Reflective Journal on Personal Professional Activity - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Reflective Journal The future destiny of our lives is determined by the decisions and the planning that we take today in readiness for our future endeavors. Since I was young, the thought of who I would like to become in future has always preoccupied my mind. “What would be the need of studying so seriously if my future is predetermined?” I always asked myself. This reflective journal will address the issue my personal consumption, career’s workbook activity and what it means to be a professional in future. All these will be in relation to what I have covered in my course. When one gets to school the career choice that one makes depends on the ability, skills, knowledge, and the individual’s passion towards a certain career. The introduction on the career workbook gave me an insight on what is involved in the career planning process. The workbook activity made me understand of whom I am and my potential towards achieving my future career. I was able to understand the skills and the knowledge that I have acquired so far. What I understand is that not all skills that we possess are necessary for our future applications (Harris 2). Through the career workbook it became clear that there are specific skills that I need to develop. Among these include the commitment in whatever I decide to and always believing that I was created for a purpose where the purpose must be positive. Since I am currently not working my view on personal consumption is that money should be spent in fulfilling my personal needs and this may imply that anything that does not follow under this category might be considered exorbitant. The money for my expenses is provided for by my parents. This course has therefore been very helpful to me because it has given me an opportunity to choose my future career do as I can be independent. The idea of having my own business is partly driven by the desire to stop relying on others to provide me with financial assistance but instead to have my own money for personal use and assisting others in the community where I can. For me to acquire any employment upon completion of my studies, it is paramount to explore the values and beliefs that are applicable in such employment. The workbook activity assisted me in going through the factors that are significant for my job satisfaction and the ones that might lead to my dissatisfaction. It was brought to my attention that the management style applied and the working conditions in any job environment, contribute towards job satisfaction. Some work policies also play a major role towards the comfort we expect in our future careers. Many people are known to complain about their job satisfaction without finding out the causes of their dissatisfaction (Rothwell 37).This assisted me in reflecting some of the factors that I would consider to be crucial for my satisfaction in any job that I chose to pursue. I have always thought that it is our roles that we play in the job environment that determines our comfort, but this activity came to disapprove me in some ways. Besides the general comfort that one expects in any job, it is important to consider some other broader aspects that might affect our lives either directly or indirectly. Our financial needs, health, and our families need to be considered. At this point I did not pay much attention especially at the mention of families and relationships because I thought such occasions would be taken care of by nature. When I got deeper into the activity, it became clear to me that personal and professional growth also need to be considered when choosing the type of career we want. To be sincere I had never thought that this would be necessary in career choice. Another aspect that I have learnt in the career workbook planning is that after understanding all the skills that I posses, the next step would be to know where I am going. The result for this stage of career planning would be to identify my potential ideal employers or jobs that I think I can fit appropriately. It is at this point that I reflected on what I would like to become in future. My interest would be to start my own business in design as I detest the idea of being employed because I think this would curtail my freedom. Being employed gives a person few options especially when it comes to developing new ideas as those who have worked for long never encourage new employees who are willing to challenge their old styles of work performance. In addition, this was guided by some of the qualities that I posses. My parents had for many times informed me that I displayed very good leadership skills as it was demonstrated as I controlled most of my playmates when I was just around eight years old. The final stage of career planning involves self marketing or personal marketing (Harris 2). This made me aware of the fact that it is I would require having a personal resume in readiness for any future deployment in my career aspirations. It was emphasized that establishment of a viable networking and gathering of information concerning interviewing strategies applied by various employers, was as crucial as getting the job. This did not bother me so much as I though it would not be a requirement for me since my career aspiration would be to become a successful businessperson with my own business. When I paid more attention to the workbook career planning activity, it came to my realization that even the most successful businesspersons take some effort to market themselves. By preparing an attractive resume, I would be placing myself strategically in the business world as clients would also be attracted to deal with a person who is conversant with all the business aspects. And again, I have always been so optimistic about running my own business to a point of disregarding the point that businesses are bound to succeed or fail. Through this activity I was able to view life more realistically and practically as opposed to just thinking that life is a bed of roses. My tutor had given examples of people who had failed to succeed in their career aspirations and had to take alternative route as failure in one career does not mean failing in life. I also started viewing the idea of starting my own business with an open mind. A business can either fail or prosper and the best action would be to arm myself with the alternative strategies to combat such failure (Coetzee 47). Since I still do not want to think of any other alternative I would take if my business failed, the activity encouraged me to develop a good resume that would make me viable to work to another field that would be associated with my course. Of course I will not hesitate to take up an opportunity to run a business belonging to somebody else because from that I can gain experience to operate my own business. That according to me, would be the only instance I can accept