The author wishes to pursue a career in purchasing therefore this project will be centered around the analysis of the author and the chosen career path with intentions of determining the suitability of the career and giving the author a basis on which sh

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Contents


Section A: Personal Profile

1 Introduction

The graduate labour market in the UK has undergone significant change recent years (Pearson et al., 1999; Purcell et al., 2002). There are growing numbers of graduates for recruiters to choose from and the Governments target of having 50% of people under 30 to participate in higher education (HE) by 2010 indicates that this trend is set to continue (Holden and Harte, 2004).

 Harvey et al. (1997), talk of the need for undergraduate programmes to produce analytical, critical, reflective, “transformative” graduates as the traditional academic skills possessed by graduates were not being utilised. In contrast Holmes (2001) feels that this move is hasty and that there is not yet sufficient evidence to change the undergraduate curriculum. He continues that holding a degree is not the end of learning for graduates and that it is merely a stage in the longer process of career development. Harvey (1999) agrees that HE is not designed to deliver specific skills for niche job markets but to deliver critical lifelong learners. This view is shared by O’Reily et al (1999), who explain that those involved with higher education should move beyond the considerations of ‘knowledge’ and ‘competence’ to develop people into capable practitioners.

Professional Development (PD) refers to the entire development process of an individual in conjunction with his/her profession rather than a single course (Quale, 2006). To establish an informed view of how to achieve set goals it is essential to create a professional development plan, or in this case project. This tool highlights areas of development that need to be tackled to ensure that the chosen career path can progress (Statt, 2000).

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The author wishes to pursue a career in purchasing therefore this project will

be centered around the analysis of the author and the chosen career path with intentions of determining the suitability of the career and giving the author a basis on which she can make proactive career decisions.


2 The Author as a Learner

This personal development project will examine the author in several ways to create an understanding of her personality, abilities and preferences to form a logical conclusion about a suitable career path for her future. It will combine the results of psychometric tests with the author’s educational and professional background whilst taking into account her own considerations and those of the people that have known and worked along side her.

Personality is a broad area, with many different approaches to explain human behaviour (Gross, 1990). These approaches are in disagreement on how personality develops. The psychoanalytical perspective sees human development as a biological process with certain stages linking with particular behaviours (Gross, 1990). This is in contrast to the behaviourist approach where behaviour is learned through a series of responses to past experiences (Bandura, 1971). The cognitive perspective assumes that people's personality is never completely determined; people are changeful and always free to reinterpret their experiences in idiosyncratic ways (Ryckman, 1997). Researchers such as Allport (1961: pp 28) and  Ryckman (1997: pp 5) generally agree that personality is defined as

 

“the dynamic and organized set of characteristics of a person that uniquely Influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors”

Jungs extensive research in the early 1900s identifies personality types and preferences. Jungs research showed that individuals had psychological preferences for performing tasks (Kennedy and Kennedy, 2004). Building on this work the Myres-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test was developed as a tool , for determining the suitability of a perspective employee for a position (Malone, 2003).  It is commonly used by employers, along side more traditional selection methods (Turner, 1996). There are 16 different possible combinations for a personality according to the MBTI, found as a combination of initials, in the table below.

Table 1

The four letters correspond to four areas ‘energizing’ (determining whether the person in extravert or introvert) ‘attending’ (determining whether he or she relies on their senses or acts intuitively), ‘decision making’ (determining weather a person is logical in their decisions or whether they are inclined to be influenced by their personal feelings) and ‘living’ (determining if people methodical or spontaneous in their day to day living) (Hirsh, 1991).

The author took the test and the results (Appendix 7) revealed equally high scores for the personality types INTJ and ENTJ. These results surprised the author whom has never considered herself an introvert. The questionnaires given to the authors friends and family (Appendix 6) concurred, as not one person had described her as an introvert. In an attempt to clarify which of these two personality types matched her own the author took the Jungs human metrics test and found that she was indeed an ENTJ.

