Career Development and Employability: Personal Branding and Networking

This report discusses the importance of possessing better knowledgeable skills for effective employability. It covers the concepts of personal branding and networking, and provides strategic tips for their development. The report also includes a reflection on presentation and teamwork skills.

MN3040QA project : 2 Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................7

·INTRODUCTION
Every individual student, learner or person aims to have one of the sound and better career
options with skills and opportunities of employability in her/his future. But within the current world
scenario, the competition today has increased to a much greater extent, and relatively frequently
emerging unemployment has also gained ground in all the developing or developed nations because
of which it has now become necessary to find satisfactory employment. The pupils studying within
higher education require much focus upon their career growth so that they could get better qualified
jobs and shouldn't have to experience the negative impacts of rising unemployment. A better career
developmental growth is important regardng the students as this can aid them in enhancing better
skills plus gaining knowledge that is important to them as prospective employee and functioning
effectively within the workplace (Weng and Zhu, 2020). Students getting higher education require
immediate focusing on receiving better knowledge concerning how to get their desired jobs post
completion of their education. The following essay illustrates accurate knowledge received by a
student pertaining to career development including employability. Apart from this, the report will
include comprehensive reflection upon the results regarding the assessment including how it could
help the students in working efficiently within the workplace plus how this knowledge could be
applied there.
·MAIN BODY
Career development and employability
The terms career development and employability are very essential components of a
person's professional life especially when individuals have just completed their education or are in
process of completing it and moving on to the brand new world of professional working spaces.
Employability or capacity of employment can be described as that state of existence in one's life
when the already gained knowledge of a person is put to effective use in a service/money exchange
pattern when a potential job or employment opportunity is offered. The second related term of
career development means that it is a process with which that person manages and handles his/her

career and life. There is an interesting overlap between these two that has some key concepts
assimilated within two of which will be later on discussed below (Okolie and et.al., 2020). These
key elements are:
·Personal branding: This is defined as a procedure of establishing one's own identity for
differentiating oneself for employability.
·Curriculum vitae (CV): It is a fairly common term that involves a proper summary of a person's
academic experience to apply for further professional growth.
·Networking: Networking is a vital form of communication in which proper interaction with peers,
leaders and others opens up space for personal and professional growth and success.
All these and more form an important part within the field of career development and employability
spectrum. The conceptual frameworks of 'personal branding' and 'networking' have been explained
and discussed in detail below:
Personal Branding: This concept can be defined as a setting up of a creative statement about
oneself for the purpose of getting hired. A prospective freshly-graduate candidate can start branding
themselves as per their skills and talents that they have to offer. It involves five basic A's namely
authenticity, authority, aspiration, affinity, and asrtisanat. Examples are Steve Jobs, Bills Gates,
Ratan Tata, etc (Gorbatov and et.al., 2018).
Importance of personal branding: Personal branding is advantageous for both professional and
personal growth aspects. Its factors of importance contains various elements such as it helps build
trust among people or customers (in case the person is employed) that further helps in business
corporate relations. This can result in the establishment of friendly relationships. The second most
important factor of personal branding is that it aids in distinguishing a person by building their
credibility so that they can sell their potential for a good job prospect. This basically facilitates
individual's personality development. Another of its professional significance lies in raising sales or
revenue growth of one's business if the student or person has been recently employed as this works
in a direct link – the better the personal branding, higher the sales (Minor-Cooley and Parks-Yancy,
2020).
Strategic tips to develop it: There are some helpful tips to develop the career-based element of
personal branding such as networking through blogging, good social media presence, value
proposition of a person's talent services, originality of distinguished skills, and consistency. Trying
to become socially active on professional and network platforms along with offering expertise in
certain areas that clients require are some strong initial tips to get the new learner or freshly
graduate student started along their professional career path. Another strategies that can help them

