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SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET
STUDENT DETAILS

Student name: Thu Hang Cao (Anthea) Student ID number: 19669452

UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS

Unit name: The Service Enterprise Unit number: 200915

Tutorial group: Tutorial day and time: Tuesday 9:00 AM
Lecturer or Tutor name: Karen Walsh

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Title: Reflection
Length: 1000 words Due date: 5 June, 2020 Date submitted: 5 June, 2020
Home campus (where you are enrolled): Parramatta City

DECLARATION

 I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.

 I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or
from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
 I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in another (previous
or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and with prior permission from the
Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit.
 No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except where
collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit Coordinator concerned.
 I am aware that this work will be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the
purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism
checking).

Student’s signature: Anthea Cao

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REFLECTION

by Thu Hang (Anthea) Cao

The Service Enterprise

Karen Walsh

Western Sydney University

5 May, 2020
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Evaluate Significance

As graduation day nears and with the nation still gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, the
prospects of carving out a career path for myself in future a filled with uncertainty has left me
overwhelmed. That the university, despite seemingly insurmountable hurdles, has
meticulously planned and put together this series of talks and interactive activities to prepare
us for the journey ahead, is something for which I am deeply grateful. Hearing seasoned
industry professionals address salient issues that are close to our hearts has eased many of my
fears and reservations, and introduced me to exciting new ideas and sources of opportunities.
The activities and talks have prompted me to rethink my approach to career success and
personal growth. Above all, they have helped me understand more about myself. The most
significant conclusion I have gleaned from the activities is that there is no definitive formula
for absolute employability or success. In that sense, I now see employability a journey of
self-improvement, rather than a destination, and recognise that I myself am simply
somewhere on the learning curve.

Reconstruct the experience

One of the more salient topics in the networking activities for me is the discussion around
future-proofing one’s career – in particular, the idea that jobs have diminished in their role as
an indicator of labour market strength, and capabilities are the new currency (Bowles 2020). I
have always considered the looming reality of AI and automation as an insidious, but
unavoidable, threat to employment prospects. That the solution to overcoming this threat
would not be to defeat the machines, but rather to reconcile with our more human nature
through identification and augmentation of fundamentally human skills, such as leadership,
communication, and empathy, is a fascinating and illuminating concept.

In my opinion, the most significant point in the series of networking activities is the dialogue
surrounding the importance of energy management, personal well-being, and happiness as
prerequisites to productivity and success (Achor 2011). Like most, I tend to think of work as
something to be kept entirely separate from personal life, as a responsibility and necessary
burden. Understanding how work can be an intimate part of an individual’s journey of self-
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betterment, and that happiness and mental well-being can improve one’s quality of work and
elevate one’s employability is, for me, a moment of revelation.

Analysis: Why did it happen that way?

The journal article on Graduate identity and Employability (Hinchliffe & Jolly 2011) has
been instrumental for me in interpreting the learning activities. Graduate employability is
found to be more than a rigid collection of aptitudes, and augmenting employability requires
ongoing reflection of one’s strengths, values and past experiences. In that sense, it is apt for
the learning activities to cover such a broad range of topics and scope, from practical to
spiritual, to examine areas deserving of consideration and reflection. The learning activities
do not present the development of employability as a checklist of actions to be undertaken,
rather a combination of interconnected dimensions to be expanded upon. This, coupled with
the arguments presented in the journal article “The Key to Employability” (Pool & Peter
2007) supports the assumption that the concept of perfect employability is non-existent, and
there is always room for growth. One should therefore approach employability not as a
destination, but as a life-long learning process. Mental well-being factors in as well, and
psychologist Shawn Achor’s TED talk on happiness being the key element to better quality of
work (Achor 2011) resonate strongly with entrepreneur Rohilesh Singh’s discussion on
harnessing joy and from work and letting that positive energy translate into motivation in a
continuous feedback loop (Singh 2020).

Distil: What lessons can be learned?

Although the obstacles ahead seem boundless, it helps to be reminded that I am not without
assistance; multiple online tools and networking platforms such as LinkedIn can help connect
me to people in my chosen field and bolster my learning process (Austin 2020). On a similar
note, academia, extra-curricular activities, internships, and networking are the most common
and generally infallible building blocks of employability (Holland 2020). However, the single
most constructive insight I have gleaned from the learning experience is that each individual
is calibrated differently, and therefore have unique perspectives on what constitutes as
success and draws upon different sources of strength to achieve that success (Pool & Peter
2007). There is no simple recipe to employability applicable to every graduate; to unearth a
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pathway most suitable to myself requires an ongoing exploration of my own passions,
strengths, intentions and motivations (Hinchliffe & Jolly 2011). Developing employability is,
therefore, intrinsic to personal growth. To assist this exploration, the processes of
introspection and continuous reflection are invaluable tools (Pool & Peter 2007). Recognising
the importance of managing my own energy and practicing a positive mindset are also one of
my key takeaways from the learning experience (Singh 2020).

Apply: Prepare for future situations

Keeping in mind the utility of online tools and the importance of networking, I will apply
myself to augmenting and updating my LinkedIn profile and activities to build
communication skills and leverage personal branding, per the instruction videos by Dr.
Heather Austin (2020). Knowing now that cultivating capabilities and are more important
than ensuring a portfolio of strictly relevant job experiences (Bowles 2020), I will endeavour
to be more open-minded to new opportunities and make the most out of them, as they can
translate to invaluable skills and learning experiences. Moreover, in an effort to explore and
reinforce my own areas of strength and potential, as well as equipping myself with
marketable skillsets and knowledge (Holland 2020), I will undertake a number of online
courses on business-oriented subjects, and follow relevant industry blogs and news articles.
In addition, being aware of the fact that the cultivation of employability necessitates a healthy
mindset and robust energy, I am compelled to foster my own mental well-being and nourish a
positive attitude through daily meditations and self-reflection (Singh 2020). Above all, I am
committed to practicing kindness towards others, and towards myself. The journey ahead
may be fraught with adversity and ambiguity; however, with the right mentality and the right
tools, I feel confident that I will persevere and emerge victorious.
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References

Achor, S 2011, The happy secret to better work, TEDxBloomington, May 8, online video,
viewed 1 June 2020, < https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret-
to_better_work?referrer=playlist-work_smarter>

Austin, H 2020, How to Get Started on LinkedIn in 2020, 4 February, online video, viewed 1
June 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG4NF-
2tt4c&amp;list=RDCMUClRtX8MEkJrTzELu_1SFQwg&amp;start_radio=1&amp;t=12>

Bowles, M 2020, Future Proof Careers for Business Graduates and Professionals, 29 May,
online video conference, viewed 1 June 2020, < https://westernsydney.ap-
panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=db62ae76-c2b5-4f11-8f3e-
abc700db8864&autoplay=false&offerviewer=false&showtitle=false&showbrand=false&start
=0&interactivity=none>

Hinchliffe, GW & Jolly, A 2011, ‘Graduate identity and employability’, British Educational
Research Journal, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 563-584

Holland, R 2020, How employable are you, May 29, online video conference, viewed 1 June
202, <https://westernsydney.ap.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Embed.aspx?id=-7219f505-
805a-4cfc-9d8e-abc700e19ebc&autoplay=false&offerviewer=false&-
showtitle=false&showbrand=false&start=0&interactivity=none>

Pool, LD & Peter, S 2007, ‘The key to employability: Developing a practical model of
graduate employability’, Education and Training, vol. 49, no. 4, pp 277-289.