Career Management and Employability in the Beauty and Personal Care Sector - Assignment Example

Career Management and Employability

Final Portfolio

Contents

Part 1: Personal set of documents

Core documents

• Critical narrative of research findings on the beauty and personal care sector
• My personal Career Action Plan
• My CV

Additional documents

• My skills audit
• My reflective response to my individual personality (psychometric) profile
• Personal statement to a job of my choice

Part 2: My individual reflective commentary

My personal reflection on the activities completed throughout the module

• Critical narrative of my research findings on the beauty and personal care sector

For analysis of one of the sectors/industries I have chosen the beauty and personal care industry in the UK as it is the business segment that I feel passionate about and would like to develop my career in this field in future.

The beauty and personal care industry in the UK has been continuously growing over the past decades. In FY 2014, the total sales of beauty and personal care industry reached 11,195.6 GBP million, while in 2009 the sales generated 9,678.7 GBP million (Euromonitor International, 2015). The growth over the past years has been attributed to the growth of niche premium brands, popularity of multi-functional products, and new formats of business. The fashion trends supported with increasing obsession with image have driven consumers (both females and males) to experiment with new instruments, tools, and approaches. Moreover, the overall development of social media, especially such networks as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram has trigged younger generation to demonstrate greater interest in beauty and personal care products.

Another recent development in the beauty and personal care industry is associated with the growing popularity of premium beauty products compared to the mass market segment. It is interesting to note that despite the economic downturn and increasing social uncertainty caused by instability in Eurozone, demand for luxury beauty/cosmetics products has been growing. Thus, for example, in 2014, mass beauty and personal care segment accounted for about 57% of the total sales in the beauty and personal care segment. Meanwhile, the premium beauty and personal care share in 2014 accounted for about 28% of the total sales in the industry (Euromonitor International, 2015). However, mass market segment represents a strong competition on behalf of supermarkets, discount retailers, department stores, chemistry shops, e-stores, and others (Calvo, 2016). As consumers become more demanding, all formats of beauty retailers and operators in the segment seek for innovations to differentiate their brands from others. Development of online retail stores and branded cosmetics websites have enabled businesses to achieve greater geographical coverage across the UK and to offer greater prices to the consumers due to cost-efficient model of e-retailing (Euromonitor International, 2015).

The experts believe that beauty and personal care products both in the UK and globally will continue to grow, driving innovation in terms of quality, ingredients, product formats, functions and styles. Especially, the growth opportunities are expected to increase in the anti-aging products and beauty/toiletry product ranges for men (Calvo, 2016). Another trend that is growing in terms of its popularity is related to increasing interest and demand in ethically produced, organic, and eco-friendly beauty and personal care products. Over the past few years, the products of this category have evolved from a niche market to the mainstream (Calvo, 2016).

Technology, already being an integral element of the modern society also will play an important role in the industry development. Therefore, in order to be able to develop in a highly-competitive and highly-fragmented beauty industry it is important to develop necessary skills and acquire new knowledge not only in beauty industry, new technology developments, marketing communication, international business trends, socio-cultural patterns, etc.

• My personal Career Action Plan

Where I am now: I would like to work within the beauty and personal care sector, preferably as a business development manager or analyst in strategic planning department. This position would give me an opportunity to combine my business major with the work I love.

Actions I need to take

Support or Resources I will need

Target Date

Achievement/Outcomes

Industry research and business analysis

Internet resources, specialized business portals (IBISWorld, Passport Euromonitor, MarketLine)

During the course

Get a general understanding of common trends and new developments in the industry

Sector research into beauty and personal care jobs/internship positions

http://www.indeed.co.uk/Sales-&-Business-Development-Manager-Health-&-Beauty-jobs

https://www.hairandbeautyjobs.com/career-hub/job-profiles/view/beauty-business-development-manager

End of semester

Evaluate vacations available, understand the range of job tasks and responsibilities, career opportunities

Apply for intern/assistant position

Part-time internship or assistant position in business development department of a company operating in beauty and personal care industry

