I have been fortunate enough to have multiple opportunities to apply knowledge and skills acquired in class in work-related situations. However, since I am only a student and have no proper qualifications to exercise my knowledge and skills in an actual professional field, my work experience has mostly been based on volunteerism. Working while a student has been an immense learning experience on the fundamentals of professionalism. My most recent job, which is the closest to being a professional human resource practitioner, was the most enjoyable. I was a university student affairs council in my former institute.
Being a university student affairs council is quite a demanding task. The student affairs council is a unit within the department of services and support created to enhance student growth and development in higher learning. Therefore, I was a professional dedicated to supporting personal and academic growth and development among students. More specifically, I organized annual events such as sports, culture day, and national day for the university as my primary responsibility. The events attracted a significantly higher number of participants and received multiple compliments for the deliverables. The job also involved acting as a part-time tutor for high school students. As a part-time tutor, my responsibility was mainly to help students improve their academic performances.
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Generally, since student affairs involve guiding students in a wide range of aspects related to their pursuit of higher learning, the position requires competent individuals. The common majority of such posts demand at least a master’s degree from a recognized learning institution. However, I was employed temporarily and as a student. There were no educational qualifications or prior work experience required, apart from being a senior student at the university and exceptional at my grades. The skills needed for the position include leadership, communication, evaluation, research, human facilitation, education, and management. The skills above were essential because being a student affairs professional is an administrative task geared more towards hands-on experience.
Leadership skill was particularly crucial in fulfilling the roles and responsibilities of the position satisfactorily. For instance, it was necessary to demonstrate leadership in critical areas such as decision-making, accountability, conflict management, and motivation. Leadership coupled with human facilitation and communication played a vital role in fulfilling the primary responsibilities of the work. Being a part-time tutor for high school students was primarily a work-oriented procedure, as class sources suggest. Therefore, it required management, research evaluation, and communication as core competencies. I excelled at the task because I possessed and displayed excellent abilities and skills needed for the job. I understood I required to exemplify professionalism even in the most challenging situations.
A classic example where I used my skills, abilities, and competencies to perform my duties was organizing an annual sports event. The institution has a tradition of hosting annual sports events, which are usually the biggest event of the university. I was faced with the challenging task of deciding when, where, what sports, and who would participate in the event. I had personal preferences on sports and personalities. I wanted to be featured in the event, which would contradict popular demand. I had to learn to be a professional by incorporating fundamental aspects of decision-making as included in course materials. I understood that, as a leader, there was no room for bias or mistakes. Therefore, my decision was based on a conceptual criterion that stresses fulfilling the needs and expectations of the students and other stakeholders. The event turned out a success.
The most exciting and enjoyable aspect of being a student affairs council was working with students towards their personal and professional development. Being part of a team dedicated to ensuring student success in their academic endeavours and extracurricular activities is highly fulfilling. For instance, assisting high school students in improving their grades was the most satisfying part of the job. Most high school students dream of joining a reputable higher learning institution, including Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford. What usually gets in their way of achieving this dream is academic performance. Frequently, they try their best, but it always is not enough. My motivation to see them succeed made sure I evaluated each student, learned their strengths and weaknesses, and tailored learning solutions that met their needs.
The course materials define job design as an outline of tasks, duties, and responsibilities into a single unit of work. More simply, a job design is essentially a group of related activities and responsibilities. That said, I found every aspect of my job fulfilling. My job description only had two responsibilities that centered on enhancing students' personal and academic development. In as much as the tasks were fulfilled, I felt changes were needed, especially in organizing annual events. The reason for modification is that the job was hectic, considering I lacked prior experience and in-depth knowledge on matters in the specific position.
Being a university student affairs council was a rewarding position in my earlier professional practice. Even though not a recognized work field as far as my educational qualifications and experience are concerned, it was a learning experience into the journey of professionalism. The position played a critical role in surfacing some of my hidden valuable skills such as leadership, communication, people facilitation, and management. I also had an opportunity to apply what I had studied in class regarding human resource and other disciplines into practice.
