Developing Career Prospects - Admission/Application Essay Example

Running head: Developing Career Prospects 11th march Part A. Portfolio Personal Achievements Exercise A personal achievement entails the professional, psychological and emotional successes. A personal achievement creates a sense of pride for an individual. In a given organization, workers should be allowed to develop their skills both while communicating with their colleagues and while undertaking their daily duties. I have the strength of having strong communication skills. Personally, I have been able to identify the duties of manager and I have got a chance to undertake them. These include planning, controlling, organizing, motivating and developing (Brunstein, 1993). Additionally, through the Chapter on management process, roles, behavior and skills has made me to identify the skills that managers should have. These include personal, social, technical and political skills among others. Personality Profile such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator or similar Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) entails the process that people pass through as they perceive the world and make decision. The theory, which indicates the existence of two dichotomous pairs of cognitive functions, was of great assistance to me (Emmons, 1996). In terms of rational function, my thinking and feeling towards life challenges were positively enhanced. I felt that with determination and confidence I was able to handle any challenge that comes on my way. On its part, irrational function aroused my sensation and intuition towards my duties. Work based competencies exercise As a student or an employee, one should be able to identify areas that they are effective as well as areas that they are weak. In this way, one is able to identify the areas that they need assistance. My competence in the area of business was based on the skills that I gained in the course of my school work as well as the assistance I received from the instructors. Through the skills, I was able to receive a positive outcome that included strong positive relationship with my customers (Schneider and Alderfer, 1973). However, my inability to balance intuition with rational judgment was a negative perception that affected my outcome. I address this by thinking strategically and go beyond the obvious, gathers complex data, to get to the heart of the issues My Values One’s values are important since they are source of motivation and they greatly make one to be identified by the values. My main value is working hard. I like to achieve my goals through working hard, remaining confident and be focused at my goals (Ibarra, 2003). Additionally, I value learning how to master new tasks by adopting high self efficacy. In this way, I am in a position to educate others on various issues thus our relationship becoming stronger. Career Management Seminar Task Coca-Cola Company is a soft drink firm that provides wide range of brands. The specific role of the company is to provide quality soft drink to the customers globally. The company requires managers to have extensive skills with major competencies being a good leader, focused, strong relationship with customers and ability to meet the deadline. Employees and managers must maintain the company ethics all the time. To get the company information, I used internet where I visited their site. Through the site, I was able to get the information that for an individual to get a job in the company, one should identify the job, complete an online registration, upload CV and click the submit button to complete the application process (Ball, 1997). Currently, Coca-Cola is recruiting in North America among other markets. Additionally, it maintain graduate recruitment scheme and it encourages young graduates to apply. As a skilled and talented leader, I am able to get a job in the company and have a positive impact on its operations. Johari Window caring confident happy observant nervous brave intelligent proud extroverted tense logical complex shy organized idealistic My Johari Window indicates my strengths and weaknesses that I am able to identify on my own and those which other people can notice. In this way, I have an opportunity to optimize on my strengths to face off the challenges in life. Non workshop employability activity During the networking event, each individual was given an opportunity to open a social site and give a name that is easily recognized by others. Additionally, members were allowed to exchange their mobile phone number as well as their email. One of the major issue that I have learned out of the networking activity is that I am a person with the ability to positively associate with others. Additionally, through the assistance that I gave to my friends, I realized that I am able to handle wide range of problems as well as to motivate others. Part B. Reflective Essay One of my major strength is strong communication skills. During my young age, I was exposed to various social events by my parents. Additionally, I closely intermingled with educated adults as well as the neighboring children thus getting the basic communication techniques. This implies that my parent played a notable role to shape my communication skills. Once I joined school, I acquired a hobby of reciting poems before a big audience, and this further had an impact on my communication (Elliott and Sheldon, 1998). Through the communication skills as a unit during my undergraduate level, I was exposed to various strategies that are adopted during communication both verbally and written. For example, the instructors exposed me to citing regulations and referencing. As an individual who is caring, I used to intermingle with disabled students and through the process I learnt on sign languages, an experience that most of my colleagues did not acquire. In my future career, strong communication skills will benefit me in the sense that I will maintain strong positive relationship with my team mates. Additionally, as the manager, I will have the ability to address the problems and resistance that workers may generate for example when the organization makes a change. In this way, I