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Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
Section 1 Reflection on Assessment Centre.......................................................................................3
Reflection on Assessment Centre experience day..........................................................................3
Reflection on how I would approach an employer Assessment Centre.......................................4
Section 2 - Personal SWOT and GAP Analysis.................................................................................5
Personal SWOT overview...............................................................................................................5
Gap Analysis overview....................................................................................................................6
Section 3 - Career Personal Development Plan.................................................................................7
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................................8
Appendices...........................................................................................................................................9
1. SWOT analysis.........................................................................................................................9
2. GAP analysis............................................................................................................................9
3. Career Personal Development Plan........................................................................................9
4. STAR competency framework..............................................................................................11
Introduction

A personal reflection is described by Moon(2014) as an opportunity to explore and reconsider

personal experiences, events and feelings from a fresh perspective. In this personal reflection

report I will be applying this concept by reflecting on the Assessment Centre, my personal

SWOT and GAP analysis, and also provide and personal development plan for my future

actions. I am interested in working in an e-commerce environment and particularly at

Amazon Company which requires its employees to have significant customer awareness and

efficient IT skills, in addition to teamwork, influencing and leadership skills. By developing

these skills, I will be enhancing my employability get a chance to grow in my career.

Section 1 Reflection on Assessment Centre

Reflection on Assessment Centre experience day

In the group exercise, I believe I performed fairly well because I actively contributed to the

group’s task through teamwork skills. This was one of my strengths because normally I am

usually a bit shy when it comes to working with different people but during the task, I made

sure I was active and was not afraid to address other team members. Furthermore, I was also

good at listening to what others had to say and was careful not to interrupt them to make sure

everyone contributed their ideas. However, one of my notable weakness during the group

exercise is that I was not good at influencing because I thought the ideas of other members

looked better than mine and so I was not able to persuade them. According to Dent and Brent

(2006), the ability to influence and persuade others on both a personal and organisation level

has become a crucial skill and therefore, I plan on improving my influencing skills to be in a

better position to influence others in my next assessment centre.

During my presentation, I was able to speak in a clear and confident manner, something that I

had been practising rehearsing for a while during my class team tasks. I understand
confidence is important while making a presentation because it allows the speaker to capture

and maintain the attention of the audience to the end (Jackson, 2014). However, I realized I

had a weakness of keeping time and organising my key points since towards the end of my

presentation, I had to rush up the remaining points because I had used up too much of my

time focusing on one thing rather than summarising the points. In my next assessment centre,

I plan on improving my ability to manage my time well and be able to summarise my points

in a systematic manner to avoid using up more time than required.

Considering the fact that I was nervous about the interview, I believe I performed well by

being confident and relaxed and made a good impression on the assessors. However,

although I made an effort to respond to all the questions that I was asked during the

interview, I had not prepared a strong list of questions to ask them. This made me feel like I

had not prepared enough and also that I had not researched the company well, something that

I plan on improving for the next assessment centre to show my interest in becoming a

successful applicant.

Having participated in the assessment centre, I think it was more intense than I had

anticipated and it exceeded my expectations. For instance, the approach is very professional

and I got an opportunity to work on real work situations. This made me think about my career

in e-commerce and what I will be doing while working at Amazon since I have always

wanted to work there and I will apply for an opportunity after I get my degree. I thought it

would a simple setting just like what we do in class during different tasks but it was more

than that and behaving and thinking like an employee changed my perspective on preparing

for my future career.

Reflection on how I would approach an employer Assessment Centre

From my experience at the assessment centre, I learned that recruiters use them to establish

ways in which candidates perform and apply their competencies in particular work-related

situations. I also realised that assessors want to see how one can react to and interact with

others during the assessment and although it is good for one to show their competitiveness, it

is important to remember that the assessors want to see evidence of communication,

teamwork and leadership, typical skills of employees. In addition, one is required to be

professional and act in a professional manner at an assessment centre, just like an employee

and perform well in simulated work scenarios whereby one gets examined against their

personal scores which are matched to a set of skills and competencies that the employer

wants (Waldman and Korbar, 2004).

