Career Futures: Employability Skills

Career Futures: Employability Skills

Introduction

At present, I am pursuing an MBA from the University of Northampton, Northampton. I have completed my schooling from Matriculation from ST Philominas Public School, Elanji, in Kerala, India, with 84%. I have done my higher secondary studies from Tharbiyath Trust Higher Secondary School, Kerala, India. I scored 62% in my higher secondary exam. I have studied BBA and received my bachelor’s degree from IIahia College, Muvattupuzha, Kerala, India. I have selected marketing as my course specialization and have done numerous project works and internships on the same. During my internship from 20^th to 30^th December in 2019, I have worked in HDFC Bank as a credit card sales executive. I am good at working in teams, leading, building, guiding, and corporation within an organization. I am a team player; I have unique and creative thinking; I am good at adjusting in any situation. I know how to tackle pressure. I am the first learner. I am in search of a suitable and secure job role according to my qualification. In the assignment, I have discussed the type of job role I am seeking, the particular sector where I want to work, and the reason behind it.

Section 1

My two placement objectives and the roles I am seeking are–

• As a management student, I want to identify the responsibilities, tasks, and duties of an operational manager on the floor. They want to understand the way he performs his job and learn his techniques by shadowing the manager. I want to ask him questions on what responsibilities does he perform and how he manages to overcome the difficulties in his work, which includes the sales procedures (Doobay-Persaud et al. 2017).

I am seeking this role because I believe that operation is one of the most important aspects of running a business. So I want to look after this department and give my 100% to make sure that the company works to its best potentials. An operational manager has to keep their eyes on various areas within the company as it involves lots of responsibilities, I find it challenging so want to take up this role and prove myself (Barnhill et al.  2018).

• And secondly, I want to explore and learn the various skills and techniques related to management. I want to achieve that by undergoing through lots of training and shadowing the manager and performing the techniques practically on my own while learning under the supervision of other manager (Hu et al. 2017).

I want to learn the various skills and techniques of managerial learning for becoming a manager, as then it would be easy for me to deal with new problems more specifically deal with administrative problems. I know management is not a simple task, and hence it requires knowledge, skills, techniques, and experience to be able to justify the position of a manager perfectly. This knowledge, skills, or techniques can be mastered by learning and practicing in my journey to be a successful leader (Pérez-López et al. 2019).

I want to work in the retail sector as a Marketing Operation Manager. Retail sectors have always drawn my interest in it. Retail companies are at striking expansion rates where new branches are launching every day all across the world. It is a perfect way of interacting directly with the customers as well (Dash and Bakshi, 2017). I find it challenging how the increment in sales is done using new techniques; I believe it would give me a chance of showcasing my creative side in increasing the profitability of my company. These organizational sectors which deal with retail research the current trends keep themselves updated and at par with the demand of the customers, as the customer demand shifts from one thing to the other the whole focus of the retail shop also changes. In recent times the customers are extremely unpredictable and dynamic; all these aspects of the retail sector interest me and motivates me to work in such sectors. I also believe that with the growth of the industry and developed a market campaign, it would provide great advantages and opportunities for the newcomers (Burk and Wiese, 2018).

As a retail management operational manager, I would like to work in Great Britain as it has the reputation of heritage and prosperity. I believe in integrity and values in what I do, which I believe matches the natives of the area, thus improving and developing our lives together (Lumpkin et al.  2017).

Section 2

If I have to evaluate my engagement critically in the ranges of personal and professional life is my aspiration to excel in my job and reach my career goals. In recent times in the global platform, talent is available in abundance numbers. Employees are required to develop such strong skills that would enable them to perform better and contribute more to their organization. I engaged in skills that have helped me in my personal and professional activities (Stone et al.  2017).

I have attended numerous workshops, conferences, and an internship. This has helped me to learn about the latest development in my field of marketing and thus helped me in keeping my knowledge and skills up to date. I believe it is also an excellent way of meeting new people and exchange ideas and develop certain social skills. Previously I was not sure about what type of workshops or internship I should opt for, but talking to my teacher helped me to choose the specific area of my knowledge and skill which required improvements. So I selected the personal and professional activities in the forms of conferences and workshops that worth my money, time, and effort. I have attended each of such events and brushed my skills, hence looking forward to performing my duties more efficiently to where ever I would be working as a retail operational manager in future days (Cantos et al.  2019).

