BA7777 Workplace Portfolio Assignment Sample 2023
Introduction
A workplace is a place where people learn about the various practical aspects of various kinds of job roles. The educational institutions where one studies give a certain theoretical backup to an individual. But it is the workplace that helps to bring out the complete individual from various aspects.
Every year fresh graduates from the universities take up various job roles either as interns or as full-fledged permanent employees. These roles help an individual to learn a lot about the various key skills that are essential to survive in the job market.
Portfolio on workplace
Introduction of Placement employer
I am currently enrolled as a postgraduate student in a university in the London area. As a part of the course, I was expected to gather some work experiences through internships or any other such job roles. My course on Project Management at university also demanded that I choose a work area that was related to my course of study. So I went for the position of an intern in the Business Analyst Role at Cloud one Consultancy Services.
Cloud one Consultancy Services has been in the UK business market for quite a long time. This company has got numerous highly experienced professionals who give reliable advice to several big business giants in the UK. This consultancy firm generally is concerned with providing research-based solutions to various problems that may arise in the business world. This consultancy firm has gained a lot of trust because of the positive advice that it has provided to various firms.
Sometimes it becomes quite difficult to work in a big firm at the start of my career, but I consider myself lucky enough to have found one. As per Soldo et al. (2021), consultancy firms are a hub for learning various job skills because they provide various services. I was engaged in the business analyst role where I got to understand various factors that influence some of the major business decisions of various corporations.
My job was mainly to assist my Manager in the documentation and analysis of various data that keep on coming from various firms. My start date was on the 15th October 2020 and lasted for about 10 months. After this job role, I have learned the technique of handling and analyzing bulk business data in a short time. This job role has thus given me certain skills like analyzing and documentation of business data which I may not have learned anywhere else. [Referred to appendix 1]
However, I used to face difficulty while handling some of the advanced software that is almost regularly used in business consultancy firms. Especially the field of business data analysis requires the use of interlinked software in quite a fast manner.
My manager helped me a lot to learn the basic skills that were required to handle such software. But I felt that a little bit of advanced knowledge in this sector through a course would have been very helpful. In that case, I could have focused even more upon some of the more advanced data handling techniques.
Students generally face quite a few problems when they enter the job market at the start of their careers. I think that the environment at the institutions and the workplaces are a lot different. The workplaces in this competitive world are becoming even more demanding than individuals ever before.
Thus, it generally takes quite some time for individuals to adjust themselves to this environment. Some students can adjust themselves while others fall out of the race.
Students tend to learn these skills while they are working as interns or are at their first jobs. Certain skills gradually get sharpened and help the students to take up future job roles in senior positions (Marçal et al. 2020).
The scenario has not been much different in my case as well and I have also developed some key skills which I am going to discuss. I am generally an introverted person in public places. I used to face a little difficulty in framing my thoughts properly into coherent sentences.
But after taking up this role as a business analyst, I believe that I have become much better at understanding another person and also properly communicating my thoughts. My financial awareness has also developed somewhat a lot more as I was dealing with the financial data of various companies.
This work experience has strengthened my will to progress forward in my career in the business analyst role. But currently, I am also thinking about taking up a course to learn software that is associated with data analytics. The role of a Business Analyst for Cloud one Consultancy Services has given me an edge over many others to understand the business market.
But I do not think that I am capable enough right now to start a business completely by myself. According to Coffelt and Smith (2020), an entrepreneur requires numerous skills like leadership and entrepreneurial skills which can only be developed through experience and exposure.
Nevertheless, I am a little interested in becoming an entrepreneur at some point of time in the future. But I think that the time is not yet ripe for that. [Referred to appendix 2]
Corporate responsibilities
The various business enterprises are now part of Corporate Social Responsibility schemes all over the world. These schemes teach a lot of things that are important from a societal perspective to the students. The corporate houses play a societal role in teaching the students some major skills to be job-ready for the future (Scholtz, 2020).
These on-the-job experiences through internships give them the capacity to fit better for their future roles because most of them develop some skill or the other during the whole process. I have also been a beneficiary of this scheme and have developed some key skills in the spheres of communication, financial awareness, and others.
The tasks like inventory processing, payment module analysis, and others like WCS Scheduler Overview and Controleer, command, and data-driven overview were all part of my job role as an analyst. I have developed certain key skills like quick analysis, financial awareness, proper communications, and others.
My course on project management has provided me with some of the necessary skills like understanding the various major components of a project. The way to interlink these subsections of the project as well as to understand the various project strategies has helped me in my job role.
I have thus got some of the basic ideas relating to tackling a business project from its initiation till its completion from my course. But strategies for an extremely competitive scenario were unknown to me. This is something that I have learned in my job role.
Strengths and weaknesses
Thus I think that my course at the university was a little more straight-jacketed than flexible. Almost all of us were dealing with almost the same course subjects. This happened because the choices for the study were somewhat limited while compared to the dynamic business world. As per Lennox, and Roos (2017), students should be given more liberty upon choosing the related areas of study that they can link with their future roles.