Summer 2016

Build up experience and basic skills: analytics, research, time management

ILM qualification (Anglia Ruskin Employability Programme)

Anglia Ruskin Employability Programme

To be confirmed (TBC)

Make my CV more professional

Attend Business Development courses, training sessions and other relevant seminars in business and international business

Courses at Anglia Ruskin University

Online courses in business/international business (free/paid)

Specialized courses/trainings for specialists in beauty and personal care industry

May 2016-June 2017

Train and develop specific skills and acquire new knowledge

Apply to leading companies operating in the UK with international business operations

Recruitment agency services, personal connections, social networks, online research

July 2017

Attend interviews and get a job offer from the company I would like to work

Consider further MBA program in international business

University – to be decided

2019-2020

MBA degree in international business

• My CV

Town/Street

Country

Post Code

Phone #

e-mail:

PROFILE

Enthusiastic, energetic, responsible graduate looking for job/internship position opportunities available in the international business development field. Having acquired all the theoretical knowledge and basic set of skills of a business professional I am seeking for the opportunity to expose myself to practical business environment with all its opportunities and challenges.

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom 2012- Present
• BSc (Hons) International Business Management add dates
• Federal government girls’ college, Port Harcourt, Nigeria add dates
• West African Senior School Certificate (Equivalent to GSCE) (add dates)

CAREER HISTORY

(JUNE 2014 – APRIL 2016) -------------------------- House of Tara International

Position: Beauty Advisor

• Assist customers in finding products that meet their needs by explaining how products work, giving product demonstration and makeovers.
• Operating the Cash register
• Uncovered customers need beyond the immediate transaction and successfully transitioned the customer to the appropriate source to address the need.

(DEC 2013 – JAN 2014) -----------------------------Volunteer Job at British Heart Foundation

• Worked in the clothing store behind the scenes getting stock ready to go on sale.

CORE COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS

• Excellent communication, good customer service and interpersonal skills
• Multi tasking skills and ability to meet the requirement of the customer
• Effective time management skills
• Excellent knowledge of various type of skin as well as types of makeup

KEY SKILLS AND ACHIEVEMENTS________________________________________

IT skills – Microsoft Office package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project), Internet, database research

PERSONAL INTERESTS & ACTIVITIES

• Reading Books on makeup, personal improvement books, history, and daily news reports
• My skills audit

Employability Skills

Do you have this skill?

Yes No

If Yes score 1-5 (1 being less skilled, 5 most skilled). How can you evidence this skill? How can you improve on your existing score?

If NO, how could you gain this skill? Consider and list potential opportunities within your degree study, campus services, paid/unpaid work, extra-curricular activities

Self-Management

Readiness to accept responsibility, flexibility, resilience, self-starting, appropriate assertiveness, time management, readiness to improve own performance based on feedback/reflective learning

X

3 - I am a responsible person and therefore is ready to take responsibility over some specific tasks and job. This skill has been proved during my work at the House of Tara International, whereas I was directly working with customers. Meanwhile, I believe that by time management skills should be more worked on as sometimes I fail to set priorities

Courses or training in time management could help me to improve my skills of self-management

Teamwork

Respecting others, co-operating, negotiating/persuading, contributing to discussions, and awareness of interdependence with others

Yes

3- I enjoy communicating with them and getting known them better. Cooperation is one of my powerful sides – the skill I have developed and improved while working as a volunteer at the British Heart Foundation

Business & Commercial Awareness

Basic understanding of the key drivers for business success- including the importance of innovation and taking calculated risks – and the need to provide customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty

X

4- My University major is International Business and therefore, I have got all the basic knowledge and understating of business environment. I always read books and business journals in order to ex

pand my knowledge and to apply the theory to analysis of real business case studies and situations. I also read the biography books of such inspirational leaders as Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Richard Branson, etc.

