Career Coaching & Personal Development - Assignment Example

Reflective Journal on Career Coaching & Personal Development Introduction After learning for a whole module, it is necessary that I reflect on the coursework and relate it to my ambitions, goals, and aspirations, which could be on my personal or career life. Throughout this journal, I will discuss the skills and knowledge I acquired from each lecture on the weekly bases. To start with, it is important that I expound on what reflection is. I often reflect on different aspect of life. For me, reflecting means taking some time to think about a task I have accomplished in the past and trying to look at the areas I performed well, areas that I would do differently in future, and areas that I performed below my expectations. Academically, reflection is considered the process that enables the learner to analytically redirect the thought process on previously learnt aspects and try to describe them by relating them to life situations. Reflection is applied in several situations that we encounter in our day-to-day life. We sometimes reflect on issues unconsciously thus reflection can take unstructured form. Academically, it is always appropriate to write down the reflections to monitor ones progress since they are depictive of the level of understanding on the subject matter (Moon, 2001). www.pdp.salford.ac.uk/resources/pdpmaterials/introreflecion.ppt In simpler terms, reflection is attentive consideration of knowledge as a means of examining ones level of understanding (Lecture Notes by Gary Morris). The next thing am going to define is career. A career is basically a series of occupations that one devotes himself or herself to pursue in life and may include leisure events (http://education.qld.gov.au/students/service/career/careered-whatis.html) I also came across another definition, which describes career as an evolving sequence of a person’s work experience over a period of time (Mayrhofer & Meyer, 2007; Lecture notes by Gary Morris) Career Management Career management is a lasting continuous process that a person undertakes throughout the career life to be in a position to set and achieve goals. (Career vision, 2004) http://www.careervision.org/About/CareerManagement.htm Greenhaus, Calla, & Godshalk (2010, P. 3-12) describe career management as the process which enables persons set career goals, work to achieve them, which results in overall self-development. This definition is quite similar to the one we learnt in this course (Lecture notes by Gary Morris). How I view Myself Whenever someone poses the question of who I am I find it somehow hard to respond instantaneously. I take some time to think of who I really am in terms of my strengths, weaknesses, aspirations, likes and dislikes, where I have come from, and where I could be heading. However, every lecture of this course helped me discover something new about myself, and at the end, I could not help noticing how little I previously knew about myself. Learning this course has made me more aware about my weaknesses, strengths, and the opportunities that I await me. Concisely, I have always considered myself to be a very optimistic, determined, organized, and expressive person. Nevertheless, in the past, I have had a bad perception about my physicality, which made me appear to have a low self-esteem. However, this module has assisted me to realize the importance of self-image and ways to improve it and I now have a better self-esteem. I believe that learning this course has enabled me realize my uniqueness and potential since I now have an idea of areas I need to focus on. Career wise, I have always wished to work in a bank or in retail management as a manager, since I am optimistic, likes dealing with numbers as well as people and am also organized which are essential qualities for management. However, learning this course has expanded my views and I realized that I would still be happy in other professions such as entrepreneurship so long as they entailed serving people and taking chances. My SWOT Analysis Regarding This Module (before Starting the module) SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. My Strength: I think my strength is that I am more focused than I was last semester and I am determined to work harder to achieve better grades this semester. Additionally I can easily write a better journal since I have some experience that I lacked when I wrote my last module’s journal. My Weakness: My weakness is that I sometimes tend to be too result oriented thus I sometimes tend to be excessively focused on end results other than focusing on the minimal steps, which are important in the overall outcome. My Opportunity: I believe that I am unique and I always focus on doing my best, which will help me remain focused throughout college and get the best. My threat: My threat is that my parents have very high expectations on me, which scares me sometimes, especially when I do my best and they feel like am not performing well enough. Week 1, 21st February 2012 The week turned out to be enjoyable as I learned what was required of me throughout the module. Other than the guidelines on how to keep the weekly records of the lectures covered, explanations on reflection and some basics on career management were given. I have always wondered why some people look so unhappy a few years after getting into what they considered their childhood dream careers. I was happy to get a clue that this results from poor career management strategies and other aspects such as fear of criticism as well as incapability to adapt to changes. Most people get into careers with exaggerated expectations and end up feeling frustrated when they realize that they cannot meet some of such expectations. First week’s lecture helped me realize the importance of being able to adapt to different working environment in addition to working with different types of managers (Wentling, 2003, pp. 311-324). Week 2nd - 28th February 2012 The week’s lecture focused on DOTS model where D: Decision Learning, O: Opportunity Awareness, T: Transition Learning, S: Self Awareness. It was a great and interesting opportunity to learn more about myself since we mainly dwelt on self-awareness. I thought I knew myself but covering this topic made me realize how little I knew about myself. The topic stressed on occupational awareness and decision-making. The numerous activities incorporated into the lecture made it very thought provoking. It was during this week that I realized the importance of self-image in determining self-esteem. It is only by having a good self-image that one can improve the self-esteem. This was significant since I have previously