Career Development Assignment: Personal Reflection On Skills & Career Planning

Question

Task:
Students will write a report on career development assignment, containing a personal reflection on the role play and career development planning, demonstrating an understanding of the skills and knowledge which contribute toward working effectively, their readiness for employment, an understanding of personal strengths and areas for further development, as well as establishing their employment goals and develop a personal action plan/development plan.

Answer

Recruitment and Selection

Reflection of Role-play as an Interviewer using Gibbs reflective model

Specific experiences have been gathered in the process of role-playing within this career development assignment. This section describes the personal reflection that has contributed to my learning and motivations towards the employment process. I have developed specific knowledge regarding individual strengths and areas of development being an interviewer. The Gibbs reflective model is used here to reflect my experience as an interviewer. 

Description

In this process, I have gathered essential knowledge regarding the role of the interviewer in an interview session. The way the interviewer plays an influential role in evaluating the qualities and skills of the candidates and then proceeding with the hiring process is quite challenging for me. This has made me learn communication skills and engage with different activities, which are pretty essential in this employment process. 

Feelings

I have felt that I need to be exceptionally organised while articulating an interview session. It is required to understand the responses of the interview clearly in order to proceed with further questions during the interview. As a result, that, I need to be highly judgmental and skilled in this process, where I need to focus on the qualities of the candidate before proceeding with the final selection during the hiring process. 

Evaluation

I have evaluated in this employment process that I can make a difference in this hiring technique by helping the interviewee to develop their answers for their future career development. I have also evaluated that I need to work as per the management of the business system, which will further help to bring changes in the process as per the experience of the interviews. This will further help me to get significant and sensitive control during the interview session. 

Analysis

Being an interviewer, I have also analysed some of the emotions, feelings and experiences which can be essentially developed through structured questionnaires in the interview process. As a result of that, I have also got the inspiration to acknowledge the expertise of different candidates that will bring positive development in my own experience to hire the right candidate for a particular job role.

Conclusion

This process has made an overall conclusion that I need to develop a good listening power during the interview session. This will allow me to effectively build myself as a researcher and behave in a friendly manner with different candidates. As a result of that, I have developed particular experience in improving my respectful and courtesy skills so that I can effectively deliver the purpose of the interview. 

Action Plan

I need to be potentially strong in my emotions in understanding the responses of the interview. This will further enable me to make the candidate know regarding the terms and conditions of the company and will also effectively analyse the reactions of the candidates to my questionnaires. I also need to learn the process of time management and improve my communication skills further for having a smooth conversion during the entire interview sessions. 

Reflection of Role-play as an Interviewee using Gibbs reflective model

Apart from being an interviewer, I have also developed some readiness and practical knowledge to respond as an interviewee in the process. This section reflects substantial knowledge regarding my development and improvement as an interview and will also help to establish my employment goals for the further career development process. The Gibbs reflective model is used here to reflect my experience as an interviewee. 

Description

My personal experience as an interviewee has made me develop my entrepreneurial goals and made me learn valuable assets. This process is quite essential for me to develop the necessary skills that will make me suitable for the job role I am applying for. In order to enhance my skills for the job responsibilities, I need to work on the responses that I provide during the interview session to the interviewer. 

Feelings

I have felt that learning the company's culture is quite vital in the process while proceeding in an interview. It will make us understand and think about the positive and negative attributes that the company is having through communication. Along with that, I will be able to judge the work environment and also learn the work culture where I am going to participate with other employees. 

Evaluation

In this process of the interview session, I have also evaluated the ways to maintain a sustainable business model. This is pretty essential for me to learn the techniques in order to keep my loyalty and trust towards the organisation. Apart from that, I have also embraced myself to develop significant traits for ensuring the future success of the organisation. That evaluation will be pretty beneficial for me as well as for the organisations I will be working for while providing critical; success to our goals. 

Analysis

As per my analysis, I need to emphasise my responsibilities that will be beneficial in ensuring transparency during the interview session. I need to develop myself more about the details regarding the role of the job where I am applying for my career development. In this process, I also need to focus on the different facets of the business, which will be pretty essential in reflecting my personality to the interviewer. 

