Career Building - Assignment Example

? Reflective ment Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Reflective ment 3 Introduction 3 Self-awareness 3 Opportunity awareness 5 Decision making 5 Opportunity search 6 Application 7 Feedback on the interview 8 Conclusion 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 9 Reflective statement Introduction This reflective statement is an account of my journey towards my dream job; to be an entrepreneur and self-employed, myskills, knowledge and the qualities that I have acquired during my journey to my career. All my experience that I have gotten has led to the person that I am today and have greatly contributed to my professional and personal development.Walt Disney, the man behind The Walt Disney Company isquoted, “All of our dreams can come true, if only we have the courage to pursue them.”He is also quoted,"Somehow I can’t believe there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This is a special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized into four C’s. They are curiosity, Confidence, Courage and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence.When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably. “I believe him; with confidence in myself, my dream of becoming an entrepreneur at my 20’s will be a reality. My passion for self-employment has been fueled by different experiences. First, it was influenced by the experience working on different levels in the Saudi government where I worked first as an account assistant was promoted to the top as a Controlling Management Accountant. (Parker, 2009) Self-awareness The H & R tests in my opinion are accurate and are very effective in analyzing and getting to know you better. I believe that the tests greatly helped me to learn myself better. I know understand my strengths, this is in connection to my personality. For example I have learnt that I can be a leader in different capacities as I have influence on people and people can actually listen to me. Thus I have realized that I do have leadership skills which before this course I had no idea I had. I have also realized and come into terms with my weakness and have hereby looked for ways of improving myself. I have also been given the opportunity of seeing what others see as my strengths and also what they view as my weakness. All this have given me the opportunity to understand myself and also given me a chance to look for ways of improving myself. The self-analysing tests that we took in the course of this unit has been geatly helpful to both my professional and personal development.I took a test to better appraise my personality type.I took an online test by Team Technology,whereby I identified my personality as the ENFJ personality.Individuals from this personality type put their energy in building harmony between people.They take the personal approach,appreciative of other people and accepts them.They also tend to adapt to their new enviroment ,aim to understand other people’s needs and when working in a team tend to bring harmony within the group.I am more suited to work in a capacity where am costantly interacting with people.I believe that am propely placed in the research assistant job.The main weaknesses in this personality type is talking too much and taking critisism personally. The second test I took was the learning style test whereby I took an online learning style(learning-styles-online.com) where I was to be a social learning type .I am a good listener,able to understand others views and communicate easily with others whether verbally or non-verbally.Thus I can be very important to a organisation as I will be able to understand my customers views and also those of my colleagues.Learning my learning style has also influenced my studies here in the university as I know what to focus on. The last test I took was the VAK Test where I took an online test which is also an online test where by one’s learning style is identified.Am a auditory learning style kind of an individual whereby I gather information through hearing what people are saying e.g. listening to lectures,to my colleagues and classmates.I also took a test on mindtools.com where I was able to review my decision making skills.From this test I would thus be able to improve my decision making tools which would be helpful in my career. Opportunity awareness My greatest hindrance to venturing into my dream job has always been myself. I did not have enough confidence to venture into it. The fear of failure has always been my major stand back. However this has greatly changed this semester after taking the CV Building and Career Building Unit. While taking this unit I have been continuously been challenged to look at myself and evaluate my strengths and my weakness. This has enabled me to have confidence in myself and to realize that I have everything I need to be successful. The different tasks that I have been allocated; self-evaluation tasks have led me and helped me make important decisions about my career development and also personal development. (Bolles, 2010).They have aslo helped me on my decision to apply for the marketing assistant job as I know the advantages of being employed. Decision making My decision to apply for a job was mainly due to the fact that starting your own business ie self-employment which is my long life dream is very hard especially in the current economic times. A lot of capital is required and if you do not have the required capital you will not be able to develop and attain your dream. (Kirzner, 1973).Apart from this one needs to have adequate experience in different sections of the running a business. In the university I had acquires knowledge of how to run a business. I also had skills; qualifications and the experience of dealing with the expertise of the accounts of a business back home in Saudi where I was employed as an accountant and my academic qualification in the diploma in accounting. I however had no experience in the marketing department. I therefore decided to get a job in the marketing industry and work as marketer in order to acquire the necessary skills in this department. Getting this job would be killing two birds with the same stone as I would also start saving for capital for my business. (Bolles, 2010) Starting a business is also very risky and requires a lot. Furthermore one can start a business while still employed and incase it did not succeed; the job will be a great fall back plan. (Redmond, 2010).While making this decision I consulted severals people who are already in the working class. I consulted my brother who sarted his own business a few years ago after years of employment in an audit firm in the United States of A merica.I also consulted several of my friend who had previously graduated and already working in different parts of Europe. Opportunity search There were different positions and jobs that were available and I had to choose the one that would be most rewarding, the kind of job that I had a passion for. There are several factors which influenced my decision of applying for a position of marketing assistant. The leading ones include my past jobs and qualifications and my future career whereby I hope to eventually start my own company. This will however require a lot of capital and expertise but also a lot of experience in different sections of the business world. My experiences in the past; running the family business back at home in Saudi and also working in the accounting department in the Saudi government, will supplement the knowledge that I have acquired in the university. Ithas rendered me with