply confectionary in all the future events hosted by her. Self-Reflective Essay There is no denying the fact that now that this is my 3rd year in the university, I have gained much confidence and a sense of purpose and self worth. While creating CVs and covering letters while applying for part time and summer jobs, I have achieved dexterity in a variety of organizational skills and talents. Besides, while engaging with the theoretical concepts and ideas included in our module, I have been able to create a theoretical framework that supports my future aspirations and plans. Also, while working as a part time manager in my uncle’s business, I have not only been able to see these concepts operational in the real time businesses, but have been able to accrue further insights that refined my theoretical knowhow. While engaging this theoretical and conceptual attributes with the real life business issues and problems, I have acquired much interpersonal, communication, drafting and team work associated skills. The other thing that I acquired after completing my 2nd year at the university was to compare and correlate my skills and work with other people engaged in the similar problems. I compared my skills with my class fellows and aspired to cull out the lacunas in my approach and to develop the concomitant skills and make the commensurate corrections, which could take my skills and efficiency to new heights. I fact I systematically and proactively documented the weak areas of my professional personality and made the required efforts to dilute these weak aspects of my professional side. In that context, the summer placement I secured after completing my 2nd year really turned out to be an eye opener. As I engaged with real customers and business issues, it motivated me to strengthen the weak aspects of my skill pool. I learnt the importance and relevance of customer satisfaction in assuring business viability and profitability. The biggest thing that this academic effort extended to me was to enable me with the requisite self confidence and dexterity that allowed me to exploit my theoretical knowhow to solve actual business problems. Today, I no longer am afraid of facing professional challenges and problems, but rather engagingly grapple with them to churn out results. Reflective statement on presentation series The module under consideration made me conversant with multiple career related challenges of which I was totally oblivious of. Before attending the presentation given by Karen Powell-Williams I was not aware of many challenges that were incumbent on my career. This presentation helped me grasp the fact that much hard work and creativity was required on my part even after completing my graduation. I came to terms with the fact that the current job market happened to be really competitive and considering the ongoing economic meltdown, I need to abide by many suggestions made in the presentation to be able to navigate my career in an effective and successful way. Also, the IBM presentation given by Vasenna Gough as to how to grasp a job in recessions made me more proactive and encouraged me to work on the weaknesses and lacunas that could impact my career. Besides I meticulously noted down many points and tips regarding the varied stages that a job application has to go through and as to how a skilled candidate could navigate through these stages. The third presentation regarding Emotional Intelligence given by Philip Wilson taught me how to channelize my emotions to benefit my career and personal life. I realized the skills required to overcome my professional weaknesses and to learn from my mistakes. This presentation taught me as to how to benefit from online tests and the multiple criteria which the online tests affiliated to. I not only participated in these online tests, but also applied the associated feedback to hone the professional aspects of my personality. The fourth presentation regarding non-advertised jobs and the hidden job market conducted by Dave Mcqueen taught me about the relevance and weight of networking skills in assuring a successful career. In that sense Mcqueen did teach me as to how one can bolster interpersonal networks and can milk these networks to yield information regarding job opportunities and openings. Last but not the least the presentation given by Jon Pike pertaining to whether to complete one’s studies or to start one’s own profit made me really value and cherish my academic effort and the skills and abilities I acquired through this course. Jon Pike also made me realize that one could sometimes create opportunities for skill enhancement and experience accumulation by setting the profit aside and by engaging in non-profit endeavours. This idea really appealed to me and at present I am searching and researching the possible avenues where I could enhance my skill base and experience in a sustainable and viable way. Read More