University Career Management: Reflective Summary Essay and Analysis

This report is a reflective essay on professional career management, structured into three parts. Part 1 presents an incident report based on a case study of a Christmas party, analyzing safety concerns and the need for risk management. Part 2 features an interview with an HR manager, exploring essential skills like communication and decision-making in a non-profit setting, and the manager's self-assessment and advice for students. Part 3 provides advice to future students, emphasizing the importance of risk management, communication, and practical application of knowledge in the field of health and safety. The essay integrates various theories and concepts of professional skills, offering a comprehensive overview of career management principles.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT
PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT
Assessment 4: Reflective summary essay
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 1
Table of Contents
Part 1: Incident report based on the case study: The Annual Christmas Party..........................2
Part 2: Interview with a HR Manager (professional).................................................................5
Part 3: Advice to a future student:..............................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................8

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 2
Part 1: Incident report based on the case study: The Annual Christmas Party
The purpose of the incident report is to incorporate the professional skills based on
self-experiences. The evaluation will be based on the various theories, strategies and concepts
of the professional skills. Below is the description of the incident on the basis of three step
analysis:
What?
The Smith Family is engaged in providing teaching and educational services to the
young children as well as their parents. In one of the Christmas parties, it is a common
observation that apart from the invited guests like children and their parents, there were other
people as well who were not specifically invited. Father Christmas was expected to arrive by
a prime mover that was being parked outside the playground area. This car park usually
created a threat for the children and might attract any kind of risk or accident. There was lack
of any kind of safety measures for the volunteers as well. It is important to provide adequate
health and safety measures for the volunteers who are responsible for taking care of the prime
mover. According to the Workplace Health and Safety or WHS laws, it is equally important
to ensure that the volunteers are given adequate safety as well as mental health in the
workplace.
As the volunteers were responsible for driving the prime mover from the parking area
to inside it is important that the volunteers are given the proper safety and precaution in the
work place. In order to ensure the safety and precaution of the volunteers the practitioners
should have certain skills in order to ensure that the workers can work under proper care.
Few important skill sets required for taking acre of the volunteers include investigating the
incident and identifying the typical reasons for the reason of the accident. It depends on the
skills of the person to identify the hazards that are associated with the particular incident and

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 3
determine various ways of dealing with the same. For the particular incident the most
important skill required is to train the volunteers in order to ensure that the volunteers are
well aware of the duties that they have to perform.
So, what?
It is important that each and every person in a particular event should be safe and
secured in terms of their health and security. It is the volunteers who are responsible for
maintaining the safety and security of the guests or the people who arrive at the event. At the
same time, it is equally important to ensure that the volunteers are also given the right
protection that their health and safety is maintained and they feel secured at the workplace
(Queenslandshows.org.au 2016). In order to ensure that the work and practices have been
done appropriately, it is important that each volunteer is given adequate training on the
incidents in order to ensure that they are well aware of the job that they would do and that
they would be able to overcome any accidental injury. It is important that the volunteers
understand the use of the equipment and the way those are used. For instance, “All staff
should be motivated and empowered to work safely and to protect their long-term health, not
simply to avoid accidents.” is the statement that has been taken from the Australian guide of
health and safety that actually shows the importance of training and guiding the volunteers
for the sake of dealing with the situation rightly and to avoid any kind of accident
(Safeworkaustralia.gov.au 2018).
Now, what?
The strategies that can be used for developing the skills are by improving my
knowledge by reading more books and journal articles on the health and safety manuals. For
any particular organisation, it would be useful if a workplace health and safety plan is created
and the same is followed for the organisation. This plan has to be followed considering the