Conclusion

Being an interviewer, I can conclude that the biggest challenge in front of me is to effectively analyse the intention of the interviewer in the hiring process. This will ensure my success in the competitive landscape of the organisation as well as it will also help to optimise the strategy for providing adequate responses to the questionnaires. Furthermore, it will allow me to develop a unique platform to bring modifications to my response. 

Action Plan

I need to survive changing the demographics of the interview environment that will help me to be more realistic towards my responses and views for the organisations. As a result, that, I will need to have access to timely and reliable data regarding the job I am applying for. I need to develop my potential characteristics, which will allow me to set my milestones and create greater insights for the business to achieve their goals with better efficiency. 

Personal Development Plan

On the basis of the interview process, I have been able to gather various essential areas which I need to develop in terms of gaining proficiency in the professional career. These areas can be analysed and presented with the utilisation of a Personal Development Plan (PDP). Furthermore, the analysis of the skills that will be shown in the PDP will also be essential for me in this regard. The PDP will consist of a total of 10 basic skills that are required for ensuring the efficiency of my upcoming professional career. The skills that have been printed in this regard are Improving communication abilities, research skills regarding the job role, developing professionalism while attending the interview, ensuring punctuality while attending the interview, developing a good listening power, building high confidence to reflect my experience, showing interest towards the organisational attributes and asking genuine questions to gather better understanding. It will be essential for me to develop all these skills in a competent manner in terms of creating a professional career.

SKILLS	CURRENT ABILITY	TARGET ABILITY	DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY	TIME FRAME
1st priority	Improving communication abilities	My communication ability is not quite robust in the present period. I can confirm that I can develop in various essential areas in this field.	I need to improve my fluency of communication which will help me deliver effective responses immediately.	I am pretty confident that I will beable to develop my professional communication abilities through working in various large-scale organisations. In this process, I will be able to utilise multiple practical experiences and activities for my improvement.	Within a period of 1 year
2nd priority	Research skills regarding the job role	The research skills that I have presented are not very competent, and I need to improve them in a robust manner.	I need to extend my research skills to analyse the performance of the organisation in the market.	I will be able to improve my research skills through practical exposure only. I will also need to utilise the internet in a competent manner for this purpose.	Within a period of 1 month
3rd priority	Developing professionalism while attending the interview	I have a moderate level of professionalism and need to improve it as soon as possible.	I need to develop my professional attitude to deliver my essential knowledge to the organisation.	The improvement of professionalism in me will be made through the utilisation of the internet and various other learning sources.	Within a period of 1 year
4th priority	Ensuring punctuality while attending the interview	I am pretty punctual in terms of attending interviews, but sometimes I miss the time of arrival.	With the development of punctuality, I will be able to maintain my time management and discipline.	I will try to practice punctuality in the process of attending interviews as it is the only way to attain this skill.	Within a period 2 months
5th priority	Developing a good listening power	The development of the listening power of any particular individual will be pretty essential for professional development.	Developing an adequate listening power will allow me to improve my analysation power and decision-making skills.	The development of listening ability will be achieved through the talking and listening abilities that I will be able to develop in my professional life.	Within a period of 6 months
6th priority	Building high confidence to reflect my experience	I need to develop my confidence level in a dramatic fashion as I do not have a robust degree of certainty.	Ensuring reasonable confidence will allow me to express my abilities and experience more effectively during the interview session.	The development of my confidence will be procured through obtaining various online learning sessions,	Within a period of 1 year
7th priority	Showing interest towards the organisational attributes	I am interested in organisational attributes, but I am not aware of them in most cases.	Developing a sense of interest will develop more passion and interest in me to enhance my abilities for the job role and accomplish my duties as per the required criteria.	I will try to malaise the goals and visions of the organisation and the objectives that are present within the company to improve my abilities in this field.	Within a period of 2 months
8th priority	Asking genuine questions to gather a better understanding	I have a proficient skill of asking questions in terms of professional development.	It will slow me to demonstrate my interest in the organisation and provide me with the opportunity to discuss different essential elements regarding the job responsibilities.	I think that the process of practicing this activity through online sessions will improve this particular skill in me.	Within a period of 3 months

The above-presented personal development plan (PDP) framework presents and analyses all the essential elements that are absent from my professional skills presently and needs to be improved in the upcoming period. I will need to improve my personal abilities as per the action plan that has been presented in the table. Furthermore, I will need to improve the related skills within the pre-designed timeframe. In this process, I will be able to ensure that I become a competent individual in terms of being successful in my professional career.

