A Reflective Portfolio On Academic & Career Development

Question

Task:
The assessment comprises a 3000-word reflective portfolio of evidence focusing on three main aspects of career development and employability skills development, namely:

1. Undertake a critical review of the literature regarding ‘employability’. Consider the current market place for graduates and choose a career path informed by career theory” (up to 1.400 words, worth of 35%).
2. Informed by part 1, provide a theoretically informed detailed personal career plan based on a reflective self-assessment of your knowledge, skills and abilities mapped against your prospective employer requirements and job role (up to 1.600 words, worth of 40%).
3. Provide a supporting set of toolkit results summary (including key results and themes) and selection tools as evidence of module engagement and skill development.

Answer

Undertaking the critical review of employability
Employability refers to the specific qualities that help an individual in terms of securing their job position within a workplace and in simple words, employability is about being capable of keeping and getting fulfilling work. On the contrary, employability is also considered as the empowering qualities of an individual that helps the individual in terms of gaining employment within the professional area (Lawton-Smith & Waters, 2019). As per the UK market perspective, at the beginning of the 2019-2020 academic year, the top employers in the UK set their highest ever graduate recruitment target for the year 2020, and the business sector had the wish to hire more newly graduated candidates than the last year 2019. By the January end of 2020, as per the report provided by The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, the UK manufacturing sector hired approximately 24,760 graduates, and this number illustrates that the recruitment level of new graduates increased up to 3.3 percent compared to the year 2019. On the other hand, on a global scale, in terms of graduate hiring, the growth has been witnessed up to 9 percent, and most graduates are hired in the Built environment (approximately 79 percent), and within the retail, Tourism & FMCG the hiring rate is approximately 35 percent. On the contrary, as per the Chinese market perspective, the Graduate labor market has become extremely competitive in nature, and within the year between 2020-2021, the graduate job application rate was significantly increased up to 17 percent (Di Gregorio et al., 2019). As per the Chinese market perspective, the different technological giants’ starts their recruitment program in order to hire new graduate candidates and these organization also focuses on the various college campus in order to get the graduate candidates. For instance, the retail market on a global scale (including China) witnessed huge growth and as per the statement provided by the Team-Lease, the job growth within the retail sector showed a positive trend, approximately the rate was increased up to 25 percent in terms of hiring the fresher graduates within the e-commerce sector (Fearon et al., 2020). As per the Chinese retail industry, the renowned Chinese retail industries also launched a scheme and recruitment program in order to attract new graduate candidates, and the Chinese colleges also expected a massive jump of approximately 9 million fresh graduates in terms of hiring the candidates within the Chinese retail sector. On the other hand, apart from the huge recruitment for the new graduates in China, the social media and gaming companies also increase their recruitment capacity, and through their recruitment program, these tech-based organizations specifically focus on hiring fresher graduates who could offer the new idea to their existing operational activities. In the year 2021, approximately 5000 new graduates are hired within the Chinese retail sectors and the retail sector within China witnessed a huger growth of up to 42 percent than the last year (Gill, 2020). During the pandemic period, the retail industry on a global scale witnessed positive growth and as per the year 2020, the sales rate was also increased up to 6.7 percent on a global scale. Due to the massive growth in sales, the global retail industry also focuses on increasing its overall capacity of manpower. Within the UK, most of the fresh graduates are being hired for the position of marketing, managing an online business, customer handling, allocation and merchandising, and within the logistics and supply chain management activities. Multinational retailers like Walmart also re-established their recruitment strategy and also focus on hiring fresher graduates who can develop new idea and has the technical expertise (Alharahsheh & Pius, 2021). Another perspective that could be considered is that the salary packages that the retail industry provides to the new graduates are quite satisfactory and in order to attract the new graduates, the retail companies also provide a flexible working approach and also focus on the graduate’s innovation capacities. At the same time, in order to attract fresher graduates, the retail industry also focuses on offering career development opportunities, also provides lifestyle packages along with a satisfactory pay structure (Fraser et al.,2019).