in attaining employment is being authentic in whatever they do and what they have to offer infused
with a consistent personal brand figure (Ilieş, 2018).
Networking: The concept of networking in simple terms means meeting new people who help an
individual person or higher education student in knowing more about their chosen industry or line
of profession. In communication terms it involves the sharing of informative ideas and ultimately
opening new channels to accomplish personal and professional goals (Carmack and Heiss, 2018).
Importance of networking: The general reason as to why networking is so important lies in the fact
that it helps generate a lot of connections and referrals and also helps in maintaining a strong
relationship with inspirational people. In specific terms of career development and employability
region, the conceptual framework of networking plays an effective role as it helps in making a
person or an individual candidate stand out among the general public that one day eventually might
get them their desired job. There are four main reasons behind networking for developing one's
career one of the first is that it contributes and adds value to a person or pupil's sociological well-
being, i.e., it is not always about fulfilling professional goals as genuinely making meaningful
connections with other humans is far more important. The second factor of importance is that it
leads to exchange of ideas that help develop ones' mental horizons; third aspect is that opens up
opportunities of meeting people at all levels of professionalism and lastly and most imprtantly it
helps boost workplace confidence (Pendleton and Gibson, 2022).
Strategic tips for networking practices: In its general sense the basic ways to start networking with
people consist of beginning with small approaches, striking good and polite friendships and
understanding the value of shared interests and respecting other's inclinations. If a person wants to
professionally create a networking channel then along with its personal side, networking has to
based on what he/she has to offer as it is a two-way street. Also, being curious also helps along the
way as it leads to more questions, hence more people. Another strategy could be setting up of
bigger goals and skill-based objectives without getting intimidated. Lastly one great tip is to search
for a common ground where professionalism can be discovered in deeper ways (Floyd and et.al.,
2022).
Assessment Reflection
The following are the skills that I have learnt and have critically reflected upon as given below:
Presentation based skills: From what I have learned about presentation skills I think it can be
defined as an assessment type which includes a visualistic representation of given subject or areas
of interest. I gained clarity on its structure regarding presentation which comprises introduction,
(receiving attention), physical (persuasion/ expression) and conclusion (summarized feedback). I

also discovered during the pandemic time, that many lecturers had taken classes through online
means and made use of various presentations to make us. the students comprehend about different
subjects, titles etc. I beleive that this could be either entertainment-based presentation or maybe
educationally oriented one. However, I also found out that there exist 3 elements which must be
always kept into consideration regarding the involvement of design, deliverables plus confidence.
In my experience this gives ceratin purpose, its effect and software also should be included.
Moreover, when delivering, person's speech need to be be clear with audible volume, including
discernible font size plus easy usage of words, proper background regarding pleasantness as it's not
a written report with well defined appearance (Deb Ferron).
Teamwork capability: Another one of the skills that I came across refers to social skills
developmental program that assists an individual in providing assistance while functioning in a
team. When any team/group assignments are assignned, in my view a person must be capable to
cope with own insufficiencies, and should be properly engaged in understanding given work along
with coordination for attaining it. From what I learnt another importance was that of interpersonal
skills that needs growth to cope with ongoing activities devoid of any challenges and creating zero
obstacles in accomplishment of tasks. Many persons feel shy and are insecure while expressing
thoughts; I think such students could improve through practicing and getting help from this skill
(Prada and et.al., 2022).
·CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that it is vital to possess better knowledgeable
skills that can help in becoming effective in getting better employment. The report has mentioned
important concepts linked with career development plus employability. Because of increased
unemployment globally, it is necessary for all to possess better contacts and resources that can help
in getting better job with a bright futurel. All individuals must focus on creating a personal
branding to stand out from the crowd along with enhancing better networking that can help them to
get their dream job effectively. In conjunction with this, it is significant for individuals in having a
better capability in reflecting their skills along with generating effective personal branding, that is
very essential having much greater impact upon the employability regarding the individuals.
In light of all the aforementioned points, the above report has included a reflection
regarding the assessment, that seems to have enhanced appropriate knowledge concerning the
student in how both skills like presentation and teamwork is important pertaining to the
future/current employees or individuals while being employed in an organisation. The report has
properly defined the concepts of personal branding and networking, has outlined why these are

important and has also discussed certain strategic tips and practices on how to develop the same.
l壱REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Carmack, H.J. and Heiss, S.N., 2018. Using the theory of planned behavior to predict college
students’ intent to use LinkedIn for job searches and professional
networking. Communication Studies, 69(2), pp.145-160.
Deb Ferron, D.T.M., Improving Public Speaking Through Toastmasters and Beyond.
Floyd, T.M., and et.al., 2022. Emphasizing “me” or “we”: Training framing and self-concept in
network-based leadership development. Human Resource Management.
Gorbatov, S., and et.al., 2018. Personal branding: Interdisciplinary systematic review and research
agenda. Frontiers in psychology, 9, p.2238.
Ilieş, V.I., 2018. Strategic personal branding for students and young professionals. Cross-Cultural
Management Journal, 20(01), pp.43-51.
Minor-Cooley, D. and Parks-Yancy, R., 2020. The Power of the brand: Personal branding and its
effect on job seeking attributes. Journal of Internet Commerce, 19(3), pp.241-261.
Okolie, U.C., and et.al., 2020. Career training with mentoring programs in higher education:
facilitating career development and employability of graduates. Education+ Training.
Pendleton, S.M. and Gibson, R., 2022. The Long-Term Value of Networking and Diverse

Professional Experience in Online Communication Master’s Cohorts: Strategic Benefits of
a Closed-Cohort Structure. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 77(2), pp.205-
221.
Prada, E.D., and et.al., 2022. Teamwork skills in higher education: is university training
contributing to their mastery?. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 35.
Weng, Q. and Zhu, L., 2020. Individuals’ career growth within and across organizations: A review
and agenda for future research. Journal of Career Development. 47(3). pp.239-248.