Professional Development
Introduction The aim of this report is to evaluate my own development of professional and key skills. ... The list of skills below will be used to help evaluate my development in each area specified. They will particularly be focused upon in the Year Three or Placement Year section, as this is where I feel my professional skills have improved the most. • Self Management o Time management and planning o Setting and achieving goals o Showing initiative o Self learning and personal development o Learning from experiences • Communication o Listening and asking questions o Informal conversation o Written reports o Oral presentations o Telephone and electronic communication o CV writing and interview skills • Working with Others o Team working o Leadership skills o Awareness of and attitude towards others o Taking responsibility o Professionalism • Technical Subject Skills o Information gathering and presentation o Application of numeracy and statistics o Competence in general IT applications o Competence in specialised IT applications o Application of specialised knowledge, methods and techniques • Personal Skills o Creativity and innovation o Analytical thinking skills o Accuracy and quality of work o Critical appraisal • Contextual Awareness o Organisational awareness o Understanding of business processes o Awareness of commercial drivers o Understanding of the position of the organisation in the wider context Year One I arrived at university on the back of poor A-Level results. ... The CV writing, interview and oral presentation skills picked up in the Semester One module Business and Professional Skills enabled me to gain one of the four jobs on offer, beating competition from over fifty other applicants. ... I often found myself in leadership roles in the Business and Professional Skills/Environment units. ... Information gathering and presentation skills were used in the first year during the mock business set up in the Business and Professional Environment unit. ... For this we had to write a CV which the Professional Experience Unit (PEU) would send out to prospective employers. The CV that I had written for the Business and Professional Skills unit in the first year was used as a base model. ... Again the skills picked up in the first year unit Business and Professional Environment were used, which definitely helped me get the job. ... Half way through the year the support function of the Siebel package was transferred to the IT department from my team (CRM Development). ... Working with Others The team that I was working in initially consisted of me covering support and the CRM Applications manager covering development work. ... Half way through my placement the support for the Siebel system was transferred from my team (CRM Development) to the Information Management (IT) department. ... During this transfer, relations between the management of the development and support teams became worse and worse. ... This is shown in the Programming (Year 1) and Software Development Concepts and Methods (Year 2) modules.