will ensure that the firm’s processes are not interfered with. One of the notable aspects that I found challenging and difficult in the workshop exercises and the employability experiences was lack of support from other members especially while I was solving disputes. While I am aware of how to communicate with individuals who are in dispute, some parties were not listening to what I was saying. In this way, there was communication barrier even though I was finally able to handle the challenges. Even though I have strong communication skills, there are some contradictions that exist. For example, I am more skilled in using verbal communication than written communication. This is possible due to my face to face communication that started during my childhood. Additionally, I have intermingled with top executives who are skilled communicators face to face and not just through emails. As far as the concept of efficacy is concerned, I gained the power to produce a positive outcome not only when I am communication with my audience but also while solving any dispute that may arise in the working place (White, 1963). If provided with an opportunity to make a presentation, I have confidence to make it and provide my audience with ample time to ask questions. As a way, of assisting my colleagues as a manager, my focus is to create forums where they will be trained on communication skills and team work. Additionally, workers who will be willing to undertake courses on communication skills will be provided with that opportunity where the costs will be catered by the organizational. This will also act as a way of motivating them (Harter, 1978). My other major strength is the strong willingness to learn how to master new tasks. This strength came from my opinion that people have adopted the culture of undertaking their duties through the use of same methods regardless of the prevailing condition. For example, once the teachers were using traditional methods of teaching such as use of chalk, no one thought of using PowerPoint presentations. I realized that if such a chalk was not there, the students could not learn. This made me to see an opportunity whereby tasks can be done in a different way and a better or similar outcome is attained. Another source of my strength was to deal with the competition in the current business arena. Stiff business competition that is currently being experienced locally and globally requires that individual business owners and organization be very innovative. In this regard, I realized that my competitive position will be improved by learning and mastering new tactics. One of the areas that strong willingness to learn how to master new tasks as my strength will have an impact is to be innovative as I undertake my future assignment. As a business owner, I will create unique brands that the competitors will not be able to imitate. Similarly, I am focused at using attractive form of advertising that will create strong customers awareness thus expanding my customer base. To ensure that employees who will be under my leadership are productive and competitive, I will teach them on new methods of undertaking their duties. In this way, they will be motivated and the organization’s turn over will reduce. During the workshop exercises and the employability experiences, I faced a number of difficulties and challenges in learning how to master new tasks (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). First, since not many people like to learn new things, I lacked the opportunity to innovate and come up with unique tactics for example in researching for information. Most of the team members were fond of old ways of doing things an aspect that hindered my techniques. Another challenge was lack of support. While I was willing to educate my members of the team on how to present search for information, they were taking it as a tedious task that they treated as a change, thus not giving me the necessary support. While I like learning new things, I more focused at technology oriented methods that use computers and not manual things. It is vital to note that even manual thins like filing can be done in a different and simpler way. My focus on use of computers is possibly due to the increased use of internet and computers at the individual and corporate levels (McGregor, I and Little, R. 1998). My strength will be vital in future since I will be in a position to provide positive outcome that includes strong product awareness, expansive customer base, unique products, improved workers productivity and strong positive relationship with my team members. As far as locus of control is concerned, I believe that I can change the way organization undertakes their operations by creating new strategies within a given time frame. Through my personal initiatives, I can make adjustments for example in the production facility and create more unique products. References Emmons, A. 1996. Striving and feeling: personal goals and subjective well-being. New York: Guilford Press. McGregor, I and Little, R. 1998. Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: on doing well and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (2): 44–52. Brunstein, C.1993. Personal goals and subjective well-being: a longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65 (5): 61–70. Elliott, J and Sheldon, M. 1998. Avoidance personal goals and the personality–illness relationship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75 (5): 82–99. Ball, B. 1997. Career management competences – the individual perspective. Career Development International 2 (2): 4–9. Ibarra, H. 2003. Working identity: unconventional strategies for reinventing your career. New YORK: Harvard Business Press. Schneider, B and Alderfer, P. 1973. Three studies of measures of need satisfaction in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49-55. Harter, S.1978. Effectance motivation reconsidered: Toward a developmental model. Human Development 1: 61–69. White, W. 1963. Ego and reality in psychoanalytic theory. New York: International Universities Press. Baumeister, R and Leary, R. 1995. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin 117: 47–59. Read More