Evaluation
What should be in this page:
At the end of this project, I feel that I have learnt many valuable skills that I can use when preparing for a job. For example, my new skills in planning for an interview will give me confidence when speaking but will also make me appear professional when I show up to the interview. Learning the formal letter and C.V. skills where most helpful to me as when I come to write them I normally end up not being able to think of anything, however, now that I know what should be in them, I can get the information out quick and easily - this means that I am not wasting time that could be used on something else. I feel that I have improved in many aspects during this project, but my main one is that I have shown that I can work more with a team on a project to get a great outcome. In the future, I will use my new knowledge of interview techniques and telephone skills to sound more confident when I am speaking to people.
To conclude, this unit has been extremely helpful to me. I have learnt a lot of valuable, transferable skills that I will continue to improve upon in the future. My new target for future projects and work outside of college is to become more confident when speaking to people I do not know, as well as become more comfortable with group work as this will teach me to open up a little more and improve my wellbeing.
- Mock interview
- Training drama
- Formal letter
- Telephone call
- C.V.
- Online bio/ personal statement
- Conclusion
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Before the start of the project, I had only been to one interview and I wasn't very skilled in doing them. I understood body language and dressing formally was a important neccessity, but I didn't understand how to plan potential questions that the interviewer would ask me. However, after I learnt how to use the S.T.A.R. format in my answers it was a lot easier. In my research page, I started with one annswer which I used in my mock interview and got feedback from two of my peers and a teacher on which aspects I should aim to improve on before any upcoming interviews. They informed me that I need to try not to use as many discourse markers when explaining when I am trying to fill in the blanks of my answer. I found the University website which gives example questions that the interviewer is most likely to ask and started with answering those. This gave me an understanding of what to expect from the interviewer as well as practice with my friends and family in my spare time which meant that because I had practiced, I wasn't needing to fill in my answers with unnecessary discourse markers. The outcome of learning new skills for interviews meant that I was able to effectively plan for my University interview, which made me less nervous on the day and meant that I appeared more confident to the interviewer. Furthermore, it also came in handy as he asked me a two questions that I had prepared for in my research, meaning that I was not stuttering to find an answer and could deliver it clearly. Learning more skills for interviews has made me more confident and I hope that it will help me in the future.
The training drama activity was another effective way of learning new interview skills as it was primarily about the Do's and Don'ts of an interview. Additionally, it was also a useful way to learn what it is like to be given someone elses planning documents and be asked to take whats on the page and project it on to a screen - this is a very useful skill to have as it is primarily what the film business is like. It was interesting to take someone elses input (how they interpruted interviews and conversations) to create our own output as I am used to working on a projected soley. Whilst this project allowed me to expand on my knowledge of interviews, it also gave me more experience with green screens, editing and lighting. These are all aspects that I will need to use in the future for work and also college projects. Engaging in this activity is a huge positive for me as it means that I have learnt from my previous projects and I am improving on working as a team to create a final piece - I have taken someone elses work, worked with actors and crew members and then created my own final piece from the experience. This is a skill that I still wish to expand on but I know will be essential to me in the future.
My practice telephone call is not something that I needed to improve on but the research into how people do it professionally was very helpful. I feel that I didn't need to improve my telephones skills because the place that I work requires me to answer phone calls multiple times a day, resulting with me already having a lot of skills in this area. However, one of the main issues I have when speaking on the phone to a customer is my confidence and I often slack on doing one of the important steps when answering a phone call, which is to smile. I feel that if I smiled more it would improve the customers ovreall satisfaction after the phone call has ended. Furthermore, because I lack confidence whilst on the phone, if I smiled more it would improve my wellbeing as I will worry less about talking on the phone. Learning these skills and taking into account the area I need to improve on will benefit me in the future as a lot of jobs require people to make important phone calls.
Making my showreel was the most difficult aspect of this project for me. Having to locate all of the footage that would be used as an input for my showreel was easy as I have everything saved in one place, however, choosing the most relavant and eyecatching clips was difficult as I do not have much that I am proud of or want to see in a showreel. I began my planning by selecting clips and time stamping the parts that could be potentially used. Once I had finished this, I added them all to a timeline and placed them all roughly together. This was my first edit of my showreel and it allowed me to get a general idea of what my showreel would include and what it would flow like. I later added the music. This was important as it meant that I could now begin syncing the footage to be in time with the sound of the instrumental. Finally, with the graphics included, I finished my final edit and had a showreel that I am happy with. The outcome of my showreel is a lot better than I had enticipated as I did not think that I had much footage to begin with, I also really like the graphics that I used at the start of the showreel. Making this showreel has given me new skills in planning for them. Using time stamps and looking through the footage I have beforehand is extremely useful and less time consuming as it means that I am not skimming through all of the footage on the Adobe timeline trying to find the correct clip to use. This means that my planning was relevant to me as I got the possitive outcome that I was hoping for before I started creating my showreel.
