Personal, Academic, and Career Effectiveness - Admission/Application Essay Example

Personal, Academic and Career Effectiveness I am a foreign student surviving in a foreign land. Much of what I am now have been formed by being able to prevail over challenges of adjustment and my intense passion for pursuing my goals. I know it has not been an easy journey but I am confident that I am getting there slowly but surely. Like everyone else, I aim to be successful. Taking up a business course at the university is just one step towards my dream. Further honing my skills and potentials with a Masters degree in Business Administration will surely take me to where I want in my career life. Doing this exercise in Personal and Career Effectiveness has made me learn so many things about myself, as a lot of reflection and introspection are entailed. I am still young. I know, many habits have been formed already in me, but I am a firm believer that everyone can change or adapt to changes around them. I would like to believe that I am still malleable. I am still a work in progress, searching for the best way to grow and be the person I have always wanted to be. The tests I have taken have been sounding boards of my personality, and seeing the results revealed a lot about who I am. Career Focus To dive into a successful career, many factors are considered. One is managing time effectively. I have been put in situations when multi-tasking was necessary and sometimes I lose my focus on one thing or the other. Apart from school work, I have to spend time with my family no matter the distance, and of course maintain a social life. I believe establishing a network of friends from various circles will be beneficial for me not only for my personal growth but for my professional contacts as well. Handout 7 indicates how I manage my time. I learned that I let important tasks slip because I waste so much time on more trivial things. In answering the handout, I resolved to do the following things to better manage my time: to be more focused, to set priorities and to set my goals and objectives for every week. I know that it is more manageable to get myself week per week rather than plan a whole set of goals for a longer period of time. Stress is another factor I have to contend. Handout 8 made me realize just how stressed I really was! Generally, stress is what one feels when the demands on his life exceed his ability to meet those demands. The stressor may be external, such as pressing deadlines, or, it may be an internal stressor such as feeling of inadequacy to handle the tasks or loss of self-confidence. So far, my stressors have been the heavy load of assignments and exams for school, my anxiety for getting good grades, and maintaining good relationships with my family and friends. I learn how to cope with the various stressors and turn them into motivators so I could cope with the struggles of studying in a foreign country. Coping is expected to be consistent with a determination of whether anything can be done to change the situation. For example, problem-focused coping is expected to be used in situations appraised as unchangeable. Ultimately, the individual's choice of a coping mechanism is determined by his perceptions of personal control over the stressful situation. Personal control `reflects an individuals' beliefs, at a given point in time, in his or her ability to effect change in a desired direction on the environment' (Greenberger and Strasser, 1986, p. 165). Coping outcomes at least partially depend on the goodness of between appraisal and coping. For people to survive stress, they must have the necessary skills to manage it. The plethora of literature available presents the following: Action-oriented skills are those in which the individuals seek to confront the problem causing the stress, often changing the environment or the situation. It takes pro-active people to be able to do this. Emotionally-oriented skills are those in which individuals do not have the power to change the situation, but can manage stress by changing their interpretation of the situation and the way they feel about it. Finally, Acceptance-oriented skills are applied where something has happened over which individuals have no power and no emotional control, and where focus must be on surviving the stress. Stress Management includes personal and professional levels especially if stress is work-related. On a personal level, I would need the following advise when I find myself under a lot of stress: Stop and reorganize. Consider priorities. I need to stand back and assess which tasks are urgent and which are important and carefully weigh my priorities. Ask for social support. Should I need the help of others, I should learn to ask for it and not let pride get in the way. I should be able to accept help when I am offered it and not brush it away just to prove that I can do it by myself. Communicate your needs. Even if language barriers may hinder effective communication, I should push myself to be able to convey my needs to others whether in words or in action. Of course, I have to use appropriate means in doing so. Relaxation Techniques. Despite my very busy schedule, I need to find time for rest and rejuvenation. When my body is relaxed, my mind follows suit and I become more effective in carrying out my tasks. Another factor I need to consider in my career journey is my motivation. Am I here for external rewards or intrinsic fulfillment? What pushes me towards pursuing my life goals? Research proves that intrinsic motivation such as a sense of fulfillment, recognition, pride and joy at being successful in one thing, are eventually more effective in the long run than external motivation such as money and job promotion. It follows that money and other status symbols like higher job positions and titles, more spacious and opulent offices, and the like do not really increase one’s motivation (Kohn, 1999). This may seem unbelievable, but each time a person is extrinsically-rewarded for doing something, it reduces their intrinsic motivation. Personally, I envision myself as a successful business manager someday. I provide jobs to many and share my goals with them in pursuing success for the company I run. I know I would be happy in an environment where cooperation and collaboration prevail instead of harnessing competition among my team members. I also find fulfillment in networking with people from different walks of life and negotiating with people from various cultures and backgrounds. I know I have what it takes to be successful in business as long as it values my strength in people skills. Of