ttppshramithsurya

[ttppshramithsurya]

E-portfolio

Entry 1: About Me page including: a brief on your background, sport interests, work experiences and career ambitions. In addition:  a reflection on your study performance to date and areas to improve; expectations and aspirations for this subject and your internship.  

My Name is Shramith Surya and I have been following and involved with sports for over 15 years as a player, coach and administrator. My first memory I have as a child is playing sport with my mates on the streets and my passion and desire to be involved with sport was ignited since then. Apart from being involved with sport I enjoy reading about different things to expand my knowledge and enjoy listening to podcasts and viewing vodcasts about current affairs. Another interest of mine is travelling to different places and exploring their cultures, heritage sites, food and traditions. I keep tabs on a wide range of sports happening across the globe however soccer, basketball and cricket are among my favourites. I have industry experience as a recreational referee for cricket, soccer and basketball. My other work experiences include working as customer service representative for The Wine Group and working as a hospitality waiter for Delaware north which enhanced my communication skills and attention to detail giving me a huge confidence boost and also expanded my network to pursue my career ambition which is to be employed within the sporting industry. Ever since I have been in Australia one of the challenges, I have faced was the difference in studying and learning patterns here. Over the course of pursuing my degree I have been able to adapt to the different study structures quiet well. My performances in my area of study has been good where I have been able to remain close to distinction in most of my assignments and tasks however my 3rd semester was the most challenging where I was not up to the mark in my studies which was visible in my performance and my areas to improve were highlighted very clearly. My areas to improve include better writing quality, more thorough research, managing my study-work balance and be more involved during lectures. My expectations for this subject is to come out of it with better knowledge about the specific skills needed to excel in the sporting industry and also have improve on making my key documents such as resume and cover letter stand out to make an impression. My aspiration from my internship is to learn and gain knowledge from people within the industry and also the opportunity to work in among like minded individuals and be part of a sporting environment.

Artefacts

One of my grades from last semester (Shramith’s gallery)

Entry 2: Your preparedness for an internship: your skills (and skills gap), and the importance of a resume and cover letter with respect to the current status of your own documents.  

Given the tens of thousands of resumes some organizations receive each month applicants must make a good impression at this early stage of the selection process to stay in the applicant pool. An applicant’s desire to make the best possible first impression combined with a variety of resume writing resources that include the resume and cover letter as personal selling tools, makes it likely that applicants will use instant messaging tactics at this early stage of screening (Waung et al., 2016). However, the specific types of instant messaging tactics used and their effectiveness may vary depending on the stage of the selection process. Interview tactics can include a variety of verbal and non-verbal behaviours (smile, eye contact, nod) while the use of instant messaging in resumes and cover letters is limited to the written one, one-way communication (Waung et al., 2016). During the first couple of sessions I had a very informal and unappealing resume and didn’t know the importance and effect a good cover letter has during the hiring process for organizations. My resume had no qualifications and volunteer experiences in them which acts as personal selling tools and I used to use a standard cover letter for all my job interviews which needed some major changes and I understood the need to personalize each cover letter according to the specifications of the organization. My previous resume was one-dimensional highlighting my work experiences and not giving any impressions as to how I was as a person who the company was willing to hire and help them further their cause. My previous cover letter was generic and highlighted how the I found the job opportunity and my skills which I have gained throughout my time in Australia, however there wasn’t any evidence to back it up and any experience where I have used my skills to handle a critical and tense situation.

References

Waung, McAuslan, P., DiMambro, J. M., & Mięgoć, N. (2016). Impression Management Use in Resumes and Cover Letters. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(6), 727–746. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9470-9

Artefacts

My previous resume (Shramith’s gallery)

Entry 3: The importance of personal marketing, branding and your unique value proposition. What is your brand and what areas do you need to improve?  

The concept of personal branding originally comes from market research and has now found its way into organizational and professional research as a form of proactive work behavior. The definition of personal branding defines it as a proactive work attitude that employs marketing strategies and tactics to achieve professional benefit. in three different ways: strategic, differentiated and technology-based (Gorbatov et al., 2019) First, while other self-expression behaviours in the same nomological realm, such as impression management, can be both conscious and unconscious, personal branding is strategic, meaning that activities are coordinated and point in a specific direction that point to a specific audience (Gorbatov et al., 2019). Second, effective personal branding achieves differentiation from the marketed self by conveying valuable and unique individual traits over the competition or frame of reference (Gorbatov et al., 2019). Point out benefits or communicate a promise of results. be valued by others while fitting into previous expectations of a subject. In human behavioural studies, this is known as the "optimal, unmistakable character" or the needs of competition for assimilation and inclusion and the need to differentiate the group (Gorbatov et al., 2019). Personalized marketing is one is trying to promote yourself it is the ultimate form of targeted marketing thar involves adjusting our marketing efforts in accordance with the preferences of the organization. Social media is a very important tool in enhancing one’s personal marketing and branding. Applications such as Instagram and facebook have become key domains over the past decade for individuals as well as organizations to promote themselves and primarily used to build on their social profile. However applications such as LinkedIn and Jobcase are used to enhance professional opportunities and create a large of network of people sharing similar interests, career goals and want to be involved a like-minded environment. My unique value proposition that is beneficial for any organization I am part of is my work ethic and willingness to see the bigger picture for the organization’s well-being.

References

Gorbatov, Khapova, S. N., & Lysova, E. I. (2019). Get Noticed to Get Ahead: The Impact of Personal Branding on Career Success. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2662–2662. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.0266

Artefacts

One of my recent posts on LinkedIn profile (Shramith’s gallery)

Entry 4: Critical analysis of your internship applications relative to best practice using peer feedback.

