Personal Insight Report: Service Industry Trends and Skill Development

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the service industry, focusing on its current trends and future developments. The author identifies the service industry as a key area of interest, emphasizing its significant contribution to economic activity and employment. The report delves into the changing nature of jobs within the sector, highlighting the impact of technological advancements, such as cloud platforms, automation, and the rise of virtual firms. It forecasts the increasing prevalence of Just-In-Time labor and the adoption of digital technologies, including social media for customer engagement. The report also examines the required skills for success, differentiating between soft skills like communication and teamwork, and technical skills such as database management and customer service. It includes a self-assessment, SWOT analysis, and identifies areas for skill development to meet industry standards, such as improving the ability to stay calm in uncertain situations. The research methodology involves secondary research from peer-reviewed journals, recent newspapers and books to find information about service industry.

Running head: PERSONAL INSIGHT
Personal Insight-Service Industry
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Word count: 2154

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Executive Summary
This report investigates the trend of the service industry. It has been found in the report that
the service sector will be dominated by cloud and virtual platforms and back-end-operations
will be automated. The findings of the report show the service industry will experience a rise of
Just-In-Time labor. The purpose of the report is to analyze the development of soft-skills and
technical skills. The purpose of the report is to analyze the GAP of skills to meet Industry
standards and to do a SWOT analysis. It has been found in the report that I have good problem
solving skills and I am a good decision maker while I need to improve my ability to stay calm in
uncertain situation. The research methodology is secondary research from peer-reviewed
journals, recent newspapers and books to find information about service industry.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Discussion....................................................................................................................................................3
1. An Industry of Interest to me..............................................................................................................3
a) The jobs that are expected to change or disappear............................................................................3
b) Why is the change happening?............................................................................................................4
c) The changes that I forecast for the next 5 years..................................................................................5
2. The job cluster.........................................................................................................................................5
a) Reason for Choice of the job cluster....................................................................................................5
b) The skills and knowledge that are expected........................................................................................6
i. Personal soft skills.................................................................................................................................6
ii) Technical knowledge and skills............................................................................................................6
3. Review of current capabilities, discipline knowledge and areas where I would develop skills and
knowledge...................................................................................................................................................8
a) Review of experiences that showcase my abilities..............................................................................9
b) Review of Academic Performance till Date.........................................................................................9
c) Key findings that demonstrate my strengths and areas for improvement..........................................9
4. GAP Analysis and SWOT........................................................................................................................11
a) Skills and Knowledge that are required to be developed to meet Industry Standards......................11
b) SWOT ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
Reference Lists..........................................................................................................................................13
Appendices................................................................................................................................................14
Appendix 1-Learning Styles...................................................................................................................15
Appendix 2- Personal Resilience............................................................................................................16
Appendix 3- Temperament....................................................................................................................17

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4PERSONAL INSIGHT
Introduction
In the modern competitive business era, it is of paramount importance to identify an
industry where I can work in future. The knowledge about the industry trends can help me to
prepare myself well in advance to find an employment in the industry of my choice. It is also
important to hone my personal skills so that they match the industry standards. The industry
that has always fascinated me is the service industry. The employment opportunities in the
service sector are huge. However, the service industry is influenced by technological
advancement like any other industry. So, it is important to contemplate on the changes that will
affect the service industry in future.
Discussion
1. An Industry of Interest to me
The industry that has interested me is the service industry. I would prefer to work in the
service sector because this sector has contributed significantly to the economic activity of the
world including Australia. The service industry is accountable for contributing three-quarters to
the national outputs of Australia four in every five jobs of Australia can be found in the service
sector(pc.gov.au 2017).The service industry also provides important inputs to the goods and
services produced by the Australian economy(abc.net.au 2017).
a) The jobs that are expected to change or disappear
The service sector contributes half of Australia’s GDP and employs more than fifty
percentage of Australian workforce. The main challenge that the service sector has faced is in
the delivery process of service because of the intangible characteristics of service delivery

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process. The human resource that is in direct contact with customers has always been of prime
importance to service sector. However, the service industry will be impacted by machines and
service robots (abc.net.au 2017). These robots will dominate most of the service sectors like
defense and medical services. The nature of job is expected to change in the service sector, for
instance, service organizations will upgrade their IT system and will rely on subcontracting and
relocation. The service sector will witness rise of virtual firms and this sector will embrace the
gig economy, resulting in few workers who will be under permanent payroll of the company
(Abraham et al. 2016).Most of the jobs in service sector will be contractual jobs resulting in
more number of Just-In-Time jobs to meet immediate demands of service industry. Also,
service industry will implement digital technology like adoption of social media for better
service delivery.
b) Why is the change happening?
The change is happening because of technological advancement, change of preference
of customers, globalization and rise of virtual firms in service industry. For instance, the world
will witness a tremendous growth of internet users and customers will prefer to communicate
in social media. Thus the service industry must make use of social media platform to interact
with clients. Also, the virtual firms put the infrastructure in cloud to reduce cost and hire
contractual employees because the modern trend is project-based work in service sector where
the demand from clients is immediate. The back-end processes in service industry like legal
services will be automated to reduce paper-based processes. The rise of service robots will
make the service delivery process more efficient (Pezzotta et al. 2016).

