Reflective Journal on Personal and Professional Development

This reflective journal discusses the impact of university attendance on personal and professional development, including the development of skills such as communication, research, and critical thinking. It also includes an action plan to improve weak skills such as time management and teamwork.

Personal and
professional
development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In order to succeed in any given profession and personal situation, an individual needs a
particular set of hard and soft skills which when used in combination increases the chance is
successful executions of goals and objectives exponentially. The foundation for all these skills
are laid during the days of academic learning that people go through in their school and
university days as basic clarity of important concepts and skills such as verbal and written
communication, research skills, use of information technology, team work, networking, time
management and problem-solving skills to name a few (Coetzee and Bester, 2019).
This report will include a refractive journal containing the personal account of the
author's university attendance and study having an impact on his variety of employability and
study boosting skills with appropriate models and personal evidences along with an action plan
to achieve the skills where the personal command of the author is weak and questionable.
MAIN BODY
My time spent learning at my university has had a major impact on my experiences in
relation to gaining skills which have helped me in becoming a competent and appreciated
employee. In order to better demonstrate my learnings from university experiences, Gibbs
reflective cycle will be used as it is one of the most efficient models to detail the impact of
proceedings on individual learnings (Deka, 2018). The cyclic evaluation done by this model will
help my judge my own experiences to gain an idea about whether or not a particular skill-set has
been efficiently mastered or further learning and practice is required.
The time I spent polishing my personal and professional skills while studying at my
university was a highly successful and a fruitful experience. Apart from a few hiccups, I studied
business management which is a complex field pertaining to all major and minor intricacies

involved in domestic and international trade and it helped me hone a lot of skills which are
needed to succeed in a corporate environment and climbing ladders of career growth whose
broad description includes effective business communication skills, research competency, team-
working and peer networking along with time management and problem-solving. The overall
quality and standards of learning that went at my university was quite satisfactory as there were
many competencies which I developed quite handsomely and it made me stand out at my
university during lectures and exams as well as in a corporate environment during my first
summer internship such as my market research skills and me being an effective communicator
during business meetings. However there are some feelings of regret as I could not attain
mastery of key skills like time management which could have further helped me.
In order to become a market talent that is desired by big time corporates for complex and
highly rewarding job roles, one must be able to handle the communication with other members
of the workforce as it is a prerequisite to becoming a leader in the organizational hierarchy
(Gonzalez and de Melo, 2021). We must also be a team player and critical thinker capable of
solving problems that occur due to the volatile tendencies of the business environment. A close
evaluation of my personal skills and competencies inculcated during my time at the university
reveals that even though I became an expert communicator and worked hard on my research and
problem-solving skills, I could not learn to manage my work on time and I did not take part in
team-building exercises. My resume and my personality reflects a lot of skill and talent building
that I did at my University and after a due analysis to make sense of my time spent there to make
myself more employable , there were some key learnings in the field of professional writing
skills, extra courses of Information and communication technologies and critical thinking which
has made me a competent and employable individual however I missed some opportunities to
drive myself further and acquire some key abilities like Teamwork and time management.
After putting the entire time that I spent at my university developing my personal and
professional sills into perspective, I have come to the conclusion that I am grateful for the
impeccable opportunities provided to me for learning skills that are industry relevant and
inconsistent demand such as research skills, ICT courses, networking with close friends and
industry experts and honing my critical thinking capacity but skipping out on team-building
sessions and activities and practising to complete tasks on time has left me in a tough spot for
future employment opportunities in upper management job roles. These skills that I am currently

cannot be ignored for much longer as they can seriously affect my employability status in a
negative way despite me having a solid base of hard and soft skills. A detailed action plan will
be needed by me to develop these skills in a timely manner which will be crisp, concise and
include practical activities and exercises. Time management can only be attained through
constant practice of routine business and personal tasks while being monitored with the help of a
watch or timer and team-building skills will be achieved by focusing on developing a patient and
cooperative attitude and take part in group activities (Jalali, Nasrolllahi and Hatefi Madjumerd,
2019).
The achievement of these skills apart from teamwork and time management which are
confirmed to be weak links in my profile of skills and personal competencies have been very
useful for me and helped me in a lot of personal and professional scenarios. Business
management and most of it's models and theories lay extra emphasis on the crucial role of
effective communication as it is the key element involved in management of human resource and
developing strategies and bringing needed change in the organization's operational routine
(Joshi, Maheshwari and Yadav, 2021). I learned various forms of business communication at
my university such as team communication, group brainstorming and participating and winning a
lot of business and trade oriented debates. This made me quite good at planning and holding
minor business and team meetings and forecasting financial documents and delivering company
news to a large number of co-workers. A business gets a majority of it's data in the form of
market and competitive research analysis which can only be done when one's basics of research
are strong. I helped the company I interned at to complete a detailed research project on it's rival
brand's marketing strategy due to the research skills developed during my academic learnings. I
also did ICT courses such as big data analytics and digital media marketing which not only got
me shortlisted for my internship but has made me competent at developing and studying new
channels of promotion for better job roles.
My university was quite accomplished and well connected with the business world and as
such it allowed it's students like myself to gain relevant amount of industry exposure containing
various fields and diverse job roles. I got to intern at my dream company thanks to the
networking skills taught to me and widespread channels of alumni who helped me at each and
every turn of my newly started corporate journey. I also spent a lot of time in developing my
critical thinking and problem solving skills which came in handy as I solved many operational