Based on this exercise, I believe I am better equipped to prepare for an employer assessment

centre because I know what I am expected to do and apply my skills. I will focus on building

my teamwork, presentation, time management and leadership skills, and also prepare by

researching company information to show my willingness to perform exceptionally and

secure the job opportunity.

Section 2 - Personal SWOT and GAP Analysis

Personal SWOT overview

One of my strengths is good teamwork which I believe I have shown both in the tasks

assigned in class and also during the assessment centre. Most employers place value on

teamwork capabilities in an individual because of most of the projects in organisations such

as Amazon are accomplished using teams (Walton, 2016.) and I believe having this skill

greatly enhances my employability. Since I have majored in business administration, I have

been able to develop customer focus skills, a crucial skill that Amazon looks for in its
employees because customers are crucial stakeholders. I also have good listening skills and

confidence as indicated in appendix 1.

Looking at my weakness, one of them is being poor at influencing and persuading others in a

team setting since I mostly prefer to go with other people’s suggestions. I am also poor at

time management which affects my presentation skills such as during the assessment centre

presentation. My IT skills are also poor since I only have basic and required knowledge,

something I should work on in order to enhance my chances of securing employment at

Amazon.

There are also various opportunities for me and one of them is the internship opportunities,

placements and part time work offered by different organisations including SMEs. Another

opportunity is from Amazon which has career opportunities for graduates and undergraduates

and I can use this chance to enhance my skills and grow in my career.

For the threats, one of them is lack of experience which presents a challenge in entering the

highly competitive job market. The high competition is also a threat which means that I not

only have to acquire sufficient work experience through internships and volunteering.

Gap Analysis overview

My current skills include teamwork, listening skills, customer focus, as well as confidence.

However, I do not have any work experience so far and I want to exploit the opportunities I

have in order to gain the necessary experience. Aside from my current skills, I need to

develop IT skills, presentation skills, influencing skills and leadership skills which are

applicable in an e-commerce working environment. In addition, I realise that it would be

better for me if I gained work experience in an active work environment to help me enhance

my employability skills. The best way to develop these skills is through participating on more

teamwork tasks during my course where I will get an opportunity to work with different team
members. There is the opportunity from working in internships, part time jobs and also by

volunteering in local charities and community events. At the moment, I would not feel

confident enough to undergo a selection process because as indicated in appendix 2, I feel my

lack of experience as well as the need to develop further employability skills will impact on

my ability to secure an opportunity.

Section 3 - Career Personal Development Plan

One of the areas I would like to develop is to improve on my presentation skills by learning

how to summarise my key presentation points with the help of my classmates and my tutor so

that I do not take too much time during a presentation. I also want to become efficient in my

computer and IT capabilities to help in my career development since I would like to work at

Amazon, an e-commerce organisation that capitalises on IT skills. Additionally I would like

to gain work experience, which I lack by securing an internship position, a part time job or a

placement, and also do volunteer work in my community to boost my employability. Since I

have been mostly taking a back seat in most class activities, the assessment centre experience

showed me that leadership is also important for employers and therefore, I plan on growing

my leadership skills by taking up more team leadership roles during team tasks. I would also

like to develop my influencing and persuading skills so that by the end of this semester, I am

able to influence and persuade my team mates and also my peers during discussions without

imposing or forcing my ideas on others. More details for these development areas have been

outline in my career personal development plan in appendix 3.

Conclusion

Through this module, I have acquired the knowledge as well a clear understanding of the key

employability skills that employers are looking for that include teamwork, leadership,

presentation, commercial awareness, confidence, ability to work under pressure, and

organisation skills, among many others. Based on my personal development plan, I will

improve my skills and make sure I put in action the various ways of achieving my goals.

References

Dent, F. and Brent, M., 2006. Influencing: Skills and techniques for business success.

Springer.

Jackson, D.M., 2014. Every body's talking: What we say without words. Twenty-First

Century Books.

Moon, J.A., 2014. A handbook of reflective and experiential learning: Theory and practice.

