Assessment task 1: Self-analysis

SELF-ANALYSIS

A. Outline how the tools and Graduate Capitals have helped you understand your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your future employment.

I always thought a strength of mine would be my formal education. My understanding of going to Monash University and obtaining a degree was that it would allow me to separate myself from other applicants at the graduate level and in future employment. I thought employers would always weigh where you went to university and what you studied before anything else. However, Tomlinson’s article has allowed me to realize that this is partially true, as outside of roles in STEM and other specialist degrees, the relationship between higher education and employment is much weaker (Tomlinson, 2017). When applying for graduate jobs, it has become evident the jobs I apply for also allow individuals who hold vastly differing degrees to apply. As a result, I now understand that I must have excellent career-building skills to separate myself from my peers. For example, the ability to familiarize myself with the trends in my chosen labor market and identify opportunities that would allow me to progress in my career are skills I need to develop if I am to separate myself from other graduates. These are skills I am determined to improve by taking more opportunities to show my strengths to my managers and through utilizing websites like LinkedIn and Seek to see which jobs are opening in my industry and see what qualifications and experience are required for these roles.

I am also in a very fortunate position where I have access to family members who are seniors in my chosen career field of civil engineering. I believe my social capital is a strength of mine, as not only am I able to capitalize on this relationship to get access to employment, but I can also gain an understanding of what job roles and positions would allow me to gain the necessary experience at the start of my career to be able to get into high paying positions later in my career. Furthermore, Tomlinson’s article also highlights how work experience is an excellent bridge between higher education and future employment (Tomlinson, 2017), as it develops a graduate's network and relationship within the labour market. Reflecting on the internship I completed, I was able to build relationships and expand my network within and outside the company, through the work I did with clients and subcontractors, even though I consider myself introverted. I believe this is due to my work for clients, which highlighted my strong work ethic, ability to problem solve, and ability to provide quality work on time. I aim to utilize their positive view of me when looking for jobs at their respective companies by submitting applications with their recommendations, as I believe they view me as someone who is dependable.

B. Explain how the results from the Career Pulse and self-assessment have changed you or helped you to better understand yourself and others.

After completing the 16 personalities quiz, my results indicated I am 58% introverted, 52% observant, 62% thinking, 56% prospective, and 57% assertive. Reflecting on the scores, I am not on any extreme end for all traits, and I believe these results reflect my original opinion of myself. I already thought of myself as introverted as I choose to keep to myself if I'm not required to communicate with others and find it harder to develop relationships at the start and in a short period. I have noticed that once I make an initial connection with someone, I can maintain the relationship. I think going forward, I will need to build more courage and be able to introduce myself to more people much more easily so that I can expand my network faster and make my social capital stronger. I also understand that due to my shy nature, I tend to like to take a step back from a commanding role, and as a result, I believe this would lead to me ignoring any potential opportunities that may come my way. Having already acknowledged my weak career-building skills, I need to step out of my comfort zone more often and try and be more approachable and extroverted if I am to succeed in the current labour market.

Furthermore, the career pulse survey highlighted my employability strengths are self-awareness, preparing for work, and career well-being, and it showed I needed to improve in interviews and offers, employability skills, and preparing job applications. Despite considering myself to have good employability skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and professionalism, I can understand now that due to my introverted nature, I tend to not be as resilient and good at communicating as I once thought I was. I am also able to make the connection my introverted nature is why I need to work on my interview skills and job application skills. I find it challenging to communicate myself to the camera when submitting online applications, and I believe practicing and having a script at hand is one way of improving my application. I also aim to put myself in uncomfortable situations and talk to people, as I will become more comfortable with interviews and find it easier to get my points across and be able to demonstrate my skills to the interviewer.

References:

Tomlinson, M. (2017). Forms of graduate capital and their relationship to graduate employability. Education & Training (London), 59(4), 338–352. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-05-2016-0090