Personal and Professional Development

This report discusses the importance of personal and professional development in achieving career goals. It includes a personal skill audit and reflection using the Gibbs Reflective cycle. The report highlights the gaps in skills and provides recommendations for improvement. The focus is on skills required for a successful career in IT firms.

Personal and Professional
Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Personal skill audit......................................................................................................................1
Gibbs Reflective cycle:-..............................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
It is very important to have personal and professional development of an individual in
order to achieve the ambitions and future goals(Hildebrand, 2018). Present report will include
personal skill audit that will help in analysing personal skills so that respective strength and
weaknesses can come out in order to overcome the gap that it coming in the respective skills.
There are different skills that are essentials to be part of an organisation and for the same these
skills are in need to be achieved. Report will also include reflection of the experience of skill
audit with the help of Gibbs reflective model.
Personal skill audit
Personal skill audit helps an individual to identify its strength with respect to its set skills
and it is very useful to keep the person on track with respect to its career(Anis, 2017).
Time and self management NO NOT SURE YES
In order to coordinate with different team meetings I
note the date and time in a diary
I work effectively to complete my tasks and I avoid
wasting time
In meetings I am always on time
I easily convince others for help to complete my tasks
I always meet the deadlines to compete my task on time
Communication skills (Verbal) NO NOT SURE YES
People easily understand concepts that I convey to them
I respond to a situation after listen actively
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In business meetings I am always ready to contribute
my ideas
I have effective presentation skills and I give my
presentation confidently
I share my own ideas with the team and never hesitate
to present in front of my team
Communication skills (Non-Verbal) NO NOT SURE YES
I have knowledge to write my report and applications in
correct format
My grammar and punctuations are always right
For projects I write an effective report that is
understandable to every individual
Team working skills NO NOT SURE YES
I Listen actively to every team members ideas
I ask my team members about their feedback related to
situation and then comes to a particular decision
I interact with my team in effective manner and share
my thoughts with each individual
I am good in resolving conflicts in my team to make
them work effectively
Interpersonal skills NO NOT SURE YES
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I am flexible in my work
During work pressure, I never lose my temper and work
patiently
I am very responsible toward my duties
In order to finish my tasks, I never depend on other
people
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Problem solving skills NO NOT SURE YES
By identifying the major causes of a problem, I easily
solve any problem coming towards me
In order to solve a problem, I search for different
alternatives
I know different methods to solve a specific business
problem
To solve various problems that are coming towards my
team, I work productively with other team members
For solving a complex tasks, I break them into sub tasks
and then solve them individually
Information and Communication skills(ICT) NO NOT SURE YES
I am capable to manage my emails as I check them on
regular bases and reply accordingly
I have understanding and knowledge to use Excel and
SQL and I manage all my data and queries with the
helps these tools
I use different gadgets and have knowledge to use them
effectively
Gibbs Reflective cycle:-
The Gibbs reflective cycle encourages an individual to think about the experience with
respect to a particular situation or activity in which they were involved(Smith and Roberts,
2015).
Description:-
I analysed my skills with the help of personal skill audit and found out that there were
many skills in which I was lacking behind and need to work hard in order to achieve an effective
career growth. My career ambition is to be a manager of a recognised organisation and basically
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in IT firms. In order to have clear understanding about the major skills that are I have to enhance
in order to work effectively in IT firms and to have great future ahead, I conducted my personal
skill audit. For the same I took help of many other people in order to have their perception as
they worked with me in many projects and have clear idea about my effective skills. With the
help of them I marked my skills and analysed the same. As a result I got clear what major gaps
were there in my skills that I needed to overcome to reach my career and ambition.
Feelings:-
After conducting my skill audit, I felt it was very important for me to analyse what gaps
were there related to my skills that may affect my career goals. While conducting the audit, I felt
that my perception was quite wrong related to many of my skills and I really need to overcome
the same. I realised the same as I asked my seniors and also team members about their perception
and they gave me answer with effective explanation. After this I realised that I really need to
work hard to improve my performance so that I am able to achieve my ambition of getting right
career path in IT firms. I was having a perception that I was having effective time management
skills as I used to coordinate with different team meetings and always meet the deadlines to
compete my task. But after analysing the same and by asking feedback of my team members I
realised that I used to waste my huge time during the tasks and never easily convinced others for
helping me to complete my tasks. These gaps are in need to be overcome as my perceptions were
not matching with the facts.
Evaluation:-
During the event the best thing that came out was that, I got aware about different gaps
that were coming with respect to my skills as I can overcome the same and can enhanced by rest
skills to work more effectively for reaching my career goals. It helped me in improving my skills
and knowledge by analysing my strengths and weaknesses and working on my weak points to
reach achieve my ambition of getting right career path in IT firms. This analyses helped me out
to have my career on right track my working on my key skills that as a manager of a recognised
IT firms requires. But there were some facts that went wrong while I was conducting my skill
audit. I asked my fellow team members with respect to my problem solving skills, every
individual was having its own perception and they were reacting differently. I got quite confused
and was very difficult for me to come to a decision. However, I talked to my seniors and realised
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that my problem-solving skills were good but I really need to work effectively as I never search
for different alternatives to solve a problem and stick to one only.
Analysis:-
With the analyses of my personal skill audit, I learned and understand both positive and
negative aspects. Positive aspects of this skill audit was that I determined the respective gap that
I was facing related to my different skills that were Time management skill, problem solving
skill, Interpersonal skills, Team working skills and Communication skills. However, I was quite
good in my ICT skills. I was not lacking in these skills, were some gaps were there that were
needed to be focused and overcome. On the other side the negative aspects of this skill audit was
that, I determined my strength related to different skills and that resulted to my overconfidence
and I really need to work for the same.
Conclusion:-
After completion of this skill audit, I realised that I conducted the skill audit in an
effective manner. The skill audit helped me in analysing my respective skills that I really need to
work upon in order to achieve right career path. Most of IT industries demand employees that
have effective time management, problem-solving, ICT and communication skills. This skill
audit will make me work on my skills so that my ambition can be fulfilled. However, I got
demotivated at few points, as previously I was having thoughts that I was quite good in most of
my skills that will be sufficient to reach my set goals. But it is also better to understand the gap
in order to overcome the same.
Action plan:-
The personal skill audit will be helpful to me in my near future as I will work to enhance
them and will overcome all my weaknesses. I will work effectively with my team members and
will listen to each individual. By working on my weaknesses I will be able to enhance my skills
and work more effectively to reach my goals and achieve my ambitions.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is been concluded that personal skill audit helps an individual to
identify its strength and weaknesses so that they can work effectively to improve the same and
reach their respective goals and career path.
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RECOMMENDATION
From the above analyses, it is been recommended that in order to be a manager of an IT
company, an individual have to work effectively in analysing its key skills and the respective
gaps have to be overcome. This analyses will help the individual to achieve career goals and for
the same individual have to participate in different professional development activities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anis, A., 2017. Auditors’ and accounting educators’ perceptions of accounting education gaps
and audit quality in Egypt. Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies. 7(3). pp.337-
351.
Hildebrand, J., 2018. Bridging the gap: A training module in personal and professional
development. Routledge.
Smith, J. and Roberts, R., 2015. Reflective practice. Vital Signs for Nurses: An Introduction to
Clinical Observations. pp.222-230.
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