MGTS7621 Reflective Writing: Career Transition Course - UQ Australia

This reflective writing assignment, submitted by a student at The University of Queensland, Australia, analyzes the results of five career self-assessment questionnaires completed as part of the Master's Degree in Advertising's "Career Transition" course. The assignment explores the student's personality, work values, personal attributes, interests, and personality traits as revealed through the assessments. The student reflects on the insights gained regarding their strengths, weaknesses, and potential career paths, including digital marketing, content writing, and SEO. The report follows the Career Writing approach, incorporating sensing, sifting, focusing, and understanding to connect the assessment results with the student's career goals and plans, aiming for a cohesive narrative of self-discovery and professional development. The student also references relevant literature to support the reflection, demonstrating an understanding of career management principles.

Running head: REFLECTIVE WRITING
REFLECTIVE WRITING
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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I am a student of The University of Queensland, Australia pursuing Master’s Degree in
Advertising. I have chosen “Career Transition” course as my major in the Master’s Degree
Program for specialization in the genre of professional development skills. The respective course
that I have chosen has all the factors of career progression and it is assumed that it would help
me chose the best suitable career for me in the near future, encourage me and assist me in
developing my professional skills, knowledge, network as well as “soft skills” for the betterment
of my productivity in my prospective workplace.
In the last week’s sessions, we were given a series of questionnaire to be filled in and
solved by our course tutor. The questionnaire was mainly a personality test taken up by the
Career Transition Course Faculty to provide the students with a clear insight of their personality,
personality development issues, drawbacks and recommendations for their personality
enhancement (Drucker, 2005). However, the questionnaires that are given to me about my career
opportunities which tends to assess my personality, temperament and disposition always makes
me feel uneasy and anxious. Since I am new in this arena and I feel that I am a person, who is a
novice and needs to be well groomed in the arena of personality and temperament, therefore, I
feel that though the personality tests make me feel nervous, yet the tests are equally significant
and important to me as it would help me understand the areas where I am weak and strong
(Greenhaus, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2018). I have previously taken up different personality tests
and experiments that were a part of my school and college curriculum but the mentioned tests
that I have taken have helped me immensely in improving my all over development, beginning
from personality enhancement to understanding my skills and developing knowledge and core
competency in the required areas. The personality test questionnaires which we had to solve in
the last week’s session was named “Competencies for Contemporary Career Development Self

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Assessment” which consisted of a five questionnaire sheets that assessed the personality of the
attendees for increasing and enhancing their employability. Career competency is a genre where
the prospective employees or candidates are provided with special training sessions and skill
enhancement classes to increase their productivity in the fierce global competitive market
(Greenhaus, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2018).
Career control competencies
Sensing: The career competency questions that were given to me in the first set mainly focused
on motivation, quality, networking, self- profiling, work exploration and career control
competencies. The attendees are given three choices to select, (true, somewhat true and not true)
according to their preferences.
Focusing: With the help of this questionnaire, I have come to realize that, I have dexterity in
motivational, quality competencies, self profiling, career control and work exploration
competencies; however, I have been lacking networking abilities. I have deficiency in
amalgamating with people associated with me at work and I have been suffering from
communication issues with my peers. Moreover, I have career control issues.
Understanding : I have always been confused regarding what to choose among a plethora of
career opportunities; however I realized that if I focus on my core competency, I would be able
to achieve my career goals and job satisfaction. The first questionnaire helped me realize my
faults and drawbacks in soft skills that might affect my employability.
Work values

