Reflective Essay on Career Workshop and Personal Development Journey

This essay presents a reflective analysis of a student's experience in a career and employment workshop. The student identifies communication as a key strength, supported by the Communication Accommodation Theory and Constructivism. The essay evaluates this quality, highlighting its attributes, behavioral preferences, and values. Challenges faced during workshop exercises, such as lack of trust and team coordination, are discussed, with reference to Tuckman's team development model. The essay also explores contradictions, benefits of communication, and the development of leadership, decision-making, and team-working skills. The student reflects on the experiential elements of the workshop, including interaction with a career mentor, the development of critical thinking, and the enhancement of skills. The conclusion summarizes the key takeaways and emphasizes the importance of effective communication for future career growth. The student emphasizes the value added element of creativity and critical thinking skill gained through the workshop activities.

Personal and Professional
development (essay)

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
REFLECTIVE ESSAY....................................................................................................................3
Definition and Description of my Quality...................................................................................3
Evaluation of Quality...................................................................................................................3
Attributes, behavioural preferences and values underpin this strength?.....................................4
Difficulty and challenges in workshop exercises........................................................................4
Contradiction evidence................................................................................................................5
Benefits of communication in future...........................................................................................5
EXPERIENTIAL ELEMENT.........................................................................................................5
WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES EVIDENCE.......................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................8
VALUE ADDED ELEMENT.....................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development can be defined as the process through which an
individual and organization engaged in learning procedure so that they can meet out challenges
and desire goals. Report will lay emphasis on me as an intern participating in career and
employment workshop. The main purpose of workshop is to enhance decision making skills of
emerging aspirants. During workshop, I have identified my key strength which was my
communication skills. Report will define and describe my quality. Evaluation of quality will also
be done in assignment. It also explains about how this quality will assist me in future.
REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Definition and Description of my Quality
I participated in career and employment workshop in order to explore more career
opportunities and also to enhance my decision making skills. During the workshop, I realised
communication is my key strength. Workshop assisted me in gaining practical skills, so that I
can select suitable employment (Ragan, 2018). Definition of Communication: It basically
means sharing of information from one person to group of other person. It includes listening,
communicating new ideas, feelings, speaking, understanding and empathising. During
workshop, I realised that me as an intern have good non-verbal interaction power and emotional
control. Communication theory: Communication accommodation theory perfectly describes
my quality as I realised that I have the ability to adjust my interaction style according to others
(Bennett-Levy, 2019). This has assisted me in gaining lots of experience from workshop. Also
constructivism theory can also explain my quality.
Evaluation of Quality
Constructivism means that individual has power to make scientific messages into simpler
one. As I am more cognitively complex, I can be a very successful communicator. I have the
ability to create customized and sophisticated messages that pursue multiple communication
goals. This theory explains that how attitude form and change through a logical thought process.
I analysed that communication is my key strength, I have the skill to modify my way of
interaction according to suitability of other person. So this can also help in my career, I will be
able to create better bond with my colleagues. This quality displayed when I was working in a
team and making other members understand about their roles and responsibilities.

Attributes, behavioural preferences and values underpin this strength?
As communication is my key strength, I discovered that other than that, this strength also
has several attributes (Trorey and Cullingford, 2017). Like for example, during employment
workshop when I was interacting with my supervisor, I have made use of complete sentences.
Information passed by me contains all details about my interests, so that it become easy for them
to evaluate career options available for me. Messages which I was delivering to my mentor was
also clear, it precisely describes about gaols and objectives that I wanted to achieve.
Behavioural preferences in communication has assisted me in facilitating better team
work (Jaeger, 2018). I was able to create interpersonal strategies and also showed appreciation
on ideas deliver by others, which helped me in making better relation with my mentor and peers
presented in workshop. While interacting, I also made sure that someone’s value and beliefs did
not get hurt because of me, by this way I was able to positively engaged with my team.
Difficulty and challenges in workshop exercises.
During workshop exercises, I faced lots of challenges like for example there was lack of
trust during the activities performed by teams. Team members were not being acquainted
personally and professionally, there was lack of understanding. So, this created conflict and
tension while achieving team goals. Also they were not engaged in sharing information which
reduce efficiency and productivity of team. Tuckman theory of team development can be used to
make teams more efficient. Forming: In this step, leader must make clear roles and
responsibilities of each member while forming team. During the employment workshop, team
members needs to be engaged in knowing each other, as there exists lack of trust in team. (Tod,
Hutter and Eubank, 2017). Storming; The team starts to address the task suggesting ideas. In this
step team must be managed effectively so that activities in workshop can be completed
effectively. They must be engaged in working towards achieving common goals and objectives.
Norming: Harmonious working practices must be implemented at this stage in order to enhance
productivity (Tuckman theory of team development, 2017). All rules and regulations must be
implemented so that team members follow it and trust develop between them (Dias and Cadime,
2016).Performing: At this stage team needs to be made aware about their rights and
responsibilities so that their efficiency increases. They must be working towards shared vision.
Adjourning: Implementation of plan must be revised, to know if they have any gaps during this
process.

