Career Poltfolio - Lessons Archived from the Interview - Essay Example

RЕЕR РОRTFОLIО Name of Student Institution affiliation САRЕЕR РОRTFОLIО 2 1) LESSONS ACHIVED FROM THE INTERVEIW What I learn about interviewing Based on my workshop activities I learnt that interviewing is an activity where one assess the qualification of candidates. In this case, the candidate ought to sell themselves, and the interviewer determines if they ae qualified enough for a particular job position. On the other hand, I learnt that as an interviewer one has to assess even the minute aspects in a candidate since they might be stiff competition among these candidates. I also was also able to learn that is it crucial for the candidates to go through the requirements of the interview and prepare themselves enough since lack of preparation might result to the interviewer having a bad perception of a candidate and in the long end the interview may be a disaster. In line with this, I also learnt that creation of the fast impression to the interviewer is essential since it mostly leads to the interviews viewing a candidate highly (Ganellen, 2007). This learning has therefore impacted me with all rounded knowledge on interviewing. Thus, I am now a better interviewee. On the other hand, this lessons have also built on my social skills since I am an introvert. I am now better in socialising and conducting conversations with strangers something that I was very poor at previously. On the other hand, this activity has also helped me in reading and understanding people quite fast. In this case, I am able to listen or have a conversation and determine the type of person one is or even in some case determine their character. What peer feedback tells me about my strength My peer feedback tells me that I am a focused person who is not easily deterred by any distractions. When I set my head to do something I am not easily swayed away until I have accomplished it. My strengths especially my technological skills tells me that I am a curious character who always wants to learn something new.This strength has enabled me to learn a lot of information both necessary and others which might not be too necessary. Through the feedback I was also able to tell that I am a positive person who is always driven by positive energy (Steimer. & Mata, 2016).The feedback also tells that I am a well learned individuals who is also quite sharp and also a quick learner. On the contrary, feedback on my weakness tells me that I am not aggressive enough on gaining experience. I am not calm and at times I am quite paranoid especially when dealing with new people or when I am in a new environment. These peer responses on my strength and weakness are evidently a reflection of the true account of my strength and weakness. Therefore, I think that these peer responses are spot-on, and they are also entirely true. However for the peer response on me not being confident enough I tend to think that there was a misunderstanding of my actual weakness. Thus, I think that the respondent confused nervousness with one not being confident.For the rest of the peer responses, I tend to agree with all of them. What action to I plan to take up Based on my learning about this topic I intend to improve on my weaknesses and those suggested in my peer responses. I intend to work on my calmness and paranoia especially when dealing with new people or when in a new environment. I think that my introvert personality has a lot to do with this weakness, therefore, I intend to work on me being calmer in new environment and when dealing with new people in line. On the other hand based on my learning about this topic, I also intend to improve even more on my strengths.I intend to focus more on this strength I figure out ways which I can improve them. Next time I will ensure that i am more calm and relaxed. However, I will also ensure that I do not overdo this having that it might create the perception that I have a don’t care character or worse that I am rude. For my strength I will improve on them specifically will learn essential skills in order to have an upper hand during an interview (Goodman, Disabato, Kashdan and Machell, 2016). For instance, I will expound on my computer literacy strength by learning how to use excel and word extensively. On the other hand, I also intend to improve on my movement, and enthusiasm in order to make me a more passionate and likeable person. This will make easily impress other people, therefore, giving me an advantage and also an upperhand in an interview. 2 ) LESSONS ACHIVED FROM THE LGD’s What I learnt from my LGD’s One thing that I learnt from LGDs is that despite the fact that I have an introvert personality I am quite social with people who am often fond off. I was quite social and open with my group members an aspect which resulted in productivity of the group discussion. On the other hand, I also learnt that I am a responsible person judging by the responsibility placed on me in the group work where I was to chair the group discussion and note down the results achieved after the discussions. I also noted that am a quite eloquent speaker an attribute that can be derived from my academic qualification. I gave constructive feedback in the group discussion and chaired a mature and productive discussion (Steimer & Mata, 2016). I also noted that I was a good problem solver in the way I handled the issues of contrasting of opinions in the group discussion. In this case, I was keen to ensure that everyone was given enough time to air out their opinions then we would discuss conclusively on the matter befoe coming to a conclusion. These lessons also relate to my personal experience in holding conversation where I was able to apply some of the lessons learnt from these experiences in the group discussion. Through this personal experiences on conversation, I perceive some expectations like contrasting of ideas and opinions which I was able to tackle them at first hand before they could escalate further and result in a fight or disagreement (Ganellen, 2007). What peer feedback say about my strength an weekness My peer feedback tells me that if I dedicate time and effort to improving my strength of being responsible and organised, I can be a great leader. These peer responses have helped me note that I have some leadership qualities in me an aspect that is evidently seen in the way I handled the LGD’s being allocated a quite huge role. My responses also tell me that I am a committed individual who is always devoted to carrying out my allocated task and responsibilities. From the feedback I also kno that I have the potential of being a great leader since I always feed obliged not to fail others in case they are dependent on me. In this case, I ensured that the work group discussion went on smoothly as planned.The feedback on my responsible and organised strength this tells me that I have the potential of being a great leader since I have the fundamental leadership skills and traits in me (Vanhove, Harms, & DeSimone, 2016).For my weaknesses, I think that I am too cautious of what other people might think of me. In this case, I a worried of creating a different perception of myself to others other than what they have initially about me. On my other feedback on my weakness, I get the perception that I am in the early stages of improving my leadership skills, therefore, I have quite a little experience. Therefore this drives me even further to practice these leadership skills in order to gradually gain experience which I evidently lack. Action I plan to take based on my learning I intend to improve further on my notable strength, for instance on being calm and collected I intend to improve on my calmness especially in new environment and when I am dealing with people who are new to me. In this case, I also intend to improve on my trust for people who I know little about since I can notably see that it is affecting my calmness, especially when dealing with people new to me. I also intend to improve on my strength of being responsible and organised. In this case, I intend to come up with a diary where I will record all my responsibilities and task an aspect which will further improve my organisation attribute in life. On being responsible, I intend to adopt a self-disciplined character trait which will foster my strength of being responsible in life (Ganellen, 2007). On my weakness, lacking experience I intend to exercise leadership skills in nearly everything I do in life from how I conduct myself to how I handle given tasks. This will give me the needed leadership skills experience which I clearly lack. On the other hand, for my weakness on constantly overthinking, I intend to improve my skills on being decisive in life (Goodman et al., 2016). In this case, I will start trusting my fast instinct when making a decision. On the other hand, I will also acknowledge the fact that wrong decision are bound to be made. This will, therefore, make me more relaxed while making decisions in life. References Ganellen, R. (2007). Assessing Normal and Abnormal Personality Functioning: Strengths and Weaknesses of Self-Report, Observer, and Performance-Based Methods. Journal Of Personality Assessment, 89(1), 30-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223890701356987 Goodman, F., Disabato, D., Kashdan, T., & Machell, K. (2016). Personality strengths as resilience: A one-year multiwave study. J Pers, n/a-n/a. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12250 Steimer, A. & Mata, A. (2016). Motivated Implicit Theories of Personality: My Weaknesses Will Go Away, but My Strengths Are Here to Stay. Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(4), 415-429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167216629437 Vanhove, A., Harms, P., & DeSimone, J. (2016). The Abbreviated Character Strengths Test (ACST): A Preliminary Assessment of Test Validity. Journal Of Personality Assessment, 98(5), 536-544. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2016.1148044 Read More