Independence AND PROACTIVITY

Employers love employees who are independent and proactive, who don't need to be told to get on with a task and who come up with potential solutions, rather than allowing problems to be an obstacle.

When have you had to work on your own to achieve something?

When have you gone the extra mile to achieve something without being asked to do so?

How you're developing your independence and proactivity

You may not notice it, but you're probably already doing a lot of things that show you're proactive and independent. If you're not, then here are some suggestions of how and when you can develop your independence and proactivity.

• Each time you complete a task in school or at home on your own

• Each time you use your own notes, resources or research for help, before you ask someone else

• Each time you suggest a solution to a problem instead of complaining about the problem

• Each time you do something that you know it will be of benefit to you or others, without being asked to do so

• Each time you anticipate a problem arising and take steps to avoid that problem

• When you look for and create opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to you

• When you create opportunities via your network (talking to friends, teachers, family)

• When you complete a task in class and use any extra time to do something productive that will further your learning

Develop your independence AND PROACTIVITY

By using online courses, you can better understand employability skills and take extra steps to develop any skills you need work on.

To develop your proactivity, try these sessions by Barclays Life Skills (you will need to make a free account)

You can keep track of anything you do to develop your employability skills on UNIFROG.

Understanding Proactivity

How being proactive got Alfred hired

Putting proactivity into action

Build your evidence

You need to be able to prove to future employers or universities that you have the skills they want. Try preparing an example answer to the question: "Tell us about a time you've shown great Independence and/or Proactivity?"

Use the STARRS technique:

Situation

• Explain the situation you were in.

• Aim to answer the questions ‘what/where/when’, for example, “In the third year of my business studies degree” or “when I was working as a retail assistant in a shop last summer”.

Task

• What did you do, and what did the task or role involve?

• Explain your tasks and responsibilities briefly.

Action

• What did YOU do to meet the objective of/complete the task?

• You might want to cover what you did and how you did it, including what skills you used.

Result

• What was the outcome?

• Did you make a difference?

• Can you quantify this?

Reflection

• What did you do well?

• What didn’t go as well as you’d hoped?

Strengthen

• After reflection, what would you have done differently?

• What could have been improved to achieve an even greater success?