In my case, I felt that an advanced-level business analytics course would have been very helpful for me. Thus I think that the universities should enhance the number of more qualified and experienced mentors who can provide the right direction to the students. I have learned about my requirements from my job role. I had not received much prior information in this case.
I believe that students should be properly taught in detail about the various job roles and the requirements of those job roles in detail. This should be done while they are undergoing their coursework. This system will allow them to decide for themselves where they would like to position themselves in the future.
Conclusion
It can thus be concluded that the various job roles that students undergo during their coursework provide the valued assistance that is sometimes missed out on. No coursework can make someone completely job-ready. This problem is hugely fixed by on-the-job experiences like internships that help students to understand the key differences between the different demands of student life and work life. Thus building up the workplace portfolio early in a career is very important for anyone to survive in the long run.
The work experience creates excellent learning on the job for every individual that is essential in this competitive world. The students however are not allowed to proceed with tailor-made coursework that best suits their needs. This thus leaves many students to stumble upon various difficulties after they enter the job market. The students have to find for themselves their way to reach their goals despite having attractive degrees.
The courses thus should have diverse options and be more dynamic to meet the needs of the students specifically of business management. Thus proper co relationship should be established to maintain a healthy balance of theoretical and practical work. This will give the students the much required best combination of both the theoretical as well as the practical worlds.
References
Coffelt, T.A. and Smith, F.L., 2020. Exemplary and Unacceptable Workplace Communication Skills. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 83(4), pp.365-384. ). Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2329490620946425
Scholtz, D., 2020. Assessing workplace-based learning. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 21(1), pp.25-35. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1241256
Lennox, A. and Roos, F., 2017. Preparing students for the workplace–development of soft skills. Changing Business Environment: Gamechangers, Opportunities and Risks, pp.354-360. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nkosivile-Welcome-Madinga/publication/319715887_In-store_Shopping_Cart_Abandonment_An_Exploratory_Study/links/59bab8910f7e9b48a289b213/In-store-Shopping-Cart-Abandonment-An-Exploratory-Study.pdf#page=373
Rambe, P., 2018. Using work integrated learning programmes as a strategy to broaden academic and workplace competencies. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(1), pp.1-16. Available at: https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.999
Ferreira, N., 2021. Positive Coping Skills, Thriving and Social Connectedness: Are There Generational Differences in the Digital Workplace?. In Agile Coping in the Digital Workplace (pp. 79-98). Springer, Cham. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-70228-1_5
Jacobs, L. and Van Wyk, B., 2019. Engendering twenty-first century workplace literacy for the hospitality industry: exploring the role of the academic library. South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science, 85(1), pp.31-39. . Available at: https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.7553/85-1-1822
Marçal, I., Garcia, R.E., Eler, D. and Correia, R.C.M., 2020, February. A Strategy to Enhance Computer Science Teaching Material Using Topic Modelling: Towards Overcoming The Gap Between College And Workplace Skills. In Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 366-371). Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3328778.3366858
Soldo, S., 2021, September. DEFINITIONS AND MEASURES OF WORKPLACE LEARNING AND JOB SATISFACTION IN THE CONTEXT OF INDUSTRY 4.0. In DIEM: Dubrovnik International Economic Meeting (Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 191-203). ). Available at: https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=381006
Appendices
Appendix 1: CV
Name- Mr. Rahul Kumar Reddy Thadisina
Address- 55 Bagshot Road, Bracknell, Berkshire
Telephone Number- +44 7899 545044
Email Id- rahulreddy[email protected]
Experience- Worked as a Business Analyst at Cloud One Consultancy Services for 10 months from 15-10-2020 to 15-08-2021
Major Responsibilities- Inventory Analysis, Payment Module Overview, Payment Module Analysis, and Handling the members and other users data model, etc.
Key Skills-
- Good Communication Skills
- Leadership Skills
- Capacity to work in groups
Key Weaknesses-
- Bad Time Management Capacity
- Unsatisfactory Decision-Making Skills
- Inability to direct teams
Appendix 2: Work Placement Report
Background information on the Company– The company where the business analyst internship position was undertaken is called Cloud one Consultancy Services. This company has been there in the UK business world for quite a long time. This organization is mainly focused on providing various tailor-made business solutions to its various clients.
These clients are some of the benchmark companies of the United Kingdom. The fact of this organization being associated with some of the key business houses has given it an added advantage of establishing a name for itself besides fetching a lucrative income. The organization is constantly upgrading itself with the inclusion of innovative practices almost every day.
Position and responsibilities in the internship: The key role that has been discussed here was that of a business analyst. The responsibilities that were associated with this job were namely inventory processing, payment module analysis, users and members data model handling, and others.
Skills learned and Developed: Communication skills got highly developed after the internship. Other skills like financial awareness and data handling have also developed.
Conclusion and Considerations: The job role has filled some of the major deficiencies of simple academic learning. This internship has opened a lot of the skills that are required in the workplace as well. But the university courses should be more aligned with the courses to allow the students to derive full benefits from their internship opportunities.
This will make the students more job-ready to take up new opportunities in the job market. This will also ensure that the students get relevant knowledge as much as possible.
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