I have also done more on-field volunteer work, although it required a considerable amount of committed time from my life. It has proven to be an excellent way of mastering my skills that were not possible to practice only on a theoretical basis. This is especially beneficial if someone is starting their career or wants to change the previous career for a new one or just to gain some practical experience knowledge (Lee et al.  2019).

Apart from the opportunity that it provides in developing the new skill sets, another benefit of volunteering is it provides the network opportunities options during the work session. The success of an individual is not only about what is the knowledge the person has but also who the people he has acquaintance with are, and hence volunteering gives the golden chance of meeting such people by widening the professional network (Ömür et al.  2017).

Moreover, I have also joined in an online community to join an online course during my college years. Taking help from technology has helped me in creating an easier network for myself in building an online community. This has helped me immensely in my professional development. For instance, when I joined a specific group in LinkedIn by signing up a registration form,  it allowed me to exchange of ideas and get knowledge from what others share, this has helped me in keeping myself updated. The discussions that we used to do on different career paths have helped me in choosing the right way for myself. Twitter has also helped me to follow some renowned entrepreneurs of current dates and listening to their speeches and ideologies. I also support the relevant hashtags to know what’s trending in the present scenario (Chamandy and Gaudreau, 2018).

While it was difficult for me to adjust time with my studies of the university and to follow the formal learning programs, though online courses proved to be way more flexible in comparison to other means of professional classes (Greco and Kraimer, 2020), the Couse was relevant to the career objectives I was looking for, thus helped me in brushing my existing skills and thus helped me to get prepared for the placement more effectively. I may also opt for the course section again to gain knowledge of something that is entirely new to me. I appreciate its usefulness honestly (Sonnenschein, 2019).

The workshops, internships that I have attended helped me to understand things on practical grounds when I did the work as a job and as employees. It gave me a clear idea of choosing my career path and my area of interest. The conferences which I have attended have provided me with enormous knowledge. I learned something new every day regarding skill and career from many experienced experts. When I did volunteering in the fieldwork, it has provided me enough opportunities to practice my skills of leadership to master it. From the online community, I practiced social interaction and discussions with other fellow mates on the same career interest (Lee and Lee,  2018).

Section 3

The internship and the project work that I have done during and after my graduation, along with the management studies, have altered my way of thinking and decision making processes completely. The internship that I have experienced in the banking sector has given me the idea of how a job is like and how an employee should work according to the decorum of the company. I have learned a lot of educational things after coming into the work field, which was not known to me before in the classroom classes. The internship and project work that I have done helped me to find the area of my interest, thus maintained a clear decision-making process of what I want to pursue as my career job. While doing a project work course with my classmates, I developed the interest of working in the retail sector as an operational manager. Thus the project courses which I have taken part in have developed an interest in me towards a particular field (Jiang, 2019). The internship experience and the course work-study has helped in a positive way to enhance my thinking process to enter a professional life. A study that was done on the influence of internship over the students in a longitudinal approach and qualitative analysis is done. Where it was clear that internship exerts certain kinds of influence on the students regarding their career choices, but that can be in either way that is either positive or negative. The influence may vary from student to student; some students may utilize the internship to its best while other students may be unable to do so. There is also a certain category of students who, after opting for a certain course or internship, gets confused about what career they want to choose. I was able to grab the learning opportunities that were given to me during my internship course work of studying at Northampton University (Chamandy and Gaudreau, 2019).