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Sensing: The second set of questionnaire mainly focused on identifying our work values, such as
management skills, altruism, intellectual stimulation, supervisory relations and achievement
(Goleman, 2004). Work values can be roughly defined as desirable aspects of work and working
conditions (Abma et al., 2016).
Understanding: Through the questionnaire, I have come to realize that the core value of my
work is economic returns and aspects such as internal comfort and achievement are the main
areas of my ideal work values.
Personality attributes
Sensing: The third set of questionnaire constituted a set of questions that were exclusively
designed for assessing and evaluating personal attributes. Factors such as loyalty, commitment,
honesty, integrity and adaptability have been traced throughout the test.
Focusing: I have realized that the main competencies that I have in the areas of personality
attributes are common sense, sense of humor and confidence and I can well demonstrate that.
Being a student of advertisement as my major in the Master’s Degree Program, I am required to
possess a good hold in the areas like confidence and sense of humor as well as common sense to
deal with the prospective customers and dealers in my further professional life.
Understanding: I believe that I have dexterity in these areas and I can well manage and
manipulate clients with my excellent communication skills. However, in certain areas like
attitude regarding balance of work and home life, ability to deal with pressure, mobility and
adaptability are the areas which I can demonstrate but also need to develop so that I can develop
myself completely not only as a desirable and a competent employee, but also as an individual
with integrity and all round development.

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Interest Profiler
Sensing:The fourth set of questionnaire was an assessment of Interest Profiler. In the interest
profiler, I have scored maximum marks in the areas of Investigative, Artistic and Social skills.
There as been other different skills depicted in the list apart from the ones I have achieved, such
as realistic, enterprising and conventional skills. I have scored least in conventional skills and
realistic skills. However, I have managed to score an average marks in enterprising skills.
According to the scores that I have received, it has been evident that since I am an imaginative
person, I am fit for advertisement sectors that include creativity and artistic skills and fervor.
Understanding:The main core competency of my profession is creativity and artistic approach.
The creativity in me has also helped me to achieve a little dexterity in enterprising skills as well
because I am in a constant pursuit of unconventionality. Such skills and talents, if enhanced with
a perfect platform, might prove to be productive and beneficial to me as well as to the
organization where I would be working in the near future.
Big 5 personality
Sensing: The fifth and the last questionnaire which we had been given showed us the results of
our tests. By going through the result, I have understood that I have been marked as a relatively
open minded thinker, with a prolific imaginative mind, social, extrovert and enjoy company of
others, however, the drawbacks being negative emotionality, a tendency to criticize others and a
little disorganized.
Focusing: I have realized that since I am a creative, imaginative and an artistic person, I am fit
for the jobs which do not follow conventional and societal norms and are ready to meet different

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challenges. In future, I might face problems regarding adjusting with the stereotyped 8 hours of
clerical or other monotonous jobs.
Understanding: Therefore, I must pursue jobs and professions that carry new dimensions and
aspects every other day, providing me with prolific artistic fervor that might not only lead to
increase of my productivity, but also self realization and self actualization which is highly
needed for artists and thinkers. Professions that are most suitable for me, according to my
assumption, are digital marketing where premium contents are needed, where I can show my
writing skills and talent, content and website designers and graphic designers, developers who
are in a constant pursuit of inventive fervor (Osborn, 2013).
Conclusion: I have realized that tasks that would require intellectual and conceptual
challenges are best suited jobs for me. Therefore, I have decided to be a content writer and /or an
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) expert where I can use my creativity and intellectual abilities
to create attractive websites and blogs for companies or businesses and with the help of attractive
graphics and creative writings, I would be able to deliver my advertising skills in a much better
and effective way to the organization.
References:
Abma, F. I., Brouwer, S., de Vries, H. J., Arends, I., Robroek, S. J., Cuijpers, M. P., ... & van der
Klink, J. J. (2016). The capability set for work: development and validation of a new
questionnaire. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 34-42.
Osborn, A. (2013). Your creative power. Read Books Ltd.

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Drucker, P. F. (2005). Managing oneself. Harvard Business Review, 83(1): 100-109.
Greenhaus, J. H., Callanan, G. A., &Godshalk, V. M. (2018). Career management for life,
5th ed., London: Routledge
Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader?. Harvard Business Review, 82(1): 82-91.
Greenhaus, J. H., Callanan, G. A., &Godshalk, V. M. (2018). Career management for life, 5th
ed., London: Routledge. Chapter 5.