Contradiction evidence
As communication is my key strength, but I also noticed that during the time of representing
my team in workshop activities, I felt really nervous and I was speaking less than others (Ciucci
and et.al., 2018). Also I was hesitating in sharing my view points. This can be because of I was
not clear on my facts or was anxious to speak in public. I also realised that sometimes, my
mentor was unable to understand what I was trying to say.
Benefits of communication in future
This skill will assist me in enhancing abilities of my team as honest and effective
communication builds strong team. It will improve my job performance and productivity. Also
by this skill, I will be able to make better relationship with my colleagues. Communication will
also help me in improving my engagement towards work, it will make me more productive and
efficient. Effective communication will also help me in achieving my short term as well as long
term goals and objectives. It will support me in promoting team building. It will also help me in
exchanging relevant information, evaluating and analysing it. Effective communication skills are
really essential for my future growth. It will help me in developing healthy bond with my peer.
Conclusion and Summary of work
From the employment and career development workshop I have analysed that
communication is my key skill. During workshop activities I also evaluated that my team lacks
trust and members are not engaged in doing collaborative working. So in order to overcome this
problem I have made use effective communication which has assisted me in making better bond
with my team members. I also interacted with my peers through mail and drafts. I have made use
of clear and complete sentences which has assisted my mentor in analysing my interests.
EXPERIENTIAL ELEMENT
I was engaged in working with my career development mentor and through it I have gained
various experiences. I developed the ability to work in changing environment and also I have
developed one value added element which is critical thinking. During the time when I was
engaged in performing workshop activities, I experienced mixed feelings, I was really nervous
while working in team and speaking in public. This employment workshop has assisted me in
developing my decision making, team working, analytical skills. I was also able to bring out
more creative and innovative ideas in order to achieve team goals and objectives. During
workshop, I realised that communication is my key strength. I have the ability to express my

ideas with clear and concise statements. Also, I realised that I have good written communication
skills.
I was good at using tenses. I analysed that this workshop has assisted me in analysing
various career opportunities. Now, I have wider choice and options related to my career. During
employment workshop activities, I noticed that my team members do not trust each other which
has reduced productivity of team. Also I realised that they were not acquainted personally and
professionally with each other because of which there was lack of coordination in team. I also
felt that team members did not share more information with each other because of which work
got delayed.
WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES EVIDENCE
I was significantly engaged in achieving my goals and objectives while actively
participating in career development workshop activities. Like for example during internship
programme organized by my supervisor, I was able to develop and work on leadership skills.
Training was given to us in order to enhance our leadership skills. During this program I was
able to develop certain attributes like empathy, honesty, time and self-management. Learning
group activities was also being conducted in workshop. By this, I was able to learn from
experiences of group. I was able to communicate with group members through emails and
messages. This has assisted me in having knowledge about various topics like Now I know about
how can I be confident during interview process. I also worked with career development mentor
who has assisted me in career development and professional aspirations. Like for example I
shared my experiences with my mentor, I let them know about my interest of working in other
country. My mentor suggested me ways and style to adjust in different work culture. Mentor also
advised me to engage in doing activities like role playing which would help me in future. I was
really confident while communicating with my career development mentor.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that career development activity workshop
has assisted me in identifying my strength. I realized communication is the supreme quality
which I possess. From workshop activities, I was able to build my leadership skills, decision
making, time and self-management skills. Team working in workshop was not as effective as
there was lack of trust among team members. I realized that team members also do not share