had a bad self-image, which led to low self-esteem. It was through this week’s work that I learnt that taking proper care of myself, accepting myself as I am, and appreciation are key in improving self-image hence self-esteem (Guest & Sturges, 2007, pp. 311-319). One of the most striking aspects in this lecture was ‘perception box,’ which means the opinions that your family as well as other people have about you. I became curious and decide to ask one of my cousins what she thought about me. I was surprised to learn that she thought that I was very organized, optimistic, facts oriented, determined and caring. I also asked my friend about the qualities they think I have and they told me that I am confident, persuasive, optimistic, persistent, organized, dependable, understanding, diplomatic, and controlling at times. I also found the personality test indicator by Myers Briggs to be quite interesting. I enjoyed every moment of the personality test particularly the section in which the lecturer would ask us to put different letter codes representing different scenarios on a series of slides, which had 2 different types of scenarios on them. The letter codes that best described my personality were: E- Which stands for extrovert S- Which stands for sensing the social environment F- Feeling of connection with self J- Judging planned, decided and orderly. The alphabets described my personality since they confirmed my cousin’s compliment that I am orderly, focus on facts, optimistic and hardworking. It was encouraging to have some sort of tangible prove that my personality was admirable. I also learnt that I am good at guiding others and assisting in addition to other activities such as handling paper work, giving explanations, tutoring, just to mention but a few. This was true since I had assisted my cousin to improve her grades, which entailed tutoring her. This was reassuring since I had previously not realized I had such capabilities. Generally, perception box tool was not only interesting but it helped me discover more about my personality. Week 3, 6th March 2012: In the 3rd week of the module, the main focus was on the "Career performance". This week provided additional understanding on self-awareness, values, motivations, and their role in career management. Henry Tosi said that the identity on the career of a person is "a unique way in which a person believes that he belongs to the world of work." Ability and desire of people to change their career and have different occupations or different organizations where they can work in order to maintain their own standards of career advancement depends on balance between inducements and rewards (Slay & Taylor, 2007, pp. 378-388).  In this lecture, our lecturer had come up with personalized career option suggestions for all the students. My personality type implies that I am persistent, frontrunner, sociable, and organized thus would do better in occupations such as teaching, management, entrepreneurship, as well as consultant, which was pleasing since I always consider management to be a good job for me. The lecture helped widen my views on careers that I can venture into. Additionally, the lecturer gave us questionnaires to help us establish our career preferences. I learnt that security tops my priority list on the factors I consider important in choosing an occupation. This is somehow true since I would prefer working in a job that I can be sure to remain in for some time. During this lecture, I realized that most people in the old generation, which applied even to my parents, are less concerned with aspects such as job security and salary. They are more concerned in ensuring that they just do not work for money but are able to give back to the society. They also consider job satisfaction very important. It was in the course of this week that I realized that priorities and job preferences might change with time. Another interesting aspect learnt in week three was the Johari Widow, developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingman in the 1950s. The Johari window is a useful tool for demonstrating and refining self-awareness. (http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm Johari’s window comprises of four windows designated as Open Self, Blind Self, Hidden Self Window, and Unknown Self Window. It was interesting learning how each of the window applied to real life situations. The Open Self was concerned with information about myself that I and other people already know. The Blind Self was about the things I do not know about myself but is known to other people. A good example is that I did not know that I fear failing people, which was revealed to me by my sister. Next was the Hidden Self Window, which dealt with things that I know about myself that the rest of the world does not know. A good example is that I am retrogressive and do a lot of thinking before making any decision. The last window referred to as Unknown Self Window, is on information about myself that I as well as other do not know. This week was very interesting and informative. I learned a lot about my personality and I now understand myself better. Additionally, I have some understanding on my career preference. Week 4, 13th March 2012: This week’s lecture involved use of questionnaire one of which had been prepared by our lecturer. The module highlighted Person-environment (P-E) fit theory of organizational behavior, which forms the basis for assessing and predicting our personality, determine our skills and our preferable careers. The first questionnaire was about scoring myself on my skill. We first filled a questionnaire followed by adding up our scores. I scored highest on People Skills, which suggested that I like carrying out activities such as management, guiding others, in addition to activities that require persuasiveness. These traits suggested that my preferable careers were management, as well as other jobs in the field of business. This was encouraging since I had never considered myself persuasive. These findings made me realize that I had more potential than I had previously thought and needed to be open-minded since I could do other jobs other than management. The next questionnaire was on Career Directions Indication, which was based on the model of John Holland in the form of a hexagon, depicting the six different personalities or themes, which include Realistic, Investigative, Artistic Social, Enterprising, and conventional. People who share same personality prefer working together and have a specific work environment in which they perform best. Holland’s model is based on Person-environment (P-E) fit theory and denotes the congruence, match, or