Designing a Business Portfolio - Resume/CV Example

? Lecturer: Business Portfolio Business portfolio PORTFOLIO ITEM A Skills Audit Assessment of skills is very important as regular reflection of the skills you have and the skills you need is also essential both as an individual and a group. Skills audit is the measuring and recording of skills of an individual or a group therefore, it is a review of your existing skills pitted against the skills you will require both now and in future. It helps you to determine the existing skills, identifying the skills you may require in business field and role, more effectively and plan, develop and improve the knowledge and skills required for the future career. It is done in five stages namely; Existing skills and knowledge are identified considered to be vital in the current business work; Future skills and knowledge are identified considered to be important in future career; Rating of your ability as strong weak, and somewhere in between; Reviewing of your ability ratings by choosing someone who is not afraid; Finally, utilizing the information to develop the skill and the knowledge areas. Behavioural skills include communication skills, self management and development, mathematical skills, time management, management of tasks, ITC skills, and applying initiative. The technical skills and knowledge is specific and inclines to the area of professionalism in this case business fraternity1 The benefits of skills audit include; There is improved skills and knowledge; Valuable and valid skills of the work place plans; Low development and training costs due to developmental efforts being much focused; Increase in productivity as employees are better marched to their positions. There are many techniques used to conduct skills audit based on the strategy and context of the organization. This is alignment is very vital in ensuring consistency with the strategy of the business and the value of the audit skills results. Key stages in skills audit is determining the skills required of each employee. Auditing the actual skills and it involves an individual skills audit and self-audit. On result analysis the audit information is utilized in planning purposes related to training and development2. The current strategies for skills audit implementation of individual self audit include the panel approach, one-on-one approach and finally consultant approach. The pitfalls to avoid when conducting skills audit include; the hallo effect, perfectionism and/ or non-perfectionism, the external factors, and self-perception. The principles of skills audits form the basis upon which skills audits are conducted. They should be strictly followed to ensure a valid and fair process. They comprise of; honesty, validity and reliability, transparency, and constructive feedback Skills Audit table PORTFOLIO ITEM 2: A current personalised CV plus discussion The employability skills that I needed were all geared towards building of my personalized CV as an accomplished business asset. The employability skills are grouped into six broad categories which include communication, customer service, cognitive/ analysis, numeracy skills, manual skills, and finally leadership and management. When you want to improve on the quality of your CV, you must actually start by sharpening the marketable skills and knowledge you posses before embarking on those that are new to you. The employability skills include; Regard to team work, must be able to show cooperation to others on a shared task; Oral communication skills, by showing the ability to give accurate and clear information by appropriately listening to others and making clarifications on your stand; Written communication, having the ability to write well presented essays, letters, and reports for a mixture of audiences; Presentation skills, concisely and appropriately presenting ideas and information; Persuading and influencing, by being able to convince others that the my ideas are worth of consideration; Negotiation, ability to facilitate the reach of an agreement with a group or an individual in clear and respectful manner; Leadership being carried out by example, provision of direction , motivation and support; Initiative, coming up with new ideas to cut a niche in the competitive market through innovation; Time management, relevant importance and urgency in planning and carrying out of tasks on schedule; Using of IT will sped up the pace of doing things and also save on time too; research skills, by being able to think logically and critically; Commercial awareness by demonstrating an insight into the into how firms operate and the relation to the wider world of business; Self-management by clarifying your values and objectives and evaluation of personal performance; Having a positive attitude with a can-do-attitude; Flexibility and adaptability to new situations; Project management, by being to organise and manage resources to bring about the successful completion of project objectives and goals3. When conducting an overview of the required skills in employment should ensure that the CV has a good personal profile which summarily says whom you are, what you have been doing and the current skills that you posses. When writing a CV, should avoid the use of cliche and generic terms and making it as specific as possible to your attributes that are considered as personal. Besides, should avoid also labelling as it limits you to a particular job. The overuse of keywords though when used in context and personalised manner it is perceived as fine. To some extent this makes it to lack a personal touch. When using keywords in an introduction in a CV should make sure you aim for informative and descriptive such as creative and analytical which can be used to describe character and attributes of yourself.. Finally, should avoid commitment warning bells as this most of the time would give the employer a negative feedback about the prospective candidate to be employed4 (Talabi, 2011, p. 55). All the above are essential in my quest to be internationally recruited by a design firm in an Asian country as they are having enormous efforts to design to design state of the art buildings. It is through this that I can aptly inject my business ideas into the design firm. This would complement my efforts as team player, good researcher, problem solving and finally having the power to persuade and influence. PORTFOLIO ITEM(s) 3: Two graduate jobs including screenshots that are appropriate to my needs and skills. When applying for a job as a trainee recruitment consultant or a graduate researcher/ recruiter, many factors are brought into consideration. One of the jobs which required a trainee or experienced recruitment consultant, had avenues for individuals who were motivated, who were looking to build a formidable career in recruitment and sales. They were providing full training in addition to working directly