Reflective Journal: Analyzing Skills, Development, and Career Goals

This reflective journal analyzes the author's skills, strengths, and weaknesses through a SWOT analysis, focusing on professional development and employability. It explores employer expectations of graduate skills, emphasizing communication, time management, and teamwork. The report details a personal action plan to address identified gaps, including improving presentation skills and time management. It also outlines the graduate recruitment process and the importance of developing key competencies. The author reflects on their experiences as a business associate, highlighting the need for continuous learning and skill enhancement to achieve career goals. The journal emphasizes the importance of interpersonal skills, adaptability, and technical proficiency in securing and succeeding in a professional role. The action plan includes activities to strengthen skills and achieve professional objectives.

Reflective Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Employer's expectations of graduate skills.............................................................................1
2. Personal SWOT analysis and action plan...............................................................................3
3. Graduate recruitment process..................................................................................................7
4. Development and competency needed to develop employability skills.................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
A person requires diverse skills and knowledge to remain efficient at the workplace as
well as it assist in making significant contribution towards one’s own career development plans.
Similarly, the present report deals with analysing owns capabilities and skills that can be used in
the most prominent manner which can further aid in achieving the desired results or position in
the organizational setting. Herein, numerous theories and approaches has been used so as to
provide the readers with an understanding of the ways in which personal and career development
plans can be undertaken. Therefore, STAR technique has been successfully applied, SWOT
analysis has been undertaken to ascertain own weaknesses and strengths along with an action
plan which provides the readers with an overview of the activities that has been undertaken so as
fulfil the gap between the expected and existing capabilities. Apart from this, a clear description
of the recruitment and selection process of graduate students has been explained.
1. Employer's expectations of graduate skills
There are certain skills and factors that aid the individual to gain employment at the
concerned organization. However, there are varied others skills, attributes and which the
employers hunt in new candidates that can result in utmost benefit for the organization. Being a
Business Associate at a Call centre in UK, I have analysed that I did not possess enough of
knowledge and experience for the respective designation. But the employer has provided me
with an opportunity to use my strengths against my weaknesses and be able to develop my
personal and professional skills at the organizational setting (Cehic, 2014). In this regards, my
communication and writing skills were assessed at the time of interview and based on this, a
position of business associate was offered to me.
Nonetheless, employer’s expectations from the respective candidate are quite high. This
can be analysed from the concept of significance of the employability skills. Possessing bookish
knowledge is not sufficient to get a proper job at the organization. However, there are certain
other factors that may cause respective individual to gain a designation. Employers or managers
hunt for talent rather than simply focusing on the degrees and educational experience. Therefore,
some of the major expectations of these people from the undergraduate students include the
following:
 Interpersonal and communication skills
 Time management
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 Motivating factor
 Problem solving
 Organizing and planning skills
 Team building and team working
 Ability to adapt and learn new techniques
 Initiative
 Numeracy
 Drive
All the above demonstrated skills are crucial factor which may cause the organization to gain
talented and skilled workforce. Initially I felt that, possessing numerous degrees can help me to
gain a job easily in any company. But later being a part of the respective organization and going
through the interview process, I have analysed that simply possessing all the degrees and
knowledge is not sufficient. Therefore, in order to meet the requirements of my employers and
the manner in which I should behave at the organizational setting, I am planning to emphasize to
gain relative skills and attributes that are required by me to become a successful manager. Apart
from the above discussed skills and attributes, my employers expect certain business generic
skills as well so as to perform with the efficiency at the organizational setting (Spence and
Hyams-Ssekasi, 2015). These comprises of the two main areas which includes achievements and
business awareness. Herein, my managers expect that I must have the potentiality to success in
future along with organizational sensitivity. In addition to the above, the employers also expect
that I must have a sense of understand ability of things related to financial aspects as well as
things related to customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, it has been assessed by me that the team building and working is a vital part
while working in a big organization especially in the call centre. I must have the skills and
attributes to control my anger and other communication as well as speaking habits. Additionally,
there must be a clear understanding regarding relevant areas such as problem solving and dealing
with different individuals. All such capabilities are required by a graduate candidate while
applying in an organization. Therefore, at the time of recruitment and selection process of
graduate candidates, the managers search for all the above skills and knowledge that can be used
in the best possible manner which thereby renders high amount of benefits to the company.
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Along with that, it also helps me to devise my career development programmes in similar regards
thereafter addressing and assessing the skills and attributes required by the employers.
Working within the respective organizational setting it requires effective team working
capabilities as there are several other personnel’s working within the finance department. This
requires effective co-ordination and communication skills by a graduate candidate. Therefore, in
order to meet the above criteria, the candidate must have worked before in teams and should
have the habit of getting involved with other members. However, in order to meet the above
objectives or requirements of the employers, I need to carry out a personal development plan so
as to assess the strengths and weaknesses and use them in the appropriate manner so as to gain
higher opportunity in the future. Therefore, the above descriptive skills and attributes aids in
developing my personal and professional life as well.
2. Personal SWOT analysis and action plan
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
 I am quite particular and committed
towards my studies which aids me gain
high amount of knowledge.
