Evaluating Graduate Challenges: Skills, Business, and Teamwork

This report details a student's experience navigating the challenges encountered during their graduate studies, focusing on the evaluation of business angles, personal skill development, and team working dynamics. The report identifies challenges such as the 'apprentice challenge' in team building, presentation skills, and financial projections within a business plan context, and how these were overcome. It utilizes SWOT analysis to assess strengths and weaknesses, highlighting areas for continuous improvement such as Excel proficiency and public speaking. The student also applies Tuckman's model to analyze team development, and concludes with reflections on the importance of self-awareness, confidence, and emotional intelligence in overcoming academic and professional hurdles. The report provides valuable insights into practical strategies for personal and professional growth, and is available on Desklib for students.

Graduate Challenge

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of business angle comprised with three challenges:..................................................1
Development of personal skills in relevance to these three challenges:......................................2
Potential areas for the purpose of continuous improvement:.......................................................3
Team working:.............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Challenge that student faces at the time of pursuing graduation can be considered as
graduate challenge. This report is based on my experience of learning at the time of graduation
along with the challenges that I faced during that period. Objective of preparing this report is to
identify my core competencies or strengths as my weaknesses for the purpose of future
development (Ballysingh, Hernández and Zerquera, 2018). This goal can be achieved by the
utilization of reflective theory as this approach enables me to explore my learning experience by
evaluating and describing it in a proper way. Further, application of reflective theory helped me
in concluding my experience of team working and preparing an action plan for future growth.
MAIN BODY
Evaluation of business angle comprised with three challenges:
There are several challenges which are faced by students during graduation. While
considering my experience as a student, following are some challenges which I have to tackle
with while I was pursuing graduation:
 Apprentice challenge: This challenge of apprentice refers to issues which leader faces at
the time of team building. When I was pursuing my graduation I was appointed as head
of business plan team for the purpose of participating in a management game in college.
But there was a lot of issues related to management of conflicts among team as well as
task delegation (LEAGUE, 2017). These type of challenge comes up in business world
also where team members feel less motivated is conflicts among them is not solved on
time and their ideas are not given adequate importance. I solved this challenge with the
application of brainstorming activity. This activity provides opportunity to every
individual for expressing their ideas, in this way business can also encourage their staff
members as they feel valuable.
 Presentation challenge: This challenge indicates inability of a person to present their
ideas in front of people. At the time of presenting my business plan to judges I felt a
sense of nervousness regarding queries such as whether I will be capable enough to
present my idea adequately in front of people or will members of my team will perform
their role in proper way etc. Such incapabilities serves as a hindrance for future growth of
1

business. Hence, coping up with this challenge of presentation with regular practice and
effective preparation is essential for success in life and in corporate world.
 T-Shirt challenge: Business plan in which me and my team members were working on
was based on selling of T-Shirts. Setting effective price of T-Shirts in such a way that
market expectations is fulfilled and adequate profit is earned after covering all required
costs is a challenge (Lebron, 2017). Business have to always research about demand of
customers for preparation of strategies accordingly which enhances value of an entity and
also improves its sustainability. Hence, adequate financial projection is a critical
challenge that have to be worked on.
Development of personal skills in relevance to these three challenges:
Personal skills refers to soft skills or interpersonal skills of a person, which includes,
dependability, analytics, adaptability, etc. I studied my personal skills with the application of
SWOT analysis, which is a approach the evaluates core competencies as well as weak points of
an individual or entity (Martin and et.al., 2018). Mentioned below is a SWOT analysis
framework with the motive of enhancement of my personal skills:
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 Skills related to business: Business
skills comes up as my strength because
I led many teams at the time of my
graduation which enhanced my
leadership, project management and
communication skills.
 Management of time: Another
strength consisted with me is proper
management of time. Due to this habit I
completed all of my project
submissions on deadlines. It results in
elimination of complexities and
provided me time for evaluation.
 Usage of spreadsheet: Another
weakness which I realised is my
inadequate knowledge in relevance to
usage of excel or spreadsheet. This
serv3ed as a hindrance or problematic
matter at the time of preparation of
financial projections for business plan
as well.
 Presentation skills: Another drawback
is that my presentation skill is weak as I
am not able to express my ideas
adequately in front of public. At the
time of business plan while about team
was presenting the plan, my part was
2

presenting of financial projections.
Despite of making effective financial
plan was got scared in adequately
presenting it, which reduces its
efficiency as way of presentation plays
a crucial role in success of any work.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Enhancement of public speaking
skill: My experience in graduate life
made me realise about my weak-points
and incapabilities. It provided me
opportunity to enhance my public
speaking capability which is useful for
future period also.
 Team leading: Another opportunity
that I incorporated was participating
and leading teams during college
projects. It improvised my team
management and conflict handling
skills. Management of team plays a
crucial role for success of any project
hence it is essential for an individual to
effectively work in groups and manage
it(Sangwan and Garg, 2017).
 Inconsistent practice: Inefficiency in
continuous improvement of business
skills comes up as a threat for me. For
example, reason for my ineffective
knowledge of usage of spreadsheets is
that I did not focused on regular
practice which negatively impacted my
competencies.
 Inadequacy in emotional intelligence:
Managing emotional intelligence is my
weak point. Reason is that I feel
incapable in managing my feelings at
the time of stressful situations such as
final presentation of team, work or
management of conflicts in team, due
to which leads to negative result.
Potential areas for the purpose of continuous improvement:
While working in a group project for preparation of business plan I noticed that I entitle
capability of effective dividing tasks in accordance to deadlines which enables me to properly
manage time for activities of B-plan, hence I possess skills related to time management. But, I
lack in expertise of using spreadsheet (McCracken, Currie and Harrison, 2016). Excel knowledge
3

is adequate for working in an organizations in this constantly evolving business world. Hence,
some steps worked effectively for me in consideration of improving such incapabilities:
 Self awareness: My experience related to challenges I faced during graduation made me
realise that it is essential for an individual to work on its incapabilities for personal
development. Hence, with the motive of developing my expertise in excel usage I joined
a course in Udemy, which is a platform that serves online and offers various courses for
short period of time. I even read some study material regarding application and uses of
spreadsheet.
 Confidence: I noticed my limitations in context to presentation and it made me realise
that reason for my lack of presentation skill is my low confidence. Hence, for the purpose
of confidence boosting, I participated in various events at the time graduation. It
motivated me and encouraged me to work hard towards personality development. I
started focusing on gathering of academic as well as personal knowledge which led to
enhancement in my expertise which further made my confidence higher (McDaniel,
2018). Emotional intelligence and active listening also served as a useful approach for
improving confidence level which ultimately increased my presentation skills and
eliminated nervousness.
Team working:
Tuckman's theory is a framework that is applicable for the purpose of development of
team or group. Mentioned below is application of this model for analysing my team development
stages during graduation time:
 Forming: It was the team formation stage for business plan. Here, in played a role of
team director. Reason is that every team member was new and no one was aware about
their responsibility and roles which they role to perform (Totterman, 2020). Hence,
accountability and position of team member was also not clear. Therefore, I directed
manners of group about tasks which will be performed by them in accordance to their
capabilities and assurance.
 Storming: This is a stage of complex emotions and hence it is also referred as a hectic
stage. Conflict arises among team members at this stage, hence, with the motive of
increasing team cooperation I launched some team building exercises. Therefore, it can
be said that I played a role of coach in this stage (Prikhidko and Haynes, 2018).
4

 Norming: Conflicts starts to resolve at this stage, and unity emerges. Hence, I started
delegating essential tasks to team such a conducting market research for business plan
idea and I also focused on encouraging group thinking by incorporating brainstorming
activities.
 Performing: During this stage, my role was of a visionary as team is well aligned and
hence is capable of gaining autonomy. Hence, I guided members of team in relevance to
their task but provided independence to them for selecting methods for task achievement.
Hence, business plan is delivered during this time(Rotenberg, 2016).
 Adjourning: At this stage, we as a team celebrated our achievement and shared our
positive experiences as well as discussed some limitations which should be overcome in
future.
CONCLUSION
By concluding this report it can be stated that apprentice, presentation and T-shirt are
three challenges which I faced during my graduation. Effective evaluation and solution of these
challenges is vital for gaining success in context to business angle. Development of personal
skills is essential for development of personality and helps in coping up with challenges. It can
be studied with the use of SWOT analysis. Self awareness and confidence is an effective
approach for continuous improvement. Further, for the purpose of team development I followed
stages of Tuckman's model.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Ballysingh, T. A., Hernández, I. and Zerquera, D., 2018. Teaching assessment: Preparing our
colleagues through graduate education. New Directions for Institutional Research.
2018(177). pp. 87-104.
LEAGUE, G., 2017. 4 th Grossman (Doctoral dissertation, John Molson School of Business).
Lebron, J., 2017. Graduate Research Without Borders. Journal of Mason Graduate Research.
5(1). pp.i-ii.
Martin, J., and et.al., 2018. Rethinking graduate training in geoscience in the age of big data.
AGUFM. 2018. pp. ED51B-01.
McCracken, M., Currie, D. and Harrison, J., 2016. Understanding graduate recruitment,
development and retention for the enhancement of talent management: sharpening ‘the
edge’of graduate talent. The International Journal of Human Resource Management.
27(22). pp. 2727-2752.
McDaniel, S., 2018. Library roles in advancing graduate peer-tutor agency and integrated
academic literacies. Reference Services Review.
Prikhidko, A. and Haynes, C., 2018. Balancing Graduate School and Mothering: Is There a
Choice?. International Journal of Doctoral Studies. 13.
Rotenberg, R., 2016. The art and craft of college teaching: A guide for new professors and
graduate students. Routledge.
Sangwan, S. and Garg, S., 2017. WIL and business graduate skill transfer to workplace. On the
horizon.
Totterman, H., 2020. Tackling Executive Challenges Through Graduate Crowdsourcing. In New
Leadership in Strategy and Communication (pp. 227-243). Springer, Cham.
6