The results of this test (Appendix &) explain that that this type of personality is a natural leader who draws up and carries out plans and has the ability to assigning roles to their fellows. This could be an explanation why the author moved from a low ranking clerical position into management roles where this type of personality would be more fitting (Appendix 2) Research carried out at Ashbridge Business School found that managers tended to have a different personality to none managers. Managers tended to fall into the categories ESTJ, ENTP, ISTJ and ENTJ (Woodruffe, 2006 ) These differ to the most common types of the general population (Turner, 1996)This evidence reinforces the move of the author from none management to management.

The authors direct family recognised the traits that this test indicated, when asked if this sounded like an accurate description they recounted tales from throughout the authors life when she has been found ‘bossing’ her friends around as a child or had been selected as a group leader because of her natural tendency to lead.

According to (Hirsh, 1991) the downside to this personality type is that they may have a tendency not to listen. The results (Appendix 7) also explain that when confronted, the ENTJ personality type is likely to become argumentative. Although the author concedes that she can become argumentative, she does not feel that she is a bad listener.

Gladwell (2005) outlined an issue that the MBTI has a problem with consistency. In those who took the test for a second time, more than half came up with a different result. This could be seen as re-enforcing the cognitive approach, that people are changeful, or it could be that the test is not accurate enough to give an accurate assessment of personality. It could also be argued that the test is putting people into one of two categories for each area of personality which is a very complex issue that (Gross, 1990) argues can not be divided up into binary categories.

The use of this personality test comes under criticism because it was devised around 50 years ago. This was before the civil rights and women’s movements, before there was such a thing as the Internet and there was no global economy. At this time corporations were not multinational, nor were they multi-cultural. In a modern society many companies that claim to embrace diversity and yet use these types of profiling tools when selecting their staff (Cramer, 2006).

In a bid to further understand how her personality could affect her future career the author investigated teamwork . Team work has emerged as an important factor in modern business and the drive for achieving a balanced team is paramount for many companies (Leung et al 2003)

The Belbin Team Role Self Perception Inventory (SPI) is designed to assist when selecting a team. It works on the basis that different people prefer to fill different roles in a team. The test also highlights areas that the taker would prefer not to fulfil. A mixed selection of people has been found to produce a more effective team (Anderson, 2004). There are 9 possible preferred roles in the outcome of the test (Appendix 8).

The author was found to prefer the role of a shaper (Appenix 8)The shaper role is one of someone who can lead a team with determination and strive for improvement. Whist beginning the valeting business, the author had to motivate staff, think up and carry out initiatives to grow the business whilst still achieving high grades for the Foundation Degree in Business Management with Finance (See appendix cv). It took a high level of determination to do this on a continual basis. The description of an achievement driven team member is an accurate description of the author. Most of the friends, family and colleagues that were given the questionnaire agreed that the description that Belbin gave for the shaper was fitting to the author. These result seem to mirror those found in the Myres-Briggs test, giving the impression that the author has the potential to be a strong and decisive leader but also echoes the warning that she can be too argumentative when confronted (Appendix 8)

 

The Belbin test also accurately pin points a position in a team which the author would prefer not to fulfil. The position of implementer could be compared to the position that the author occupied in the accounts department at Netto Foodstores (Appendix 2) Methodical steps needed to be followed in detail to ensure that the correct accounts were debited. The author found this painstaking and unsatisfying and would not like to fulfil this kind of position again.        

The team roles indicate personality types but personal preferences for team roles (Anderson, 2004). This means that someone who displays a preference for a leadership role such as co-ordinator or shaper may not necessarily have the ability and skills to do it. (Partington and Haris, 1999). The test has also been criticised as having little theoretical underpinning and for lacking in psychometric properties (Furnham et al, 1993).  

These tests proved useful to understand the personality of the author in relation to planning a future career, however it was established in the introduction that finding a job is not the end of the authors personal development. To succeed on this continuous learning path, the author feels that she would benefit from establishing her learning style.

