clawtoneportfolio

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Entry 7

Reflection on the subject with respect to your starting point, new learnings and experiences, and how this will assist you from a career development perspective.

 At the start of this subject, when Sharyn would ask even the simplest questions such as ‘tell me about yourself’, ‘what are you best skills’ and ‘what are you best attributes’, I had absolutely no idea what to say. Though this subject it has allowed me to develop the skills into expressing myself in regard to questions such as these ones. I had no idea how to describe myself and what type of things to say. Through practising these every day with Sharyn, the difference in my answers in these questions is massive. I felt my answer to ‘tell me about yourself’ in the interview was very strong, and I definitely wouldn’t have been able to answer that without Sharyn’s relentless questions every day.

 I was also able to further develop my knowledge into what sort of characteristics and skills I need to bring into the workforce, and just what type of people large organisations may be looking for. With all of the ex-students that talked to us about their experiences it really showed me what I could expect in the internship in great detail, and how they succeeded in the positions that they were in. This subject defiantly helped me gain skills that will hopefully take me far in the workforce and learnt the best ways to go about approaching jobs and what to expect.

 The practice interview was especially helpful as even though I practiced and practiced, these questions still stumped me when put on the spot and was definitely an experience I needed to have. Going into my next real interview, I will hopefully be extremely prepared, know how to speak and how to fully express myself, while giving the answers in good detail, while not going off track like I felt I did in the practice interview quite a few times.

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Entry 6

Critical reflection on your experience of and performance in your interview practices and assessment. How have you developed your technique? What do you need to focus on? Use your peer feedback to assist.

 Coming up to my interview I was overthinking way to much, starting to think of questions that may have been asked, which looking back were never going to be asked and was a bit of a waste of time. I spent a lot of time rehearsing my speech for when I was asked ‘tell me about yourself’ but when the question was asked, I still referred to reading my script which I wasn’t too happy with myself about, as it felt like it was obvious that I was reading off of a script. I felt like I answered the majority of the questions very quickly, as I had practiced a lot of them beforehand, however on a couple of the questions, I found myself going a bit off track from the original question asked.

 Overall I was pretty happy with how it went, especially considering some of the answers I was giving a few weeks ago when asked the same questions, which is a big positive and showed very big improvements. I think I still need to work on crafting my answers and being able to get straight to what I want to say rather than going off track just to get my answer out. Next time I think I will also slow myself down, when answering, as at times I felt like I was absolutely speeding through my answers far too quickly. However, as said by As said by (Wiafe, 2020) an extremely important part of a job interview is being able to ask a question to the employer, this is why I prepared a good question to ask, which I felt was very relevant and well received by the interviewer. Overall, it was a good experience completing the interview, along with all of the work we did to prepare ourselves with the answers, as a few weeks ago my answer to ‘tell me about yourself’ would have been horrible compared to where it is now.

  Wiafe. (2020). Your guide to winning at job interviews. Nursing Standard, 35(2), 40–41. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.35.2.40.s18

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Entry 5

The importance of organisational culture and being a high performing intern and team member.

  By an organisation obtaining a culture that has the values and beliefs of a positive business, it can help everyone involved in the business perform to their highest potential. A business needs to have a healthy balance of not only knowing that work needs to be done and to a high standard, but also allowing employees to feel comfortable, supported and valued by everyone around them.

 I believe for myself to becoming a high performing intern, I will need to not only be willing to do any jobs that are offered to me, while putting in 100% of my effort into completing these to a high standard, but also making sure I am nice to everyone, bring a good energy and passion to every day and not letting the small things bring my mood down. By being able to do this through my internship, it will hopefully not only allow myself to have a better time while working there, but also will help myself get the best possible experience, and allow myself to get a great experience as to what it would look like working in this field and if it is definitely something that I would like to pursue for my career aspirations. It will also help my chances at either obtaining my position at the organisation for a possible job after the completion of the internship, but also could act as a good reference for a possible future.

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Entry 4

Critical analysis of your internship applications relative to best practice using peer feedback.

 Through completing my internship applications for Tenpin Bowling Australia, AusCycling and Basketball Victoria, it helped me gain an extremely better understanding for what is needed for applying for large organisations, and just what type of effort is needed to help your applications stand out from the rest of the applicants. Through looking at professional examples, along with the examples provided from previous students, as well as looking at the specific information provided from the organisations on what they were looking for, I did my best to provide applications that would suit me very well for the positions.

 In my applications, I tried my best to display all my skills I could that were relative to the certain applications. This included my experiences at work, sport and schooling, and just what type of skills I gained and enhanced through doing these, and why it will help me in the work force. I tried my best to display that my unique value proposition is how much different type of experiences I’ve had, as I’ve not only played multiple different sports growing up including team and individual, but also how many different work experiences I’ve had in a not so long time in the work force including large teams such as McDonalds, small teams such as a small local pub, as an insurance broker working in an office team, along with being a basketball coach as my first job. I thought all these experiences show a great insight into my life and how many different skills I have gained from being involved in so many different workplaces. However, some of the criticism, not only from my peer reviews but also myself once I thought about them more was my lack of depth, as I briefly talked about a lot of experiences, but not into all that much detail. Along with the way I structured my information, I could have done it in a way that would flow more while reading.

