Self-Assessment of Skills and Career Goals: A Reflective Report

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PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
AN EVALUATION OF MY SKILLSET..................................................................................................4
IDENTIFICATION AND JUSTIFICATION OF MY CAREER AMBITIONS................................................5
RELATING SKILLSET TO CAREER AMBITIONS..................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 7
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Personal and professional development is the first and foremost step in reaching the desired
career status. There are no shortcuts to this and as vital it is for carer growth, it also makes a
person live his life in a structured and hassle-free way (McGowan et al., 2012). One of the major
ingredients of this development process is skill evaluation and honing. Since every career
direction that a person could choose, requires a specific skill set to step in and grow, a
continuous skill development plan is necessary to meet those requirements.
This reflective report has been prepared to develop an understanding with my own skills and
competencies and how they can be used in specific organisational requirements which suit my
career ambitions. Here, the discussion has been made on the evaluation of my personal skills
and qualities that are essential for my desired job prospects. Also, identification and
justification of my career ambitions has been discussed from available options and what could
be the future possibilities in the selected sector. Now, it is not necessary that the skills that I
have will match the requirements of the sector in which I intend to make my career so the
further discussion has explained the methods which could be used to achieve the same.
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AN EVALUATION OF MY SKILLSET
Although my educational qualification related to the banking and finance field as I have
completed by Baccalaureate Diploma in Finance and Banking in 1996, because of my diverse
experience, I have developed multitudes of skills and competencies. I have a good
understanding with finance and accounting and I have experience in working as an Office
Secretary in Israel and Italy because of which I have experienced and learned how finance and
baking are performed in the different working environment according to the country. I am a
very open-minded individual with very good communication skills and I have capabilities to deal
with the practical situation with high efficiency. I don't breakdown in a complicated and
unfavourable tough situation and my warrior attitude towards challenges had made me stoic
and strong.
I keep my focus on every detail and complexities whenever I am engaged in some technical
work and this practice always keeps me a step ahead of my competitors. However, I do not
believe in competition when it comes to self-development since every person is unique in its
own way and there are definite skillsets are possessed by people which they may or may not
know about. The same development method cannot be applied to every person and also they
shouldn't be judged on the same criteria (Moon, 2013). Most of the skills that I have been
developed during my job experience at different locations and different field. I have worked in
health care in Israel, as a Translator, customer service, office secretary, waitress and cook,
housekeeper and as retail assistants in the UK. During these jobs I learned that to be a better
and efficient employee at any place, one must have a diverse range of skills and understanding.
One of my major skillsets is my language proficiencies in various languages such as Romanian as
my native language, Italian with fluent speaking proficiency, English, also can speak fluently and
conversational Hebrew. As mentioned above, I have worked as a translator in Romanian to
Italian, so I think my capability could give me an additional advantage in any job scenario.
Knowledge of these languages has substantially developed my communication skills and I hope
that this will contribute fairly to my career ambitions.
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IDENTIFICATION AND JUSTIFICATION OF MY CAREER AMBITIONS
Career ambitions are the dream a person sees to work in some reputed and high paying job
relevant to its skills and experiences (Zepeda, 2013). My career ambitions are also similar, to
work in a reputed organisation in the UK, begin from the bottom and reach the top of the
organisational hierarchy. Currently, I am working as retail Assistance at The Range in the UK and
it is a very reputed and large scale company with almost 150+ stores in the UK and Ireland.
During my job tenure until now, I have observed a very good and nurturing working
environment and there are many chances of growth here which I intend to grab. However to
grab that growth opportunity I will have to hone my current skills and develop some new in
order to get a better understanding with responsibilities which will have to be taken in the
scenario. The company has plans of foreign expansion and since I have good experience of
working in a different environment in different countries, I could be a potential candidate for a
management position at the new location. My career ambitions are aligned with the growth of
the company I am working in and it is a great thing considering my skills and abilities. Having
the knowledge of finance and banking and a basic business understanding with different
business operations, my ambitions to get a managerial position at my current organisation is
fairly justified and to make it more relevant in the advent of strong competition, I am obliged to
continuously keep working on my personal as well as professional skills.
Among my other career options, I can work as a full time or part time translator at some
embassy or international business and also since I have lots of ideas and relevant experience, I
can also start a theme based restaurant business in the UK which is nowadays hottest among
the new start-ups in the country.
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RELATING SKILLSET TO CAREER AMBITIONS
As mentioned above, my skills are quite diverse and pertaining to my different job experiences
at different locations I have developed understanding and capabilities of dealing with
multitudes of situations with competitive efficiency and a better approach. My proficiency in
different languages and my knowledge of different professional and social culture has enhanced
my communication skills which often comes handy while dealing with tense and complicated
situations. As retail assistance at The Range, I have learned many things about how retail
business works at large scale in the UK and what are the basic and necessary skills a person
need to acquire in order to get desired growth in the sector. I have often struggled with
learning and understanding the complexities of business but the knowledge of my
Baccalaureate Diploma has helped me in many ways. Basic knowledge of finance and
accounting is necessary for retail business which is required to maintain and manage financial
records and inventory management in the business (Lewis and Arnold, 2012). Since I am
meticulous in everything that I do and focused with a strong dedication to complete each of my
projects on time and with good quality, I consider myself a perfect fit in the organisational
context. I am a team worker and I respect team spirit in my every decision which may influence
others so I also possess good leadership skills which makes me a potential choice for company’s
management and executive level positions.
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CONCLUSION
In this reflection report, I have discussed all the personal and professional skill demands and
development needs which could provide me with support for my future endeavours and career
ambitions. I have successfully evaluated my skills and competencies where I found out that my
diverse set of experiences in different sectors and countries have given me a general
understanding of how businesses are conducted and how to deal with the complicated
situation. I learned that my communication skills have been enhanced by my linguistic
proficiencies in different languages and my understanding with different business and social-
cultural environment. I have identified which sector or career ambition I need to work towards
and what would be the skills I may need to develop further to achieve a high position in my
selected organisation.
With the above discussion, I can conclude that my current personal and professional skills are
relevant to what my career ambitions are but there is a dire need of upgradation in those skills
and to maintain the relevancy with the current technological and social advancement. I need to
work more on my professional skills than my personal skills since higher positions at reputed
organisations like The Range needs better than standards professional competencies and I must
be well-prepared when the right opportunity comes in front of me.
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REFERENCES
 Lewis, S. and Arnold, J., 2012. Organisational career management in the UK retail buying
and merchandising community. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management, 40(6), pp.451-470.
 Hildebrand, J., 2018. Bridging the gap: A training module in personal and professional
development. Routledge.
 Zepeda, S.J., 2013. Professional development: What works. Routledge.
 Moon, J.A., 2013. Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and
practice. Routledge.
 McGowan, P., Redeker, C.L., Cooper, S.Y. and Greenan, K., 2012. Female
entrepreneurship and the management of the business and domestic roles: Motivations,
expectations and realities. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 24(1-2), pp.53-
72.
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