A Special Place in the Financial Industry - Essay Example

Reflective Report Introduction I am writing this as a of PASBD and all these happened in a semester. As accountants we hold a special place in the financial industry given we are the holders and controllers of most organizational resources. The employers in the industry are always very keen on whom on us and our competitiveness before they land on any of us for employment. PASBD as a unit is hence critical in equipping me with proper training as qualified financial and accounting experts for such a competitive industry. The unit has equipped me and my group members with all the skills we require in the industry ranging from technical skills to soft skills. Due to the knowledge obtained from this unit, my presentation skills, communication, group-handling skills, decision making under both certainty and uncertainty and the much-needed problem solving skills are sharp. In the short past in the industry, we have made three presentations and one interview, made analysis, and compiled corporate reports. These trainings have made us realize our areas of weaknesses and opportunities. I have gained immense insight and training in my field based on the provisions of the unit (PASBD). My interview, teamwork, and communication skills are quite efficient. As a result I am today in a position of interacting with personalities of whatever manner. The PASBD is designed with the sole aim of developing the skills of professionals in a manner that as graduands of the course we are able to handle hard tasks with tighter deadlines and unpredictable situations (Bolton 2005). As an accountant having gone through this course, I exhibit the highest form of competency in my work. Apart from simply aiding my group members and me in getting a job, PASBD also helps me be organized in any job to an extent that I am able to grow, survive in the jobs and ultimately excel in terms of my career growth. My theoretical aspects of the course already acquired throughout the other modules of the course have been translated into practical approaches. Today I am able to adopt technological approaches to finding solutions to problems I face in the industry. At my workplace, I am able to work harmoniously in teams and achieve individual targets as well. In addition, my listening skills are quite effective and making professional or corporate presentation in our organization is just exemplary. Today, from the knowledge acquired am able to identify and solve a variety of problems whether structured or unstructured an aspect that I appreciate so much (Cartwright & Scisco 2004). I felt delighted during the presentations and as a result, outcome and our experiences were interesting. This is because our ability on various aspects was tested and specifically that to inspire and sell an organization and its products. I realized that in the process of one selling and organization through effective presentations one sells themselves in the job market as well. I came to learn that modern work environments are challenging and require that an individual is able to outsmart the rest to remain relevant. In addition, we were able to interact with the real world in the real contexts as we conducted interviews with organizations ranging from government, social and even private. As I conducted the interviews, what became clear is the ability of each of us when it comes to inspiring and audience. Largely, what was able to come out clearly was the efforts made by each of us to persuade and bring out constructive thoughts and impressive virtues from different personalities. Our objectives with the presentation were to display the financial aspect of the specific organizations. I realized that I had come of age and was able to display this using information. In such cases, an aspect of timing is brought in. This is to test how organized, objective and disciplined the presentation is likely to become under our stewardship (Cartwright & Scisco 2004). During the presentation, one of my common phobias when it comes to communication is the ability to speak to and audience and this aspect required me to train quite well. It was sad to realize that not every member of a group is able to address an audience in an equal likely manner. Some of us faced distress given the discomfort we faced. I specifically spotted some members of our group blushing, experiencing facial immobility, sweating, shaking, and inability to speak fluently and normally. According to a group member, “Such challenges, act as an opportunity of a revelation…” I became sad while recording this: this is because our analytical, problem identification and solving skills came to question and it is important to reflect upon the preparedness of members of my group in line with such concerns. In all my presentations and mostly the ones requiring us to investigate and organization, conflict of interest or indulgence with the clients and their private information is highly discouraged. The understanding of the audience and the ethical requirement of the job is very important. At some point, I became nervous when our individual abilities to stand and command a room during a presentation came to test. Each individual exhibited the abilities of small amounts of movement, a little pacing, and use of hand gestures and at times even go closer to the audience. I equipped the group members with these skills in order to create a warm and good feeling between the relating parties. I saw the eyes of each group member glow with the confidence and the sense of achievement of the presenters. I enjoyed the toughness of the interview with the professional firm however technical it was. I saw this as a simple challenge and full of experience. I used to hear about interviews but this opportunity gave me a chance to come one on one with experts. I realized such; interviewing skills will ensure that one can easily recruit the workforce of an organization (Winter & Buck 1999). I came to terms with the fact that interviews do not restrict the respondents making us be in the position of expressing ourselves. To make things even worse is the fact that the interviews brought on board our group members and CIMA, a professional