On February, 2013 I have started to do the research proposal template, as a starting point to the project. It has given me a clear understanding of what to expect. Everything that I have looked through the research template was fully related to the dissertation project as this has been the guideline for the dissertation structure. I have talked about my aims and objectives, literature review, primary and secondary research and problems that may arise and what could be the solutions to it. This has given me a guidance of how to make the project more interesting and full of ideas of how I will tackle my topic.

By March, at the very first week, I have done the research template and have it confirmed by my tutor, Jay. We were then asked to make our own questionnaires and interview questions; relating to our topic. My topic was "How internal and external stakeholders views affect Guess Jeans Company". I find this topic very interesting not just because I work in Guess Company, but also I think that they need to improve some areas in the company. Therefore, in order to do this, I will be asking people about what they think should be the problem and what can the business do to make Guess a better company? This will be an opportunity to know people's views and suggestions. I have done this for two and a half weeks; one week to do and confirm the questionnaire and interview questions another a week and a half distribute questionnaires to Guess's customers and employees together with interview question with the Manager.

For this part of the project, I have learned how to do statistics in the right way. I have done graphs in order to know how many people are agreeing with each others opinion, then the result can possibly the answer to the problem they are facing and might encounter in the future.

At the end of March, the class had the opportunity to show our tutor how our proposal is going to be. And by May we should be able to present our findings via power point presentation. I believe that I will be able to finish the project before May. It is necessary to spare more time in revising my dissertation in order to correct any grammar and spelling before the deadline. It is a lesson learned from other subjects and assignments that I have done few months ago; never leave the assignment too late as I will not have enough time to look through it and as a result I will get lower grade.

Doing this project has extended my knowledge in doing primary and secondary research. It has been very helpful in developing skills as this subject is related to the pathway I will be taking in University and wanted to pursue in the future, as a Marketing Research Executive.

For this section of our last session for assignment 1; we have tackled on how to plan our future career effectively. I have managed to complete and identify what are my plans and goals for the future; after I graduated a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing. Doing this task allow me to have focus on my aims and objectives in order to achieve my goal. Having a successful career is important as this is a way of achieving all my dreams for my personal life such as having my own Mortgage in London, having to travel in other countries and many more. It is better to plan and have an idea of what you really want to be in the future so that you know what qualifications and requirements you need to get in order to get a professional job quickly.

I have included to do volunteering or internship as there is high demand on experience; to be a Marketing Executive. On this profession, it's not enough to have just the qualifications needed but also the personality, skills and most important experience. I will have a lot of competition in getting this job, therefore I need to plan beforehand. I will take internship with or without pay as experience in Marketing is a key to stand my CV out of the others that have just graduated too.

Career Research Pathway

For this section of the lesson we have tackled the differences between Job advert, Job description and Person Specification. It is crucial that I understand these areas very well as it plays a big role for my future job. This is related to marketing and Human resources (both of these are my potential jobs in the future) i.e. in advertising the jobs as it needs to be well structured in a formal way.

For job advert I have learned that it is important for it to be informative to easily catch the eye of the potential candidates for the position. It needs to include the date when you posted the job advert, if it's permanent temporary, expected salary and might as well add the benefits and bonus to make it more outstanding. It is also important that I will give an excellent brief/summary about the job to let the people know more about the job and the company. It is another way of showing how exciting to work in company and job position I am to advertise.

Whilst in Job description I will need to be detailed and specific towards what people needs to expect about the job. I need to put every single responsibility as possible to prevent conflicts and misunderstanding when hiring people.

Lastly for Job specification, I need to be honest and informative on the details I am putting on the advert as this will be the criteria to get the right person for the job. It is important that I clearly understand what kind of individual I am looking for/ the company is looking for. An example to this will be defining what king of characteristics he/she must have, qualifications and skills.

This video is an example of how to make a better job advertisement. It includes tips which will is crucial in making your first and very own job advertisement.

Searching for the jobs related to my business pathway in different websites was a good start of planning for the future. This has given me an idea of my goals and how I can plan finding the right job for me after I graduate. The exercise has shown that with the right focus and determination to find the right job for me; I will be able to find wide range of sources.

The 10 core competences

This section is very helpful in building my personal ethics, management and in developing my goals in life.

