Reflective Journal on Career and Skills Development at Desklib

This reflective journal discusses personal analysis of career and skills development at Desklib. It covers career and progression plan, skills audit, self appraisal, action planning, and skills development record & work-based feedback. The report also identifies weaknesses and resources required to improve skills for a bright future ahead.

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Career and progression plan.........................................................................................................3
Skills audit...................................................................................................................................4
Self Appraisal & Action Planning...............................................................................................7
Skills Development Record & Work-based Feedback................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Career plan is very efficient to achieve future goals and objectives and these are mainly
developed in individual either through continuous learning or through self developed
knowledge. The present analysis is based on my personal strength which is depicted through
various career plans and progressions, skill audits, action planning, self appraisal, skill
development record etc. Further the report will analysis certain weakness that need to be
improved over the period and discuss resources required to improve my skills for bright future
ahead.
MAIN BODY
Career and progression plan.
It refers to process an employee undergoes to know the wants and identify the means to
achieve it so that actual steps can be taken. These plans are regularly created and revised that is
necessary for the continuous growth and development. There are certain steps that need to be
followed to develop an efficient plan which are explained as follows:
1. Evaluating the current situation: In this step, I have observed that my oral
communication skills and decision-making skills are weak as a result of that I am not able
to express my viewpoints efficiently and in effective manner. Also, it creates problem
because most time I am interpreted wrongly as a result there are problems of conflicts
between various individuals (Louw and Katznelson, 2019). Also, I have analysed, that I
do not posses strong decision-making skills therefore I am always dependent on other
people to support my decisions and critically analysed whether my decision is right or
wrong.
2. Identifying the career goal : The current goal I want to achieve is to develop and
enhanced those skills that will help in achieving the position of manager in a reputed
organization. Through this goal I will be able to explore new areas of opportunities and
development for good future ahead.
3. Identify skills, knowledge and resources required : For this post the skills I would
require is strong leadership skills to handle large number of people in groups and
coordinate them towards the end goals. Secondly, time management skills will be needs
by me to ensure that all work is completed on time and with the least errors. Also, I need
to have knowledge of various leaders what are the similar practices that they perform to

achieve goals of the firm. For this, the resources which are required are journals,
magazines and exploring the stuff on internet that give complete idea of the process
(Luţaş and et.al., 2020) will be needed by me.
4. Determining actions to achieve goals : Objectives can be achieved through developing
smart objectives that helps in determining the efforts needed to meet the goals on set
deadline, identifying better ways through which tasks can be completed on time etc. Also,
rewarding for the efforts in various monetary and non monetary terms so that to remain
motivated for a long period.
5. Determine the evaluation frequency: The frequency I have set through that my
predefined goals can be achieved is almost 3 weeks that will help me to evaluate how
much is my progress in relation to set goals so that I can take necessary corrective actions
if any problem arises thus it will result in saving a lot of time and money and ensures
there is no wastage (Márquez and et.al., 2020).
Skills audit
Job descriptions
It is a representation which describes the responsibilities for a particular position in an
organization but also acts as foundation in recruiting, developing and retaining talent. The
sample for a job description is as follows,
Job title: Senior project manager
Job location : England, UK
Job summary: Responsible for planning, organizing, training the members to achieve the
stated objectives of cost and profitability. The manager will provide support to the assistant
manager by focusing on the administrative and Human resource aspects of management role.
Responsibilities or duties of manager
 The manager should be expert in data handling and should be able to maximize profits
for the firm (Yazicioglu, 2020).
 Job requires interaction with internal staff and prepare monthly reports for the same.
 Maintaining agency relationships to ensure timely delivery of services to customers.
 Monitor and control the work performance and interacts with team to adjust the plan
accordingly.
Reporting to : Top immediate supervisor and assistant manager whenever needed.