course, the monetary profits and professional recognition also serve as motivators for me, as it will go a long way in helping me, my family and my team to achieve a better quality of life. Someday, I would like to have a family of my own, enjoying the comforts and conveniences that my hard work and success bring. Still another consideration in my career path is effective planning. I need to develop good foresight and wisdom in making decisions since I am aware that I shall face many challenges and take on great responsibilities. I need to equip myself of effective strategies to use when I plan my business approaches and decisions. This should stem from a healthy and sensible philosophy that translates to meaningful and relevant vision and mission. Skills at the Start of the Module As a regular university student, my time is filled with school work, leaving me with not enough time for introspection. I was not really aware of my skills and if at gunpoint, I shall be asked what skills I have, I would not know what to answer. However, with careful reflection and motivation to have a successful business career someday, I have identified the following key skills from the questionnaires I have answered in this module: Identified Weakness: Study skill (Basic numbers, critical reading and note taking, written communication, using information and communication technologies, Gaining great marks) As a student from Venezuela, my study skills have been weak since adjustment to a foreign country as a student and adapting to a different educational system that I have not been used to has been challenging. The fact that I needed to master the English language to be able to decode information was an extra step I had to take. On top of that, my peers were so adept in Information and Communication Technology that I felt I was very much left behind. I realized I had a lot of catching up to do. My inadequacies left me with low to average marks. I know that if I only strive to develop healthy study habits and work harder to understand my lessons using various techniques, then I can be a much better student. Identified Weakness: Conceptual Skill (Complexity, cases and diagrams, Obtaining data and information, making sense of data, increasing your creativity) I also realized how far behind Venezuelan educational system is compared to a first world university like Leeds. Higher-order thinking skills were not emphasized in my previous school, that is why my conceptual skills are compromised now. I accept that I need to work harder to use more complex thinking processes and be comfortable in doing so. I also need to be more creative in thinking ‘out of the box’, so my thinking horizons are broadened. Indentified Strength: Working With Others (Talking and listening, Team working and Leadership, Presenting to others) What I may currently lack in academic skills, I more than make up with my interpersonal skills. I am a very good team player, working well with others, and welcome opportunities to be a leader when necessary. I talk and listen to others well, athough I may have to keep myself in check in my tendency to interrupt others. I guess it’s just that I am filled with ideas and opinions that I want to share them right away. Learning Style By nature, I am a lifelong learner. Ever since I was little, I displayed an unquenchable curiosity and I venture into searching for facts. How I learn as an adult is just a continuation of how I learned as a child. According to Knowles (1980, 2007), adults learn best in informal, comfortable and non-threatening settings. Well, as I child, I learned that way too. When I am forced to take down notes and take exams, I am not happy and sometimes do it grudgingly. However, I excel better when I am left to my own devices in recalling lessons or applying them in more practical experiences. I believe learning should not be confined to paper and pencil tasks and should be expressed and used to one’s benefit. As an adult, free from the confines of school desks and compulsory traditional learning styles and uniform curriculum, I now have the privilege of choosing what I want to learn. Adult education is more voluntary, seeking to fulfill what the person needs to know (Ellias & Merriam, 1980). The nature of choosing my own path and applying the learning style I am most comfortable with makes my learning more exciting than ever. Carl Rogers (1969), a humanistic psychologist believes that when adults pursue what they want to learn, the motivation is more intrinsic and this drives one to engage in learning holistically even if stimulation is mostly external. I would know if my pursuits have borne fruit when there is an “illumination of my ignorance”. The exercise of taking various tests (mostly self-assessed) to gain more knowledge about myself and how I learn, was a very fulfilling experience for me. Now, I have become more aware of my strengths and weaknesses as interpreted from the tests and can use it to my advantage. I assume there will be times when I will be in conflict in terms of how to respond to certain situations, knowing both my instinctual response and what I should do, however, being aware of these conflicts are part of my learning too. Erikson (1959), for one, in his theory of Psychosocial development, admits that the unearthing of more learning about the development and growth of the individual and about his motivations, pointed to more dangers than to constructive avenues of action. He turns around by suggesting that he hopes it is an indication that we are progressing through one stage of learning (Erikson, 1959). A word of assurance is given as his conclusion: “If we will only learn to let live, the plan for growth is all there” (Erikson, 1959, p. 100). From an online test, I realized that my learning style was that of a Pragmatist. This means, I need to express my learning in practical ways, and I continuously find various methods to do so. I enjoy applying what I have learned in every opportunity I get. Since I love learning, I also find ways to retain it. I did this when I was learning foreign languages. I used mnemonics when learning new words. That is assigning certain acronyms to whatever I want to learn and tuck it in one corner of my memory only to pull it out when necessary. This is much like remembering the colors of the rainbow with the word ROYGBIV, which stands for the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. I found that kind of mnemonics very useful in the retention of things I learn. Improvement of Three Identified Skills As a pragmatist, I know that learning about something spurs me to action. In the process