• Personal Management- At the present I have been improving my personal management such as time, finances and priorities in life. This area helps me to recognise strengths and weaknesses to make improvements. 
• Communication- I have been learning the qualities I need to have in order to achieve a better communication skills. Knowing this will be very helpful in my academic, personal and career life as this will always be one of the most important skill they are looking for especially in looking for job.
• Managing information- Reviewing and exploring the aspects of this area makes me realize that I just don't need to meet deadlines. I also need to review, and apply variety of ideas on my piece of work especially put acknowledgements on the sources I use to prevent plagiarism.
• Research and Analysis- I have been practising this on my day to day basis and therefore I just need to gain more knowledge and experience to be able to make improvements and better progress.
• Project, task and organisational skills- In order to meet deadlines on my career and academic life; I need to make sure that I will have back-ups and use range of assessment techniques to monitor projects and tasks. This has given me a further thought for the future tasks and projects therefore I need to expand my knowledge through reading books and articles.
• Teamwork- Building teamwork comes with a lot of complications. In order to make an effective and dynamic team in the future I need to follow the requirements needed for this section such as accept and provide feedback in a constructive and considerate way.
• Commitment to quality- This made me realize that I will always need to be aware of everything I do, such as improve my work practices and pay attention to the quality of work. This is crucial as every work I submit at work and at university gives a big impact in my present and future life.
• Personal behaviour-Developing my professional behaviour from the College gives me an opportunity to grow and improve appropriate manner for my future job position/s. 
• Social responsibility-This area makes me realize to think twice before making a final decision towards the things I do. 
• Continuous learning- I will also need to include this section onto the things I need to do at the present to the future. This is one of the most important aspect of the competences that I need to do forever. 



This is a very efficient link to look at in setting your personal goals.

Swain Analysis

Swain Analysis

My probable chosen business pathway would be Marketing as I have high interest in researching and putting my ideas together about a certain project. This pathway will be best to choose as it will always give challenge and motivate me to work hard. I will be motivated and wiser in managing my time as for the reason there will always be a deadline (time and date) as of when I must submit my completed work.

Marketing research Analyst will always be in the fields of research; understanding of demographics and making questionnaires. I will have to be creative and proactive as urgency and time management will be most needed. I am  aiming for this position/job in the future as I know that in this pathway; I will grow and expand my knowledge towards business.

Later, after having a vast experience in marketing my next step is to study Human Resource Management. Taking this business pathway gives me security on employment as I will ahve back up knowledge on other aspect of business in case marketing won't work out for me. I am aiming to have both Marketing and Human Resources degree and be working for a company (with a very good salary to support my lifestyle and earn money to build my own business) in five years time.

This is a brief example of what SWAIN analysis is. It is important for an individual to know what his/her Swain analysis as it helps a lot to make you realize what you're main goals and priorities in life. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses gives me an idea what areas I am good at and what needs improvement. It is very useful that I know these things in a youngage whilst I am still studying in the College so that I know what Business pathway to take in university. Aspirations, Interests and Needs gives me knowledge of what my priorities are and what areas I need to prioritize in order to achieve my goals. Filling up my needs made me realize I need to budget each penny I have for day-to-day living and what qualifications I need to be a qualified candidate for the position I want to be in the future. This includes a lot of retail, voluntary experience and anything that relates with interacting with a variety of people to boost confidence.

Now, I have an idea towards the career I want for the future and what skills and personalities I need to improve and develop in order to achieve this.

 

 

 

24th of Sepetember 2012, First day of session 1 for Module Profession Practice. Here, we have started the session with creating an account with different sites such as blog and livebinder. Creating an account to these sites is a very good start for me as it will lessen the hustle of organising the things (sites and documents) I need to complete the tasks for this module.

Livebinder helps us to be more organized and put our activities and tasks together. This is another source of saving my work (replacement or back up other than my pen drive). It is a very helpful site as it will help me to work anywhere and at any point of the day. Creating subtitles made my livebinder more specific and neat. Therefore when I need to make a research about SWAIN analysis I know where to find it, as I will have my links and documents in it.

Jay also showed us how the scheme of work can help us towards completing our tasks in the future. Paper rater is a very helpful site which guides the students about plaigiarism.  This site, I can use before submitting my completed work to my tutor. This is crucial as it shows how much percentage or if I over copied work from other sites. Additionally the links shown on the scheme of work such as CIPD, AAT, CIMA and so on... are the links where I can get information for the future tasks.

In general, this is a great day to start the module and 2nd year of the FDA Business Management. I have learned a lot today and made notes so I know where to go, what to do and where to save my work in the future. The sites Jay have shown us gives me a lot of confidence as it has given me a clue and know what to expect about the module.