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Entry 3

The importance of personal marketing, branding and your unique value proposition. What is your brand and what areas do you need to improve? 

 Being able to successfully brand yourself is extremely important, as it is a great way to set yourself apart from your competition. Marketing yourself is how people, especially people in the work force can view you and your work. I am trying to create my personal image as a good team member who is always looking to complete my tasks to the highest possible standard, while also helping others at the same time. I believe my colleagues would see me this way and I don’t believe I have ever had any disputes or controversies with a colleague ever. Part of this is I believe my communication skills which I have developed through my working and sporting experiences, As said by (Dolan, 2017), effective communication skills is seen as one of the greatest brands for yourself you can have, as the way you approach and talk to people is a mega part how you can better yourself in the workplace.

 I also like to think my previous bosses and managers respect me and the way I go about my work, I have always been reliable, never missing a shift and always up for taking other people’s shifts. I never say no to tasks and am always looking to go to the next step. 

 What I need to improve I’d say, would be my overall confidence within myself, as sometimes I will not be overly confident in what I’m doing, and sometimes struggle to ask too many questions as I feel like I am annoying people by doing this. I would also say I need to work on keeping notes on certain tasks, as a lot of times I’ll write a note on what I need to do in very short detail thinking ill remember what it is, then when it comes time to do it I won’t be certain on what I wrote down and what to do. My time management might also need to become slightly better as I sometimes get caught underestimating how long a certain task will take and be rushing to finish some tasks all at once.

 Overall I’d like to think my brand would be seen as something employers would love to hire and believe I will succeed in any environment I am put in.

   Dolan. (2017). Branding yourself effective communication skills. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 364(2), fnw289. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnw289

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Week 2

Your preparedness for an internship:

 I would say through not only this course but my sporting career along with work experience, I have learnt skills that are extremely valuable for the work force, but also skills that are only learned through experience. My time in hospitality, allowed me to learn how to properly interact with customers, and enhanced my communication skills a lot. It also allowed me to get practice in working in stressful and high paced environments, as it was very rare that nothing would go wrong in a shift, having to overcome challenges, while still working in a high paced environments was something I became better and better at over time. In my work as an insurance broker, it has developed my attention to detail extremely, as a tiny little mistake could mean the difference to someone’s cover in their policy. It has also allowed me to see what office work is like, as it is my first real experience in a professional office.

 Along with my skills I have developed through my work, I have also developed many skills playing sport. Through my 10+ years of playing sport competitively, I developed more of a voice, being a sky person normally, sport allowed me to become more of a leader and teammate. I became more vocal around people and was able to express my opinion more often. This has definitely helped me and my work and studies, as it has allowed me to be able to ask for help when needed, which I used to not do, but also help others when needed.

 By being able to display these attributes successfully on my cover letters and resumes, it allows my potential employees, to be able to get a far greater insight into who I am and how I have become who I am. Cover letters and resumes are also extremely important as it further details why you are applying for certain positions, along with what exactly you are trying to achieve in not only these positions, but also your future endeavours in the work force. As displayed in (Norman, 2012), the ability to write an irresistible cover letter is what could help you stand out from the rest of the applicants, ultimately leading to greater job opportunities.

  Norman. (2012). Industry tips to a perfect resume, irresistible cover letter, and stand-out interview. Applied Clinical Trials, 21(5), 10.

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Week 1

About Me:

I am 21 years old, currently working an Affinity Insurance Brokers dealing with equine insurance which I am enjoying a lot, I have also had previous experience in many hospitality environments, such a pub, a bottle shop and McDonalds. My interests centre around sport, I have been playing sport all my life, including basketball, football, tennis and cricket all competitively throughout my childhood, while also following these sports extremely passionately as well. I have always been very into sports, and this is why I decided to do a Sports Business course, I have always loved the ins and outs of sporting organisations and wanting to know how they are run from the inside, so us as fans can see what we see from the outside.

 Through my studies in this course, I have found that I really love and am interested in the public relations and marketing side of the sports business. Making my career ambition to not only work in a sporting organisation, but also doing public relations or marketing type of work for these organisations.

 So far through completing this course I’d say my performance has been very good, as in high school I didn’t usually seem this engaged and interest, as a lot of the subjects I did, I didn’t enjoy. This course has involved all subjects that I like and enjoy and has made it very easy for myself to get involved, learn and participate in. As (Davidhizar, 1989) explains enjoying the line of work you are doing, is the key ingredient success, this is why I think this course if perfect for me, as it is one of the first times I have really enjoyed studying and completing work to a high level.

 During my internship, I hope to not only continue finding something that I really enjoy, but something I can learn from and have a nice experience in. Although I understand that I may not end up in a role that is suited for me, I believe that no matter what I will give 100% effort into doing the best I can, to get a real sense as to what it is like working in this area.

  Davidhizar. (1989). Enjoying management. The positive benefits of liking the job. AORN Journal, 49(2), 576–578.