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 4
need of the health and safety of the employees and other stakeholders in the organisation. For
doing so, the workplace safety need has to be identified and then the necessary plan of action
is made to create a safer environment for the people. Training the employees also fall under
this strategy (McLinton et al. 2018). It is important to develop the leadership skills as well in
order to guide and direct the employees or the volunteers. In order to do so, it is expected that
the strategies like involving in seminars to understand the perspective of the lecturer and by
the increased application of the knowledge in the practical filed is the foremost important
factor that can be used as the strategies to develop the skills. Coming up with a personal
development plan and planning each and every step accordingly so as to meet the expectation
or the outcome of the entire situation will prove to be relevant as a health and safety
practitioner (Bailey et al. 2015). More likely, reading incidental stories and understanding the
action made by the leaders at the particular moment can also help in understanding the
situation and how the leaders react in those situations. It is expected that if these processes
are followed thoroughly, the outcome would be better and I will be able to develop my skills
as well.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 5
Part 2: Interview with a HR Manager (professional)
I wish to work for a non-profit organisation in future in order to understand the
importance of the volunteers in the lives of the people. So, I interviewed an HR of a small
NGO in Australia near my locality. His name was Mr. Paul (changed name). On asking the
most important skills required in this field, it has been noted that the HR manager is
responsible for the role of a leader and thus his or her position in the organisation becomes
very critical when it comes of the leadership approach. For this, the most important skills
required are good communication abilities, high level of negotiation with the employees and
the other stakeholders of the organisation. Decision making ability is another important skill
that is important for the leadership in NGOs as the organisation might come across any kind
of issue or difficulties at any point of time that requires immediate action and the correct
decision making ability and thus, it is the most important skill required. Apart from this, the
NGOs have to deal with many clients for various purposes and so influencing skills is equally
required at some point of time.
On asking how Mr Paul rated himself in these skills, the HR responded that he has
very good communication skills that have helped him in various ways in dealing with internal
and external stakeholders. As his work is mainly concerned with understanding the current
issues and then working on the same in order to resolve the issue, it is important to
understand the perspective of others and so a good communication skill is the foremost
important skill needed. He also exclaimed that he had good decision making abilities as well
and can promptly take actions in every situation. However, he ranked himself lower when it
came to the negotiation and influencing skills as he exclaimed that in order to influence a
person, it is very important to understand the psychology of the person and then act
accordingly and at times he failed to do so as it is difficult to understand the thinking process
or the psychology of a person.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 6
On asking how he developed these skills within himself and what advice he wanted to
give to the graduating students entering his field, he answered that the communication skills
are actually learnt in childhood and decision making abilities develop from time to time with
gradual experiences. However, these skills can be easily improved by other means as well.
For instance, communication skills require a person to be humble and polite and to be
attentive enough to understand the perspective of the other person and then communicate
accordingly. Likewise, decision making abilities also require certain values and norms to be
followed. While making any decision, it is important to understand the present and the future
consequences of those decisions and then make the valid reasons for making those decisions.
Keeping these instances into consideration, the future students can be advised that they
should develop their communication, decision making and even the negotiation techniques by
facing various situations. As a student, it is advisable to read various books or journals and
understand the incident and the decision made by the leader at the particular situation. The
stories that have unsuccessful outcome with a correct lesson can be of very helpful in order to
deal with the major decisions in life and career.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 7
Part 3: Advice to a future student:
Any candidate who wished to join this module will be given certain advices. The first
and foremost important factor that the candidates should understand is the importance of risk
management. The health and safety learning always creates a situation where the ability of a
person to deal at the situation of risk matters the most. The decision making ability of the
person must be so strong that the person will be able to judge a situation properly and can act
with the right decision. In order to make sure that the situation is under control, it is equally
important to develop the communication skills of the person. The newly joined candidates
must be smart and courageous enough to understand the need of the hour and then make the
right decision so that the situation can be handled properly. For further advices, it might be
said to the student that they should be very attentive in class and should try to grasp as much
learning as possible. Since there is a limitation of the application of the theoretical knowledge
into practical life during this course, it is important that they keep trying to involve
themselves in certain practices where they can easily use their learning skills and abilities.
In addition to this, understanding the need of the hour and then making the right
decision that would save the life of a person because health and safety is the prime concern
for the employees of any organisation, is the important skills that they would develop by the
completion of the course. It will also be advised that they should be very active in their
surrounding and that they should view each and every incident that happens in and around
their surround as a part of their curriculum. They should keep themselves in the situation and
come up with the idea or decision that they would have made if they were in charge or the
leader or manager to handle the situation.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER MANAGEMENT 8
References:
Ackermann, B.J., Kenny, D.T., O'Brien, I. and Driscoll, T.R., 2014. Sound Practice—
improving occupational health and safety for professional orchestral musicians in
Australia. Frontiers in psychology, 5, p.973.
Australia, V., 2003. Running the risk. Risk Management Tool for Volunteer Involving
Organizations.
Bailey, T., Woolley, J. and Raftery, S., 2015. Compliance and enforcement in road safety and
work health and safety: a comparison of approaches.
Mastal, M.F., Joshi, M. and Schulke, K., 2007. Nursing leadership: championing quality and
patient safety in the boardroom. Nursing Economics, 25(6), p.323.
McLinton, S.S., Loh, M.M.Y., Dollard, M.F., Tuckey, M.M., Idris, M.A. and Morton, S.,
2018. Benchmarking working conditions for health and safety in the frontline healthcare
industry: Perspectives from Australia and Malaysia. Journal of advanced nursing.
Queenslandshows.org.au 2016 Volunteer Management Toolkit Available at:
www.queenslandshows.org.au [Accessed on: 16-5-2018]
Safeworkaustralia.gov.au 2018 The Essential Guide to Work Health and Safety for
Organisations that Engage Volunteers Available at:
https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/book/essential-guide-work-health-and-safety-
organisations-engage-volunteers [Accessed on: 15-5-2018]
White, M.D., 2016. Volunteer Management: Understanding Volunteer Motivation and
Recognizing Critical Tactics for Managing the Volunteer Workforce (Doctoral dissertation,
University of Maryland University College).