Personal Statement and Critical Reflection on Past Work Experience - Essay Example

 Personal statement I am a hardworking, intelligent and humble individual. I believe to have gained enough experience in the past years from the different working places, and in the various roles, I have played. I have always striven to gain and develop new skills and experience, in every position or organization I work. I strongly believe in team spirit. Having known that the entire world has transformed into a global village, I have enrolled to computer science classes. This is because I have always been amazed by the fact that, with advanced technologies, we can find solutions to the challenges and complex problems that face the human race. I have used this added skill as my reckoning strength towards facing any new challenges. As I look for a new, challenging position, I intend to use the existing experience and skills in tackling new challenges as well as improving my professional and personal development. Two of my strongest attributes that have shaped me into the person I am includes; determination and the ability to have a continuous self assessment and evaluation of my strength and weaknesses. This helps me to device ways of improving my weaknesses and strengthening my strengths. Critical Reflection on past work experience For an individual to be capable of facing new challenges, I have a strong belief that, he/she should first conduct self realization and assessment. Anita (2011) asserts that self realization is a crucial tool that helps one in self development and achievement of one’s goals and objectives in life. This realization through assessment and evaluation enables one to realize his/her strengths, weaknesses, capabilities and self potential. This tool has enabled me in formulating the efficient and informed strategies in improving my weaknesses and strengthening my strengths. It has also enabled me devise measures to use in monitoring my improvements. Self awareness has enabled me to understand strengths and weaknesses. My strengths include; possession of exemplary interpersonal skills, persistence, consistency, determination, a teamwork spirit, just to mention but a few. Behind all the glitter, there lie some elements of weaknesses that includes; procrastination, being a perfectionist and lack of ability to follow schedules to the latter. Since 2008 to-date, I have been working as a community organizer manager. This position has reinforced in me, the importance of interpersonal skills. The responsibilities of this position include; assisting in resolving problems, providing a high standard of customer services and resolving complains in a prompt and efficient manner. From 2004 to 2007, I worked as a project organizer officer. My responsibility was assisting children from all backgrounds. All these responsibilities call for a mature and sound relationship. This skill gives me the ability to interact and relate freely with employees in the organization as well as customers. I have demonstrated this skill in my capacity through listening and communicating, assertiveness, influencing others, creative problem solving, negotiation, and serving others in a friendly way. Good personal skills result to conflict resolution, increased participation and good relationship. I have also used this skill in creating forums, whereby all employees can air their grievances. Furthermore, I have always created that time to listen to them and address their problems effectively. This forum has helped me instill a sense of belonging among the employees. As a result of this skill, I have seen the development and growth of the organizations which I have worked for. Having served in capacities of a manager, I gained and developed the persistence and consistency skill. Being a manager, the responsibility of ensuring the organization achieves its set core goals is placed on one. Being a manager and a project organizer officer, I had to ensure that the respective organizations achieved and maintained a high level of excellent performance. Through this skill, I am able to ensure that an organization attains a set level of performance and maintains it with a continuous improvement despite any challenges that may be experienced. This skill has enabled me not to give up easily on issues and always being able to find solutions to the stabling blocks. With this skill, I am able to formulate result- oriented strategies in pursuit of achieving the common objectives in an organization. This skill has taught me not to quit even the fighting a losing battle. For any organization to be able to achieve its core objectives, there need to be a teamwork spirit among the employees from all departments in the organization (Ricky 2011, p 243). In attaining the organization’s goals, effort of each employee is crucial. This skill has given me the ability to cooperate and work closely with the others towards a common set goal. With my effective interpersonal skills, I have been able, as a manager, to understand the other employees’ individual strengths and weaknesses and bring them together. I have always advocated for a teamwork spirit among the employees. Ricky (2011, p256) affirms that in any management board, its members are expected to work closely and ensure that the organization moves forward. Having worked as a project