connection between the personalities and environment. Understanding ones personality is important in that it helps one choose a career that provides the appropriate environment. It was intriguing to learn that all individuals may be associated with this model of personality types and that one can fall in up to three of these themes. The model is hexagonal and the different personalities are arranged such that personality types that are neighboring share some similarities while those lying oppositely differ more. I eagerly completed the questionnaire and the results proposed that I fall into is ‘Enterprising’, ‘Social’ and ‘conventional’ themes. This was captivating since the three personality types lie adjacent to each other. Being in enterprising category meant that I prefer managerial and sales type of jobs, which is true. Additionally, being in enterprising group meant I like activities that reward my ability to sell and I can persuade, and motivate others. The social group meant that I prefer activities that are educational or those dealing with social welfare of people such as training and corporate leadership. My strengths lie in the area of ​​interpersonal relationships but I dislike use of tools or systematically ordered activities, which is true. My third choice was conventional, which meant that I like work activities that follow set procedures and routines, such as office, clerical, and activities dealing with numbers and data. It was quite shocking to learn that the three categories fully described my likes and dislikes since I like management roles, interacting with people and analyzing data. Additionally, they matched the perception box results in that I am persuasive, helpful, and sociable (Callanan, 2006, pp. 379-81).  Week 5, 20th March 2012: Week five lecture mainly focused on employability, which is the ability to participate in the employment and professional life. The lecture was enjoyable as we focused on the factors that make one fit appropriately in the workplace. I had previously considered skills to be the most important aspect in determining employability. In the course the week five lecture, I learnt that factors such as my attitude, and other personal attributes could determine the ease of getting a job. Additionally I realized that I needed to focus on expertise, identify, and utilize opportunities that may come my way, be more goals oriented, responsible, loyal, willing to learn, empathetic, and develop excellent communication skill in order to increase my chances of securing a job in the competitive job market. Other aspects necessary for securing a job include teamwork, and ability to deal with unfamiliar situations, conflict resolution skills, and capacity for self-reflection. Additionally, I realized that I really have to be open-minded and be able to appreciate new facts, ideas, and experiences since the job environment keeps changing, which requires one to be flexible. Week 6, 27th March 2012: This was another interesting week and the main focus was on coaching. During this week’s lecture, we mainly focused on coaching as a process for continuous monitoring of a person in professional development or assessing how a person responds to changes difficulties in the workplace.  Another interesting aspect I learnt in this week was that during my professional life I could seek coaching since it would enable me to be more goal-oriented. This is because coaching is goal-oriented, people-centered, and future-oriented thus essential and can help me realize my full potential. Another interesting aspect was we considered the times when an employee would require coaching. These include when in need to address new challenges, when making difficult decisions, during emotional periods or crisis or when one wants to develop new strategies and solutions. Having completed the module, I felt it was good to reassess myself using the SWOT Analysis My Strength: After the module, I am more aware of my personality and increased my coaching skills. My Weakness: my main weakness at the start of the module was being to result oriented, I am now better and have realized that the small steps I have to take before accomplishing a task are important. However, I know that I still need to keep working on this to ensure I focus more on my daily activities. My opportunities: This module has been a real experience and has enabled me learn my personality and careers I would do well in. My threat: My threat is that I still do not know how well I would fit in the job market especially now that the job market is overwhelmingly dynamic and competitive. Conclusion This module was a very important and helped me reflect on my personality, attributes, and careers that I would comfortably fit into. This was exceptionally important to me since I learnt of the different careers that are good for me thus it is now easier for me to make wise choices concerning my career life. This module has been very enjoyable and involving since every lecture turned out to be an opportunity for me to learn more about myself in terms of attributes, preferences, as well as possible career choices. I always thought that my only possible career was management but I am now open-minded since I know I can do well in consultancy, entrepreneurship, and other related fields. Understanding my personality is important since I can now relate better not just with my friend but also with colleagues in a workplace. Learning about “Career management” was important and has equipped me with skill that will shape my career life. Bibliography Callanan, G.A. (2006). "Individual Career Management." Encyclopaedia of Career Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 379-81.  Greenhaus, H. J., Callanan, A. G. & Kaplan, E. (1995). "The role of goal setting in career management", International Journal of Career Management, Vol. 7 Iss: 5, pp.3 – 12 Guest, D. & Sturges, J. (2007). "Living to Work— Working to Live: Conceptualizations of Careers among Contemporary Workers." Handbook of Career Studies. Ed. Hugh Gunz and Maury Peiperl. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 311-27. Mayrhofer, W. & Meyer, M. (2007). "Contextual Issues in the Study of Careers." Handbook of Career Studies. Ed. Hugh Gunz and Maury Peiperl. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 216-41.  Slay, H. & Taylor, M. (2007). "Career Systems and Psychological Contracts." Handbook of Career Studies. Ed. Hugh Gunz and Maury Peiperl. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 378-99. Wentling, M. R. (2003). "The career development and aspirations of women in middle management – revisited", Women in Management Review, Vol. 18 Iss: 6, pp.311 – 324. Read More