Reflective Essay: Developing Employability Skills for Professionals

This essay reflects on the author's journey in developing employability skills, focusing on recruitment processes, a critique of their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment, the value of postgraduate study and international experience, and an analysis of the importance of ethics for professionals. The author discusses how their understanding of recruitment processes has evolved, providing insights into skills testing and psychometric evaluations. The MBTI results are analyzed, with the author reflecting on the accuracy of the assessment. Furthermore, the essay explores the impact of postgraduate studies and international experiences on enhancing soft skills like communication and problem-solving. A significant portion is dedicated to the importance of ethics, illustrated by the ANZ scandal in Australia. The conclusion emphasizes the pivotal role of employability skills in professional growth and the author's confidence in their enhanced capabilities, supported by their MBTI type and ethical awareness. The essay includes an action plan for continuous professional development.

Running head: GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY
Graduate Employability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GRADUATE EMPLOYABILITY
Introduction
Employability skills involve a range of professional skills that is needed to achieve
professional development and acquire employment in an organization. These skills are also
known as soft skills and can be transmitted from an employee to another. Development of
employability skill is therefore an important aspect for any student and needs to be
adequately focused upon (Jackson 2015). The aim of study is to reflect upon the development
of my employability skills. In this essay I have discussed the result of the Myer-Briggs Type
test which helped to understand my personality type and thus develop a strategy through
which I can further enhance my professional skills (Hamid et al. 2014).
Discussion
-Recruitment processes used
During my graduate studies I was able to learn about the process of recruitment in my
organization, which helped me understand the process by which employees with the
matching set of skills and abilities are selected from a pool of candidates for a given job role.
In this process, the requirement of the job role is first outlined which helps to determine the
type of skills that are necessary to conduct a given job role (Humburg and Van der Velden
2015). The job requirements also help the recruiters to identify strategies that can be used to
test the skills of the employees and their interview strategies. Applications of the interview
candidates are reviewed on the basis of the job requirement where the recruiter selects the
matching job profile to suit the job role. Once that is done, the candidates are called for an
interview which can be either in person or over the phone. The candidates then undergo
personality tests and cognitive tests through which the assessor can understand the cognitive
capacity and personality of the candidates and understand if they are in line with the job
requirements. Myer Briggs Test is used to test the personality of the candidates and

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understand their competencies to work in the organization. Based on these outcomes, the
candi8dates are then selected for the job position (Shailashree and Shenoy 2016).
-Critique of your MBTI type
The Myers Briggs Test showed my personality trait as ISFJ, which implies four
significant attributes such as introversion, sensitivity, feeling and judging (Ismail et al. 2017).
These four traits have been discussed next:
Introversion (6%): This score shows that I have a slight preference to introversion
compared to extraversion. This is a fairly accurate measurement since I prefer to observe and
analyze and do not prefer to interact too much with people, unless the situation dictates it.
Sensing (6%): This score shows that I have a slight preference towards sensing over
intuition. This is also a very accurate measurement since I tend to understand different
situations through sensing it, rather than depending on my intuition, and it helps me to get a
better insight of a situation and avoid any biases.
Feelings (31%): This score shows that I significantly depend on how I feel about
particular scenarios or situations instead of thinking about it. This is fairly accurate since I
depend my feelings regarding situations to make decisions about it, instead of thinking about
it thoroughly.
Judging (12%): This score showed that I prefer judging situations over perceiving
them, which is also an accurate diagnosis, since I base my judgment on how I feel about
situations. However I also use my perceptive skills from time to time to understand a
situation.
(Ismail et al. 2017; Indradevi 2015)

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- Appraisal of the value of Post graduate study and international experience in your
discipline area
During my discourse through the post graduate studies, I was able to develop my ‘soft
skills’ such as communication and problem solving which helped me to effectively
communicate my thoughts and ideas with my classmates and assessors and also undertake
group activities on problem solving case studies. These aspects gave me the opportunity to
understand strategies of problem solving and how to effectively use communication (both
verbal and non verbal) to engage people in a better manner. Through the discourse, I also
learnt about the different personality traits and how that can be developed to increase
employability, and this helped me to develop my own employability skills (Jackson 2014).
Similarly, international experiences of working in various professional setups helped
me to work in a team of professionals, which helped me to develop my team working skills
and also utilize my communication and problem solving abilities. The working experience
provided me a platform to use my knowledge on a practical scenario which further helped to
develop my knowledge and professional skills (Collet et al. 2015).
These skills which I was able to develop through my academic discourse as well as
professional exposure in international work were pivotal to increase my employability in any
organization, and I believe that it can help me to achieve a good employment and thus help
me achieve professional growth.
- Analysis of 'why ethics are important for professionals in your discipline area’
Ethics is a significant consideration of any management of an organization which
helps the management to maintain an ethical code of practice and ethical work operations of
an organization. By following the ethical principles and policies, and organization can ensure