organizer officer, I realized that this skill was essential, especially when there is a specialization aspect in an organization (Christopher 2000, p124). In such a case, everyone brings on board his/her ideas in undertaking the project. Different shared ideologies results to a maximum profitability and timely met goals. Lastly, I have developed skills and passion in embracing the advancements in technology. Computer and the internet network have really helped me in my research on diverse ideas of different professionals globally. I have always used these ideas to face new challenges in my management responsibilities. The advanced technology has evolved to become an integral part of individuals’ daily lives (Kathy 2011, p267). Computer has helped me in efficiently managing and analyzing data. On the other hand, from the self realization assessment, I have been able to identify my weaknesses. This has been of great significant towards my personal development. One of my greatest weaknesses is procrastination. I have realized that I tend to loss interest very quickly. This happens especially when doing something boring. I always find myself leaving certain important tasks incomplete to attend to others. For example, when I was working as a project organizer manager, I was given a responsibility of recording and analyzing data and also collecting data from the public on the project. I found it boring sitting behind the computer screen, all alone, trying to analyze data. I opted to go to the field and interact directly with the public. I found it extremely interesting sharing ideas in an open forum. This is a problem that hindered me from beating the set deadlines. I have also realized that I am a perfectionist. I have severally applied a self philosophy that everything that I set myself to do should be perfect. I have found this to be a challenge especially when it comes to things that are beyond my capability or control. When I fail to complete a task as expected, I feel like a failure. This tortures my mind and eats a lot of my time meant for doing another task in thinking about it. As a result, I feel more withdrawn. Consequently, I end up not completing other important tasks. It has also come to my knowledge that I have a weakness of handling extremely many duties at the same time. Sometimes, I tend to juggle too many things at the same time which at times leads to confusion and failure to achieve various ultimate goals in due schedule. Having known my strengths and weaknesses, I have set some strategies that will help me improve on both the strengths and weaknesses. Procrastination has been as a result of poor time management skills. I have realized how crucial it is in improving the efficiency and enhancing control over time spent on activities. To be efficient and proactive, it is important for me to clarify priorities and values in any organization. I plan to do this by mastering the skill of efficient, time management through setting personal goals, prioritizing work and setting deadlines. Drafting a task list will also be essential, as it will assist me in planning, allocation of time for specific tasks, delegating, monitoring and evaluation of my daily personal developments. My strategy will involve a work plan within a time frame, organizing and self encouragement. In improving the weaknesses, I will be coherently improving on the strengths. Continous monitoring and evaluation of performance will enable me to measure my improvement. I intend to do this by carrying out daily reviews and screening on my daily working. Effective completion of projects and other tasks within the time frame and target dates will enable me to measure my performance against the set time limits. Since 1996, I have worked with different organization in various positions. I started as a city library clerk in Nigeria. In 1998, I worked in France as a project manager. Later, in 2004, I got another job as a project organizer officer. Finally, I am working as a community organizer manager. In all those various working positions, I have gained enough experience to handle any job with any kind challenges. I have gained and developed skills in effective management, team work skills, computer skills, provision of friendly working environment for the employees, ability to motivate the workers in working towards the objectives of the organization and skills in mobilizing the employees working under me. I have also gained coveted experience in working under pressure and in a harsh environment. I have great ambitions for work in relation to history and culture. These working environments create a sense of responsibility in preservation of our culture. It is a collective responsibility for everyone to conserve culture and maintain historical monuments. Therefore, working in locations of historical importance acts as a constant reminder of the importance of conservation. References Anita, K 2011, Self-realization, Springer, New York Christoph, L. & Reiser, M 2000, Performance Evaluation: Origins and Directions, Springer, New York Kathy, S 2009, Information Technology Project Management. Cengage Learning, Stamford. Nikolas, E 2011, Strengths and weaknesses: How to make it a More Effective Organization, GRIN Publishing, Munich. Ricky, W 2011, Fundamentals of Management, Cengage Learning, Stamford Read More