Personal Skills Portfolio - Essay Example

Professor’s Name Institution Course Date Skills Portfolio 1. Introduction Professional Themed Photo My name is Johnson Mesut. I completed my Bachelors degree in Public Relations two months ago from Edith Cowan University, and I am looking for a professional job as a public relations officer. I obtained an overall second class upper grade. I have undergone through the full course comprising of forty-five different modules. I also hold a certificate in Information Technology from the same school. In fact, my skills portfolio would be beneficial in many ways. For instance, the skills portfolio would showcase what I have theoretically learned in school and how I am practically capable of applying it in real life situations thus, it would help me in getting a job. During my final year at the University, I got an attachment at Fortune Call Company for four months. The company offers calls, internet, money, short messages services to the customers possessing registered mobile phone cards from the company. The attachment contributed significantly to adding my academic qualifications with real life experience. I worked as a customer care attendant. In that company, I played many roles. My first role involved receiving phones calls from the customers with queries, comments and important information. After receiving calls, I could help the customers whichever way possible by the company’s rules and regulations. The other role involved making calls to the customers on various matters regarding the different matters of operations or client’s issues. The other role involved receiving short messages from clients and making helpful replies. The other task involved welcoming clients who visited the company’s offices. In this case, I could greet the customers with utmost respect, ask their problem and direct them to the right place where they could obtain help in the organisation’s premises. I also worked as an assistant accounts clerk in the same company where I played two roles in this position. My first role was recording the attendance register of employees in the organisation. My other role was drawing salary graphs of employees from the figures derived from the chief accountant’s office. During the third year at the University, I was elected the leader of the social club. The club involved in promoting unity among the students, teaching staff, school’s staff, community and other schools. One of my huge achievements was forming a harmonious relationship with the neighbouring community through engaging in reducing pollution in our surrounding, a problem that had ailed the environment for many years. As the club leader, I managed to bring together students, school staff and the community in cleaning the surrounding areas. Additionally, I also organised how we would plant trees in the surrounding areas for the purposes of protecting our mother nature. 2. Analysing Data and Using Technology 1. Information Management (STAR- Situation, Task, Action, Result) (1). Situation As an accounts clerk assistant at Fortune Call Company, my roles were drawing graphs of employees’ salaries, recording the daily attendance of employees and the number of hours worked by every employee. Task While at the organisation, I found myself in a discussion with the chief accountant of Fortune Call Company, who handles all the accounts department of the organization. The department handled the preparation and payment of employees’ salaries together with other financial matters of the company. I was asked to register the attendance of employees, the number of hours worked by every employee together with the plotting of graphs of their salaries where I decided to use information management to succeed. Action I began with recording the names of all employees in the organisation using Microsoft Excel leaving enough spaces for the days of the week for a month. Then on top of the page of my Microsoft Excel, I left a few inches to my right hand and wrote the entering and exiting time of every employee. A few inches from the ‘exiting time’, I wrote the ‘hours worked’. At the bottom of last day of hours worked by every employee, I added the total number of hours worked in that month. On the other hand, I used figures of employees’ salaries that I got from the chief accountant’s office in drawing graphs of salaries of employees using the Microsoft Excel. In this case, I took the employees’ figures salaries for every given month and used them in plotting appropriate graphs. Whichever area that I encountered difficulties or doubts with data, days or months, I asked help from the relevant staff. Chart of Employees’ Salaries Result Feedback from the accounts department turned to be very positive. All employees were paid their full salaries in due time. Complaints of unpaid overtimes came to an end. The efficiency of operations increased making the organization to increase customers by 20%. The employees on the other hand, had their salaries increased. (2). Technology (STAR) Situation As a leader of our University’s social club, one of my biggest roles was convincing and informing both members and non-members of the club to engage in development activities that are beneficial to all people like, taking care of the environment. In fact, my club’s message was that: when we pollute our environment, it hits us back with a bigger force than the one we use in polluting it. Task To involve all people in protecting the environment, I included technology in producing photos. As such, I made use of relevant, beautiful pictures/images together with convincing words and figures in my advertisements for the campaign. In addition, I had to keep all people aware of the venue, date and the latest developments of the protecting the environment campaign. Planting of Trees Image Action I took the initiative of using PowerPoint software in producing high-quality graphics and images regarding protecting the environment that were used in my advertisements. Further, to convince people more with the graphics, I sought the services of a colleague with Photoshop knowledge in creating stunning images. I produced posters that were stuck in various places by the students, and I also used social media (Facebook and Twitter) in advertising the campaign. I also used email in making invitations for the campaign. In my advertisements, I included the venue, date, and time of when the campaign was scheduled to start. In addition, I also stated the expected budget for the campaign. In sending emails, I used Microsoft Word in writing the invitations and also attached some images to my assorted recipients. Result Admittedly, I received continuously excellent feedback from the school, community and the minister of environment regarding protecting the environment campaign. The community stopped littering the environment and disposing contaminated water to the rivers. Also, the community has embraced the culture of planting 3,000 trees every year in the month of September. The surrounding weather has been seen to be gradually changing from warm to cool. (3). Numeracy (STAR) Situation As the social club leader at the University, I handled preparing the financial budget for protecting the environment campaign. This involved all the money that was used in the entire campaign. Task I used