Employability Skills: Strengths, Networking, and Career Development

This assignment focuses on the development of employability skills, using the Gallup StrengthsFinder to identify key strengths such as Responsibility, Learner, Harmony, Discipline, and Restorative. The student details how these strengths, particularly Harmony, Discipline, and Restorative, can be applied to achieve career aspirations. The assignment also includes reflections on two networking events attended, highlighting the importance of these events in understanding industry requirements and making connections. Furthermore, the student outlines how their degree of study can be used to develop essential skills for their dream career, emphasizing the importance of business communication, leadership, interpersonal skills, flexibility, and self-awareness. The STAR method is mentioned as a tool for mapping transferable skills. The student concludes by highlighting the collective responsibility of all stakeholders in organizational success. References are provided for the sources used.

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Name of the Student:
Academic Affiliation:
Date:

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Basing on the Gallup Strengths Finder, I easily ascertained that my top 5 strengths were
actually Responsibility, Learner, Harmony, Discipline, and restorative. Indeed, there are
different methods which I can use in order to apply all my strengths and thus achieve my career
aspirations. However, the three major strengths which I will use in the Gall up Strengths finder
are Harmony, Discipline, and Restorative.
It is important to note that through being restorative, then this means that I will be able to
deal with different problems and that I will be in a better position of differentiating what is bad
and what is good and ensure that I am able to resolve any emerging problems. Being restorative
will help me in ensuring that my career aspirations are fully fulfilled (Tholen, 2014). This is
attributed to the fact that it will aid me know that each and every individual in the community
should be equally treated without any form of segregation or discrimination. It will therefore aid
me to treat each and every person with fairness and ensure that my professional duties are
executed with high integrity.
As one of my strengths, discipline means that I would actually enjoy routine as well as
well as structure and also ensure that I belief strongly in the establishment or development of an
“effective order”. As a result, discipline will aid me to achieve my career aspirations since it will
greatly aid me in ensuring that I effectively use the limited human resources and materials for the
different companies or organizations that I will be working for.
Harmony as my last strength means that I will personally believe in building consensus
and that I will never condone conflicts in my professional life. Instead of encouraging conflicts, I
will always be searching for any possible solutions that can resolve such conflicts (McTavish et
al, 2014). This strength is quite important since it will help me in the fulfillment of my career
aspirations. Through harmony, I will be in a better position of making the people that I will

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interact with at my place of work and even in the general society to not only feel valued but also
accomplished and appreciated.
JORUNAL ENTRY TWO: KNOW YOUR SECTORS
There are 2 major networking events which I actually attended in the course of the term
and which I have a strong belief that they will greatly enhance my career life. The two major
networking events which I attended was one on the 23nd of June 2017 while the second event was
the “Human Resources and Recruitment” event (O’Connor & Bodicoat, 2017). It can truly be
asserted that the events were quite crucial in the enhancement of my career aspirations and
dreams because not only was I made aware of the various factors looked for by employees when
hiring workers into their organizations but I was also able to meet people from various walks of
life (Cottrell, 2015).
Through attending the two key networking events, I was made aware of the various
requirements by leaders in order to be in a better position of not only managing employees in the
organization but also of better managing the whole organization as a whole. That apart, I noted
that attending the two networking events actually provided me with a good opportunity or chance
of being aware of what happened in the organization and how stakeholders interacted with each
other for the benefit of the organization (Riebe & Jackson, 2014). It also made me become aware
of the various prices of products in the local and foreign markets thus presented me with a good
opportunity to know what was expected of my career.
JOURNAL ENTRY THREE: LET THEM KNOW YOU
It was quite evident that I can use or apply my degree of study to effectively develop
essential skills that are needed in my dream career of managing one of the leading organizations
across the world. For example, this will quite definitely aid me in mapping of the current

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transferable skills into the six main competency skills that are needed in my area of
specialization using my Strength, Task, Action, then finally Result or the STAR method. On the
other hand, business communication skills are quite important since they will play a critical role
in aiding me better communicate or interact with all the relevant stakeholders or parties in a more
effective manner (Holmes, 2013).
The leadership skills are quite essential to me since they will aid me be better positioned
to lead people under me in a more effective manner thus not only increasing productivity but also
ensuring that profitability was attained in the organization that I will be working for. That apart,
interpersonal skill are also quite important since they will aid me in making sure that I effectively
interact with all stakeholders and positively resolve any conflicts that may arise (Bleiklie, 2016).
Through being flexible, I will be in a better position of effectively making me manage each and
every situation in the organization in an effective manner. Lastly, self awareness should never be
underscored since it will aid me to be in a better position of effectively working with other
people in the spirit of team work thus ensuring that all the set goals and objectives of the
organization are effectively achieved by all and sundry (Helyer & Lee, 2014). It is therefore
important to note that my strengths will greatly aid me in knowing that the success of the
organization is not only depended on the leader alone but rather through the collective
responsibility of all stakeholders.

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References
Amayo, A., Crossan, M., Hardie, M. and McTavish, A.M., 2014. A PEDAGOGICAL
APPROACH TOWARDS BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND
PRACTICE. A CASE STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE
BUSINESS STUDENTS AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY. In INTED2014 Proceedings
(pp. 6196-6208). IATED.
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Helyer, R. and Lee, D., 2014. The role of work experience in the future employability of higher
education graduates. Higher Education Quarterly, 68(3), pp.348-372.
Holmes, L., 2013. Competing perspectives on graduate employability: possession, position or
process?. Studies in Higher Education, 38(4), pp.538-554.
Michelsen, S., Sweetman, R., Stensaker, B. and Bleiklie, I., 2016. Shaping perceptions of a
policy instrument: The political–administrative formation of learning outcomes in higher
education in Norway and England. Higher Education Policy, 29(3), pp.399-417.
O’Connor, H. and Bodicoat, M., 2017. Exploitation or opportunity? Student perceptions of
internships in enhancing employability skills. British Journal of Sociology of Education,
38(4), pp.435-449.
Riebe, L. and Jackson, D., 2014. The use of rubrics in benchmarking and assessing employability
skills. Journal of Management Education, 38(3), pp.319-344.
Tholen, G., 2014. Graduate employability and educational context: a comparison between Great
Britain and the Netherlands. British Educational Research Journal, 40(1), pp.1-17.

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