University Course: Developing Professionally Reflective Journal

This reflective journal, written by a student, details their experiences and learnings from a 'Developing Professionally' course. The paper reflects on weekly prompts, discussion sessions, and assigned tasks, emphasizing the development of personal professional skills and strategies. The student, Amandeep Singh, discusses their self-awareness, problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and technological aptitude. They highlight the importance of social learning and systems theories, along with attributes like attention to detail and a passion for practical experience. The journal outlines the student's career aspirations, values, and beliefs, including their perspective on criminology and the criminal justice system. The student also reflects on the course's guest lectures, workshops, and practical activities, such as CV and cover letter preparation. Furthermore, the journal assesses the student’s strengths, including resilience, work ethic, and social competencies, while also addressing the importance of self-care and stress management for professional well-being. The journal provides a comprehensive overview of the course's impact on the student's professional development.

Running head: DEVELOPING PROFESSIONALLY
Developing Professionally
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Reflective Journal
Learning from various tasks both in and out class
My name is Amandeep Singh and I have recently completed my course on
‘Developing Professionally’. It is to note that in this paper I am going to reflect on my weekly
learnings, reflecting on the prompts and discussion sessions that I found at the end of every
lecture. At the end of the paper, I will also include the attachments of my professional
practice framework, CV and response to the selection criteria. While writing this reflective
journal, I believe that I will eventually start to develop my own skills and strategies for our
personal professional development and learning. It is to state that I have learnt many things
during this course of ‘Developing Professionally’, especially by participating in different
experiences and completing the assigned tasks at the end of the weekly learnings. Actually,
all these things were designed as a part of the course for equipping us with the skills and
knowledge that will help us in our future career to a great extent, no matter whatever
profession we choose as our career. However, it is to note that Miss. Danielle Arlanda Harris
was our course lecturer. The main aim of this course is to develop a critical reflective practice
by means of giving us task of self-assessments and to expand our knowledge about the
different career options.
Self-awareness is a significant component of emotional intelligence. It is a very
important tool for developing a strong therapeutic relationship. It is to state that all my
knowledge and skills that I possess comes from the fast learning ability of mine, the problem
solving skills that I possess and my potential of communicating effectively with my peer. I
am very good at problem solving. I always get engage on constructive debate whenever I get
an opportunity to do so as this improves my understanding skill and I believe that this also
contribute in the development of problem solving skill. I believe that the ones who listen

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carefully and effectively are the one who can solve any issue more effectively than the others
who do not. I also have great communication skills and I can say that due to the fact that
during all my years, I was asked to communicate and interact with new people as my friends
and peers often hesitate to do so. I get friendly with people very easily and possess the skill of
relationship building. Hence, I am sure enough that I would be good at building networks as
well. I believe that this is an essential skills and attribute that a criminology professional must
possess within him or her. Also, I am good at technology as well. I catch up and understand
technological things and aspects very easily and I possess this skills since my childhood.
Notwithstanding this fact, I would also like to mention that the major theories that I basically
make use of is that of social learning theory, systems theory. Apart from this, my key
attributes and understanding include the fact that I love to learn from live and practical
experiences. Also, I also have very strong attention to details. I think there are many
employers, especially in the field of crimes and criminology, who seek for this skill. It is a
highly coveted skill as if a person overlook the details and make mistakes in the field of
criminology, then the case is unlikely to solve effectively or even solved in the first place.
Employers value that candidate who take pride in their work and seek for perfection without
any sort of rigidity. However, it is to state that my future goal is to obtain an entry-level job
position as a private detective in the field of criminal justice where I could offer strong
interpersonal and investigative skills for working with the individuals from different
backgrounds. I believe that in order to achieve this objective of my professional life, I require
to develop some skills and attributes that are more related to such positions. As a developing
novice professional, I would be working on my skills of thoroughness, eye for detail, patience
and of being well-organised as surveillance is often very hard, long and a dull work. I already
have enough computer and technical skills and have strong interest for researching new

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things and cases. At the same time, I would be completing my degree in the criminal justice
with more than 60% marks.
I believe that values are the ideals of human beings that we actually care about and
consider important. These values are the ones that we use as the basis of all our actions.
Everyone of use develop professional and personal values. One of my significant values to
mention in this context is people. I value people, both groups and in individual. I respect the
dignity of human beings and it is the primary value of mine on which all my policies and
actions rest. I am good at tolerance and I believe that differences prevail in every human
beings and therefore, I never like or practice judging others as inferior and less deserving of
anything. The next value of mine is that of service. As I believe in equality, I always try to
provide exceptional and equitable services to all the patrons. Apart from this, the other values
of mine include honestly, happiness and freedom. Furthermore, it is to state that I believ that
development of a criminal is a very complicated process and it combines their personal
vulnerabilities such as poor attachment, their easy exposure to abuse and low intelligence,
with the social disadvantages like poor role modelling and lack of opportunities to get right
education. All these negatively influences the development and remove all the avenues of
social capital that further leads to the attainment of crucial personal needs of the human
beings. In such a context, crimes become like a means for the people to achieve their social
capital. I think that crimes of violence that are interpersonal, like that of murders etc.
implicate the relationship and identity and I believe that it is a significant pathway my means
of which the cultural experience could impact the criminal behaviour of the human beings.
However, some of these values and believes of mine might change over time with the change
in my thoughts and priorities. As a private detective or a professional in criminal justice, I
should never let the criminals roam around with independence and freedom. Although I do