An individual’s learning style is a distinctive and habitual manor that used to acquire knowledge, skills or attitudes through study or experience (Currie, 1991). Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) (1986) is based on work by Kolb (1984) that divides learning styles up into four categories identified as ‘divergers’, ‘assimilators’, ‘covergers’ and accommodators (Shaw and Marlow, 1999).Those who use all four of these styles are said to be well balanced effective learners. The majority of people have one or two preferred learning styles (Shaw and Marlow, 1999).  Honey and Mumford (1986) modified this and developed the LSQ to allow individuals to be classified in terms of strength and weaknesses. After answering a series of 80 questions the individual will be classified using four categories: activists, reflectors, theorists and pragmatists.

Activists tend to have enthusiasm for new concepts and may lose patients quickly. They respond well to challenges and learn best from competitive activities (Furnham et al, 1993). Reflectors tend to be cautious and consider their actions carefully and learn best when they are given time to prepare in advance. Theorists consider all of their options before drawing conclusions and learn best through solving complex problems. Pragmatists tent to lose their patients with too much reflection and prefer to experiment by putting new plans into process immediately. These individuals learn better if there are obvious advantages to learning a task (Gladwell, 2005)

The author was found to have the highest scores for the activist and reflector learning preferences. (Appendix 10) The activist, which was the main learning style, is someone who is, enjoys new challenges and is willing to try anything once. This thirst for new experiences may explain why the author returned to education as a mature student (Appendix 2) or why, in her spare time, she has taken part in activities such as bunji jumping and flying a glider.

The results outline a learning style of someone who approaches problems though brainstorming. People favouring this learning style may get bored with implementation. This is in agreement with the Belbin test, which stated that the role of the implementer would be least suited to the author. The author also showed a high preference for the reflective learning style. The results outline that people who favour this learning style appear in to learn in ways that contrast with the activist style. Reflectors tend to stand back, gather information and think hard before making decisions. This type of learning style was apparent when the author became self-employed, running Before ‘n’ After Valeting Centre and had to gather information on suppliers and select the more suitable ones. Although these two types of learning seem extremely different it means that the author has different approaches to learning and so can use a variety of methods to learn new things.  Both methods of learning may be more appropriate for different situations.  

Caple and Martin (1994) raise questions about the LSQ that question the depth and accuracy of the test. Honey and Mumford argue that learning comes through experiences but they do not state whether some experiences are more important than others. Also it is not outlined what can be learned from experiences and therefore why would someone choose to experience something if it is not clear what they were going to learn (Gladwell, 2005).

Another way to examine learning styles is through the use of the VARK test.

VARK is an acronym for Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic. The Vark Model, founded by Flemming (2001) was based on the earlier nuero-linguistic model by Eicher, (1987) Individuals may be found to learn through one or more of these methods (Klien et al 2007).

These results suggest that the author favours learning through listening and talking about issues but also had a high score for the kinaesthetic (Appendix 11) The author acknowledges that these two methods are methods regularly used in her learning and feels that these methods go hand in hand with her outgoing, extrovert nature. An example of this is whilst working on a group task for a module at University the author’s group were required to contact an organisation. The automatic response of the author was to either speak to people face to face or over the phone to get the information required unlike the other group members, who attempted to gather information through sending letters and emails. This result is in complete contradiction with the finding from the Myres-Briggs test that suggested that the author was a poor listener. The author feels that she learns well through reading and writing which, in this test had a relatively low mark. She has used this method as her preferred learning style throughout her education to great effect and enjoys learning this way. Interestingly, the author’s mother taught her to read at the age of two by playing games where she had to jump on word cards, which were scattered on the floor, when they were read out to her. This would be categorised as learning through doing and may be one of the reasons why the kinesthetic score was so high. Behaviourists would argue that this was enjoyable experience and therefore has positively reinforced the behaviour with the effect being that it has influenced how she learns through into adulthood. The author can learn from this and in future learning experiences incorporate methods that utilise the preferred learning styles.

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3 Implications for Career Choice

3.1 Lifelong learning

There used to be a notion that a university graduate was a ‘finished good’ but that notion is now considered outdated and the replaced with the idea that education is a continuous lifelong process (Holden and Heart, 2004, 1996).This process can take on different forms and does not necessarily refer to classroom learning

The terms life long learning and self-regulated learning are synonymous but the latter is used to more precisely describe life long learning in formal education (Smith, 2001). Self-regulated learners are people who take ...

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