Working conditions:
 Proper working conditions would be provided which includes the best infrastructure,
sitting area and flexibility in hours.
 Work may require travelling once in month when travelling allowances will be provided
by the firm.
 Hygiene factors will be taken into consideration.
 Additional employee benefits would in case of additional workloads.
 Fair remuneration would be provided for all the tasks.
 Health and safety would be ensured.
Machines to be used:
 The required equipments would be fax machines, computers, printers, mobile phones
etc.
Hazards :
 No hazards as insurance policy is been provided to all employees and all safety measure
are present in the firm.
Skills matrix review: It is to identify my overall competence and skill set required for specific
manager role that will help me to complete my project on time. It will also identify the areas in
which I lack the skills and will identify various opportunities that I can make use to gain
competitive advantages that can be explored in the future (Tran, 2017).
Skills level
Types of skills 1 2 3 4 5
Oral communication ✔
Decision making ✔
Technical skills ✔
Critical thinking ✔
Teamwork skills ✔

Interpretation : From above table I have ranked my skill level from level 1 to 5 in which one
level shows high level of efficiency and 5 shows the least level of efficiency. On the basis of this
I have analysed that my oral communication skills and technical skills are good and does not
require much need for improvement. Therefore, I can easily present my points individually and
in various groups and ask for any relevant suggestions for further improvement. Also, my
teamwork skills are good which helps me to carry out various tasks in groups with minimum
efforts and maximum outputs. Besides, this I have observed that my decision-making and critical
thinking are very weak which creates a lot of problems as I am not able to reach to reliable
outcome in a short period of time.
Skill gap analysis :
It is method that is used to identify the gaps in skills that are found in individual and
groups. It is a three step process and from my knowledge I have identified the following:
 Determining the skills needed for job: For the post of manager, it is required that
individual should posses strong decision-making ability so that all complex problems can
be solved smoothly without too many efforts. Also, this post requires the best
communication skills so that information is carried to all levels of the organization
without any filter (Sankaranarayanan and et.al., 2021). Effective written and oral
communication also helps the manager to deliver those informations efficiently which
need not be share with others. Moreover, technical skills are also required to carry out
certain tasks which need certain level of experience.
 Assess skills of individual : The set of skills is that I have strong teamwork skills
through which I can monitor all the work of teams without making them feel demotivated
or unsatisfied. Another one is that I have strong oral communication skills through which
I can convey my message in meaningful way without creating any issues or conflicts.
Also, my negotiation skills are good that has helped me to prove my point in times when
clarification is needed in any matter.
 Identifying gaps: From the above points I have analysed that strong decision-making,
communication skills, technical skills etc. are needed to deliver best results but I have
strong teamwork skills, negotiation, oral communication skill etc. and hence the gap
needs to be fulfilled through proper customized training programmes (Svistunov,
Lobachev and Manukyan, 2021).

Self Appraisal & Action Planning.
Skills that need
to be improved
Resources required Action need to be taken
Time required
Written
communication
It can be accomplished
through books, journals,
newspaper manual etc.
Participating in the
essays and writing
different formats of
emails
The approx time
required is one year
Time
management
Dividing the tasks into
various small groups so
that each task can be
managed and completed
on time (Schipper,
Silvius and van den
Brink, 2017).
Observing the leaders
way of solving problems
working with them on
the various sites.
Time required is six
months.
Creativity skill Through newspaper,
journals, articles
published by any agency
Applying to various
customized online
courses available on
internet.
It can be enhanced in
one or two years
Planning skills Through increasing the
practical knowledge of
the work.
Participating in various
project related
programmes and
seminars conducted by
the marketing industry.
Involves time and can
be achieved in next two
years.
Technical skills Using specialized
software, tools and
equipments to distribute
marketing materials.
Working on excel
spreadsheets, using
search engines, editing
websites and social
media profiles.
Achievable in approx 1
year

Skills Development Record & Work-based Feedback
Description of
skills used
How it is used? What was the result?
Written
Communicatio
n
In my project I was good at written
communication skills, it helps me in
effective reporting (Igwe and Ude,
2018). With the help of this skill I used
to make differentiate good and bad
employees.
I was always credible and had lots of
appreciation over it. It increases
career opportunity for me. Also,
developed good thought process.
Computer
Skills
I used at Microsoft office Suite, HTML
and social media for my project. Also,
analysed data in order to email
marketing and google analytics.
Computer skills increases my work
performance that is very essential
part of my project.
Teamwork When I assisted my employees they
feel better to communicate with me and
create effective and enjoyable
environment for both of us. It improves
morale of whole team as well as our
organization.
Teamwork improved productivity
and also increased 25% of
profitability. It builds mutual respect
and trust between me and my
employees.
Leadership I trained my team as an effective leader
in order to inspire and motivate others
towards the goal and objectives of
company.
It results in increases the workforce
productivity. Further, Employees
feels motivated throughout the
session.
Commercial
awareness
This skill helped me when I was using
research on employer sector and it
saves my time because I was already
aware about the commercial sectors.
I achieve the target of sales and
marketing because of the
commercial awareness. It aware
about competitors
acknowledgement.

Strategic
thinking and
Forward
planning
It taught me to examine how all parts
are connected of the project and also
help to understanding relationship with
forward planning. Also, increases
operational efficiency of the team.
It results in market share and make
business more durable as compared
to other competitors (Jampol and
Zayas, 2021). Beside from this,
forward planning ensured about the
cost efficiency and cash flow
planning.
Work-based Feedback
My senior advised me that sometimes I get excited about the project and leave my ideas
on table it can be impact bad on my work because on that time anyone can copy the idea of mine.
I got feedback on my oral communication skills that is not as good as others and sometimes I
lack in meeting to give my idea in front of others. To improve my skill I started reading novels
and business magazine after work hours (Steelman and Wolfeld,2018). Moreover, I am not good
at decision-making skill my seniors suggested me to not get more stress over it, it may good
according to time and my experiences. I started work on my skill with define the problem and
establish the criteria over it. CEO of the organization always appreciated my computer skill as
well as commercial awareness because whenever team stuck at that I was always ready to do that
for them.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be summarized that personal analysis is essential tool to
identify various means through which the morale and productivity can be increased over a period
of time. Moreover, various decision-making, teamwork, oral communication skills played an
important role for the manger post. Besides this study, discussed the weakness such lack of
technical skills, planning skills, technical skills etc. that can be overcome by developing action
plan that specifies the key indicators for individual success. Therefore, career action plan proved
helpful in identifying the weak areas and developing measures for increasing future performance.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Igwe, N. N. and Ude, A. O., 2018. Project planning and Implementation in Nigeria: Revisiting
International best practices. European Scientific Journal. 14(14). pp.152-174.
Jampol, L. and Zayas, V., 2021. Gendered white lies: Women are given inflated performance
feedback compared with men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 47(1). pp.57-
69.
Louw, A. and Katznelson, N., 2019. Transfer and reflection in the Danish dual model: Findings
from development projects in the Danish vocational education and training programmes.
Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training. 9(2). pp.51-70.
Luţaş, M, and et.al., 2020. Perceptions regarding the profile of an ideal project manager.
Amfiteatru Economic. 22(54). pp.608-622.
Márquez, R, and et.al., 2020, June. GLOBAL-MANAGER: a serious game for providing
training in project manager skills. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference
on Global Software Engineering (pp. 127-131).
Sankaranarayanan, S. and et.al., 2021. Comparing Example-Based Collaborative Reflection to
Problem Solving Practice for Learning during Team-Based Software Engineering
Projects. arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.00218.
Schipper, R., Silvius, G. and van den Brink, J., 2017. Reflection and Conclusion. In
Sustainability in Project Management. (pp. 105-120). Routledge.
Steelman, L. A. and Wolfeld, L., 2018. The manager as coach: The role of feedback orientation.
Journal of business and psychology. 33(1). pp.41-53.
Svistunov, V. M., Lobachev, V. V. and Manukyan, S., 2021. New Expertise and Skills of
Manager in the Context of Digital Business Transformation. In Socio-economic
Systems: Paradigms for the Future (pp. 911-921). Springer, Cham.
Tran, S. K., 2017. GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management. International
Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility. 2(1). pp.1-14.
Yazicioglu, T., 2020. Determining the Views of School Principals and Guidance Teachers on
Inclusive Practices at Anatolian High-Schools. Journal of Education and Learning.
9(1). pp.87-98.
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