 I have a strong communication skill
that further aids me to interact with my
colleagues.
 I have good command over English
which intensifies my communication
skills within the team members.
Opportunities:
 Working as a part time employee
within another organization will help to
gain relative knowledge regarding the
customers’ expectations and services.
 Presently, I have been assigned a new
project wherein I have to conduct a
presentation before the management
which will further aid in boosting my
confidence along with loosing fear of
public speaking.
Weaknesses:
 I have considerably issues regarding
time management as I am quite focused
about the quality which consumes too
much of time in correcting every single
mistake.
 I have a fear regarding the present-
Threats:
 There is low amount of opportunities
being present for the graduate students
in the country.
 Moreover, candidates with greater
efficiency and knowledge are applying
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ability and I get conscious as well as
nervous while it comes to giving
presentation to the colleagues. I have difficulty in controlling my
anger at the certain point of time.
for the respective position.
Mock Assessment activities
After successful conducting mock assessment activities, I have ascertained that in order
to overcome my weaknesses, I have to conduct or design an action plan through which my skills
can be developed. The original and revised CV presented shows that certain skills has been
developed into me, while there are other actions that needs to be taken so as to bring new
characteristics into me. I have distributed an observer sheet to rest of the people including my
colleagues, family and friends. Through that I have ascertained that I need to control my anger.
My managers told me to gain relative knowledge regarding varied applications such as Tally,
Microsoft, excel.
Sawar Anjum
13 Thornbury Close
Rhiwbina
Cardiff
CF14 1UT
Email: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]
DOB: 02/12/1991
Personal Profile
A highly qualified and skill personnel keen to learn new skills and knowledge. Possess a high
amount of employability skills which aids me to adjust and get adapted to each of the situation.
Qualifications and Training
BA Hons Degree Business human Resource from South Wales University in the year 2014-17.
Business Studies National Diploma A level
Work Experience
 Grocery Food store
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 Alliance to sector skills councils
 Vodafone
 Euro Vehicle car hire company
 Sky
 Serco
 Local Food Store
 Hobbies and Interest
I enjoy playing cricket, rugby, football, exploring new places, socializing with friends.
As I have worked as a business Associates in a Call centre, therefore, I have gained
varied knowledge in the respective area. As discussed above, employers crave for varied kinds of
employability skills in a graduate candidate which involves team working, communication, time
management, problem solving, organizing and planning and many more (Turner, 2016).
Therefore, to meet these requirements I have already created my personal and professional
developmental plans. Moreover, being a part of the cricket sports team, I have a relative high
amount of attitude or characteristics towards working in a highly diversified team members.
Being a part of group is not an easy task as it requires high amount of patience, motivation and
leadership skills (Jollands and et.al., 2015). Moreover, I have remained captain for the last match
that has been played at the state level. This has brought into me the capability and calibre to
work with diverse individuals as well as the skills required to deal with them. In addition to it,
being a captain has provided me with the opportunity to gain leadership and motivation skills.
People need to be motivated to derive effective results. Therefore, keeping all these factors in
mind I have devised a personal development action plan which will aid me to achieve the
requisite results by aligning the activities in a particular manner.
Action plan
Existing skills Employers
requirement
Gap Identified
(Rating out of 5)
Future Development
Good relations with
colleagues
Presentation skills 2/5 Undertaking new projects and
responsibilities so as to develop
my own presentation skills in
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the respective company which
will help me to provide the
same in future course of action.
Quality focused Time management 3/5 Achieving the desired targets of
each day and getting
Great interpersonal
skills
Team working 4/5 This will help me to reduce my
anger by the end of the period
and also assist me in dealing
with varied kinds of people in a
most considerable manner.
Good command over
English
Strengthening
technical skills
3/5 All the relative knowledge can
be used to develop and uptake
new responsibilities in the
respective organization.
Developmental Plan
Skills Activities Justification Time required
Presentation skills Attending necessary
sessions or classes
It will help me to
develop my
confidence
2 months
Time Management
skills
Maintaining a to do
list
It will assist me to
manage my work on
time due to the
increasing work load
3 months
Strengthening my
technical skills
Undertaking higher
responsibilities in the
organizational setting
and joining classes for
learning new skills.
Further, enable me to
acquire higher position
in the organizational
setting
2.5 months
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I have created my own personal developmental plan so as to gain relative knowledge
regarding the varied skills and area where I am lacking behind. These are the gap that has been
identified from the above analysis. In addition to the above, the above demonstrated activities
will help me to gain relative knowledge which will further assist me to develop my personal and
professional Life.
3. Graduate recruitment process
Recruitment and selection process is the most crucial part of every business enterprise as
it aids the businessperson to gain highly capable and advanced candidates which will further
assist in handling the operations of the company in the most significant manner (Rao, 2014). In
addition to this, it will help the managers to manage the work on time thereby maintaining the
quality which can further leads to growth and success of the firms. The recruitment process for
the graduates have been enumerated below which aids me to gain knowledge and skills that the
employers hunt in a new candidate.