problems during my internship which impressed my superior and made them give me a pre-
emptive job offer.
Apart from my success at attaining the above mentioned skills, my team building and
time management skills which were identified as a major weak point in my otherwise impressive
display of skills will be subjected to a detailed action plan which will help me mitigate these
weaknesses of mine to become competent and employable in all aspects (Kirkpatrick, Pederson
and White, 2018). The current and suitable level of efficiency in both these skills will be
measured and a definitive time frame will be allotted so both these competencies are developed
in an optimum manner. Time management will be developed by completing a set series of tasks
and finding new and unorthodox ways to execute the given activities well before time while
working team-building skills will take a bit more time as I will get engaged in paid sessions and
courses which work exclusively on teaching individuals to work and harmonize in groups.
CONCLUSION
The above concluded report went into detail regarding the role and importance of various
skills which have an affect on an individual's overall employability and effectiveness such as
communication skills, research and ICT knowledge and critical thinking. The time that is spent
in an university developing key skills and competencies was analysed and was presented from
the author's personal point of view to study the contribution of these factors on the overall
development of people. Gibbs reflective cycle was applied in order to categorize and analyse the
overall learning experience and examples were listed along with personal achievements to
support the attainment of all the skills listed in this report. An action plan was also included to
manage the skills which were perceived as being weak.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Coetzee, M. and Bester, M.S., 2019. Probing the role of psychosocial career mechanisms in the
harmonious work passion-career satisfaction link. Personnel Review.
Deka, R.J., 2018. A study on the importance of skill development: Women entrepreneurs in
India as a catalyst to women empowerment. Productivity, 58(4), pp.400-409.
Gonzalez, R.V.D. and de Melo, T.M., 2021. How do autonomy, cohesion and integration of
teamwork impact the dynamic capability?. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, 32(7-8), pp.794-810.
Jalali, O., Nasrolllahi, Z. and Hatefi Madjumerd, M., 2019. The Effect of Help in Teamwork on
Individual Incentive Reversal: Laboratory Economics in a Dynamic Game. Economics
Research, 19(73), pp.175-208.
Joshi, M., Maheshwari, G.C. and Yadav, R., 2021. Understanding the moderation effect of age
and gender on the relationship between employee career attitude and organizational
citizenship behavior: A developing country perspective. Managerial and Decision
Economics, 42(6), pp.1539-1549.
Kirkpatrick, N., Pederson, J. and White, D., 2018. Sport business and marketing collaboration in
higher education. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 22, pp.7-
13.
Kong, H., Okumus, F. and Bu, N., 2020. Linking organizational career management with
Generation Y employees’ organizational identity: The mediating effect of meeting
career expectations. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(2), pp.164-
181.
McEwan,and et.al., 2018. The development and psychometric properties of the multidimensional
assessment of teamwork in sport. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 40(2),
pp.60-72.
Mirkov, S., 2018. Teamwork for innovation in pharmacy practice: from traditional to flexible
teams. Drugs & Therapy Perspectives, 34(6), pp.274-280.
Obeng, B.A., 2018. Strategic networking and small firm growth in an emerging economy.
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Pieper,and et.al, 2020. What time may tell: An exploratory study of the relationship between
religiosity, temporal orientation, and goals in family business. Journal of business
ethics, 163(4), pp.759-773.
Polishchuk, V.M., 2018. Designing the Professional Career in the Personality’s Life.
Rivers, C. and Kinchin, I., 2019. Dynamic learning: Designing a hidden pedagogy to enhance
critical thinking skills development. Management Teaching Review, 4(2), pp.148-156.

Sousa, M.J. and Wilks, D., 2018. Sustainable skills for the world of work in the digital age.
Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 35(4), pp.399-405.
Williams, K., Woolliams, M. and Spiro, J., 2020. Reflective writing. Red Globe Press.
APPENDICES
Action Plan
Skills and
knowledge
Current
proficiency
Target
proficiency
Development
of skill and
knowledge
Judging
Criteria
Time Frame

Time
Management
Low as I
struggle to
complete my
work on time
High, I want
to execute
every task
given to me in
allotted time
Several tasks
with varying
difficulties in
execution will
be undertaken
and new and
innovative
ways to stay
focused during
work and
manage
workload
quickly will be
figured out
Each task will
be allotted a
fixed time
frame for
completion
and time taken
for me to do
that task will
be constantly
measured to
make
strategic plans
till I gain
proper time
management
3 months
Teamwork Low as I am
unable to
function
properly with
others
High, I want
to an effective
worker who
gels well
within teams.
I will
participate in
various team-
building
sessions and
courses which
focus on
interactive and
coordinated
activities in a
simulated
work
environment
My
performance
in group sports
such as cricket
and basketball
will be
analysed and
my behaviour
during group
exercises will
be closely
graded. When
I become
efficient at
working at a
task with
5 months

someone else,
it will also be
measured