As per the survey conducted by the Gradireland Graduate salary and Graduate recruitment trend policy, the rail sector provides a healthy career opportunity for the new graduate candidates within the sales and retail sector, the rate of hiring the new graduate candidates has been increased up to 17 percent than the last year (Cantatore et al., 2021). As per the recruitment managers within the retail industry, the relevant academic degree and moderate communication capabilities are the two most important areas that they considered in terms of hiring fresh graduate students within the retail sector. Even within the pandemic period, the online retail shopping experience also created massive career opportunities for the graduate students and as per the data provided by the Team-Lease, hiring the graduate candidates in the first quarter of 2021 stood at the high 37 percent, and in the second quarter of 2021, the hiring rate was increased up to 48 percent and the entire job growth has been dominated by the fresher and graduate candidates. As per the Chinese marketing industry, the positive trends in terms of hiring fresh candidates are witnessed in the e-commerce sectors and renowned e-commerce organizations in China launched some recruitment programs for the graduate candidates and as per the year 2021, the e-commerce giants hired approximately 10,000 graduate candidates in their organization and also has a plan to hire more 3,000 graduate candidates in the year 2022. In addition to that, within the Chinese market, the different retail organizations in China launched the “Largest recruitment program ever” where the entire retail sector prioritized the job positions specifically for the graduate candidates.

Holland’s career theory
The basic premises of Holland’s career theory illustrate the fact that in terms of choosing the career, individuals prefer jobs where they can be around other individuals who are like them. At the same time, this specific theory also illustrates that individuals prefer the job and search for a job environment where the candidates can fully exercise their individual abilities and skills. In addition to that, employees also prefer the job where the candidates are treated with respect while taking on enjoyable problems and roles (Adeyinka-Ojo, 2018, p.50). Within the theoretical perspectives of Holland, there are six vocational personality types that can be explained such as realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and most importantly conventional. Within the realistic spectrum, there are some job areas that have realistic components where the workers have to operate outdoor most of the time with the usage of various tools, equipment, and machines. In the investigate spectrum, the workers need to have a high level of analytical power and needs to develop personalized ideas in order to solve an issue. In terms of artistic value, the worker needs to express themselves through performing, presenting, or designing different operational things (Farhadi Rad et al., 2020). Within the social jobs, the workers prefer to work with the group in terms of communicating orally and in writing. Enterprising is another aspect in Holland’s career theory that prefers to meet people and also believes in developing innovative ideas. In terms of conventional, workers prefer to work indoors and follow the workplace rules and majorly prefer to work with numbers or data.

Underpinning the career path
From the above analysis of Holland’s Career theory, I realize that joining the retail sector as a customer management associate might offer a high level of opportunities in terms of upgrading my skills as a professional. And it also helps me in terms of understanding the different perspectives of customer communication. As per the Holland career theory, joining as a customer management associate might help me in terms of getting the actual scenario of the retail market and I also understand the real scenario of the retail market (reality). In terms of investigating spectrum, this position could also help me to analyse the current retail market, and also help me in terms of increasing my analytical power while connecting to the vast range of customers (Suarta et al., 2018). In terms of the artistic aspect, while communicating with the broader audience, I can also develop my artistic value through offering different presentations to the customers regarding the company’s offering. Within the enterprising spectrum, this specific position also helps me in t developing new ideas in terms of convincing the butters regarding a certain product (Osmani et al.,2019). In terms of conventional perspective, this specific job position also offers me the massive opportunity to follow the job rules and to understand the certain policies that a retail industry follows in its operational activities (Di et al., 2019).

Providing the career plan indicating knowledge, skills and abilities

Job title: Customer Management Associate

Name of company: Walmart

Country where the job is based: The job is situated in the UK

Purpose of the job: In order to start my career as a customer management associate, it might offer immense opportunities to increase my communication and analytical powers. At the same time, starting a career in customer management associated with the retail sector might also help me in terms of understanding the current market trends and also help me to get a detailed perspective of customer personal preferences regarding the buying intention. At the same time, it might also help me to develop the understanding levels regarding the market competitiveness and this specific job role can also offer different career-based opportunities along with better job promotional activities.