skills in decision making, analytical skills, business acumen, communication skills and perception which I will use in my career as a marketing assistant. My previous job as an accountant was to assist in the day to day running of the accounts office. I maintained records of invoices and creditors’ payment for the department. ( Aldrich, 1999) Other duties included keeping records of all the transaction and were responsible for preparing of accounts payable, invoices and purchase orders and also running the petty cash and payroll calculation. After my promotion to work as the Controlling ManagementAccountant, I would prepare profit and loss statements, monthly closing and cost accounting reports, compile and analyses financial information to prepare entries to accounts, such as general ledger accounts, and document business transactions for the Saudi Arabian Government. I would also responsible for the analysis and reviewing the budgets and expenditure for the local, state, federal, and private funding, contracts, and grants around Saudi Arabia nationwide. While making the decision on the career choice to take I did,I looked at my personality and the kind of person that I am.A marketing assistant would require someone in my opinion who has good communication skills.A peoples person who easily interacts with other people.One who is able to mix socially and professionaly individuals with different culture from his own as well as those of his cultural orientation. By coming to a university which is in a different environment from that of Saudi and which have diversified people from different culture has enabled and given me an opportunity to work with people from different culture and understanding them. (Aldrich & Waldinger, 1990) Application According to McGee, how you write your CV will greatly influence your chances of getting a job and increase those chances. (McGee, 2006).I therofore took a lot of care when writing my CV so as to increase my chances of getting the marketing assistant job.Writing my CV was not a hard task for me since I had already written several CV in the past while searching for different jobs and positions..The first step and the hardest in getting a job is getting an interview and a well written CV will greatly increase one’s chances of getting the job they are targetting. (McBridge, 2004). My CV before taking this unit was shallowly written and not as impressive as it was not comprehensively bringing out my strenght and abilities.However after taking this unit,I have learned so much about my self and I was thus able to communicate through the CV of my abilities and qualifications.The application letter and cover letter are as important as the CV since it will show the employer the type of person that you are.The way you have communicated with the employer will determine whether you get that interview or not .If he is impressed with how you have put across your application might lead to an interview or not.Due to the great importance attached to this,I decided to ask a friend who works in leading advertising company in the UK for help.He advised me on the best way to put forward your application and cover letter. I am extremely proud of the CV and application letter that I put forward for the interview.I will keep them and keep updating them as I finish my degree course and start looking for a job for I believe that it will definitely help me in getting that first interview.After I get the first interview the CV and apllication letter will need not represent me to the interviewers but I will have the opportunity to talk for myself of my experiences and my qualification and skill which will enable me to get a good job. Feedback on the interview Before the job interview as I waited my turn outside the office I was extremely nervous. I was filled with anxiety as I wondered whether the interviewers would be impressed with both my verbal and non-verbal skills. During the job interview for the position of marketing assistant, I was properly dressed in an official suit and was there on time, actually ten minutes before time and I used the remaining time to get comfortable and relax before the interview began. During the interview I was relaxed and I was as confident and clear to the question posed to me as much as I could possibly be. I asked questions about the company and about my terms of service. However during the interview I was confused by a question whereby one of the people interviewing me asked me how much money I was expecting to be paid and replied whatever they found suitable for the job they are giving me.Later after the interview I could not help but worry about this question since I thought that maybe they wanted to test about how much I valued my expertise. By not being definitive when it came to the amount of salary I expected it might appear to the future employers as an individual who do not value themselves and a person who is also vague. My greatest strength during the interview was my past experiences in the jobs before joining high school and my attitude and physical appearance. I however feel that I need to be more prepared for the tricky questions thrown my way during the interview. I realized that a single question can confuse you during an interview and jeopardized my chances of getting the job. I therefore decided to always research on a company before a job interview and also the market so that when asked about my expected salary I would have an answer. I would also ask other people how to handle trick questions especially those already employed. Conclusion The process of writing this reflective statement has offered me the opportunity to reassess my previous goals and experience together with what I have learnt during my years of study in Southampton Solent University.It has also enabled me to review on the skills that I have and also be able to deal with my greatest barrier to the attainment of my dream career.I have been able to overcome my fear for failure. Therefore the writing of this reflective statement has been a turning point and also an important learning process. BIBLIOGRAPHY Aldrich, H. (1999). Organisation Revolving. London: Sage Publishers. Aldrich, H., & Waldinger, R. (1990). Ethnicity and Entreprenuership. Annual Review on Sociology, 111-135. Birch, D. (1981). Who Creates Jobs. The Public Interest, 3-15. Bolles, R. (2010). What Color is Your Parachute. London: Crown Publishing Group. Bygrave, W. (2004). Theory of Building in the Entreprenuership Paradigm. Journal of Business Venturing, 255-265. Harper, D. (2004). Foundations of Entreprenuership and Economic Development. London: Routledge. Kanter, R. (1982). The Middle Manager as Innovator. Harvard Business Review, 95-99. Kirzner, I. (1973). Competition and Entreprenuership. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Knaup, A. (2005). Survival and Longevity in the Business Employment;Dynamic Data. Monthly Labor Review, 88. Knight, F. (1921). Risk,Uncertainity and Profits. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Kuhn, T. (1962). The Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McBridge, P. (2004). CVs and A pplications. Lifetime Careers, 78. McGee, P. (2006). How to Write a CV that Works. London. Nelson, R. (1993). National Innovation Systems. New York: Oxford University Press. Parker, S. (2009). The Economics of Entreprenuership. Ontario: Cambridge University Press. Porter, M. (1980). Competitive Stratery. New York: Free Press. Redmond, P. (2010). The Graduate Jobs Formula. Chicago: Trotman Publishing. Smart, J. (2009). Higher Education:Handbook of Theory and Research. Springer, 492. Read More