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understand that that no one is born criminal, it is the situation and the circumstances in their
lives that make them criminals. Still, I cannot spare them in any way. So, in such cases, my
values of freedom of people will get influenced as I cannot value the freedom of criminals or
the ones who provoke crimes.
I would like to mention that the entire course and weekly learnings were all about
preparing us for our future work and our professional workplaces. Through this course I have
assessed my expectations from the course. I want to take the whole responsibility for my
future and create networking with the invited guests. I also want to use the information and
knowledge that I gained from the workshops as the starting points for guiding my own needs
of learning. However, it is to note that there are many jobs in the field of criminology and
criminal justice and they include that of corrections, courts and cops related positions. During
this weekly learning, I was also given the task of reflecting on what I want to do upon my
graduation and why. Also, I was asked present my views on the factors that causes crime and
what we, as the student or professionals of criminology should do about crime. In this way I
have reflected on the extent to which my values, culture, education and belief have informed
my perspectives. For me, the most useful part of my whole learning experience during this
course are the guest lecturers and the workshops. Through the guest lecturers, I heard new
voices that had different view-points and I believe that they had the potential resources that
we can apply in our later courses. One of the major benefits of these guest lecturers was that
any one of us were allowed to ask queries on the subjects. I and my guest lecturer also
worked together in the field questions that were provided to us and many of the times,
engaged in constructive issues. I also attended the personal impact workshops. The major
thing that I found useful in this process was the exercise of developing my skills of listening.
I thought that I was a good listener and listen effectively. However, with the help of the
workshop and doing the exercise, I found that there was a lot of room for further

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improvement. I made greater effort right from attending the course and thinking that it was
the time well-invested because it helped in developing my skills that I could use in my future
workplace and also in my day to day life.
However, I have also worked in many tutorial and workbook activities such as
making cover letters, job applications and selection criteria. Through this process I have
learnt how to write the experience section of the resume, making cover letters and job
applications. I have learnt that in order to prepare an effective CV, I need to focus on
showcasing my transferable skills first and then to leverage my experience mentioning about
them. I have also learnt the systematic way of preparing a CV and the important elements that
should be mentioned there. Furthermore, through the work activities of preparing job
applications, I have learnt that I need to first analyse the job listing and then should craft my
cover letter accordingly.
I am a resilient person and I have a sense of direction and purpose. I am also self-
aware and I know how I am, what I like, what are my strengths and weaknesses and in what
areas I need to make improvements. I have confidence on the abilities and potentials that I
possess and make connections with people very easily. With the same, I also take a very
positive outlook on everything and never underestimate anyone or anything. I seek to learn
and develop and many of the times, work on the strategies for coping with long-term
pressure. One of the most significant ability of mine is that I can easily recognise when the
pressure is likely to cause an issue. I have the skills of problem solving and have strong work
orientation. With the same, I have the ability of maximising my past learning for solving the
present issues. As far as my social competencies are concerned, I would like to state that I
have very high self-concept and high self-esteem. For self-care and my own well-being, I
need to balance my work and personal life. With the same, I should conduct supervision to
both the internal and external factors of influence and must build on my skills in the

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reflection and processing. At the same time, I would like to find out a career that best suits
my personality and skills. I would like to mention that stress is a notable factor that cause
physical and mental illness. The work related stress is a particular issue in the social care.
Therefore, I need to manage stress and must never allow it to hamper my professional career
and my personal life as well due to personal and professional issues respectively.
From the materials and lectures about organisational structures, communication for
different audiences, accountability, culture and legitimacy, I have learnt many valuable
things. It have learnt that organisational culture is the most dominant pattern of the share
assumptions, values, beliefs and norms that shape the symbols, languages, socialisation and
behaviour of the people within a company. Organisational culture is the way the employees
and staffs carry out their tasks in the workplace (Crane, 2017). I have also learnt that culture
is the thing that is developed and is transmitted by the people, either consciously or
unconsciously to the subsequent generations. I have also learnt about the importance of
culture and about the process of socialisation. I have learnt about police, academic,
organisational, socialisation culture as well. Furthermore, I have learnt about what is
accountability and as a practicing professional, who is accountable for what and to whom and
in what ways. With the same, I have gained knowledge about what is legitimacy. It is to note
that legitimacy refers to the generalised assumptions and perceptions that the actions of a
person or organisation are proper, appropriate and desirable within one or the other socially
constructed system of values, beliefs and norms (Deephouse et al., 2017). I would definitely
be using these knowledge in my future professional career as I believe that having all these
knowledge in mind will help me in doing my work effectively.