Job requirements: In terms of job requirements, the areas of responsibilities within the customer management associate are quite vast, and apart from handling the customer interactions, as a customer management associate, there are several aspects that need to be performed such as handling customer responses, understanding their need, helping the customers with a better product, convincing the customers for final purchase, greeting the customers, and resolving the customer queries and suggesting them better opinion within their buying activities.

Reflective self-assessment
In the above section, the job responsibilities of a customer management associate are explained along with its scope in terms of the career development program. Based on this specific job role, a high level of communication skills are one of the modest vital aspects that are required to become an effective customer management associate. Based on the SWOT analysis, I do have better communication abilities, and this specific aspect might help me in terms of connecting with the customers. In terms of qualities, I believe I do have a high level of creative skills, along with a high level of imaginative powers, and also has the capacity to solve problem quite efficiently.

In terms of abilities, I can work as a team player and has the capacity to operate with the other team members, in addition to that, I also have better-listening qualities and also have quality in terms of avoiding friction. In terms of abilities, I also have the capacity terms of work under the pressure and my competitive nature might help me in terms of sustaining within the retail sector for a longer period. At the same time, I always try to stay motivated under difficult circumstances and this specific aspect might help me to stay focused on my area of operation even within the difficult period. At the same time, I also have the ability to deliver high-quality works, and my eager to know capacity helps me to rectify my mistakes. In addition to that, I always keep the disciplined approach within the operational spectrum and prefer to work under the structured working styles where I could turn the ideas into reality. Within the retail industry, having a disciplined approach in terms of communicating with the customers is extremely crucial, and having this particular quality can help me to understand the different aspects of customer demand and my dedicated nature towards my unknown areas might help me to understand the different areas of retail marketing and could support me in terms of handling the customer grievances. At the same time, I also have a high level of qualities in terms of meeting new people and my enthusiastic nature might help me to connect with people on an emotional level. Through these qualities, I believe I can share a high level of connectivity with the customers and I can resolve the customer queries along with their grievances quite effortlessly. Apart from the above-discussed qualities and behavioural attributes, I believe that I can alter my behaviour as per the requirement of the situation and people, and within the operational environment, this specific aspect might help me in terms of tackling many issues that might arise due to uncertainty. At the same time, my disciplined nature towards work might help me to make better decisions within my performance area. In addition to that, I also have a better capacity in terms of balance and weighing all the possible options without emotion, and I always believe in taking the practical approach in terms of solving a problem. Along with implementing the practical approach in the problem-solving activities, I also have the qualities of judging the options in an accurate manner and this particular aspect might help me to choose the most suitable operational option within the communication activities with the customers.

Career plans for next five years
In terms of career plans, in the next five years, I could see myself in a better position especially I would prefer to see myself in a managerial position within the retail industry and I also prefer to see myself as the customer relationship manager within the retail sector where I can have a separate team, whom I can assist through giving better professional inputs. The customer relationship management position would help me to understand the different aspects of customer needs and I can also get the massive opportunity in terms of understanding the global market trends and trends that global customers follow in terms of their buying activities. In the above section, the detailed aspects of Holland’s career theory are explained with suitable supportive statements regarding the specific job role. Within Holland’s personality types there are five major components that define an individual within the workplace scenario. In terms of realism, I believe that my problem-solving qualities and having a practical approach in terms of decision-making abilities could increase my performance effectiveness as a customer relationship manager. At the same time, my team working capacity and adaptability to understand the workplace changes also helped me in terms of maintaining sustainability within difficult times.

As per the career development program, there are five different stages that help an individual to fulfil the long-term career objectives such as self-knowledge, Exploration, decision-making, and action. Within self-knowledge, I can realize that I am a team worker who prefers to share his knowledge levels with others and also focuses on rectifying the major mistakes. In terms of interest, I always prefer to explore the different opportunities and prefer to communicate and enjoy meeting new people. As I choose customer relationship manager as a major career option, this specific aspect could allow me to increase my communication boundaries with other customers. Through analysing my self-knowledge, I understand that I have better problem-solving skills, and staying motivated towards my job role also helps me in terms of solving the major problems that arise within the workforce. Based on my career planning, this specific quality could help me in terms of increasing my analytical power towards my job role. In terms of values, I am highly enthusiastic and quite aware of my own priorities and have the qualities to create an environment that can encourage other individuals. Similar to the career path that I have illustrated in the earlier section, these specific abilities might help me to create a strong community amongst the workers. At the same time, I can lead my own team in a professional manner with better judgment on team members’ individual strengths and weaknesses.

