Introduction
Any student should gain work experience to know what to expect when searching for employment. This essay is devoted to my internship experience at Al Habtoor Motors, its perceived practical effectiveness, the degree to which my goals have been achieved, and success-related attitudes valued in this organization. In order to make the reflections more practically relevant, improvement strategies helping to upgrade performance in particular areas are defined.
Goals
The first goal that has been set is to gain knowledge of services, businesses, and operations at Al Habtoor Motors, one of the market leaders in the UAE (“About Al Habtoor Motors,” n.d.). In reference to this goal, I would give myself an A since I have managed to get acquainted with a lot of materials and reports devoted to the organization’s strategy and the way that its departments cooperate. In particular, the organization values teamwork, and I was welcome to communicate with department leaders in case of any questions. From confidentiality considerations, the information on the company’s internal operations should not be discussed openly. In terms of the improvement strategy, it is possible to achieve greater results by researching the organizational structures of the key UAE automotive market players.
The next goal is related to the development of interpersonal skills. Frankly speaking, I would give myself a B because I still see important areas of improvement related to communication with clients. As for colleagues and managers, we all use the same terminology and can explain anything in great detail if necessary. In reference to customers, I do not have significant problems when talking to them and offering them the company’s products since my communication and persuasion skills are quite good. However, I may need to gain more knowledge of automobile manufacturing processes because I feel that some clients pay attention to my automotive literacy when making decisions (for instance, they ask me about my personal experience with products). To sound more convincing, it can be necessary to start self-learning and communicate with technical specialists.
The third goal that I have set relates to the ability to apply theoretical knowledge and skills to practical situations. In general, I did not make any serious mistakes when carrying out my duties related to paperwork, filling invoices, and working with proposal documents. The ability to fulfill these and other tasks properly heavily depends on the degree to which the company’s corporate culture is understood. I have managed to apply a range of concepts related to organizational behavior to understand my position in the hierarchy and accept constructive criticism peacefully. Thus, I would give myself an A, but it is possible to improve performance even more by becoming more innovative during further work. To me, introducing innovations requires a lot of practical experience.
The fourth goal that has been formulated involves improving technical business skills and gaining practical knowledge of tools helping to conduct market research. During the work, I actively use MS Excel and less popular applications to create spreadsheets and organize data, and this experience has helped me to discover new opportunities to produce statistical data and, therefore, generalize on the company’s financial situation (Siegel, 2016). Given that I learn new practical skills quickly, I would give myself an A. However, considering the nature of my duties, I use only a limited number of business tools. To improve my knowledge, even more, it can be important to use new tools such as Google Analytics to better understand customers’ needs and reflect this information in business proposals.
Success-Related Attitudes
Observing the company’s organizational culture and the work of my supervisors, I have singled out four success-related attitudes that employees are expected to have to grow professionally: integrity, emotional intelligence (EI), open-mindedness, and being open to continuous learning. As for the first pair of attitudes, I think that I deserve two As since I do not let my personal interests interfere with decision-making and manage to control my emotions to avoid work-related conflicts. In terms of integrity, I avoid making decisions when information is scarce – to prevent negative outcomes for other employees, I would prefer to spend time conducting research. As for EI, I actively use these skills when working with clients because there are many concerns that they fear to express explicitly. A good strategy helping to improve integrity would involve reducing the impact of personal matters on job performance and using self-awareness exercises to discover harmful behaviors or mindsets. To improve EI, it is pivotal to strengthen social skills, criticize yourself, and become less susceptible to stress (Segon & Booth, 2015).
The second pair of attitudes, open-mindedness and the readiness to learn, is also extremely important for my job performance. As for open-mindedness, I would give myself a B because I overutilized my past experience at the very beginning of my internship. The strategy that I have used to become more open-minded involves learning more about the distinctive features of the organization and its unique values. In terms of the final attitude, I would give myself an A since I have demonstrated the readiness to acquire new knowledge on a daily basis. Frankly speaking, every day at Al Habtoor Motors is full of discoveries related to business documents and consumer communication, and I have to read a lot to acquire new practical skills. However, to become even closer to success, it is important to become more critical to one’s knowledge, set clear expectations, and use mistakes as motivators.
Conclusion
In the end, this experience has been instrumental and helpful. The use of self-assessment practices has helped me to identify areas of improvement and well-developed skills. The conclusions that I provide in this essay will be extremely important in my further career development.
References
About Al Habtoor Motors. (n.d.). Web.
Segon, M., & Booth, C. (2015). Virtue: The missing ethics element in emotional intelligence. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(4), 789-802.
Siegel, A. (2016). Practical business statistics (7th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier.