A debrief of my Fashion in Practice journey is carried out using the GIBBS reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1998)
Description: What Happened?
During the first seminar session of my Fashion in Practice module I was introduced to the career capital framework. I learned that it refers to “the value of competencies, knowledge and individual personality attributes you have to produce economic value” (Holowitski, 2019). Through application of this framework, I could recognise my personal competencies in relation to my employability (Aytekin, et al., 2016).
Feelings: What were you thinking and feeling?
Since I am critical in nature, I found self-critique rather challenging. This also made it difficult for me to gauge my personal competencies. I felt confident with most abilities, scoring myself higher in creativity, digital literacy, and areas of ethical awareness. I doubted my competencies of being internationally networked, managing change and overall employability. I believe there is always room to improve, hence resulting in a lower score.
Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience?
Completing my own career capital framework was beneficial as it allowed me to identify areas of uncertainty. Self-evaluation is useful as I can now enhance my strengths and develop my weaknesses which will benefit me in terms of developing long-term skills (Ramdass & Zimmerman, 2008). However, analysing my inabilities was discouraging as it made me question my employability.
A negative to this activity was the judgemental aspect of self-doubt as it came with “shame-based self-criticism” (Halamová, et al., 2018).
Analysis: What sense can you make of the situation?
This experience of self-evaluation is of Bem’s self-perception theory as my critical behaviour influences my feelings around the situation (Bem, 1972). Since I kept being over-critical of myself, I made my perceived weaknesses much greater than they are. Thus, due to my negative and harsh critique I self-inflicted more anxieties around my weaknesses.
Conclusions: What could you have done differently?
I think I could have been less harsh on myself.
Self-critique is good for self-evaluation and identifying my strengths.
However, harsh self-judgement is a limiting factor as I lowered my confidence, resulting in inaccurate results of my career capital.
Action Plan: How will you approach a similar situation in the future?
In order to combat my weaknesses I plan to engage with industry relevant events. Attending shows such as Pure London is an opportunity to network with international individuals within the fashion industry. These shows feature talks on industry changes, which can reveal key insights into relevant industry knowledge. Consequently, this will increase my employability.
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