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a sense of responsibility towards the employees, commitment to the internal and external
stakeholders, ensure customer satisfaction and helps to improve the image and reputation of
the organization. Similarly, unethical workplace can lead to a tarnishing of the organization’s
image (McLeod et al. 2016).
One example of unethical work practice in Australia can be seen in the case of ANZ
(The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited), who has been accused by Oxfam
Australia report (on 2014) of being involved in unethical practices overseas, such as illegal
logging, inadequate compensations for employees, forced evictions and even child labor. This
shows that the organization is not practicing ethical policies in its offshore locations and
failing to comply by the corporate social responsibility policies. As a result of these
acquisitions, the image of the company have taken a significant hit, with their share prices
drastically reduced between 2014 and 2015, thus showing the significance of ethical work
practice (skynews.com.au 2018; oxfam.org.au 2018).
Conclusion:
Employment skills are a necessary strategy that can help individuals to acquire good
employment in an organization. By developing employment skills, and individual; can ensure
professional growth and development. Better employment skills can be achieved through
developing an understanding of the process of recruitment and how employees are selected
for specific job opportunities. I believe that I was able to increase my employment skills
through my academic discourse and professional experience. Moreover my MBTI type also
shows that my professional skills were at par with the organizational requirements needed to
take care of my job role. Additionally, my knowledge of workplace ethics also adds to my
list of competencies, which can help me to ensure an ethical practice in my job.

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References:
Collet, C., Hine, D. and du Plessis, K., 2015. Employability skills: perspectives from a
knowledge-intensive industry. Education+ Training, 57(5), pp.532-559.
Hamid, M.S.A., Islam, R. and Manaf, N.H.A., 2014. Employability skills development
approaches: an application of the analytic network process. Asian Academy of Management
Journal, 19(1), p.93.
Humburg, M. and Van der Velden, R., 2015. Skills and the graduate recruitment process:
Evidence from two discrete choice experiments. Economics of Education Review, 49, pp.24-
41.
Indradevi, R., 2015. A relationship between emotional intelligence and Myer Briggs Big Five
personality model. International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 8(4),
pp.361-374.
Ismail, S., Basharirad, B. and Ismail, S., 2017, November. Significant of MBTI personality
model on decision making in university program selection. In Information Technology,
Information Systems and Electrical Engineering (ICITISEE), 2017 2nd International
conferences on (pp. 62-67). IEEE.
Jackson, D., 2014. Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills and
its implications for stakeholders. Journal of Education and Work, 27(2), pp.220-242.
Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and
best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), pp.350-367.

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McLeod, M.S., Payne, G.T. and Evert, R.E., 2016. Organizational ethics research: A
systematic review of methods and analytical techniques. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(3),
pp.429-443.
oxfam.org.au. (2018). Australian Banks and Land Grabs | Oxfam Australia. Retrieved from
https://www.oxfam.org.au/what-we-do/food-and-climate/australian-banks-and-land-grabs/
Shailashree, V.T. and Shenoy, S., 2016. Study to Identify the Relationship between
Recruitment, Selection Towards Employee Engagement.
skynews.com.au. (2018). ANZ admits unethical conduct in agricultural lending | Sky News
Australia. Retrieved from https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_5801841680001

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APPENDIX 1:
Priority Task Strategy Timeline Commitment
1 Increasing self awareness Participate in self
awareness
workshops to
identify my
strengths and
weaknesses
December, 2018 2 months is
needed for the
strategy
2 Increasing relevant work
experience
Participating in
on-job training
programs and
internship
programs
October, 2019 Atleast 1 year is
needed for the on
job training
3 Developing workplace
skills
Participating in
on-job training
programs and
internship
programs and
workshops
October, 2019 Atleast 1 year is
needed for the on
job training
4 Reflection on my own
learning
Using self
reflective
practices
December, 2018 2 months needed.

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APPENDIX 2:

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