1. TITLE PAGE
Phillip Dean
MK 2025
EMPLOYABILITY AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
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2. Introduction
I will be reflecting on my skills that I had planned to develop at the start of the year, whilst
looking at how I achieved them. I will be critically analysing graduate opportunities and if
the skills I developed are up to a suitable standard.
Reflective essay
The importance of skills in this day of age is very important when looking and applying for
jobs, employers will look at what your skill set is and if it meets their needs for the job they
are advertising. Cryer states “So students, whether they are already in a career or not, need to
prepare themselves, by thinking not so much about what they ‘know’ but more about what
they will be able to ‘do’ with adequate competence in the employment market – i.e. what
their skills are” (2006, P. 115). Some of the skills we learn will be transferable from one job
to another, e.g. I am a football referee and have good communication and man management
skills so these two skills can be transferred into most marketing and advertising jobs. Cryer
states “some skills are more ‘transferable’ than others, in that they can be used in a range of
different situations” like I used with my example above.
My first skill that I had planned to develop was my organisational skills because they were
not up to a suitable level. My plan was simple it was time I prioritised what was important
and what was not Williams and Reid states “It is about achieving mental order, DE cluttering
your environment and your brain, and reviewing what is important and what is not, every
time you sort” (2011, p. 9), so I needed to buy a folder and write down every assignment I
received I in my student diary, print the assignment off blackboard and insert it into my
folder. This skill was achieved and had developed a lot since the start of the year; I would
now say that I am a much more organised person and this skill is one of many key roles in
jobs. Since I have started to work in a hotel in Wigan, this also helped me improve my
organisational skills. With me being on the bar alone I would have to make sure that the bar
is clean and organised, e.g. spirits is in right optics, glasses are on the right shelves and
writing any wastage or broken glasses down, and this helped me when it came to university,
by writing everything important down when I received the information. If I missed a day at
university I would instantly email my tutors to catch up on what I had missed in the
seminar/lecture, again staying on top of things and being organised and since starting in the
hotel and developing and improving my organisational skills I have learned a lot more during
university too and developed other skills, such has coping with stress, meeting deadlines and
improvement of my academic reading.
My other skill that needed developing was time management which is a key role in jobs, if I
was given a job interview at 12:00pm then the organisation would expect me to be there for
12:00 not 12:05, this would clearly show that my time management skills are not good. My
time management skills where not that good because I was turning up late for university and
work therefore I needed to devise a strategy and plan to help me improve. McMillian and
Weyers states “Successful people tend to have the ability to focus on the right tasks at the
right time” (2012, p. 39) I found this statement helpful because I would be focusing on wrong
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3. tasks at the wrong time so by using this has one of my strategies this had a slight
improvement of this skill. Another strategy I found useful was a skill also used by McMillian
and Weyers they state “Consider numbering the weeks in reverse ‘count down’ fashion to key
events such as end of semester/term exams and assignment dates.” This helped to keep track
of my time management and also stay organised so I believe I have achieved to improve this
skill over the set time I specified in my learning proposal.
Asda have a graduate recruitment scheme and they allow several different ways to apply for
this scheme. Asda state on there” we look for people who have a warm, friendly and
approachable personality, enjoy being part of a hard-working team and get a real kick out of
providing great service” (2013). These are a set of skills which I have developed and
improved over the course of the academic year. I have a warm, friendly approachable
personality and developed these skills through working behind a bar in the Students Union
and the Hotel in Wigan. When customers approach the bar I have to be very friendly and
approachable because I could be the only person behind that bar and not having a friendly
approachable personality could mean they leave and go to another bar, therefore losing the
company money. So by working in these bars I have developed this warm personality which
means I can be approachable and have a laugh with customers. I believe I am a hard work
and I also developed this skill through bar work, working freshers at the start of the academic
year which brings in around 2000 students is hard work because it is a fast paced and non-stop
shift which I get a kick out of it because these sort of shifts are the best. I believe that I
am a suitable candidate for the Asda role, but you can see my skills were developed behind a
bar and are easily transferable to the Asda role.
Employers are looking for several skills in potential employees and it depends on the role you
apply for what skills you would need. Prospects states “There has been a lot of research
about what employers are looking for in potential employees and typically it results in lists of
skills, abilities and work behaviours like this: Teamwork, problem solving, communication,
time management, IT skills, numeracy and customer awareness” (2013).