Within the career plan, the exploration might help me to understand my self-knowledge through my career assessment program, and based on this aspect, due to the good communication abilities and better decision-making capacities, I believe that specific position related to the customer relationship manager might be apt for me, as this specific job role could enhance my existing skills and I can get the major opportunity to brush up those skills for professional and personal development.

At the same time, the decision-making activities, I believe my decision-making capacity is good and I can make decisions that are apt and based on the situation, I can also alter or change my overall thinking capacities. In addition to that, I also have the capacity terms of choosing the accurate option amongst the different variables, and could actively participate within the decision-making activities without focusing on individual emotional state.

Within the career plan, the action department helps me to understand whether the career objectives that I established at the beginning of the career development program are met or not. In this aspect, I focus on the SMART goals, and through focusing on the SMART goal, I could say that my specific goal is to become an effective customer relationship manager within Walmart in the next five years. In order to measure my success, I could take help from other subordinates and could also understand my overall progress through better performance. In terms of time-bound, in order to become an effective customer relationship manager, I might require 5 years, and during this period I could gain the different nuances related to customer handling and could gather the knowledge that are required to mitigate customer grievances and issues.

Conclusions and areas for further development
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that my ultimate goal is to become an effective customer relationship management within a renowned retail organization and in the above section, the different aspects of my personal qualities and strengths are discussed with the help of self-development tools. However, there are some restrictions or restricted behaviour within myself that could reduce my overall opportunities as a customer relationship manager, such as I need to enhance my over-optimistic nature, and in terms of new ideas I often forgot to listen to other people, and this specific area demands an up-gradation. In order to my over-enthusiastic nature, there are some areas where I might offend other people and I may be visualized as an impatient person to my subordinates and this particular area also deserves further improvement.

Reference list
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Alharahsheh, H. H., & Pius, A. (2021). Exploration of Employability Skills in Business Management Studies Within Higher Education Levels: Systematic Literature Review. Research Anthology on Business and Technical Education in the Information Era, 1147-1164.

Cantatore, F., McQuoid-Mason, D., Geldres-Weiss, V., & Guajardo-Puga, J. C. (2021). A comparative study into legal education and graduate employability skills in law students through pro bono law clinics. The Law Teacher, 55(3), 314-336.

Di Gregorio, A., Maggioni, I., Mauri, C., & Mazzucchelli, A. (2019). Employability skills for future marketing professionals. European management journal, 37(3), 251-258.

Di Gregorio, A., Maggioni, I., Mauri, C., & Mazzucchelli, A. (2019). Employability skills for future marketing professionals. European management journal, 37(3), 251-258.

Farhadi Rad, H., Parsa, A., & Rajabi, E. (2020). Employability of Iranian Engineering Graduates: Influential Factors, Consequences and Strategies. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 11(1), 110-130.

Fearon, C., van Vuuren, W., McLaughlin, H., & Nachmias, S. (2020). Graduate employability, skills development and the UK’s Universities Business Challenge competition: a self-determined learning perspective. Studies in Higher Education, 45(6), 1280-1297.

Fraser, C. J., Duignan, G., Stewart, D., & Rodrigues, A. (2019). Overt and covert: Strategies for building employability skills of vocational education graduates. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability.

Gill, R. J. (2020). Graduate employability skills through online internships and projects during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Australian example. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 11(1), 146-158.

Lawton-Smith, H., & Waters, R. (2019). Universities, graduates and local labour markets.

Osmani, M., Weerakkody, V., Hindi, N., & Eldabi, T. (2019). Graduates employability skills: A review of literature against market demand. Journal of Education for Business, 94(7), 423-432.

Suarta, I. M., Suwintana, I. K., Sudhana, I. F. P., & Hariyanti, N. K. D. (2018). Employability skills for entry level workers: a content analysis of job advertisements in Indonesia. Journal of Technical Education and Training, 10(2).