adequate information with each other which has reduced productivity of team. I analyzed my
weakness while working with team.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ragan, D.D., 2018. A Structured Course for Personal and Professional Development. Honors in
Practice. 14. pp.43-57.
Tod, D., Hutter, R.V. and Eubank, M., 2017. Professional development for sport psychology
practice. Current opinion in psychology.16.pp.134-137.
Ciucci, E. and et.al., 2018, April. Personal and professional emotional characteristics of early
childhood teachers and their proneness to communicate with parents and colleagues
about children’s emotions. In Child & Youth Care Forum (Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 303-316).
Springer US.
Dias, P.C. and Cadime, I., 2016. Effects of personal and professional factors on teachers’
attitudes towards inclusion in preschool. European Journal of Special Needs
Education.31(1). pp.111-123.
Trorey, G. and Cullingford, C., 2017. Professional development and institutional needs.
Routledge.
Bennett-Levy, J., 2019. Why therapists should walk the talk: The theoretical and empirical case
for personal practice in therapist training and professional development. Journal of
behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry.62. pp.133-145.
McDonagh, C. and et.al., 2019. Enhancing practice through classroom research: A teacher's
guide to professional development. Routledge.
Choy, W.K. and Chua, P.M., 2019. Professional development. In School Leadership and
Educational Change in Singapore (pp. 69-86). Springer, Cham.
Jaeger, A., 2018. Achieving business excellence through self-assessment for personal and
professional excellence. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence.29(13-14),
pp.1612-1632.
Online
Tuckman theory of team development. 2017. [online] Available through: <
https://www.teambuilding.co.uk/theory/Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing.html>

APPENDIX
VALUE ADDED ELEMENT
When I participated in workshop activities, I also gained one more skill which added to my
value. Skill which I gained in employment and career development workshop is creativity and
critical thinking skill. While working in team, I was able to bring out more new and innovative
ideas in order to achieve goals and objectives. This skill supported me in bringing out solutions
to problems, I was able to solve it through creative ideas. As there was lack of trust in between
team member’s, lots of conflict and chaos existed while working together. So critical thinking
assisted me in overcoming obstacles during team working. My effective communication skill
helped me in exchanging my new and creative ideas with my team members. This also assisted
me in making better bond with team members. My career development mentor really appreciated
me because they saw a scope of development of critical thinking skill in me. I was able to learn
this skill when I participated in internship programme. I was able to develop new experiences as
suitable training was provided to us. Learning through group activities and listening to
experiences of other has also helped me in developing this value added skill. I have learnt from
knowledgeable employees and supportive department. They shared me about skills to adjust in
changing environment. By communicating through newsletters or email messages, all of my
employees can benefit from the opportunity of learning groups. I was also able to build up my
team by taking in mind attributes of each members. This has really helped me in developing my
leadership skills.
As a good leader, I was really transparent, honest and accountable. I valued each
member’s belief and thoughts. I also noticed that team member does not share adequate
information with each other which was really a matter of concern, through critical and analytical
thinking skills I brought out new ideas to solve this problem. I also took part in activity like job
rotation. There I gain new experiences and I get the idea about how people of different job
analyse and interpret situations. By this, I was able to make better decisions. This enhanced
productivity of my team. Job performance of team members were also being improved through
this. It also helped me in achieving goals and objectives of team on time. There was no delay.
Critical thinking skill will also help me in future. By this skill, I would be able to make better
decisions which would be beneficial for me. This skill has increased my confidence level, I was

able to better interpret and evaluate opportunities. Also through emails and drafts, I
communicated my new and innovative idea to whole team easily. It was really convenient for me
to interact through mails. Developing critical thinking also assisted me in enhancing my
relationship as it has improved quality of my thoughts and my decisions. This type of thinking
helped me in evaluating information properly by which I was able to systematically solve issues
faced by me during workshop activities. Effective solutions were being generated by me with the
support of my team members. I was able to plan strategically about solutions and think creatively
so that my idea was presentable in front of my team members.
Workshop activities has really benefited me as by it I was able to develop analytical skills
like creative thinking. This skill will be helpful for achieving my career goals and objectives. By
this I would be able to excel in my career and explore new opportunities through it. Developing
critical thinking can help me in grabbing job, as all employer can ask me questions in which I
have to apply my creative knowledge and thinking. It can help me in succession as being a
critical thinker is a symbol of having long term success. Also development of critical thinking
assists me in making better decisions, I am able to enhance my cognitive and mental ability
skills. Critical thinking has helped me in coping up with my everyday problem. It has made me
smarter, as I am better able to analyse and evaluate information that has been gathered by me.
Critical thinking is most important tool which has supported me in understanding myself. It has
assisted me in analysing my strength and weakness. By critical thinking aspects, I was able to
work on areas which I needed to improve. I was also able to identify gaps in my working. In
order to enhance it, I also took help of my career development mentor. With the help of effective
communication, I made my mentor understand about areas in which I was lacking. Through
critical thinking skill, I became a better decision maker as it was really essential for my career
growth. Creativity and critical thinking skill has helped me in improvising my work, I was able
to grow. It will assist me in taking better decision which is really necessary for my career
growth. It will support me in meeting out my long term and short term career goals. Critical
thinking can help my productivity and increase my engagement towards work. By this, I can
grab better position in organization.

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