Personal and Professional Development

PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION
Growth or development whatever it is, it’s all about gaining or acquiring or learning new
experience or skills in order to support the performance of current role that is being required to
be performed by an individual (Sharif and Zainuddin, 2017). Personal development and growth
always precedes professional development and growth, which means if one wants to get
appreciation or success in their professional career then they must first learn and focus on their
development and growth at personal level which is commonly known as personality
development. In this essay, the reflection will be done to highlight how the university education
and module learning and undertaking helps me in the achievement of employment and study
skills. As study skills are always learnt at university or educational stage and the same plays a
very notable role in further stages of life like at employment, thus making one’s more
employable than the other. With the application of Gibbs reflective model, how different skills
are learnt at different stages of my life which help me in professional career. At last, at the end of
this essay I will prepare a PDP (personality development plan) to highlight my further efforts in
future towards enhancement of my skills.
MAIN BODY
Gibbs reflective model
Gibbs reflective cycle is a well-known model meant for reflecting upon an individual’s
experiences and learning process that take place in their lifecycle (Adeani, Febriani and
Syafryadin, 2020). There are six stages in the model beginning from description of the
experience, feelings that are developed during such experience, evaluation of the experience in
terms of explaining what is good and bad about the experience, analysis of the experience by
stating the reason behind picking up that experience for reflection and how that experience make
sense in one’s life so that a reasonable concern can be given in future towards the improvement
of similar experience. And at last two stages conclusions are being drawn about that experience
to make an effective action plan for ensuring better experiences in future.
Description of experience: In this section, I will describe my experience of attending university
and how module that are undertaken by me there are helpful in building many of the
employability and study skills in my personality (Markkanen and et.al., 2020). I lastly attend my
university when I was pursuing my master’s in business administration. The experience of

pursuing this course and undertaking various kind of module therein form a very important and
appreciable part of my life. The reason behind this is, I have learnt of a lot many new skills and
grasp unique knowledge of workplace that helped me very much in my life till now and because
of this university attainment only I am able to get my job which I feel was best suited with my
interest, skills and knowledge. There I used to give many presentations that are forming part of
my modules (Sekarwinahyu and et. al., 2019). These presentations helped me in building and
improving my communication skills. Both verbal and written communication skills that I possess
and usually appreciated by my employers is just because of my efforts and contribution given
during presentation in my university lectures and workshops.
Feelings about my university experience: Talking about my feelings that I have during the
beginning of my university, meanwhile my management degree course is going on and at the end
of my university attainment period (He, Parkinson and Doyle, 2018). I always curiously and
excitedly take part in cultural fests and activities held at my university. I have learn many skills
due to my curiosity and excitement to learn and participate and win competitions. I have
gathered enough memories from my university attainment which helps me in coping up with my
personal and professional life challenges in a better way. No doubt I always feel stress and fear
while performing among huge audience, but it is a commonly said that “practice makes a man
perfect” and the same proves to be true for me (Tawanwongsri and Phenwan, 2019). As when I
was finally passed my university and entered professional world, I can be able to recognize
myself as proud gentlemen due to my knowledge and skills that I have learnt in university.
Evaluation of my university experience: Here in this section of reflective model, I will state
what different kinds of skills I have learnt while attending university which has its role in my
current and future employment and also help me in building my own personality (Li and et.al.,
2020). Many skills that I have learnt are communication skills, research skills, team working
skills, time management and self organisation, information and communication technologies
skills and problem solving skills. Many a time it happens that we need to work in a team for
managing any university function, workshops and seminars (Dhaliwal, Singh and Singh, 2018).
There is club too of which I have also taken a membership, which is responsible for managing all
the events and conferences of the university. Working in a team and acquiring membership of a
management club is proved to be very achievement oriented in my life. I learnt many kind of