Preparing for Success: Reflecting on Job Experiences and Skills

This report is a reflective analysis of a student's job experience as a Coordinator Despatch, utilizing Driscoll's Model of Reflection to evaluate their professional development and preparation for future success. The report details the 'What, So What, and Now What' aspects of the job role, including the tasks performed, the skills developed, and the challenges encountered. The student reflects on their strengths, such as teamwork and adaptability, and identifies areas for improvement, particularly in communication and conflict resolution. The analysis emphasizes the positive influence of the professional environment on individual performance, behavior, and experience, and concludes with a plan to enhance skills through training and development programs to achieve future career goals, specifically in management.

PREPARING FOR
SUCCESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
Overview.....................................................................................................................................1
What............................................................................................................................................1
So What.......................................................................................................................................1
Now What...................................................................................................................................3
PART B............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Success refers to the compatibility and effectiveness in achieving personal and
professional experiences. Moreover, reflecting upon past experiences expands the horizon related
towards future growth and success (John, Daun-Barnett and Moronski-Chapman, 2018). The
essay below reflects upon the job experiences and how the same helped in ensuring
improvisation in performance, along with behaviour and personal experience. For this purpose,
Driscoll's Model of Reflection is being utilised which is applied effectively to reflect on the
activity appropriately.
PART A
Overview
Developed in 1994, this reflective model is applied effectively to sequentially reflect on
past experiences and how best they have contributed in shaping the future decisions effectively.
Hence, the essay below is based on the job role of Coordinator Despatch, where this model is
effectively applied.
What
I am very well placed under an organisation as a coordinator dispatch, which requires to
me to interact with a number of individuals on a daily basis, along with performing activities like
loading and unloading, packing, handling forklift and scanning the despatch materials. The
experience has been quite enriching one as due to diverse activities, the job role requires
continuous improvement in existing and potential skill set in order to enhance the success factors
for future career prospects. Moreover, since being a coordinator requires me to constantly
acquire and share information with everyone, communication has been an active part of my job
role. In addition to this, the key aspects associated with this job role was related towards
multitasking, analytical decision making, complex problem solving, along with continuous
improvement in relation to enhancing the scope of improvement where communication is
concerned (Black, 2015).
So What
When I first joined this job role, initially I was very nervous as a coordinator has several
responsibilities towards human and technical resources associated with the same. Moreover,
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since it would have helped me learn appropriately about management, I was quite excited as
well. However, there is a significant difference within my feelings where the present scenario is
concerned. Currently, I feel very much confident and experienced after spending a significant
time within the job role. This is because there are ample of opportunities which have allowed me
to enhance my skill set appropriately. Furthermore, throughout my job role, I managed to
contribute towards effective establishment of coordination in activities related to despatch, as my
time management skills and adaptability, along with teamwork abilities are very much effective
(Strayhorn, 2015).
Throughout the job, there have been times which were associated with good, as well as
bad experiences. In terms of positives, there were several skills which enhanced quite
exceptionally while my time within the company, which also contributed in ensuring
improvisation within my performance. One such skill was teamwork. I was very much active
while providing ideas to the people I was supposed to coordinated with. There were complex
tasks which required each of the team member to appropriately work together in relation to
contributing towards the effectiveness of the activities. This helped me in developing my
teamwork skills by coordinating and managing different individuals towards a certain activity.
Another positive aspect was associated with adaptability. The job role of despatch coordinator
required me to perform different activities each day, along with working in dynamic scenarios,
which contributed increasing my adaptive abilities.
However, there were certain negative factors associated with the job role as well. For
example, while I am an active listening, my verbal communication skills are very weak. This was
very much evident due to the fact that I failed to provide clear instructions in relation to specific
tasks. Furthermore, I could not address the people altogether to inform them about several
essential functions or changes within the operations. Moreover, conflict resolution was another
negative aspect which I experienced while my time within this job role. There were instances
where conflicts were required to be resolved. Hence, due to this fact, I was quite ineffective in
resolving several conflicts (Roy‐Chowdhuri and et. al., 2015).
Having reflected on the same, still my experience was very much effective in comparison
with my colleagues. This is because there had been several opportunities provided to me to
enhance my skills which would help me prepare for future successes.
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Now What
The above reflects helped me realise that how important it is to effectively enhance my
skills which appropriately contributes towards success. However, still there are several skills
which are particularly weak, such as communication and conflict resolution. To essentially
enhance the competence within the same, I would appropriately enrol myself in training and
development programmes, which would help me in enhancing these skills. This is because I
really would like myself to pursue a management degree for future growth, where active
speaking, persuasion and analytical thinking for conflict resolution is important. Hence, I would
be approaching several counsellors and professors to gain information about how best my
competence could enhance in these skills and I improve my performance.
PART B
Working and communication within a professional context has positively contributed
towards influencing my individual performance, behaviour and experience. This is because being
in such a setting constantly presented challenges and opportunities which required a new method
and technique to deal with the same and to enhance performance in context with adopting new
skills. Furthermore, in relation with behaviour, a positive influence has also been induced
towards enhancing motivation and self-dependency to learn, adapt, as well as improve the
current performance (Yang, Ye and Ge, 2015). Moreover, as the career progressed, it developed
a positive feeling towards working with more dedication and attention which would ensure my
way towards gaining success. As per experience is concerned, I believe I can now coordinate
with people in a better manner and enhance my competence in management that would
contribute in my future management degree, as well as professional career prospects.
CONCLUSION
Hence, it could be concluded from the report above that preparation towards success is
very much effective in relation to enhancing the the scope towards growth within careers.
Moreover, reflection is an essential activity which assists an individual towards analysing their
strengths and weaknesses in the past, which help them secure their future in a better manner.
Lastly, it also contributes towards analysing how the past experiences have impacted aspects like
performance, behaviour and experience.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Black, G.L., 2015. Developing teacher candidates' self-efficacy through reflection and
supervising teacher support. in education. 21(1). pp.78-98.
John, E.P.S., Daun-Barnett, N. and Moronski-Chapman, K.M., 2018. Public policy and higher
education: Reframing strategies for preparation, access, and college success.
Routledge.
Roy‐Chowdhuri, S., and et. al., 2015. Factors affecting the success of next‐generation
sequencing in cytology specimens. Cancer cytopathology. 123(11). pp.659-668.
Strayhorn, T.L., 2015. Factors Influencing Black Males' Preparation for College and Success in
STEM Majors: A Mixed Methods Study. Western Journal of Black Studies. 39(1).
Yang, D., Ye, S. and Ge, J., 2015. Old relief printing applied to the current preparation of multi-
color and high resolution colloidal photonic crystal patterns. Chemical Communications.
51(95). pp.16972-16975.
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