Cover letter: - I have personalized all of my cover letters to the organization I have a keen interest to be a part of and also include the skills need for the internship opportunity. I have also provided evidences of my skills being used to solve problems and how they have been helpful in my volunteer experiences. They are some editing issues which make the document look untidy, however the overall structure of my cover letter is intact.

Resume: - All the key attributes such as qualifications, education, skills, references and work experiences are addressed. The document has a good structure and flow making very easy and clear to understand. A wide range of skills are presented however the presentation of those skills, education qualification and reference sections needs to a bit more creative to make the document more appealing and stand out which will improve the overall quality of the document.

LinkedIn profile: - A good profile with the key basic information covered. A good starting point with number of connections, set up of the profile and structure of the profile. Some posts on educational work however for the profile to stand out need to establish more connections and produce more posts on educational work and volunteer experiences. Overall the profile has a basic structure and with the profile being relatively new with time need to work on building a solid network and keep improving the creative section of the profile.  

Artefacts 

My previous cover letter (Shramith’s gallery)

Entry 5: The importance of organisational culture and being a high performing intern and team member.

Organizational culture enables key capabilities such as offers contributors a feel of identity, will increase their commitment, reinforces organizational values, and serves as a manage mechanism for shaping behavior. Fundamentally, organisational tradition fulfils primary capabilities in a cluster, particularly outside and inner ones, which might be expressed withinside the manner of the adjustment of this company to the modifications of the outside environment. (Bembenek, 2014). In addition to the scope of inner integration, the way of inner coordination and regulation. As a complicated structure, particularly of inner connections, it's far a hyperlink among the prevailing and the beyond of a company, preserving on this manner its continuity (Bembenek, 2014). It also can offer battle resolution, coordination and manage, discount of uncertainly, motivation, overall performance, an aggressive benefit and a supply of excessive reliability, affords a manner for organisational contributors to fulfil and get along, and freshmen are required to study the common behaviours, socialise and combine into organisations is beneficial to company overall performance considering the fact that it is able to function a full-size driving force of extrude control and excessive overall performance in the end withinside the present day international turbulent commercial enterprise environment (Bembenek, 2014).

During the interviews, the concept of a good intern was explored. A good intern was seen as someone who could work well in the described intern context and contribute to safe patient care. Technical competence, organizational talent, social intelligence and personal qualities are key attributes for a high-performing intern (Van Heerden et al., 2018). Work skills Work skills are the technical knowledge and skills that are required to carry out the respective activity, e.g. technical approach, problem-solving skills, social skills, motivation, self-confidence, sense of responsibility and awareness of one's own limits. Organizational skills Organizational skills are described as including aspects such as work ethics, knowledge of the work environment, maturity, organizational awareness and career development (Van Heerden et al., 2018).

References

Bembenek. (2014). THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN CLUSTER MANAGEMENT. Modern Management Review, XIX(4). https://doi.org/10.7862/rz.2014.43

Van Heerden, van Schalkwyk, S., & de Villiers, M. (2018). ‘Going the extra mile’ : supervisors’ perspectives on what makes a ‘good’ intern. South African Medical Journal, 108(10), 852–857. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.2018.v108i10.13052

Entry 6: Critical reflection on your experience of and performance in your interview practices and assessment. How have you developed your technique? What do you need to focus on? Use your peer feedback to assist.  

During the course of this unit the first few interview practices were crucial in highlighting the various shortcomings I had in my speech. There was no structure to the answers for standard interview questions such as what is your point of differences and explain a how you handled a crisis situation. As we commenced through the weeks there was more clarity and confidence in approaching these answers with a story from past work, educational and volunteer experiences enabling the interviewer in understanding specific skills used and also have evidence to back up those answers. My performance during the interview practices gradually improved as I was able to approach them with more confidence as we had repeatedly practiced it and also gave my answers more solidity and structure. In assessments the overall performance was good and was pleased with the way I went about it during the course of studying this unit. The room for improvement in assessments is to improve research techniques and keep improving on communicating with people to grow confidence to be able to answer any question that is asked during an interview. The key area to focus on is building more connections on LinkedIn as it is a great platform for growing one’s network and keep tabs on organisations that I keenly want to be a part of and also have regular conversations with like-minded individual to improve my knowledge and grow my stature in the sporting industry.

Artefacts 

My latest cover letter (Shramith’s gallery)

Entry 7: Reflection on the subject with respect to your starting point, new learnings and experiences, and how this will assist you from a career development perspective.  

At the start of this unit I had very limited knowledge about LinkedIn and the composition professional documents needed for an upcoming intern to work in the sporing industry. I was also lacking confidence when being approached with interview questions as I had limited understanding of how I need to approach them and also how important it is to always ask questions when unsure about a certain issue. I have gained several new learning about building a good resume which should include a range of qualifications, volunteering experiences and also having the right set of references which gives a resume an important boost as employers have credible people who are going to back you which can be a major factor in getting an opportunity at one’s desired organization. Other key learnings were about the selection criteria which prior to the commencement of this subject I had no knowledge about and their importance in being addressed as part of the employment process which can be a deal breaker. Starting a LinkedIn profile was a great experience as I was introduced to its range of features which is going to be very useful as I am nearing my internship period and how easy it is to connect with people and share knowledge and experiences which Is going to be very beneficial to my growth as an individual. The learnings and experiences from this subject will has improved my knowledge about the basic workings of a high demanding organization but also this will help my holistic development as an adult to venture into demanding environments where I want to thrive as an employee but more importantly as a human being.

Artefacts

My latest resume (Shramith’s gallery)