Assessment task 4: Part A Resources and results

Identifying areas of improvement:

To develop an improvement plan I will need to identify my weaknesses, as a result, I have focused on the feedback from the video interview report, career pulse reports and SWOT analysis. From the video interview report, it’s evident I will need to work on ensuring I am not using filler words when answering interview questions. I will also need to work on showing emotion, specifically smiling so the interviewer can view me to be excited about the job and feel motivated to work there. The video interview report also highlighted my strengths, which were that I was well-paced with my communication and that I was speaking clearly at most times. Furthermore, the SWOT analysis and self-analysis have indicated my reserved and introverted nature will lead to me struggling with public speaking, which will be highly important when it comes to assessment centres for graduate jobs. However, the career pulse report did indicate that I am highly confident in my ability to complete job applications and that I am highly self-aware of my ability and preferences in work culture and values.

Setting Goals:

An aspect of myself I would like to improve is my psychological capital (Tomlinson,2017). I tend to avoid career challenges like public speaking and presenting, as I feel I lack the ability to speak well in public. As mentioned my struggles with public speaking, I believe ultimately stem from a lack of resilience. My lack of confidence and fear of failing at public speaking is what has ultimately led to me becoming reserved. If I can build up my self-esteem and confidence I will be able to address my shortcomings.

Another goal I have set for myself is to improve my video interview skills, specifically limiting the use of filler words like umms and ahhs. Improving this aspect of my job application will allow me to become a more fluent speaker and increase my chances of progressing my application to a face-to-face interview.

Lastly, I aim to improve my social capital(Tomlinson,2017) to improve my chances of gaining a graduate role. I believe the biggest hurdle I face to improve my social capital is the lack of utilising my existing network properly. I believe my reserved nature makes me reluctant to reach out to my network to see if there are any opportunities out there for me to take advantage of. Furthermore, it also limits me from expanding my network further to get into positions I would much like to be in. If I can expand and properly utilise my social capital I will be able to increase my chances of obtaining a graduate role.

How to achieve my goals:

To build up my confidence and address my fears of public speaking I believe I will need to practice presenting. Before I move on to presenting in front of a large audience, I believe I will need to first build up my confidence in presenting to a small audience. This can be simply presenting friends and family. After I have practised presenting to smaller audiences and feel comfortable with presenting, I can then move on to a large audience. To practice presenting to larger audiences I can volunteer myself at work to run presentations. By nominating myself, not only am I can show I am building up my confidence, but I am also gaining valuable experience in presenting in a professional environment. Furthermore, by presenting at work, I can ask for feedback on how I can further improve my public speaking skills. I believe once I have become comfortable with speaking in front of a large audience, I will feel comfortable participating in assessment centres.

To improve my video interview skills, I will need to practice and prepare better. I believe to make myself look more confident to a hiring manager, I will need to research the company and also identify potential interview questions. After identifying the questions they will ask, I should prepare responses to those questions, by using tools such as the STAR method. I believe by having a script to read off from I will eliminate the possibility of using filler words. To further prepare for video interviews I can utilise Monash's video interview reporting tool. I can utilise this tool to practice coming up with a response to questions in a short time, and also expose myself to a variety of interview questions. This practice will prepare me for most questions I will face in a video interview, and by having prepared solutions I will not resort to using filler words in my responses.

To improve my social capital (Tomlinson,2017), I will need to properly utilise my existing network to increase my exposure to industry professionals. I can begin by reaching out through social networking platforms like Linkedin. I believe this is the easiest way to establish and further develop relationships with individuals in my network. Following this I will attempt to attend more industry nights. Attending an industry night provides me with an opportunity to meet established engineers who I can potentially connect with on LinkedIn. It will also allow me to discuss any upcoming opportunities I can take advantage of where I could potentially be referred for a position. Overall attending the industry nights will allow me to expand my networks and further increase my social capital (Tomlinson,2017), with the assistance of a reference I increase my opportunity of obtaining a graduate role at a company I desire.

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 

A. Agnihotri and S. Bhattacharya, Elon Musk: In need of responsible human resource practices at Twitter. Ivey Business School Foundation, 2023, pp. 1–16.