From the two examples above you can see that different organisations want different skills in
employees, Asda are looking for someone with a warm, friendly and approachable
personality that would enjoy the hard work whereas prospects say that employers are looking
for someone with the seven skills stated above. This shows that potential employees would
need a range of skills and the more skills an employee would have the better. This would be
better because when a job is advertised if you don’t have the required set of skills it could be
hard to try and develop that skill within the time scale to apply for the job, also like stated
before most skills are transferable to other jobs. I believe that I have developed my skills to a
required standard that would be acceptable for an employer but once in the job I believe that I
could develop them further.
Some skills that I wanted to improve over the academic year haven’t been improved at all,
like my social skills. I wanted to gain more friends, possible contacts, off my course but that
has not happened due to confrontations and having very little motivation or willingness to
attempt to socialise. This would be due to a lack of confidence in social skills due to having a
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4. speech impediment, but since I re-joined the McGuire Programme, a course for people with
stutters, I look to socialise and improve this skill over the next 12 months and improve my list
of networks and contacts.
Conclusion
Over the academic year I believe that I have improved the required set of skills I said I would
improve and they are at a suitable level which employers would be happy with. I believe that
employers are looking for a specific set of skills and these are easily learnt and taught in
several different situations. I would say that my set of skills that I have would be suitable for
the job I would like, which is sports marketing.
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5. References
CRYER, P. 2006. The Research Student's guide to success. New York: McGraw Hill Education.
PROSPECTS, Graduate. 2013. What skills do employers want? [online]. [Accessed 11 April 2014].
Available from World Wide Web: <www.prospects.ac.uk>
WILLIAMS, K and M. Reid. 2011. Time Managment. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
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6. Appendices
Appendix A
Referee handles title clash with a bang!!!
Being a football referee has its ups and downs and moments where three of my skills would
be tested and they are man management, assertiveness and communication. Today’s football
game will be one of them, it is basically the title match, whoever wins this game will win the
league, so I had to be on top form and make sure I used my required skills to my highest of
standards. I had refereed both of these teams before so I knew who the trouble makers where
from the moment the whistle blew in the first minute, but again I had to be alert and proactive
rather than reactive. This was something I learned from an ex-premier league assistant, when
I would watch him referee, he would read the game differently to how players read it and
always be alert and proactive, that is a skill I learned from this mentor.
So once I give the captains of the club my pre-match talk I made sure that they understood
everything I had said, this is where my communication with them comes in right from the
offset. I had seen referees do this in an F.A Cup game on Sky Sports once and I thought that
it was a good idea to communicate with the captains in the changing room rather than on the
field just before kick-off, it gives the captains more chance to communicate with their team
and tell them what I expect from the players. Before kick-off I also instructed the clubs
assistants to do the throw ins for me, I made it very clear that offsides would be all mine so
he does not need to flag for them, again I used my communication skills and asserted myself
and made sure they knew that I was in charge.
So the game kicked off, all was going well no nasty challenges, no mouthing off nothing all
was going well and like I stated before I had to be alert, anything could happen in this game
from nowhere and it did. Out of nowhere a two footed challenge came in that was late, this
completely turned the match on its head. A 22 man confrontation, this would be one of my
biggest challenges to assertive my authority and make sure I could get this under control
quickly and calmly, which I did within a matter of minutes, 2-3 minutes it was back to
normal. I calmed this down so quickly because I made sure that they I blew my whistle has
loud has I could, which is very loud, I grabbed the 2 players pulled them away, made sure
they were behind me and told the other players to go away in an assertive forceful manner
whilst remaining calm and in control and also communicating with the captains who had been
briefed on what to do if this happened, they did their job successful because of what I had
said to them pre match.
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7. Appendix B
Blackpool FC Hotel Interview went all Tangerine
I had received a phone call that I would be required to give a 10 minute presentation on how I
could improve the Hotel’s revenue and exposure. I knew from the start there was only one
software programme to use for this and that was Prezi, which I have very good knowledge off
and prefer this to the lack lustre Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi allows me to be a lot more
creative and show my creative side when giving presentations.
My presentation itself, my research and my presentation skills would have to be brilliant here
to wow the 2 managers that I would be presenting in front of. I did a lot of research through
Mintel and Keynote to get statistics and information about the hotel industry. My researching
skills have always been bit lack lustre but through reading books from the library it has got
me up to a sufficient level. Over the academic year all the assignments I have had this also
helped me improve my research skills. So I researched every bit of the hotel industry I could
and put into my creative Prezi presentation, I spent a good few hours on this and was really
impressed with this. All my life having a speech impediment and doing presentations I have
struggled BUT learning to control my speech in front of an audience when giving
presentations is something I made sure I would practice and I did, in school, college in
everyday life and now in university, this can be shown since I will be the president of the
speakers club next year, that is how far I had developed this presentation skills. The McGuire
Programme also helped me which is a course for people with stutters, on my first course I did
a speech in the middle of Newcastle in front of 200 people on a soapbox.
