Personal Skills Audit: Identifying Strengths & Needs for Career Growth - Essay Sample

Introduction

Arguably, a personal skills audit is a very good mechanism for a person to pinpoint his or her strengths and needs to develop in a healthy environment. It has been manifested essentially for individuals to keep themselves on the career path importantly ambitious entrepreneurs as well as managers. The concept of personal skills audit is based on the place of business an individual or individuals are working from (Baker and Henson 2010). Ideally, one would be able to evaluate him or herself based on some main personal attributes and skills needed for a better career. The entire personal skills scope can be dispensed in numerous sections whereby questions are recognizing the availability of a certain skill in your personality through the answers you provide against those questions. The paper seeks to explore the scope of personal skills audit which will recognize at least ten personal skills, selection method of recruiting graduates, the significance of developing transferable skills and a training plan.

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In the purview of discussing my personal skills audit, I will look into the ability to learn new things and ideas, seeing information skills, reading and taking notes, communication skills, business skills, leadership skills, and management skills amongst others (Siriwardane et al. 2014). My skills will be audited through questions against which a response of a person is recorded. The responses may be in the form of ratings given to a specific attribute showing how the skill is essential and how it can be adopted. The whole scenario of my audit is presented in the form of questions to demonstrate the real idea. The personal skills are:

Learning and Organization

• I plan my approaches for time management
• I can work under strict deadlines without failing
• I can prioritize my work and continue learning

Communication Skills (Siriwardane and Durden 2014)

• I am good with expressing my opinions verbally
• I am confident with very little fear while at stage
• I am ready to listen to the opinions of other people as well as fully appreciating them.

Management Skills

• I am good in resources management to bring the best out of them
• I am good at managing my time
• I am good at managing plans
• I am good at work management

Leadership Skills

• I am good at convincing individuals to work
• I am good at encouraging my group or team members
• I can effectively lead a group of people to get work done

Stress Management

• I know what causes stress
• I know how to handle stress related issues
• I can use my stress management skills to handle the mental stress of any person

Decision-Making Skills

• I can analyze any situation before making a decision
• I can make the right decision without influence
• I can determine whether a decision reached will have a positive or negative impact on something.
• I have good decision-making techniques

Conflict Resolution Skills

• I can resolve group and individual conflict whether in the workplace or a family setting
• I have skills to solve any type of conflict, may be social, economic or political
• I have efficient skills in conflict resolution strategies.
• I know what might bring the conflict in any group

Ability to Work Under Pressure

• I can efficiently perform the urgent task
• I have good skills to withstand urgent work
• I can break down a huge task into smaller pieces to reduce the time needed to complete the work
• I work with the same rate with or without pressure and finish the work as required.

Learning Style

I have different learning styles:

• Converging which means comprehending the concepts and practically implementing them
• Diverging which means inventing new ideas and seeing things from a different perspective.
• Assimilating which means developing theories by inductive reasoning
• Accommodating- it means that an individual will participate in crucial ideas doing round in your working environment.

Among the four learning models, converging is my best strategy as I do understand the concept then afterward I implement it.

Lifelong Learning

• I can learn for a long time to build my career
• I can enroll in any school to get other skills for future use
• I learn to be a source of a bright career
• My lifelong learning skill is based on learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together.

Selection Methods Utilised by Graduate Recruiters

Graduate recruiters utilize a variety of methods to hire or recruit fresh graduates from universities and colleges (Crawford et al. 2011). The methods are

Aptitude Tests

In this method, you will be invited to participate in the aptitude test at an early stage. An individual could use a link sent to him or her immediately he or she submits an application letter. It should be remembered that the aptitude test is only available or given to those who have applied for the job (Mccollum 2010. After participating in the aptitude tests, you are required to send your duly filled aptitude test form back to the assessment center. Graduate recruiters use this recruitment approach to establish accuracy as well as careful thought of the candidate (Kavanagh and Drennan 2008). The method helps the employer to gauge your literacy, numeracy and reasoning skills of the applicants.

Graduates should prepare adequately to participate fully in the aptitude tests required by the employer. For instance, he or she should practice familiarizing him or herself with the method of selection. Good practices will enable the graduate to demonstrate confidence in the process of the aptitude test. However, graduates should listen keenly to the instructions provided in the aptitude test to ensure he or she answers the questions satisfactorily. They should also ensure that he or she quickly and accurately perform the aptitude tests.