It is a continuous process of learning, which requires life-long learning approach

Problem Solving

Analysing facts and situations and applying creative thinking to develop appropriate solutions

X

5- Problem solving is what I really enjoy doing. I have mental capacity to accumulate the information and variables available and to produce solutions based on this. However, sometimes I do lack creative thinking

Develop creating thinking by attending special classes or working groups

Communication & LiteracyApplication of literacy, ability to produce clear, structured written work and oral literacy – including listening and questioning

X

4- This skill I have developed and continue improving as part of my study at Anglia Ruskin University

Application of IT

Basic IT skills, including familiarity with word processing, spreadsheets file management and use of internet search engines

X

5- Due to my work in the British Heart Foundation with inventory I have learned all the basic skills of working with spreadsheets and word files. Use of Internet search engines is one of the common traits of young generation

Numeracy

Manipulation of numbers, general mathematical awareness and its application in practical contexts (measuring, weighing, estimating and applying formulae)

X

3- As part of my passion to analytics, I have acquired some numeracy skills and now I am capable to apply it in practical business contexts. The courses of Business Math and Microeconomics were especially helpful

Project Management

Planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals

X

4 -I work with MS project management program for managing my own projects and personal plans and goals

Languages & Cultural Sensitivity

Everyday conversational ability can be useful, as general awareness of cultural differences

X

I realize the importance of cross-cultural communication and diversity management, but lack awareness of major aspects between different cultures and societies. The course of intercultural communication will help me

Social Responsibility

Awareness of current and future societal issues. Able to act for the benefit of others based in an understanding of social and civic responsibilities

X

5- Social responsibility is the area of my interest. I am health and environmentally conscious consumer and therefore I pay significant attention on the sustainable business practices. Due to my interest in beauty and personal care industry I do learn a lot about sustainable supply chain management, organic cosmetics, ethical marketing, fair trade, etc.

• My reflective response to my individual personality (psychometric) profile

The test for individual personality has proved that I am more introvert person than extravert, providing thus to me some explanation of why I do not feel myself as very outgoing and talkative person. Even though I feel myself assertive and energetic, I do prefer to keep and accumulate this energy internally. Even though introverts are recommended to apply for jobs that imply less sociable roles, I should note that I enjoy working with other people. By working in a team, I reveal new insights and adopt different ways of thinking, which undoubtedly expand my mentality and world perception. Meanwhile, the test has shown that I have a low score on Agreeableness, indicating thus to me that I am quite egocentric person who sets own interest at the top. While this is true for some small things such as arguing with the friends of how to spend weekend, on more important things such as providing help to somebody or sacrificing own interest for the sake of somebody’s wellbeing I tend to be more agreeable. I am pleased to know that this feature fit the manager’s/leadership role as that is the position I am ambitious to take over in the future. My introvert personality also is characterised by relatively high level of emotional stability, which also indicates that I have high filters to various stresses and external factors. Moreover, I believe that it is an important leadership trait, which allows leaders to manage his own and other’s emotions still being effective in achieving mutual goals. Furthermore, high level of conscientiousness made me feel even more organized and self-disciplined than I thought I were. I do work hard on myself in order to stay task focused and not be distracted by inessential but time- and energy-consuming things/people. Probably, that is why I like challenges of working in the projects with tight deadlines and budget constraints as it is what I perceive as a challenge. Finally, the test has shown that I am quite open personality, who has capacity and potential to develop and accept unusual ideas and is open to new experience and adventure. Passion to knowledge and passion to life are two key drivers that make me feel open to this world. I would like to develop this feature by travelling to new places and by meeting interesting people with different cultural and social backgrounds.

• Personal statement to a job of my choice

For my prospective employment destination I have chosen to apply for the international marketing intern for bath and body position at the Body Shop (L’Oreal Group). The duration of internship is estimated to be 6 months. The principal accountabilities and duties laid out in the job advert are given as follows.

(Source: L'Oréal Careers, 2016)

With my passion to business and beauty/personal care industry I feel myself capable and qualified enough to start my professional career development in one of the globally recognized companies. The Body Shop is an innovative company, which is known for its natural ingredients and sustainable business approaches. Referring back to my professional skills whereas my awareness and preference to sustainable business models, I believe that I would be able to make a significant and valuable contribution to the L’Oreal Group. Moreover, work in such a successful company implies work with the best talents and highly qualified professionals in the beauty industry. I recognize that this type of work should be very intensive and pose many communicational, teamwork, organizational and personal challenges, it is a great opportunity for me to develop my skills and to grow as an individual, a manager and business leader.