So Wednesday came it was presentation time, this was my time to wow the managers and
potentially land myself an internship, unfortunately they had no internet so I couldn’t show
them the creative presentation I had designed, I still presented my ideas though. After I had
finished they give me feedback on the presentation and my presenting skills, they were very
positive, the business manager said he really liked the way I used the pause effect, it was very
dramatic and enticed him in and my ideas and research I had done were excellent. Since this
is Blackpool FC Hotel, communicating with the locals and being able to present my ideas for
them was a must have skill and I had been told that this skill would up to their standards and I
definitely have the required skill to give presentations.
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8. Appendix C
Fridge full off boxes!!!!!!!
I have a job in Ibiza over the summer, which I cannot wait for, but I am out of shape and need
to get into shape quickly. So I signed up to DW gym and got myself a PT (Personal Trainer),
he used to be like me he said slim but now he is big, ripped what the kids call hence. I
wanted to be a little bit bigger, so he decided to bulk me up then trim me down in June but he
knew how bad my organisational skills were and how short of motivation I was, he said he
would help me develop these two skills, and he did BIGTIME.
I go shopping every Monday and I come home and throw the stuff in the correct required
places, freezer food in freezer drawer, tins of tuna in cupboard and rest in fridge. I would
wake up and make the correct diet when I needed it, but this was hard work trying to decide
what to have and when to have it when really I already knew what I was supposed to have
and when to have it, I was just making it look harder than what it was. I told my PT and he
give me the best tip ever; it’s simple but still effective. He told me to go to pound land but
some plastic boxes and write on them meal 1-6 and put the required foods in the boxes and
put them in fridges, that way I knew what meal was next and would not have to look for it
because everything I need would be in the required boxes, this like I said was so simple but
really effective. Although I knew what I was eating I still had to have time management to
make sure I was eating all 6 meals, again he give me a simple yet effective skill. Set an alarm
on my phone for every 2-3 hours that way when I check it I know I need to eat.
The two skills alones were so simple and effective and preparing my meals the day before
really helped me improve my organisation skills in other departments, for example I am a
football referee so if I knew I had a football game the next day I would then get all my
equipment and clothes ready the day before rather than on the day, again so simple but
effective. This go for university, I have started to print of lecture slides the day before rather
than before the lecture, this way I can read up on the topic that will be discussed in the lecture
so I not only have knowledge of what the tutor will say but I have done further research too.
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9. Appendix D
Creative CV shocks Hotel manager!!!
So all year my tutors have gone on and on and on and on and on about CV’s need be different
and not paper form anymore, they need be something that will be unique to me. So a tutor
came in and give us talks on some of the creative CV’s she had seen, one of them made me
really interested to try it an animated CV.
So I went onto to Wideo and started to play about with the software and made a simple CV
sent it a few friends they was impressed and thought yeah I like it, it is different. So I thought
it is time to really create a CV to a higher standard, so I did I created a CV that literally got
me a job offer within a matter of minutes.
So I am a marketing student and I want to work in marketing but they will see lots of creative
CV’s so I decided to test the waters in an industry that won’t see creative CV’s that are used
the paper form, I saw a job offering at a Hotel in Wigan they were interviewing for
receptionist staff, someone to work on FOH (Front of house). So I went in and asked them
for some information and the manager said do you have a CV?, this was it, this was my first
time presenting my video to a job, this could go well or really badly, so I gave him the link
and he asked me what is this, I said to him this is my CV, it’s not your usual boring paper
form it’s a creative CV, have a look and I walked off.
Within 2 hours of leaving the hotel I had received a phone call asking if I could go back to
the hotel and have a hat with them, so I agreed and I did. He said it was a different form of
CV and he is only used to paper forms, he said he is shocked that someone would send a CV
to a job, not in marketing or where creativity is needed, but he said it was brilliant and
showed him something different, he offered me the job but I turned it down, this was all an
experiment to see the impact of sending in a different form of CV, I explained this to him and
said I am sorry if I wasted your time but I just wanted to see if non-marketing jobs would
accept a video.
I would say that all the repetition of CV’s in university has really worked because I applied
for a simple job where no creativity is needed and sent in a CV, which showcased my
creativity skill and it got me a job instantly. I have developed my creativity skill during the
academic year through looking at things differently and trying to think outside the box.
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