As I have mentioned, my decision-making process has changed drastically after opted for the course work, and in order to get into a reputed company as good placement employees, I have brushed up certain skills of mine that were necessary to work in the management field. Moreover, I have learned leadership techniques by studying a lot of books. I was able to brush up on these new attributes and skills through regular practices and dedicated hard work. These skills are very important for working in any management sector. Over these years, I have grown the capabilities of taking up duties and performing them exactly within the time properly. I have learned to tackle critical problematic situations gracefully, along with learning prompt problem-solving abilities. But still, I believe the real management skills would be learned while performing the job in the main field though I have prepared myself every way I could to join in a good company as placement. Management skills are better learned and developed with the experience of work and as a practical experience as a manager.  These skills help a manager to get along with their co-workers and give the idea of how to deal with the subordinates making it an easy flow of activities. All these have helped in the overall growth as a management leader and changing the decision making the process of career path that a student seeks to choose as well (Kim et al.  2019).

Reference List

Kim, W., Ahn, S., Lee, I. and Park, J., 2019. Development of A Career Development Competency Inventory for College Students.

Chamandy, M., and Gaudreau, P., 2019. Career doubt in a dual-domain model of coping and progress for academic and career goals. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 110, pp.155-167.

Lee, P.C. and Lee, A., 2018. The importance of career goal in relation to academic performance: a case study of hospitality management students. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 18(2), pp.159-176.

Sonnenschein, K., 2019. Career goals of Chinese international tourism and hospitality students in Australia. In Tourism Education and Asia (pp. 177-191). Springer, Singapore.

Greco, L.M. and Kraimer, M.L., 2020. Goal-setting in the career management process: An identity theory perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(1), p.40.

Chamandy, M. and Gaudreau, P., 2018. Career doubt in a dual-domain model of coping and progress for university students’ academic and career goals.

Ömür, S.Ü.E.R., Baklaci, H.F. and Kocaer, E., 2017. Impact of Money Attitude on Career Goals: A Survey on Undergraduate Students. Ege Akademik Bakış Dergisi, 17(4), pp.527-537.

Lee, P.C., Lee, M.J. and Dopson, L.R., 2019. Who influences college students’ career choices? An empirical study of hospitality management students. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 31(2), pp.74-86.

Cantos, M.G., Sauña, M.J.E., De Ramos, H.H.B., Dimaano, J.G.L., Lingon Jr, R.B. and Pulhin, J.C.B., 2019. Career Decision Self-Efficacy among Students of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Stone, M.J., Padron, T.C., Wray, M.L. and Olson, E.D., 2017. Career desires and expectations of event management students. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 32, pp.45-53.

Lumpkin, A., Franco, D., Multon, K. and Achen, R.M., 2017. Sport management career decision-making self-efficacy. College Student Journal, 51(4), pp.539-549.

Burk, C.L. and Wiese, B.S., 2018. Professor or manager? A model of motivational orientations applied to preferred career paths. Journal of Research in Personality, 75, pp.113-132.

Pérez-López, M.C., González-López, M.J. and Rodríguez-Ariza, L., 2019. Applying the social cognitive model of career self-management to the entrepreneurial career decision: The role of exploratory and coping adaptive behaviours. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 112, pp.255-269.

Hu, S., Creed, P.A. and Hood, M., 2017. Career goal revision in response to negative feedback: Testing a longitudinal cross-lagged model. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(3), p.335.

Barnhill, C.R., Czekanski, W.A. and Pfleegor, A.G., 2018. Getting to know our students: A snapshot of sport management students’ demographics and career expectations in the United States. Sport Management Education Journal, 12(1), pp.1-14.

Doobay-Persaud, A.A., Galvin, S.R., Sheneman, N.E. and Murphy, R.L., 2017, May. global Health master’s students: demographics and Career goals. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 2, p. 23). Frontiers.

Dash, M. and Bakshi, S., 2017. Career Anchors: A Study with Indian Management Students. Drishtikon: A Management Journal, 8(2).

Jiang, J., 2019, January. Research on the Necessity of Career Planning Education for Freshmen. In 2018 International Workshop on Education Reform and Social Sciences (ERSS 2018). Atlantis Press.

 Appendices

Section 1

Appendix 1

SWOT analysis of Myself

Section 2

Appendix 1

Changemaker Life Hack

Appendix 2

Psychometric tests

Section 3

Appendix 1

Weekly reflective Journal