In order to be able to perform the job tasks and duties suggested for this position, I will have to meet the following job requirements:

(Source: L'Oréal Careers, 2016).

In my opinion, I meet all of the above outlined job requirements, varying from creativity, numeracy, autonomous work, problem solving, strong interpersonal and communication skills to ability to meet the tight deadlines, work under pressure, proactivity and strong attention to details. Most importantly, I am passionate for the beauty industry and am keen to start my professional career in highly professional and competitive environment.

2. Individual commentary

For my personal reflection analysis I have decided to apply the framework of “Structured Debriefieng” developed by Gibbs (1988). The Gibbs reflective cycle is comprised of six basic elements including: description, feelings, evaluation, description, conclusion, and action plan (Gibbs, 1988).

Description

As part of the course of career management and employability, me and other students were exposed to take an adventurous tour towards exploring the opportunities and prospects of our future careers. I had to dig deeper in order to explore my personality traits, evaluate my skills and to identify gaps between my current state of personal/professional development and my ideal job. In the scope of this course, it was necessary to carry out extensive external analysis of the industry in which I am interested in and market opportunities available for graduates specialized in international business. Below I will provide a more detailed reflection on my feelings, reactions, and experiences gained in result of passing this module.

Feelings

Being young and ambitious person with clearly defined goals and priorities for life I did not face any challenges or difficulties in terms of deciding in what industry and business sector I would like to develop my career. In fact, thinking more deeply about the prospects and opportunities of working in the beauty and personal care industry made feel extremely inspired and excited.

Evaluation

The preliminary research of the industry has shown that the beauty and personal care is expected to grow creating thus new career opportunities for talented and hard-working specialists. On the one hand, more detailed analysis of my skills, professional attributes and personality has made me feel capable to enter this highly competitive industry and do my best in order to fulfil my potential and apply the knowledge I have acquired. On the other hand, I realised the level of responsibility and seriousness of applying for managerial position, whereas I would have several people in a team as subordinates. While my personality test has shown that I have a right balance in terms of emotional stability, conscientiousness and openness, I do realize clearly that I lack necessary skills for communicating in different types of environments with different people. While the theoretical knowledge and awareness do help to overcome most common challenges in communication and teamwork, I understand that experience and practical involvement with effective reflection practice will be more useful.

Analysis

While performing the tasks and assignments throughout the module, including search for potential job, applying for a job I dream about I have realised that the competition in the business environment is extremely high and intense. In order to work for a great company, I either should be a prominent talented specialist or very creative and innovative personality, willing to work hard and be committed to continuous learning. As a graduate student, I may not pretend for getting a managerial position straight away. Therefore, I made a clear decision that the right way would be to apply for internship position at one of the globally recognized and successful beauty brands that have a long history and positive reputation on the market. I decided that getting into highly competitive business environment whereas the best talents compete for their jobs would be more powerful decision rather than starting in a small company but greater authority and decision-making power.

Conclusions (general)

In general, I would conclude that after this module I have a better understanding on how to act in order to find and apply for jobs that are interested to me at current stage of my development. At greater extent I understand the basics of writing a CV, interviewing and shortlisting process. This knowledge makes me feel more self-confident and success oriented.

Conclusions (specific)

Analysis of my personal skills and qualifications made me to draw a conclusion that I have to focus more on development such skills as team-work, collaboration, and cross-cultural communication. Internship in the diverse teams will help me to address existing gaps and to develop my potential.

Personal Action plans

In case if I would be in the same situation next time, I will learn to be more self-confident and more open to new knowledge. Instead of criticising myself for not knowing something I will set positive mindset based on life-long learning and optimism. Due to this module, I have less fear of being rejected by potential employer, therefore, I will make more efforts to apply for the jobs I really feel passionate about. Meanwhile, I will continue developing relevant business and personal traits.