Reference List

1 Adhabi, E. and Anozie, C.B., (2017). Literature review for the type of interview in qualitative research. International Journal of Education, 9(3), pp.86-97.

2 Brangier, E., Brangier, B., Marache-Francisco, C., Kopp, S. and Clausse, J., (2018, August). An Interview Process to Anticipate Future Needs. In Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (pp. 718-729). Springer, Cham.

3 Zhang, Y. and Chu, X., (2020, December). In Depth Interview on ICT Ability of University Teachers. In 2020 International Symposium on Advances in Informatics, Electronics and Education (ISAIEE) (pp. 62-64). IEEE.

4 Brick, T.A., (2020, September). Experiences of faculty mentorship of students in the job search and interview process. In American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference (pp. 273-274).

5 Dimopoulos, A., (2020). Applicant’s Self Confidence Influence in Employment Interview Process According to Recruiters Perceptions. An Exploratory Study in Greece. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 10(2), pp.82101-82101.

6 Wong, C. and Dennett, K., (2020). Personal finance and mind set: respecting individual differences: insights interview.

7 Fisher, E., (2019). General Parenting Philosophy and Parental News Mediation: Designing a Qualitative Interview Process (Doctoral dissertation).

8 Levinson, C.A., Vanzhula, I.A. and Christian, C., (2019). Development and validation of the eating disorder fear questionnaire and interview: Preliminary investigation of eating disorder fears. Eating behaviors, 35, p.101320.

9 Wang, X., Knearem, T. and Carroll, J.M., (2018, October). Ordinary Innovations of Older Adults: An Interview Study to Understand Interest Development in Aging. In Companion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 253-256).

10 Maftei, C., (2019). DEVELOPING INTERVIEW SKILLS IN ENGLISH: HOW TO HANDLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. In International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on the Dialogue between Sciences & Arts, Religion & Education (Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 279-284). Ideas Forum International Academic and Scientific Association.

11 Moore, J., Goffin, P., Wiese, J. and Meyer, M., (2021). An interview method for engagement with personal sensor data. arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.11441.

2 Napier, M.R., (2017). Behavior, truth and deception: Applying profiling and analysis to the interview process. CRC Press.

13 Patterson, C. and Macqueen, S., (2021). Drawing on two methodological approaches: A collaborative approach to interview interpretation. Issues in Educational Research, 31(1), pp.188-203.

14 Pieris, D., (2019). A critical perspective on the modified personal interview. Perspectives on medical education, 8(1), pp.33-37.

Adhabi, E. and Anozie, C.B., (2017). Literature review for the type of interview in qualitative research. International Journal of Education, 9(3), pp.86-97. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christina-Anozie-2/publication/320009898_Literature_Review_for_the_Type_of_Interview_in_Qualitative_Research/links/5bc
a1982458515f7d9cb8733/Literature-Review-for-the-Type-of-Interview-in-Qualitative-Research

Brangier, E., Brangier, B., Marache-Francisco, C., Kopp, S. and Clausse, J., (2018, August). An Interview Process to Anticipate Future Needs. In Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (pp. 718-729). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_76

Brick, T.A., (2020, September). Experiences of faculty mentorship of students in the job search and interview process. In American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference (pp. 273-274). https://bovine-ojs-tamu.tdl.org/bovine/index.php/AABP/article/view/8073/8021

Dimopoulos, A., (2020). Applicant’s Self Confidence Influence in Employment Interview Process According to Recruiters Perceptions. Career development assignment An Exploratory Study in Greece. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 10(2), pp.82101-82101. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5c94/e6a78a540333c7df626e300b7b59eb83fe82.pdf

Fisher, E., (2019). General Parenting Philosophy and Parental News Mediation: Designing a Qualitative Interview Process (Doctoral dissertation). http://scholarworks.unr.edu:8080/bitstream/handle/11714/6589/Fisher_Emily_HonorsThesis_2019.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Levinson, C.A., Vanzhula, I.A. and Christian, C., (2019). Development and validation of the eating disorder fear questionnaire and interview: Preliminary investigation of eating disorder fears. Eating behaviors, 35, p.101320. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147101531930042X

