Self-awareness Essay: Audit And Reflection.

Complete the self-awareness audits

Task 3: Self-awareness audit and reflection

Develop your self-awareness: your career values, interests and skills, describe what motivates you and what you are good at.

There are 3 main parts to this assessment.

You need to complete the interests, values and skills audits.

Examine the Position Descriptions (PD) provided and use one that is most relevant to you; it may not be exactly what you want to do but it may be in a relevant field or organisation

Identify the skills this job requires.

Select 4 of these skills and describe an experience or activity that you have done for each one that will enable you to demonstrate you have the skill. Make sure to clearly distinguish between discipline (technical) skills are those related specifically to your area of study and are often technical or requiring particular knowledge relevant to the field and non-discipline (transferable) skills do not depend on the area of study or a particular body of knowledge. They are often called soft skills and relate to your personal and interpersonal abilities. 

Below are some examples taken from two position descriptions - Health Promotion Officer and Exercise Physiologist:

Orange = technical skills

Green = transferable skills.

Developing your self-awareness is the first step to finding the job and career that will meet your needs. The next step is to explore the job options and opportunities that are available to you after you complete your degree. You should look at these options broadly, that is, based on the skills you are developing you will be well placed to apply for a variety of roles in various settings. Refer to the Opportunity Awareness section of the Career Decisions resource to help you find fields and jobs of interest.

It is important that you develop an understanding of where you would like to go and how to get there. This will require you to identify the skills valued in the job and organisation of your choice. One way to gain insights into the skills you need is to examine some Position Descriptions. These will list the knowledge, skills and attributes you will have to demonstrate in order to be competitive.

The best way to demonstrate what you have to offer is to provide specific examples of what you have done that has developed the relevant skills.

The following tasks are designed to help you target the right skills and to plan the actions you should take to gain the best experience so you can demonstrate you have the skills.

Refer to the Position Description you chose and identify any gaps in your skills and experiences that mean you are not as competitive as you need to be to get this job.

Prepare an Action Plan that outlines how 4 skills from the Position Description – 2 technical and 2 non-technical (and referring specifically to work you have done in this unit as well as other studies to date) can be developed during the course of your degree; proposestrategies for developing each of these skills and knowledge.

Examination of the Position Descriptions (PD)

The job chosen is the Occupational Therapist (OT). An OT has the responsibility of providing suitable accessibility to occupational therapy intervention that involves enabling people of all ages to live life at maximum by assisting to adjust with disease or disability and promote health. They offer quality, organised and client centred OT services.

Skills required for the position of OT are strong computer skills, knowledge of community based OT services, competency of management and prioritisation of a range of complex tasks with least supervision, team player, ability to meet deadlines, conflict resolution, record-keeping of OT assessment, care plans and reports, verbal and non-verbal communication skills and ability to handle enquiries and referrals.

Technical skills

Knowledge of community based OT services

In the past, I have voluntarily worked as a care worker in an old age home. I was responsible for assisting them with their activities of daily living. I was able to understand their needs and provide maximum support to facilitates independence and empower them.

I have studied computer in School and have also pursued extra classes for learning computer skills. I am well aware with Microsoft and other software programs.

Communication skills

During my time at the old age home, once my teammate was assisting a client with using her hands to brush her teeth. Suddenly, the client became restless and got aggressive. My teammate tried multiple times to calm her down but she wouldn’t. listening to the noise, I reached there and tried to develop a dialogue with her. I also tried to calm her down using body gestures and active listening. She was fine within a few minutes and it showed that I have good communication skills.

Documentation

At the old age home, I was also responsible for documenting the care plans and prepare daily report along with my teammate. I kept clear and updated records of the clients that I was attending.

Identification of the gaps in skills and experiences 

Management skills

Team work

Conflict resolution

My top skills	Job requirements	My current experiences	My gaps	New activities	Timing
Technical skills
Management and prioritisation	Capability to manage and prioritise several complex tasks with least supervision	At the old age home, I was responsible for 1-2 clients along with my teammate.	I have not handled several clients and their tasks yet.	During placement in my course, I can learn this.	When the placement training is over
Customer service skills	Enhanced  customer service skills along with the capability to efficiently engage and empower clients	I was given very basic duties to perform at the old age home.	Those tasks did not require high-level customer skills or much engagement of the clients.	I could take unit to gain knowledge of high-level customer skills.	After the unit is finished during the semester.
Non-technical skills
Communication skills	Outstanding verbal, non-verbal and oral communication skills and the ability to gain the cooperation of, and ascertain information from, clients of  diverse backgrounds and cultures	I have dealt with clients of old age at the care home.	Limited experience of dealing with clients of different cultural backgrounds.	I will complete unit XXX111 in T1 2018 and XXX222 IN T2 2018.	When the unit is finished during the semester
Team work	Ability to perform as an effective team member and support and direct staff	I have only worked with a team of two at the care home	No experience of working in large teams.	I can join different clubs at Deakins to learn to be a part of the team. I can also read books on this issue	Throughout my curse

What? 

After the audits and action plan, I can identify that I want to pursue a service-based job especially service provided to the weaker section of the society. I also found out that I am good at computer skills, written communication skills and have optimum knowledge of community based OT services.

So what? 

I believe that my inclination towards providing service has affected my choice of voluntary job that I took which was to work at care home. I believe that audits are accurate about me. I think a gap in my skill to perform managerial task is identified due to my lack of experience to manage complex tasks. Likewise, team work has also been an inexperienced area for me. Further, I believe I am good at some communication skills but still need to improve further to handle all kinds of service-users. The audits have given me an insight to choose such organisations which will assist me in learning the lacking skills.

Now what? 

I aim to pursue to be an Occupational therapist at a community hospital. My goal is to get a job in a renowned hospital which can give my career a great start.

Living in poor housing condition is a disadvantage (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010). I have experienced this disadvantage as I during my childhood and early adolescent age; I have lived in a poor housing condition. It has substantial influence on my career choice to be an Occupational Therapist. During the early years I saw my grandmother and grandfather suffering from various illnesses due to poor housing. Seeing my grandparents in pain was one of the first reasons that I wanted to take up a service-based professional which will assist disabled people in empowering. Further, poor housing standards is a measure of social deprivation which I have also experienced while growing up (Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003). I wish that people don’t have to face such deprivation therefore, during my role as an Occupation Therapist I make attempts to reduce this deficit of isolation in people’s lives. I believe by empowering people and enhancing their independence, I am making people competent to access the social resources that they could not due to their disabilities. Therefore, housing is one of the determinants of health that I believe has influenced my professional career as well as professional skills and status.

References

Mikkonen, & Raphael. (2010). Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts. Toronto: University School of Health Policy and Management.

Wilkinson, & Marmot. (2003). Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts (2 ed.). WHO.