Employability and Personal Development - Assignment Example

 Employability and Personal Development Part One: How do modern career forms differ from traditional ones and what does this mean for you and your future career? A career can be defined as an outline of an individual’s experiences related to work along the course of their life. The concept has evolved over time, and can be analyzed from different perspectives, like traditional and modern (Greenhaus, 2009). The concept of a traditional organized career emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century, entailing the industrialization and the rapid economic growth around the world. These are the type of careers in which stability and advancement is expected within, and a silent, mutual contract of loyalty exists between the employee and the employer. The employee, if works efficiently under a concrete and esteemed employer, can expect promotions, pay increases and a decent pension to retire with. Traditionally, a career would comprise of similar jobs, like a cook, food caterer, and a hotel chef. An experience of jobs as diverse as a doctor, a designer and a cook would not traditionally constitute of a career. The traditional theme also emphasizes on career as a profession, which is perceived to belong to a higher socio-economic standard and gives greater independence. As such, lawyers and doctors fall as examples of traditional careers. The limitations of traditional careers, namely downscaling of workforce by firms, declining mutual loyalty between the employers and the employed and rising job security evolved the nature of careers over the decades that help individuals adjust to the rising uncertainties of the working environment. Most common of this contemporary or modern perspective of careers is boundaryless careers. They operate beyond the hierarchical, social and industrial parameters, and are not linked to a central employment setting, and have a good degree of inter-organizational mobility. This is hence followed by people focusing on a global career. This is in contrast to traditional career, which is highly immobile and where a single career path and organizational setting has to be adhered to. Also, a modern career requires individuals to be highly self-responsible in their career choices and determine career goals based o personal value, which is contrary to traditional careers where organization determines the career path to be followed. This evolutional in career opportunities mean that I have a wider range of choices available in modern careers with greater autonomy, despite of employing the similar skills as could have been applied in a traditional career. Reduced social boundaries mean that traditionally gender-specific jobs can be performed by anyone interested. This means that a career of interest can now be pursue in future, disregarding the gender stereotypes attached to it. What does the current graduate labor market look like and what does this mean for you? A Graduate Labor Market can be simply said to comprise of graduates seeking employment and employers seeking graduates to hire for respective posts (London Metropolitan University, c.2010). Owing to the economic and social changes constantly taking place at both large scale and small scale levels, transformation has occurred in the GLM too. Shift in popularity from traditional options, like doctors and professors, to more modern careers like sports and fitness and ayurvedic now labor supply with vast new and innovative skills for the employers to choose from. Research however has indicated that overeducation poses an issue in the job market, with most of the workforce having more education than is required for their jobs, and consequently, their returns on surplus education is higher than on the required qualification (Dolton, 2000). Income differences have been found to be wider within the graduate category than between the graduate and non-graduate workers. Research has also shown that people from higher socio-economic status are more likely to get professional and managerial jobs that are conventionally related to a university degree, but such ethnic and socioeconomic impacts are implicit, because people from converse backgrounds are unlikely to attend universities, from where graduate are generally hired (Brown, 2010). However, more heed is now being given to the generic, more personal skills than those merely specific to jobs, like aptness to communicate and work along in team (Dench, 1997). This means that despite of having majors in marketing that is now well in demand by companies, as a fresh graduate I may have to struggle in the highly competitive labor market to achieve the job standard I deserve, and prevent getting underemployed. Adequate general and interpersonal skills may give me an edge over other competitors, and this, therefore needs to be worked on equally. What is Employability? The Scottish Government defines employability as the combination of features that make possible for an individual get employed, maintain the employment status and to be able to find a new one if required (Healthy Working Lives, 2008). Hillage and Pollard (cited in Clarke and Patrickson, 2008) describe it as “the capability to move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realize potential through sustainable employment”, and this ability is recognized as a result of one’s skills, understanding, personal characteristics, their utilization, their presentation to the employer, and the situational aspects like the current labor market condition (Clarke and Patrickson, 2008). Employability has been utilized as a measure of the probability of finding suitable work and as a result of a ‘new psychological contract,’ whereas shorter termed employments is based on a trade of gains and contributions. The concept has generated interest mainly due to the economic impact of labor market shortages and skills, and the recent evolution in the nature of careers and the declining job security, owing to the need felt by the organizations to be flexible and adaptable. In 1999, Garavan (cited in Clarke and Patrickson, 2008) depicted employability as “the emerging new deal” between the employer and those employed, where it is considered a psychological contract in place of employment security. He stressed that employees should acquire and sustain “advanced general skills” rather than specializing in those pertaining to a specific firm, and consider themselves self-employed than employed for an organization. How employable are you? What transferable skills do you have, what do you need to develop and how well can you sell yourself? Graduation through the university has given me sufficient specific and generic skills to make me employable for the career I desire. Through the years, I have been trained to understand and predict the business environment, gain and evaluate knowledge of products and develop enough stay financially aware on national as well as international markets (Atkinson, 1997). Apart from the occupation specific skills that involve an improved potential to influence and negotiate with others, make responsible decisions, certain transferable skills are equally important in the field of marketing, and are also evenly valued in other professions. These are strong communication and presentation skills, as well as high level of creativity. Other significant, transferable skills I have developed are being apt with information technology, how to learn autonomously, that is to work independently, conduct researches effectively with resources available, evaluate situations critically and write academic reports. Time management, prioritizing and organization of chores, however, are aspects that need to be worked on. These are valued in all spheres of life, not only in corporate world, but will hopefully come with experience. Having interned and worked in various organizations, along with participation in the university’s activities pertaining to my majors, I have gained sufficient experience and confidence. This is an edge that is valued by employers, and will help me sell myself well What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism is defined as an act of using another person’s creation as one’s own, without giving acknowledgment to its original creator. This may include imitating the originators wordings, thoughts, research and ideas with out appropriate attribution, whether it is intentional or deliberate (Nelson, 2007). The word is derived from the Latin word, ‘plagiare’ which means ‘to kidnap.’ It is considered an immoral and a criminal act, and is regarded as an intellectual theft, and may even result in legal action against the committer for copyright violations. Different types include direct plagiarism that refers to the exact duplication from the source, and accidental plagiarism, which means failure in citing the source, or the correct citation of the source. What is the Harvard referencing system and why do we use it? ‘Referencing’ means that the author of a piece of work gives due credit to the sources of information and ideas that they refer in their article. There are many types of referencing systems, namely APA, MLA and Harvard styles (UNISA, 2010). This is a customary requisite when submitting assignment and articles, and the style of referencing is chosen as obliged by the university. Harvard referencing system is also called the author-date system or Harvard style of parenthetical reference, in which sources in an article are cited in brackets rather than as content notes within the articles. An alphabetical list of references or a bibliography is provided in the end of the articles. The reason why Harvard is preferred over other referencing systems is that it makes sure that the author’s name and year of publication is acknowledged within the content. The system of listing references in an alphabetical order makes them simpler to check with. The method of citing reference only once within the article relieves of the complex mentioning of terms like ‘ibid’ (in the same place) and ‘op cit’ (in the work previously cited) (Metranet, 2008). The absence of content notes makes it simpler to read as the flow of text is not disturbed (UWIC, 2007). What are the key things you have learned from this module? The key things that I learned from this module are theories of diverse marketing strategies and appropriate applications in different situations. This was an interesting study, as I got to know how to utilize the impulsive nature of consumers to the company’s advantage while complying with the business ethics and overcoming the potential objections they may have on the product. During this, I also learnt to comprehend the general psychology of buyers. Working on live marketing projects taught me to put all theories into practice, applying creativity, knowledge and communication skills learnt to the real-life experience. List of References: Brown, P. (2010) The Changing Graduate Labour Market: A Review of the Evidence [Online] Available from < http://mt.educarchile.cl/MT/jjbrunner/archives/libros/Tendencias/pdf/rr7-e.pdf> Accessed [6 December 2010] Clarke, M., and Patrickson, M. (2008) ‘The new covenant of employability’, Employee Relations, 30, (2) 121 – 141 Dench, S., (1997) Changing skill needs: what makes people employable? Industrial and Commercial Training 29, (6) 190-193 Dolton, P., and Vignoles, A. (2010) The incidence and effects of overeducation in the U.K. graduate labour market Economics of Education Review, 19 (2) 179-198 Greenhaus j., H., Callanan, G., A., and Godshalk, V., M. (2007) Career Management. United State of America: Sage Publications. Healthy Working Lives (2008) What is Employability? [Online] available from accessed [4 December 2010] Metranet (2008) Using the Harvard Style [Online] Available from < http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/services/sas/library-services/referencing/using-harvard.cfm> accessed [4 December 2010] Nelson, S., Stepchyshyn, V. (2007) Library plagiarism policies United States of America: Association of College & Research Libraries UWIC (2007) Unit 13 - Citation and Referencing [Online] Available from < http://www.uwic.ac.uk/ltsu/u_area/studyskills/unit13.html> Accessed [6 December 2010] UNISA (2010) The Harvard Author-Date Referencing System [Online] Available from < http://www.unisa.edu.au/ltu/students/study/referencing/harvard.pdf> Accessed [6 December 2010] Part Two: I intend to pursue my postgraduate in Marketing from the University of Derby. Graduating in the field from this institute has been a very rewarding experience as I have now become more certain that Marketing is the career I want to follow, and the university has given me every opportunity to develop skills for it and other life competitions. I understand the importance of marketing to any company, be it selling a trivial commodity or a very expensive one. Making the product look attractive, convincing the buyer of its worth and to buy it is the major challenge for any seller. The dynamic role that marketing plays through advertising campaigns or any other medium is what intrigues me most. It not only involves coming up with new and innovative ideas to attract attention, but also an in-depth understanding of the consumer psychology that makes most uncommon of the products purchasable. I am inherently a creative person and usually come up with innovative ideas and concepts. I believe that this area is a perfect passage for this skill and interest of mine. Throughout the course, I have also acquired a great level of confidence, interpersonal and communication skills that are very essential tools in the field in order to influence buyers while understanding their concerns, overcoming them, and selling the product successfully at the same time. This also involves analyzing the situations and evaluating products critically, which I have successfully learnt during the undergraduate study. I also possess a fair degree of leadership skills, but prefer to work as team. I feel that a working as a group and pooling up ideas from multiple individuals creates ideas that an individual cannot think of, especially in marketing. I like campaigns that are simple, and convey the idea straightly while in a short time, while keeping consumer’s attention grasped. One of my favorite advertising campaigns is Compare the Meerkat TV campaign by UK’s car insurance company launched in 2009, because of its absolutely unique idea and the catch phrases that consequently launched a successful word-of-mouth campaign in days. Although I have never worked professionally before, I believe that I have gained significant experience through non-paid internships in business organization that gave me a practical insight into marketing in particular and corporate world in general. This has enabled me to conceive my field in broader perspective. Also, the live marketing projects in the university gave me a chance to put all theories learnt in class to practice. After achieving my post-graduate degree from this university, I intend to enter the marketing profession and hope to start my career from a reputable corporation. I hope that, considering my interest and passion in the subject and the good academic record that I have maintained, the university will heed my request to allow me pursue my post-graduate from here so that my skills are best allocated and dream career accomplished. Read More