Personality Questionnaires

The method is employed at initial stages in the process of recruitment. In this method, the right and wrong answers are not allowed. The method of selection is essential because it evaluates a variety of personality traits like working style and motivation (Collaborative 2018. It helps graduate recruiters to find the best workplace for graduates where they can demonstrate their skills.

The method requires graduates to be prepared to ensure that they are recruited. They should prepare to honestly answer the questions provided in the questionnaires (Noe et al. 2018). They should read the advice of graduate recruiters on various types of ability or psychometric test.

Games

Games is another method of selection used by graduate recruiters. Currently, the method is used by many graduate employers who assess applicants depending on their capability in the games sector (Mohamed and Lashine 2003). This method is sent to applicants after they sent their application letters to their desired organizations. Graduate recruiters use the method of games for the selection process to identify the best qualities they want.

The graduates have no option but to prepare for the method. For example, they should pay attention to the provided instructions because proper adherence to the instructions could be a form of hidden test. They should also concentrate and play with seriousness since it might be a game which determines whether you will be hired or not. Graduates are advised to play as they can and not to second-guess what the employer is up to.

Telephone Interviews

Ideally, the selection method is essentially used by graduate recruiters to filter applications or rather applicants at the early stages of recruitment. They may be used the top to reduce the number of interviewees who would come to the actual face to face interview. The telephone interview help graduate recruiters to ensure applicants meet the required qualifications for the position (Velasco 2012). The graduate recruiters employ the telephone interview to establish the interests and enthusiasm of the applicant towards the company. Precisely, they do not want unprepared candidates.

Graduates need to prepare for the telephone interviews by finding a calm and quiet place to receive the call, keep an application form as well as a copy of CV ready, should also follow guidelines on how to handle phone interviews.

Video Interviews

There are two types of video interviews used by graduate recruiters in our contemporary job market. We have live and pre-recorded interviews. Live interviews are conducted when recruiters request to Skype with candidates (Anderson and Witvliet 2008). On the other hand, prerecorded interview entails sending responses in the form of questionnaires. With this method, graduate recruiters are seeking to establish the communication skills of applicants. They want to know how articulate, composed and professional an applicant is before the face to face interview.

Graduates should prepare adequately for video interviews. For instance, they are expected to practice, dress accordingly and organize the scene where the video interview is happening. He or she should ensure he looks at the camera and not the screen. Finally, graduates should read instructions for a successful Skype and video interviews.

Panel Interviews

Arguably, the panel interview is the typical selection method used by organizations to recruit graduates. This happens after the employer goes through the application forms. Organizations select panel interview members from various departments who are now tasked with selecting candidates according to the qualification of individuals (Hamid et al. 2014). An individual might be subjected to a series of interviews especially when the position is sensitive, and the organization is such a big one. For example, you could be interviewed by the person, let's say the line manager of the department you will be working. The graduate employer uses the panel interview to measure the confidence of an applicant.

Graduates should not go before an interviewing panel without proper preparations. Ideally, they should adequately respond to questions asked by the interviewing panel. An individual should be composed when responding to questions during an interview. Reading the job description and reviewing the job application is one way of preparing for the interview.

Significance of Developing Transferable Skills

Graduate recruiters value transferable skills because they help employees to learn from each other. The transferable skills are transferred from one department and industry to another. The transferable skills are those that develop as employees advance in their employment career. Examples of transferable skills for graduates are problem-solving, communication, teamwork, leadership, data analysis, time management, and commercial awareness (McMurray et al. 2016). These skills are significant in that they bring a lot of advantages to both the employer and employees. For example, it makes candidates to be flexible in the job market. The competition of job opportunities in the job market calls for graduates to be flexible because flexibility helps them to perform multiple roles and work. When a graduate or any candidate has diverse skills, he or she will have a greater opportunity to get employed than other candidates without diverse knowledge.

Diversity is another significance of transferable skills. It is believed that the more transferable skills a candidate possesses, the more diversity he or she can provide to a prospective employer. The experience acquired during studies, in work as well as in academic projects helps individuals to develop a variety of skills. A person with the above skills can be trusted with any role in any organizations. Portability and employability are some of the main advantages of transferable skills in the job market (Bratianu and Vatamanescu 2017). A candidate with little experience in work has an added advantage when he or...