body. My turn in the interview was quite demanding in terms of preparations. In addition, the details expected of me had to entail a lot of factual and lawful information. Our discussions in interviews were clearly structured, testing one’s analytical skills and how inquiring our mind. This comes along with the availability of common sense to enhance the development of far reaching recommendations. The report required of me entailed a development of key and fundamental aspects in the work environment. This is because it gave us the chance of scrutinizing different kinds of organizations on various aspects of their operations without limitation (Winter & Buck 1999). This made it possible for me and my group members to at least have a glimpse of what happens in the industry. This is very important in an effort to become an all-round personality. Personality developed in such a way gives an individual the ability to perform under any environmental circumstances. The beauty with presentations and interviews is that communication skills are sharpened. These skills have ensured that each one of us is able to listen effectively for the sake of gaining comprehensive information. I am normally poor when it comes to formulating arguments but this time I was as well able to argue and always present my points of arguments and defend them both verbally and in writing. It is important to note that all the activities we got involved in turned out wonderful most so the presentation. To a large extent work can be done under conflicting and extraordinary situations as well as selectively depending on priority. Time management as a very important and practical skill was learnt. Other skills acquired because of this model are the direly needed problem solving and IT skills (Winter & Buck 1999). Understanding and interpretation are skills that one must posses when one has to handle reports in any organization. In our group, we had to be in the position of being able to interpret such reports to any given party of interest. The preparation of such reports given the contents they demand and the timelines normally set is quite of a big challenge. This distinctly showed how organizational and analysis skills can vary between individuals. Investigation and monitoring units must always be present in any organization to facilitate the coming up with both short term and long-term measures to help in the growth of the business. I was able to advise on the behavior of stock to ensure there is a balance between actual stock and cash. Customer handling measures was also brought up and ways to influence customers to buy also came up in a practical advisory manner. I cleared college equipped with job seeking skills as opposed to most graduates who find it quite hard penetrating the job market due to lack of preparation on how to look for jobs. Through the interview, we realized that even in the instances when their applications are able to go through, some still are never lucky to secure such jobs due to poor skills and expertise. Through the CIMA interview, the requirements by most employers were brought to the surface and we were able to tackle the frequently asked questions by employers (Williams & Woolliams 2012). This is a part from the general standard requirements such as being in the position to communicate well, ability to meet targets. A memorable and successful presentation is that with great and relevant content brought out with conviction and style. As a result, given an interview situation we are able to conclusively tackle questions like; “why do you want to work for our organization?”, “what will you contribute to our organization?” and so forth. The study has helped us identify skills that are as well in line with the employer’s requirements of personality, the commercial acumen in terms of the depth by which a personality is able to handle business and experience. Educational requirements in terms of the strength of the degree attained also matters though to a lower scale. The interaction with the professional bodies also aided the students with the best way they are in the position of developing their accounting skills skewed towards the required skills by the market. Through practice of the knowledge we got from such studies, we felt proud of ourselves having made such right choices. In my mind today, it rings that professionalism as presented by PASBD requires a professional to always have vast knowledge and be a problem solver. Business relationships among the stakeholders play a great deal when it comes to growth, and growth oriented organizations must all go this way. Presentation and interviews are likely to be successful when the individual involved have clear diction and adequate volume. To ensure measured deliverable the presenters need to relax and speak steadily something we did frequently throughout the exercise. None of our members was convenient with the use of aids but I inspired them when I mentioned how interesting the use of PowerPoint would be. In case of use of aids such as PowerPoint, they have to be good with clear beginning, middle and end (Williams & Woolliams 2012).In the end I was able to realize much career growth and expertise in my field of accounting. I am a personality to reckon with something that makes me a proud professional in the accounting field. Through this report, I am sure of becoming even a better person as I go through it repeatedly. Through the reports, I today know of the areas I went wrong and I need to correct things that I have never been able to see before. References Bolton, G, 2005, Reflective practice: writing and professional development (2nd ed.), Sage Publications: London. Cartwright, T, & Scisco, P, 2004, Developing your intuition a guide to reflective practice, Center for Creative Leadership: Greensboro, N.C. Mcnaught, K, 2010, Reflective writing in mathematics education programs, Reflective Practice, 11(3), 369-379. Williams, K, & Woolliams, M, 2012, Reflective writing, Palgrave Macmillan: Hound mills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. Winter, R, & Buck, A, 1999, Professional experience & the investigative imagination the art of reflective writing, Routledge: London. Read More