The first and foremost is applying for the application form wherein the candidates can
provide the companies with relative knowledge about their background and educational
experiences (Ju and et.al., 2014). Similarly, I have enumerated about my past studies and future
course of action and plans to employers through filling the application form in the most
paramount manner.
Thereafter, the company provides a link which is to conduct a test or analyse the
judgement of the candidate. Through the respective step, the company can judge whether the
candidate has the potential to work in the organization or not (de Guzman and Choi, 2013).
Herein, I have attended a training session in the respective organization which aids me to gain
knowledge on the prescribed area. Thereafter, the link that was sent to me was filled by me.
Some question regarding the work culture of the companies has been asked by the employees
that will further assist in acknowledging about the developmental process.
In addition to the above, the selected person is called for the numerical and reasoning test
wherein questions regarding the knowledge that the candidate possess is undertaken. However,
mathematical and all the general knowledge questions has been asked by the employer. This is a
test usually conducted on the computers. I have been allotted a time limit of one hour to
complete the respective questions. If the candidate has achieved a reasonable percent or marks in
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the respective test, then it is being sent to further level for the interview. Furthermore, selection
of the candidate is being made on the respective basis.
Thereafter, the CEO or the other supervisors conduct the interview process so as to know
or acquire information about the candidates past professional life (Doganci, Tasdelen and
Yilmaz, 2015). While conducting the interview process, the employers also assess the manner in
which the candidate is communicating, aims to gain knowledge about diverse skills and
capabilities that it possesses. Out of which leadership, problem solving, motivation skills are the
most prominent features required by the person. In addition to the above, question regarding its
hobbies and passion is asked by the managers. Similar questions have been asked by me in the
interview session and I have told them clearly about my passion towards the cricket. Through
this, they have identified or examined about my potentialities in managing teams and motivating
others. Henceforth, this is the last process of the recruitment process thereafter through perfect
scrutinising the manager’s select the most appropriate and capable employees that will further
help in managing the operations of the company significantly.
From the above description of the recruitment and selection process, I have analysed that
possessing knowledge regarding varied aspects is imperative in nature. The managers judge the
candidate on the varied aspects. Out of which they specifically hunt for the employability skills
in people. These include communication skills in which the candidate or the appointed person
needs to make contact with the clients and convince them about varied points (Benson, Morgan
and Filippaios, 2014). Apart from this, call centre in which I am presently working is based on
team building. Therefore, I must be able to use my skills to lead and motivate people. However,
there are varied kinds of personality present in a team which has diversity in opinions, thinking
habit and life style. Therefore, patience is required by the candidate to stay calm in the
conflicting situation. Therefore, the managers have asked certain questions so as to assess my
anger and anxiety level. Although, I have managed to remain calm and compose at the respective
time. All these activities have helped me to gain knowledge about diverse employability skills
that are needed by a candidate to work in any organization.
4. Development and competency needed to develop employability skills
In order to assess my competencies and potentialities at the time of interview at the
present organization, the managers has used a technique to determine employability skills that
are present under a candidate (Frid and et.al., 2015). The following approach aids me in
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understanding and gaining insight on varied aspects of recruitment and selection process.
Furthermore, herein I need to demonstrate any situation that has taken place in past, the manner
in which I have analysed and taken action. Last but not the least, relative knowledge or
understanding gained on the respective situation. The same has been enumerated underneath
with the types of situation faced by me in different phase of life:
Situation Task or Target Actions taken Result or outcome
During the last cricket
match, our team was
losing the game and
the bowlers were
pressurized in the last
few over.
Being a captain of our
team, my duty was to
motivate the team
members so as to do
not lose hope.
Therefore, in the
particular situation, I
have completed my
task in a profound
manner. In this case, I
have formulated a
strategy to change the
bowler in the last over
by analysing the
strengths and
capabilities of each of
the team members as
well as identifying the
weakness of
opponents.
The result derived
from the specific
situation was that the
loosing team became
the winning team. This
shows my ability to
manage each and
every situation in a
significant manner
thereby further
motivating the
members in the
relative direction.
While I was working
in Sky Cardiff which
was my second last
job, my client was
upset with the type of
services being offered
to him.
My task was to keep
the customer satisfied
at the particular
moment and provide
him with the relative
services required by
him.
I talk very politely and
calmly with the client
and made him
understand the reason
of non performance of
duty on time.
The outcome of the
respective situation
was that the client got
embarrassed and made
me understand the
urgency of service. I
have told him that his
work will be done in
the respective period
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of time without
upsetting him.
The above demonstrated situations and the ways in which it was handled by me describes
about my competencies in dealing with diverse circumstances. This will further aid me to clear
the interview process without any hindrance.
CONCLUSION
From the above description on employability skills, it can be assessed that skills are
considered to be most important than knowledge at time of recruiting a new candidate. A
personal SWOT analysis conducted aids in understanding and preparing action and developing
plan through which one can easily develop or intake certain skills and knowledge that is
necessary in the respective course of action. The recruitment process of graduates especially in a
call centre has been clearly enumerated through which one can assess the knowledge regarding
varied kinds of skills that needs to be developed. Apart from this, learners have gained access to
the methods or ways to prepare CV.
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