the numeracy skills to make sure that the campaign process went on as scheduled since it required the calculation of all money that we were to use during the process. This included the interpretation of available data regarding the cost of various products and services. Action I found the price of one litre of fuel to know the amount of money that we were to use during the collection of garbage and planting of trees. Secondly, I found the total number of kilometres (distance) that we were going to cover during the protecting the environment campaign. Then, I looked for the distance that consumed one litre of fuel. Using Microsoft Excel, I multiplied the distance to be covered by the price of one litre and found the total transportation cost. Then, I found the price of one tree for planting and multiplied it by the total number of trees that we were to plant. The price of one tree was going for $3. Some of them were being sold at $5. In that campaign, we planted 2, 600 trees. I also found the cost of hiring Lorries for carrying garbage and the money to be paid to the drivers who were transporting the trash. Garbage Collection Result I consistently received excellent feedback from the community about the initiative of protecting the environment. My club was capable of raising $6,000 while the well-wishers contributed $14,000, thus getting a total of $20,000. Our budget for the campaign was $15,000. Therefore, $5,000 was left to be used during planting of trees the following year. The number of well-wishers also rose from 8 to 12 who would be promoting the campaign every year. The number of trees planted every year has also increased from 2,600 to 3000. 2. (Communicating Effectively - STAR) 4. Verbal Communication Situation As a customer care attendant at Fortune Call, my role was to provide excellent customer services through receiving and making phone calls and also receiving, and sending text messages from and to the clients for the purpose of assisting them on various issues. I also had a role in ensuring effective verbal communication with my staff. Task To provide excellent services, I had to use verbal communication skills like, sounds that were loud and clear. In addition, I had to keep my information concise in a way that is appropriate for both the customers and the staff. Action I listened carefully to customers and staff queries and made responses using suitable and sensitive language together with non-verbal signs like nodding, gestures and eye contact (Ludden, 22). I took time before answering questions to provide the best answer. I could not interrupt customers when asking questions or making comments. I always displayed a friendly and positive attitude on Fortune Call’s premises that possessed a positive effect on customers and staff. I could not cut my conversation with a client before he/she received the most appropriate answer from my organisation. I read the short messages carefully first to understand what they were saying. I replied the asked question appropriately through using appropriate words that suited the customers. I made sure that I answered every question to the particular customer who demanded a response through counterchecking their phone numbers. Result I received on continuous basis excellent feedback from the Fortune Call’s management. A lot of credit was given to me for the manner I approached customers and staff. The company realised a 5% increase in customers within the four months I worked there. Customer satisfaction of our services also rose from 55% to 59% and the staff turnover also went down. 5. Public Speaking Situation As a leader of my social club, my role was to bring together the students, teaching staff and community members to engage fully in protecting the environment campaign. Task To achieve this, I employed public speaking skills to make students, teaching staff and public members to be fully involved in the campaign. To do this, I organised a meeting with the students, faculty and some community members. Action I kept thinking positively throughout the meeting that helped me in making and clarifying my points while addressing my audience (Ludden, 23). This made the crowd be convinced of my campaign’s importance. I paid attention to the body language through smiling, taking deep breaths, providing direct eye contacts, using my hands and making some moves when talking to my audience (Ludden, 23). I made my meeting interactive through engaging my audience. As such, I asked individuals some questions and also encouraged them ask questions and participate in the meeting. I paused on some occasions to gather more thoughts about my topic. I also invested in my audience. In my opening comments, I made every effort to relate to my audience and focused relying on the reasons why they required and deserved knowing my message. Public Speaking Image Result I continuously received excellent feedback after the meeting from my audience. Feedback from the community members was positive as the club received sponsors of the planned campaign. In addition, the number of student members increased from 120 to 378 members. Also, the teaching staff members rose from 7 to 22. Moreover, 16 community members joined the club. The increment of club members made it possible for the campaign to be conducted successfully. Admittedly, the campaign was carried out with less effort due to the unity of many club members. 6. Written Communication Situation As a student at ECU, I had to write the final thesis paper when completing my degree. Task To complete my important final paper, I used my written communication skills to put across the points that my examining body asked me. In fact, the answers could reach my professor only through writing. Action I took the responsibility of writing the final paper using my computer. In this scenario, I used Microsoft Word. The written communication consisted of words, graphs, figures and images. I searched relevant information of the asked questions from the internet. I read and understood the information and then wrote it in my thoughts (Ludden, 54). I explained all the points that I found useful and relevant to the asked questions in writing. I drew and also copied and pasted some pictures from the internet and incorporated them in my written work. I drew graphs and pie charts from the figures that I obtained from the internet as requested by the examination questions. I wrote my thoughts other than that from the sources in my paper. I arranged my written work in paragraphs and bolded the headings as per the paper requirements. I provided a cover page, table of contents, body of the document, conclusions and recommendations, sources and appendices in my written work. I provided page numbers on every page. I double spaced my written work and used Times New Roman 12. I wrote clear, coherent and grammatical free final paper. I also cited the works of authors whom I used their information. Writing a Paper Result I received a positive feedback from my professor. I scored 90 % (an A) in my final paper. I was involved in advising students to put more effort in their studies. The professor encouraged students to follow my steps in learning. Work Cited Ludden, Marsha. Effective Communication Skills: Essential Skills for Success in Work and Life. New York. 2002. Print. Read More