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References:
Crane, A. (2017). Rhetoric and reality in the greening of organisational culture. In Greening
the Boardroom (pp. 129-144). Routledge.
Deephouse, D. L., Bundy, J., Tost, L. P., & Suchman, M. C. (2017). Organizational
legitimacy: Six key questions. The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism,
27-54.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: CV
Resume
Amandeep Singh
Mobile: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Personal Statement
A highly motivated and goal-oriented Bachelor of Commerce accounting Graduate who
possess a professional experience of 3 years in the accounting field on national level.
Demonstrated skills
 Accounting
o Taxation including assessable income, FBT, GST, Capital gains,
Substantiation and deductions and individual offsets.
o Strong knowledge of business combinations, joint arrangements, equity
accounting, consolidations, cash flow statements and accounting for income
tax
o Have the ability of preparing and completing balance day adjustments, internal
control system and closing entries for allowing all the final statements.
 Team work and Communication
o Fluent language proficiency in English, Malay and Cantonese
o Effective negotiation skills
o Strong skills of teamwork which is displayed during my internship, part-time
employment and at university.
o Very strong interpersonal skills in the volunteering roles
o Frequently delivered oral presentations during group works

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o Ability of handling multiple tasks on the heavy workload days.
o Time management and extra-curricular involvement
 Computer
o Familiar with Microsoft office like Microsoft excel, Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Outlook Express
o MYOB, Quickbooks and SAP
 Problem solving and analytical skill
o Demonstrated effective potential of resolving the problems throughout the
internship while solving the complex issues of auditing.
o Demonstrated excellent problem solving and analytical skills developed
throughout the University research projects.
 Enterprising
o Developing new processes on a regular basis for improving efficiency.
o Got the Best Employee award in the year 2016
Hobbies and Interest
 Wrestling
 Table Tennis
 Soccer
 Music
Professional Work Experience
Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Adelaide (Assurance Intern) JULY 2015 – DEC 2018
 Responsible for achieving daily production targets.
 Responsible for clearly and accurately documenting the execution of the in
procedures of internal control.
 Demonstrated competence and professionalism in the environment of our clients
 Worked collaboratively with the team members for setting responsibilities and goals.
 Maintained a strong client-focus, and was responsive to the requests of the clients and
developed productive working relationships with our client personnel.
 Liaised with the clients on several specific audit projects.
Education and Training
Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)
2015
Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia
Scholarships
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah Entrance

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2013 Scholarship
References
Available upon request
Appendix 2: Response to selection criteria
For Practise Administration Assistant
a) Being an administration assistant, how would you envision aiding to our team?
- I believe that by means of keeping the team organised and well scheduled, I would be able
to help each and everyone in the office to meet their objectives and goals more effectively.
With the same, by means of taking the administrative work off from their plates, they can
make use of their precious time more effectively, efficiently and at the same time, can
increase the work productivity.
b) Tell me about some of your best projects that you have worked on as an administrative
assistant. What did you like the most about them?
- I have never been an administrative assistant. However, when I was working as an
Assurance Intern at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Adelaide, I was required to schedule things
like meetings, conferences and promotion timings. I always enjoyed helping my peers in
scheduling and writing messages as it often exposed me to some new areas of business
marketing. One of the other positive point about it is that they also allowed me in increasing
my attention to details and demonstrate my skills of communication that often impressed my
teammates.

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c) Why and how do you think that this job role will suit you and will change your future?
- There are some friends of mine who think that the administrative assistants would very soon
be replaced by the use of technology. However, I do not believe this and I have always been
argued on this notion claiming that they would be even more enhanced by development of
technology. Technology on its own cannot attain each and everything. It is the people behind
it who are making it effective. If the administrative assistants could be able to adapt to the
new emergence of technological developments and advancements, it will only help them in
better support their peers and executives. Due to this reason, I am more focused on
developing my Microsoft Excel and Outlook skills in my past position.
d) What according to you are the most important traits and skills that an effective
administration assistant should possess?
- I believe that an effective administration assistant should always be organised if he or she
want to help in coordination within the team. With the same, he or she also need to have a
great time management skill. This is due to this reason that this skill will help them in
scheduling the meetings and staying on the track and that too, meeting all the deadlines. With
the same, I also feel that the communication and computer skills also help in doing the tasks
right and ensure that they are well documented.
e) Why do you want to work with us?
- I suddenly became interested for working in this position as I learnt that your company
prioritizes the local community and environment. I have not had that in any of my workplace
yet and I think that it would be highly rewarding to work for such a great and generous
organisation. With the same, I am also very interested in working in this position as this job
role also plays to my strengths. I am highly organised and I like to do things systematically

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always. Therefore, I believe this would be a suitable position for me and therefore, I think I
could really make a difference working here.
f) Tell me about a time when you made a mistake and explain how you handled that situation.
- During my work as an Assurance Intern at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Adelaide, I once
missed an attendee on a meeting request. Luckily, I had set up reminders at the end of every
day for double checking my work and caught the mistake the very day that it take place. After
realising my mistake, I then added the attendee for inviting without taking help from anyone
realising that there was an error. Keeping myself accurate and organised will really help me
that day.