My old C.V. was very out of date and I had only used Microsoft Word as the layout. Consequently, my C.V. would have no impact if it was given to a business that I wanted to be employed at. I decided to recreate it using a site called canva.com. They provide you with templates or you can create your own which was very helpful as I wasn't sure what type of style would suit me best. Updating my C.V. meant that I could add more recent achievements such as WorldSkills and being a class representative. It has also made me appear more professional as it shows that I have my own style, which could result in a wider impact and better first impression on the business when I give them my C.V..
A skill that I have had no experience in prior to this project was planning, laying out and creating a formal letter. In my research, I look into how to layout a formal letter and I also looked at three examples of how they are written. The idea of a formal letter is very useful for contacting a business about anything essential that I need to know, or if I want to approach them. This is good information to know for when I am interested in a job as it will allow me to speak to the business and offer them my C.V..
At first I found my personal statement (online bio) to be difficult as I am not good at selling myself to people. Because of this I began with a few bullet points of asspects that I wanted to include in my paragraphs and slowly began to expand on them. In the end I had done four drafts before I came to my final one and I feel that writing my personal statement improved my wellbeing as thought a lot about the things that I am good at and what I had achieved. Furthermore, sending my personal statement to the Universities game me a confidence boost as I recieved all of my offers back quickly from all of the Universities I was interested in. My statement is something that I can always improve upon and I am happy that I have created the base of one that will keep expanding.
At the end of this project, I feel that I have learnt many valuable skills that I can use when preparing for a job. For example, my new skills in planning for an interview will give me confidence when speaking but will also make me appear professional when I show up to the interview. Learning the formal letter and C.V. skills where most helpful to me as when I come to write them I normally end up not being able to think of anything, however, now that I know what should be in them, I can get the information out quick and easily - this means that I am not wasting time that could be used on something else. I feel that I have improved in many aspects during this project, but my main one is that I have shown that I can work more with a team on a project to get a great outcome. In the future, I will use my new knowledge of interview techniques and telephone skills to sound more confident when I am speaking to people.
To conclude, this unit has been extremely helpful to me. I have learnt a lot of valuable, transferable skills that I will continue to improve upon in the future. My new target for future projects and work outside of college is to become more confident when speaking to people I do not know, as well as become more comfortable with group work as this will teach me to open up a little more and improve my wellbeing.
FORMATIVE FEEDBACK
ReplyDeleteIntroduction : 2.2 You have created an effective online bio/personal statement.
Ideas : You have shown Training Interview and many professional ideas for careers in your future (web editor, graphic designer).
Research : 1.1 SWOT analysis is informed and critically evaluates action plan and individual ambitions. You have identified goals for the future upon analysis of your SWOT. 1.2 You have used progression route knowledge to make appropriate applications to HE and employment. Your explanation and independent research is sophisticated.
Planning : 3.1 You have relevant planning documentation for the training ‘competencies’ film detailing communication skills that supports your progression in self-promotion and presentation skills. You have improved over the weeks in this unit, Holly. Listen to peer advice in a team and gain feedback each week.
Production : 2.2 You have used a coherent range of communication skills to support own progression goals. Be sure to create mock interview, showreel, formal letter, 2020 CV, training drama and online bio/personal statement.
Evaluation : 2.1 You have critically evaluated a range of skills e.g. Interview technique, Personal statement, CV, to make applications within media production, HE or employment. You can use knowledge and understanding of your own promotional and presentational skills and have therefore reflected upon your personal statement, SWOT and some of your interview technique and identified where you need to work on these for your future. You have yet to detail that you used ‘STAR’ effectively and gone on to explain what these are and how are they are applied. Don’t forget to show all your referencing (books perhaps) and understanding in the future. What original research have you shown that independently informs your learning of the skills? (You have begun this research but please continue) Use the Rolfe et al model of reflection in all evaluative areas… and perhaps research Gibbs too?