a job where I am formally employed but that still would be a last resort. Though the ‘work and life values assessment’, I realized the importance of engaging in jobs or careers where we are likely to have personal satisfaction (Harris 3). There are many instances in life that I have heard of people who chose their career because of the financial expectations from such jobs. What happens with such individuals is that they are never happy with their jobs and if the money factor was withdrawn, then would definitely quit their jobs. When one lacks passion in any form of employment then the efficiency level is also drastically reduced and this ends up affecting the quality of the work done. When I learnt this, I believed I was in the right path when I decided my career would be to start my own business venture as that would make me happy and comfortable. By having some values and beliefs, my potential customers will also believe in my strengths and will be motivated to remain loyal to my business and in return all of us will be happy and that might eventually culminate to high sales and high revenue (Eraut 113). It will of course be escapism to pretend that we get into business with the sole intention of entertaining the customers. I still believe that this should be combined with good profits that would assist in the expansion of the business. This course has widened my understanding on what it means to be a professional in any field of our career choice (Platts 76). Being a professional requires one to be mature and principled. Any professional person puts personal principles first in any given task. The principles that are set by professions are motivated by the needs to be fulfilled. This is what forms what is referred to as professional covenant. I also came to learn why it is important to have professionals who can have personal sacrifice. Under normal circumstances people think that sacrificing means giving up something, but this is what would be called utilitarian thinking. I have seen very few people who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of achieving their career success.. Through this course I came to know that being a professional means being paid for the service provided. Sacrificing is therefore the ability to stick to our principles in order to achieve our objectives. When I reflect on how I would want my life to be in future, it is vivid that I will not achieve my goal of being successful in business without making a personal sacrifice. To me this must be done without violating the laws of the land or interfering with other people’s rights. Another quality of a professional that was highlighted in this course is being modest. This means that a professional should be able to direct his attention to any task to be accomplished an also concentrate on the attention that other people may have on the same task. My intention of being a professional in business must be based on the principle of having self control and ensuring that my own needs do not interfere with the overall administration of service. A basic principle that I think will be significant in my business will be to always pay attention to the customers’ feedback about their views on the ways that service towards them can be improved. To be precise as my friend once told me, a customer should be treated as a king, which practically interprets to prioritizing customer needs before anything else. It was elaborated that a professional might abuse the society’s trust towards them but equally the trust that professionals place on the society might also be abused by the members of the society. The titles of our professions define our competences. As professions we have responsibilities of being competent and this is achieved by standing by our principles. I came to learn that if I want to become a professional in my business I will have to exercise self control by focusing on what is to be done other than putting my needs in the picture first. Being competent is not something that I cannot learn from books or seminars but rather happens through apprenticeship. Competence as it was explained in the course requires more exercise other than just relying on theory as the ability of being competent needs to be demonstrated. This made me understand that if I ever want to become competent professional in my business, then I must be ready and willing to demonstrate my skills in the running of business. I sincerely believe that it is a desire of any businessperson to be a professional in their work as that will build the customers’ confidence in the business brand. It is through developing of inner competence that makes us acquire and develop professional ethics (Eraut 69). Developing ethics involves making right decisions and acting appropriately towards accomplishing those decisions for the benefit of our businesses. I was made to understand that as a leader in any profession, ethics such as the ability to learn and teach are vital in the development of personal skills. I must admit that I was surprised to learn during this course that trust is a skill that should be developed just like other virtues. Previously I had been taking trust to be something natural or something that occurs automatically. It is not an easy task to trust our co-workers but for my case it will be inevitable to have trust in myself and others too when I start my own business. This will probably be a determinant of whether my business will succeed or not, but what I am at least sure of is the fact that I will be determined to cultivate most of the virtues such as trust and listening to others in order to make by business a success. In general this course has been very helpful to me as it has enabled me to think of my future destiny through the career workbook activity. It has come to my understanding that the skills I possess will be useful in the running of my own business that I hope to establish in future since I am not so much interested in being employed. This course has also taught me how to be a professional, and the ethics that I should adhere to as I strive to establish my personal career. If I apply what I have learnt practically, then I have no doubt of being a successful businessperson upon the completion of my studies. Works Cited Coetzee, Melinde. Career Planning in the 21st Century: Strategies for inventing a Successful Career in a Workplace without Jobs. London: Juta and Company Ltd, 2006. Eraut, M. Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence. London: Falmer Press, 1994. Harris, Howard. Career Planning Workbook. Melbourne: University of South Australia Press, 2010. Platts, Jim. “Developing competence and trust: maintaining the heart of a profession.” Journal of Professional ethics. (2003). Issue 11, No 1: 3-18. Rothwell, William. Career Planning and succession management: developing your organization’s talent- for today and tomorrow. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. Read More