of learning more about myself in this Module, I know I have to improve on the skills I know I possess. Engaging in the development of a PDP has been very enlightening for me, as it does help me focus on the career path that is well-suited for me and my personality. Taking various self-assessments forced me to look within and face a number of truths I knew about myself but kept sweeping under the rug. My weaknesses may be shameful, but it is in confronting them that I can be able to manage and turn them into strengths. My weaknesses in study habits and conceptual skills have been managed recently by my attempts to be more focused with school work. I have planned out my daily schedule to include a certain number of hours dedicated to studying. I know that the best time learning comes easy for me is during the early evening after I have taken a short nap. At that time of the day, I am more relaxed and not rushing through things to get on with the daily grind. So far, it has worked well in gaining regularity in my studying and I noticed I am able to understand more of the concepts discussed in class that I have previously found difficult. Spending more time online has also helped me in my research skills. I have made better use of online libraries and educational sites especially when I want to further my knowledge in some of my classes. My strengths in interpersonal relations continue to build as I establish new friendships and maintain my relationships with old friends. It helps when I talk to peers who share the same passion and interests especially when I discuss school matters with some classmates. When I do, my learning gets reinforced, if not enhanced by exposure to a wide variety of viewpoints. That is why I make it a point to spend enough time with my friends regularly outside school hours. My Preparation for Academic Success Engaging in this PACE module is one of the first steps towards success. After I have gathered all information, I have reflected on how I learn. According to Osterman (1990), “reflection is the essential part of the learning process because it results in making sense of or extracting meaning from the experience” (Osterman, 1990). Dewey sees reflection as “a process of finding out what we want, as we say, what we ‘really’ want, and this means the formation of a new desire, a new direction of action. In this process, things ‘get’ values – something they did not possess before” (Dewey, 1946). In my case, my personal traits, and how I deal with things, people and learning in general were usually taken for granted. Upon reflection, I realize how important those are in honing my strengths and strengthening my weaknesses to help me develop into a better and more successful individual. This is my last year towards a college degree in Business Management, and I have taken most of the essential subjects that equip me with the knowledge and skills necessary in a future career in business. I have had plenty of opportunity to study in a few other universities and language schools and have been exposed to a variety of teaching styles and approaches. The courses I have taken were designed to guide me towards a wide scope of knowledge in business: Finance, business strategies, human resource development, business decision-making, managing diversity and international business contexts are just some of the subjects I have successfully completed. These subjects have given me a peek into the world I want to belong to and have given me tools to survive in it. Even if mostly, the concepts taught were theoretical, the many examples provided by the instructors have shown me how to deal with all kinds of business issues, concerts and controversies. I have found learning about it so very fascinating, even if sometimes, understanding them can be a challenge for me. My Preparation for My Future Career As I dwell on my dreams, I carefully plan my moves to pursue them. As I graduate from my BA degree, I will go pursue my Masters’ Degree in Business Administration because I know I have yet a lot to learn if I am to become a high grade businesswoman. I realize that globalization has made a career in business highly competitive that is why I need to posses outstanding credentials. As I take my MBA for three years, it would be my goal to secure part time employment in a business firm to learn the ropes. I will find a university which is considerate towards working students, that they provide flexible schedules of study. My part time job will help me apply the learnings I acquired from my college degree, as well as introduce me to a network of business contacts. My goal is to get into a multinational company so I get exposed to an international setting. I know my good interpersonal skills will bring me places and I fully intend to exploit such skills in establishing an international business network. Since my preference would be to work with a diverse group of people, I shall major in international business. It may mean that I take in more units for my MBA, but since I have lofty dreams for my future career, then it shall be done! Upon completion of my MBA, I shall find employment in a prestigious multinational business company. Since I have developed so many valuable skills by then and have amassed quite a large chunk of knowledge in a wide scope of business-related courses, I know I will be an asset to any company I choose to work for. I will build up my career here for about 3 to 5 years until I make a name for myself in the international business arena and have enough solid business contacts to invest in my home country. I shall go back to Venezuela to establish my own business and be a great success, as measured by the number of people I provide jobs to and the quality of business networks I have established. References Dewey, J.(1946) Experience and Education. New York: The Macmillian Company Ellias, J.L. & Merriam, S.B. (1980) Philosophical Foundations of Adult Education. Krieger Pub Co Erikson, E. H. (1959) Identity & the Life Cycle. N.Y.: International Universities Press, Inc. Greenberger, D. B. and Strasser, S. (1986). `Developing and application of a model of personal control in organizations', Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11 Knowles, M. S. (1980). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. New York: Cambridge Books. Knowles, M., Holton, E., & Swanson, R. A. (2007). The Adult Learner, Sixth Edition. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann Kohn (1999) Punished by Rewards Osterman, K. F. (1990) "Reflective Practice: A New Agenda for Education." Education And Urban Society 22, no. 2 133-152. Read More