Maftei, C., (2019). DEVELOPING INTERVIEW SKILLS IN ENGLISH: HOW TO HANDLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. In International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on the Dialogue between Sciences & Arts, Religion & Education (Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 279-284). Ideas Forum International Academic and Scientific Association. http://ifiasa.org/gallery/4th.39-2019mcdsare-carmenoprit-maftei.pdf

Moore, J., Goffin, P., Wiese, J. and Meyer, M., (2021). An interview method for engagement with personal sensor data. arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.11441. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.11441

Napier, M.R., (2017). Behavior, truth and deception: Applying profiling and analysis to the interview process. CRC Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eEUrDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT9&dq=interview+process+personal+development&ots=96hkPz
RUe9&sig=LuxE4Aux0aezQdbn61oxNHA1-IQ

Patterson, C. and Macqueen, S., (2021). Drawing on two methodological approaches: A collaborative approach to interview interpretation. Issues in Educational Research, 31(1), pp.188-203. http://www.iier.org.au/iier31/patterson.pdf

Pieris, D., (2019). A critical perspective on the modified personal interview. Perspectives on medical education, 8(1), pp.33-37. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40037-018-0477-y

Wang, X., Knearem, T. and Carroll, J.M., (2018, October). Ordinary Innovations of Older Adults: An Interview Study to Understand Interest Development in Aging. In Companion of the 2018 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 253-256). https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3272973.3274068

Wong, C. and Dennett, K., (2020). Personal finance and mindset: respecting individual differences: insights interview. https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv:90115

Zhang, Y. and Chu, X., (2020, December). In Depth Interview on ICT Ability of University Teachers. In 2020 International Symposium on Advances in Informatics, Electronics and Education (ISAIEE) (pp. 62-64). IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9403272/

Appendices

Task 1: ROLEPLAY

Application form based on the job description and person specification for Student 1

The application form that has been presented in the following section is formulated on the basis of a particular job advertisement and person specification. The advertisement that was targeted by student 1 has been introduced in the next section. 

Figure 1: Job Description and Person Specification for Student 1

The development of the job application for Student 1 has been prepared on the basis of the performance and operations marketing manager requirement of Unilever PLC in Leatherhead. 

To,

The Human Resource Manager, 

Unilever PLC, United Kingdom

Dear Sir, 

As per your job advertisement published on Google Careers, I am willing to apply my candidature for the position of Performance & Operations Marketing Manager. As a student, I have always focused on developing skills and abilities that are associated with the management of operational activities of corporate organisations and hence have acquired the capability of managing these issues with a robust degree of proficiency. Furthermore, my abilities in terms of workforce management and communications management make me an ideal candidate for the company. 

I am well aware that Unilever is one of the most impressive market players in the FMCG market of the UK and even the global market as well. Despite not having any professional experience of working in similar multinational organisations, I am pretty confident that I will be able to fulfil the responsibilities that will be provided to me by the organisation. Apart from that, I have the ability to continuously improve my professional skills and skills through continuous learning. Apart from that, I am also quite proficient in terms of managing organisational politics and workforce productivity. 

As a result of that, I can assure you that I will be able to stand on the expectations of the organisation if I get selected as the Performance & Operations Marketing Manager of the organisation. Furthermore, the job location, Leatherhead, will also be quite proficient for me as my residential location is not very far from it. Moreover, I will also be able to relocate anywhere within the country as per its requirements. In this process, the organisation will be benefitted entirely from me in terms of productivity and business development. I am hopeful that I will hear from you soon. 

Thanks and Regards.

Application form based on a job description and person specification for Student 2

The application form that has been presented in the upcoming section is developed on the basis of a job advertisement and person specification that has been shown on the internet. The advertisement was relatable with the job expectations of student 2. As a result, the application was made by the, and it has been presented in the following section.

Figure 2: Job Description and Person Specification for Student 2

The above-presented figure highlights the analysis of the job requirements that have been sought by the employer. It is basically a job advertisement for the University of Greenwich as a Project Manager of Programme Management & Change. The location of the job will be the Campus of Greenwich, and the initial salary offering will be 40,927 to 50,296 Euros. Additionally, the university will also be paying an additional 4827 Euros to the candidate who will be selected for the post. The application form that the student has made to the organisation for being established in the company has been presented in the following section. 