alongside some experienced contract consultants therefore no previous experience within the IT recruitment is thereby not needed. The purpose is for the candidate to fill the many positions for their UK based clients and thus bring in new business by targeting focused markets. They were in addition offering one the best uncapped commissions in the industry to all consultants and trainees. The benefits included self-development training, referral bonuses on internal recruitment, trainee commissions and finally generous annual leave and it was increasing the length of service. They had stipulated their role as need to work in a fast paced and an environment that is target driven thus need to have a high level of self-motivation, personal focus, and commercial drive. By working alongside recruiters who were experienced there is an opportunity to build and nurture close relationships with new and established clients. The key attributes required included; an ambitious and self-driven graduate must be hard-working, committed, articulate, and quick to learn, a graduate with a university degree in a business related field. In addition, they required you to motivate yourself, and to work both as an individual and in a team, besides having the ability to quickly learn new concepts5. Some of the requirements were similar to being recruited as a trainee recruitment consultant but the graduate researcher needed by Campbell North, a specialist recruitment firm that focuses on technology and finance markets. Due to its ever expanding base of clientele they were looking for a degree educated individual, with entrepreneurial knowledge, confident and an ambitious researcher to join their technology team6 . As fate would have I felt my self being a qualified candidate according to my skills audit I did. This is every requirement both jobs were placing I was comfortable I could handle the positions without any hitches. PORTFOLIO ITEM 4: Evidence of one organized group meeting and discussion of the mock group interview, paying particular attention to best practice in interviews and my own performance as an interviewer. The attendance of an interview is a very vital component in any placement of jobs. During the interview I was the interviewer of an international recruitment company. We were conducting an interview on hiring foreign expatriates for a certain firm in the Middle East. During the interview I avoided the use of unconscious biases which can impact diversely on workforce hiring. The one on one interview was very essential just as it is when you are meeting a new management. This is because in both they involve the use of purpose, agenda which involve the items to be discussed and finally setting the timeframe of the meeting thus essential when auditing for employability skills7 . What I did best was firstly determining the objective of the interview, like the information to be gained from the interviewee and how this information helped in achieving my other goals. Next is outlining the general areas to be covered with regard to international policies on recruitment of expatriates. This is done at the top right corner of the sheet of the first tablet I was using. Also another good thing I did was choosing a location that was comfortable to everyone, which was I a conference hall. I dully observed the required standards of etiquette by ensuring that I did not invade the personal space of the interviewee. By starting the interview with an open small talk made the interviewees to open up on how they were to adapt to culture shock once in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E)8. Next was that the use of open ended questions made the interviewees to ramble on endlessly regarding to difficulty to face before and after the recruitment, time frame in recruitment process, and their preference to certain countries. So by us of the closed ended questions I was able to comprehend in depth the issue of working in a foreign country. Another critical area done well is using of notations to record the impressions and reactions of the interviewees on different columns thud making it easier to award marks. In this case, the use of tact and diplomacy are important when dealing with sensitive issue like national security in the foreign countries. Not only from a courtesy point of view, but more pragmatically to maximize the chances of getting the information you are looking for. Finally, when I contradicted the interviewees with caution I was able to utilize the ‘Columbo approach’ where I pleaded with ignorance and lack of familiarity. Then I asked the interviewee to provide an explanation for the differences which I had heard elsewhere. Staffing of an organization involves a thorough and competitive recruitment process .To select the most suitable person requires that time ,care ,planning and preparation be taken into account In relation to this interview my employability skills like Oral communication skills, by showing the ability to give accurate and clear information by listening to the interviewees were excellent; Written communication, by having the ability to write the scores of the interviewees precisely; Persuading and influencing, by being able to convince the interviewees to embrace a certain ideology even if it wrong; the power of negotiation, ability to facilitate the reach of an agreement with the group that did the interview and amicably reach for a common standpoint in clear manner; Leadership being carried out by conducting a successful interview without any hitches; Time management, relevant importance and urgency in planning and carrying out of tasks related to interview in the one day provided; Using of IT in the interview process as some candidates had their interviews conducted online thus no need for them availing themselves physically; Research skills were at its best, by being able to think logically and critically with regard to international recruitment; Self-management by clarifying my values and objectives and evaluation of personal performance during the interview; Flexibility and adaptability to new situations created by people who were working abroad in foreign countries giving you fore information before the actual date of the interview9. Reference List Careers Service. 12 June 2009. Employability Skills Audit.. 8 January 2013, http://www.york.ac.uk/media/studenthome/employability skills audit 10.pdf Dashwood, W. Discover Yourself on the Yellow Brick Road: 7 Core Principles of Career Success (Vol. 1). London: Cabal Group Limited, 2009. e Financial Careers. 2 January2013. Graduate Researcher/Recruitment Consultant. 8 January 2013< http://www.jobs.efinancialcareers.com/job-4000000001130487.htm Gumtree. 5 January 2013. Trainee / Experienced Recruitment Consultant. 8 January 2013, < http://www.gumtree.com/p/jobs/trainee-experienced-recruitment-consultant Reh, J. F. 12 September 2012. Meeting Management: 9 January 2013, Read More