Final Reflection on Learning

An important skill set that I improved through the ES2007S course is that pertaining to a position search. Here, I shall organize my review around the various components of a position search, namely researching the job and organization, writing a cover letter and resume, and performing at job interviews.

The main objective of a job application is to communicate effectively to your prospective employers how you and your experiences can contribute to the organization and the job itself. This in turn has linkages to an over-arching principle of effective communication, which is to be mindful of the context and target audience.

As such, the first step in a position search is to research on the particular organisation and job in order to find out about what is being desired. Only after understanding what is being sought, can we craft our job applications appropriately.

Moving on, the peer teaching session and readings were effective in introducing the general principles of writing a resume. Even though the resume is a relatively structured piece of writing, its format is by no means fixed. Rather, it should be tailored to show how an applicant’s strengths can satisfy the job requirements. Furthermore, more is not necessarily better and only relevant information should be included. Once again, by placing ourselves in the shoes of the target audience, we can understand the importance of this – job selectors typically have to go through numerous applications so a concise resume will stand a higher chance of attracting their attention.  

Last but not least, I feel that the mock job interview ranks as the most enlightening portion of the entire module. I was able to gain valuable insights via all 3 roles that we had to play, be it observer, interviewer or interviewee. For example, as an observer, I discovered that an interview is indeed very revealing of an interviewee. Both the verbal (content of responses) and non-verbal aspects (posture, eye contact etc.) can tell the interviewers a lot about the candidate. Most importantly, as an interviewee, I thought I performed relatively okay but peer feedback from the observers indicated much room for improvement! For example, my responses were often badly organized and unsystematic!

In my opinion, what better way to hone one’s job application skills than to go through a mock job application? I am grateful that ES2007S offered us an opportunity to do so. Although the greatest challenge throughout was the constant effort to link my experiences to the prospective job, the regular peer feedback enabled me to make improvements to my work and enhance the relevant skills. As such, I am now better equipped to select appropriate content to include in my application documents as well as draw the necessary linkages. Interview-wise, I have become aware of the need to improve my thinking process so that I can translate my thoughts into coherent and systematic responses!