To, 

The HRM Manager

University of Greenwich

Greater London, UK

Dear Sir,

I am procuring this application as per the job advertisement published from your reputed organisation with the requirement of a project manager. I think that I can be a potential candidate for this post for various obvious reasons. Firstly, my academic records and professional skills are pretty competent in terms of fulfilling the qualities that have been required by the organisation in a proficient manner. In this regard, kindly go through my academic records for the resume and personal information that I have provided with this application. 

As per my skills and abilities, I can assure you that I will be able to maintain and develop the IT projects that are being carried on at the University. I am well aware of the challenges and roadblocks that are faced within the process of managing these kinds of projects in the UK market. I am well aware that the IT projects that will be carried on in the University of Greenwich may be pretty complex in nature and may need various types of skills and abilities to maintain them from the perspective of a project manager. In this regard, I can confirm that I will be able to develop my existing knowledge and skill sets further in my professional career. 

Hence, I will request you to kindly consider my candidature for this post. I expect to hear from you soon. 

Thank You.

Role Play with Student 1 as Interviewer and Student 2 as Interviewee

The role-play of student 1 as the interviewer and student 2 as the interviewee will be presented in the following section. In this process, the interviewer will ask 5 essential questions that will be related to the operation of the recruitment.

Student 1 (Interviewer): What do you know about the organisation?

Student 2 (Interviewee): Unilever PLC is one of the most reputed and robust FMCG organisations in the world. I will be pretty fortunate If I get the chance to work for this organisation.

Student 1 (Interviewer): What is your expectation from the organisation?

Student 2 (Interviewee): I expect that the organisation will provide me with a competent learning platform and career development scopes in this process, 

Student 1 (Interviewer): Why should the company hire you?

Student 2 (Interviewee): I possess all the necessary skill stats required for this job and am pretty flexible. Hence, I can perform for the organisation as per the need of the situation. 

Student 1 (Interviewer): Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

Student 2 (Interviewee): I am pretty sure that the job as the Performance & Operations Marketing Manager will provide me with the platform for learning various new elements which will be proficient for me in the upcoming period. I hope to achieve a higher position within the company within the next 5 years.

Student 1 (Interviewer): What, according to you, is the critical area that you need to improve for this job?

Student 2 (Interviewee): I think that I need to improve my digital marketing abilities in terms of performing in a competent manner as a Performance & Operations Marketing Manager.

Role Play with Student 2 as Interviewer and Student 1 as Interviewee

The role-play of student 2 as the interviewer and student 1 as the interviewee will be presented in the following section. In this process, the interviewer will ask 5 essential questions that will be related to the operation of the recruitment.

Student 2 (Interviewer): Why did you apply for this job?

Student 1 (Interviewee): The application that I have made for obtaining this job has various essential reasons behind it. Getting a career as a project manager was always my ambition, and the organisation that is associated with this job, i.e. University of Greenwich, is also a reputed institution of the UK. 

Student 2 (Interviewer): Do you think that you possess the necessary abilities and skillsets required for this job?

Student 1 (Interviewee): I am pretty confident that I possess all the essential skills and abilities that are required for the management of the projects of the University. I am well aware of the issues that can occur within any task and have the ability to utilise the risk assessment process to mitigate them. Also, my skills in terms of managing the activities of any project in a proficient manner also become vital in this regard. 

Student 2 (Interviewer): What is your primary goal in your professional career?

Student 1 (Interviewee): The primary goals of any individual is quite essential for the development of a professional career. For me, the primary objectives of a professional career have always been the learning process that I receive through professional activities.

Student 2 (Interviewer): What can the organisation expect from you?

Student 1 (Interviewee): The organisation can expect an honest and courageous approach to working from me. I will try to deliver the project goals in a competent manner and will also be quite helpful in terms of managing the internal and external purposes of the project. I can also assure you that I will utilise my skills and abilities to the fullest extent for carrying out any research work. Furthermore, I will also ensure that the organisation becomes able to get profitable through the projects that are being developed under my supervision. 

Student 2 (Interviewer): What are your critical skills that will be useful in this regard?

Student 1 (Interviewee): I think that I have various essential abilities that will be suitable for this job. My strong technical knowledge will be helpful in managing the tasks of the projects that will be conducted within the University. Apart from that, my communication skills and man-management abilities will also be quite proficient for this particular project.