Psychology Press.

Waldman, D.A. and Korbar, T., 2004. Student assessment center performance in the

prediction of early career success. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3(2),

pp.151-167.

Walton, T., 2016. Leadership, creativity, teamwork. Design Management Review, 17(3),

pp.6-9.
Appendices

1. SWOT analysis

Strengths: Weaknesses:
 Teamwork skills  Poor at influencing and persuading
 Good listening skills others
 Confidence  Poor presentation skills
 Customer focus and commercial  Poor IT skills
awareness
Opportunities: Threats:
 Internship, part time and placement  Lack of work experience
job opportunities  High competition in the job market
 Community volunteering events
 Amazon graduate and undergraduate
career opportunities

2. GAP analysis

Requirement
Current areas of skill and
experience
Evidence of competence
Additional skills and
experiences needed
Available opportunities
Confidence in undergoing a
selection process
Impact on the ability to gain
the experience
Responses
Teamwork, listening skills, customer focus, and confidence,
and lack of work experience
Group tasks, assessment centre and course modules.
IT skills, presentation skills, influencing skills and
leadership skills, and gain work experience.
Team work tasks, internships, part time jobs and
volunteering activities.
Not confidence to undergo a selection process
Lack of the necessary experience.
 3. Career Personal Development Plan

Goal Specific How will I What By when Success criteria Reflections on what I
knowledge, achieve the resources (timeline) – how will I have already done
skills goal? do I need know I have towards achieving this
achieved (people, been successful? goal & evaluation of
material how effective has that
etc) been?
Carry out Presentation Participate in Fellow By the end Learned how to My classmates have
successful skills more team of the summarise been helping me with
presentation teamwork mates and semester presentation notes summarising my points
s activities and module in a systematic and I believe I have
seek tutor. manner and greatly improved in
assistance present within the creating discussion
from my given time. points.
classmates and
tutor.
Become IT skills Attending Workshop By the end Able to apply IT I have basic IT
efficient in workshops, s, IT of my skills in knowledge and skills
computer taking an IT books and course accomplishing which I think have
and IT based part journals tasks formed a good
capabilities time short foundation for further
course development
Gain work Employabili Find and work A CV for By the end When I have I have sent out
experience ty skills in an applicatio of the secured and applications to different
internship n, Cover course internship, a part companies and I have
position, letter and time position or a also worked on three
secure a recommen placement in an charity events where I
placement in dation SME and also have enhance my
an SME and letter from having had teamwork, leadership
volunteer in my tutor worked on and communication
various various skills.
charities and volunteering
community projects.
events
Become a Leadership Participate in Fellow By the end When I am able Undertaken a few team
team leader skills more team of the to lead the team tasks where I actively
teamwork mates and semester to complete a task participated as the
tasks where I books and successful and leader. It is a bit
will be taking journals solve all the challenging although I
up leadership on team problems and have greatly improved.
positions. leadership achieve the set
goals.
Become an Influencing Participate in Classmate By the end Able to influence By participating in
influencer skills more s and of the and persuade discussions and forums,
teamwork friends, semester people I have no I have been learned
 tasks and in books on authority over to how to influence others
discussions how to accept my ideas. without imposing
and forums influence myself, and it has been
where I try others, a successful effort.
and influence
others

4. STAR competency framework

Competency area: Customer focus

Situation Task Action Result / Learning

I received a call from a I needed to address I checked the system and The customer was very
customer who was the concerns of the found out that the delivery thankful for my help once she
worried about the customer and find details had been updated but knew that her product was
delivery status of a out if the new since it was done on the las being delivered and she
product she had delivery address had minute, the order dispatch understood that the delay was
purchased because she been updated in the had to be delayed but it had because of changing her
had changed her delivery system. been released and was on its delivery address in the last
location from the first way. I further contacted our minute.
time she had ordered delivery guy and informed
from us. them to give it priority since
the customer was getting
worried. I let the client know
the cause of the delay but
assured her that it was on its
way and it was being given
priority.