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c) The changes that I forecast for the next 5 years
i) Adoption of social media- The service industry will engage clients in the digital
platform and will make use of modern technology like digital marketing to create brand
awareness. The digital platforms will be used to monitor competitors (abc.net.au 2017).
ii) The globalization process will lead to outsourcing of jobs and there will be a
tremendous rise of virtual service firms who will have an infrastructure in cloud. The service
industry will embrace the gig-economy with very few workers under permanent payroll to
reduce cost and support project based-work. The Just-In-Time workers will be on rise in the
service industry (Abraham et al. 2016).
iii) The service industry will adopt value-based revenue model and services will no
longer be offered as bundled services, instead service components will be modularized and sold
separately.
iv) The service industry will be dominated by an automation of back-end service
processes to reduce paper-based work. Also, there will be emergence of service robots in this
industry (abc.net.au 2017).

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2. The job cluster
a) Reason for Choice of the job cluster
The job cluster of my choice is job in any sector of service industry. I have chosen the
service industry because this industry contributes significantly to the economy of a country and
the opportunity for jobs in the service sector is relatively high compared to any other industry
(abc.net.au 2017).
b) The skills and knowledge that are expected
i. Personal soft skills
Communication- Oral as well as written communication is very important for working in
service industry. The human resource employed in the service sector is in the proximity of
customers and therefore it is important to communicate effectively while working in the service
industry with clients and customers (Matteson, Anderson and Boyden 2016).
Teamwork- The role of teamwork is inevitable in the service industry. The service
industry has witnessed a growth of cross-cultural team as well as virtual team. It is very
important to develop the skill of teamwork which includes soft skills like respect for team
members, ability to build cohesion within the team, respect for diversity, ability to
communicate effectively with team members and ability to accomplish team goals (Matteson,
Anderson and Boyden 2016).

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Leadership qualities and confidence- The leadership quality and confidence are soft skills
that will be useful for me to work in service sector (Matteson, Anderson and Boyden 2016).
Networking skills- It is important for me to build contacts and network with clients and
customers to be successful in the service industry (Chmiel et al. 2017).
Time Management- The ability to accomplish personal and team targets and complete
projects on time is a soft skill that will be useful for service industry (Robles 2012).
ii) Technical knowledge and skills
Database Management- Database management is a technical skill that will be useful for
the service industry.
Customer Service- The service industry aims to create value for customers. Enterprise
Resource Planning Software and Customer Relationship Management Software are useful
software for customer service and I would like to learn this software.
Bookkeeping- I will like to develop the technical skill of bookkeeping and accounting.
Event Management- Many events are organized in the service sector. I will like to
develop public relations and public communication skills to be successful in the service sector.
Social Media Campaign Analysis is a technical skill that I would like to develop because
this skill will help to analyze the success of a social media campaign. I have already found in

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trends of service sector that it is a trend to interact with customers in social media ( Chmiel,
Fraccaroli and Sverke 2017).

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3. Review of current capabilities, discipline knowledge and areas where I would develop skills
and knowledge
Learning Style
I stay
motivated
while
learning.
I like to create
new things
I am outgoing
and full of
energy
Resilience
I have good skills to solve
problems.
I am quite confident on
most of the occasions
I can network well with
people
I can engage in effective
communication with
people
Temperament
I like to link wide
range of concepts
I make logical and
critical decisions
I am flexible and
like to interact
with external
environment
Figure 1- Analysis of habits and
abilities

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a) Review of experiences that showcase my abilities
Volunteer activities- I have volunteered in activities while raising awareness about
homelessness among community members in Australia. I have tried to provide support to
disable Community members in my home country while working with a charitable organization
in school.
School Leadership roles-I have participated in leadership roles in group discussions in
school. I have also shown leadership roles while organizing various events in school like
celebration of cultural festivals in schools. Development of leadership roles is of paramount
importance to succeed in service industry.
Sporting Activities- I have actively participated in annual sports events in school and
played team sports like football and cricket that have taught me skill of team-work.
b) Review of Academic Performance till Date
I have performed quite well in academics till date. I have enjoyed management studies. I
have problem-solving skills and I enjoyed numerical subjects in school. I have liked
management units related to service industries and have always been curious about modern
technology that the business world is embracing. I have enjoyed business studies that are
related to modern technology.
c) Key findings that demonstrate my strengths and areas for improvement
I have found from the results of my learning style that I am highly motivated while
learning. This is clearly evident from my test score which is 92. I like to learn through new ideas,