Professional Employment
What have you learned from your professional employment experience?
Consider full-time, part-time, service and consulting experience.
Use these guiding questions to help you write meaningful reflections about your work. Remember to provide the context of your work experience, including the fields to which your employer belongs, and clear descriptions of the company/organization: what they do, whom they serve, where they are located, etc. Describe the position you held, including responsibilities. Don't assume that a reader will know (or appreciate) the kind of work you did at the job. For more information about how to develop a meaningful reflection about your work experience, see internship debriefing report.
In general--
Describe your professional employment in terms of skills and accomplishments acquired while on the job. How have you used a particular skill set or experience in the work you did? What perspective do you have as a result of your experience in industry or in the position you held?
With whom have you partnered to develop new skills or to share what you know in advancing the mission of a company or organization?
How did the organization/company benefit from your contributions? Be specific. When possible, quantify your accomplishments or provide clear explanations of how and where a situation improved. For example, did the number of clients served increase? Did problems decrease?
More specifically--
What have you learned from your work at XYZ that your prospective employer would value?
How is your work ethic demonstrated through this job? (Consider how you balance school, activities, and a job. How do you manage your time and responsibilities?)
What have you learned about communication in different workplace contexts? How has your job required you to communicate differently with your peers and supervisor(s)?
When or how have you needed to learn something new (information or skill) to do your job well? Was this skill or information provided through training or did you have to teach yourself?
When and how have you worked as a member of a team? Did you lead, follow, encourage, direct, facilitate?
Did anything change at your workplace resulting from your contribution? How? Be specific.
When or how have you had to respond to conflict on the job (conflicts with people, time, resources, expectations, etc.). What was your response? How will you handle the next similar conflict based on your experience?
How was your performance assessed? What feedback did you receive regarding your performance? What changes did you make in how you did your job resulting from this feedback?
How will the next company you work for benefit from what you have learned?