Table Of ContentSkills for Success
Personal Development and Employability
3rd edition
Stella Cottrell
Text © Stella Cottrell 2003, 2010, 2015
Illustrations © Stella Cottrell and Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2003, 2010, 2015
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified
as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
First edition 2003
Second edition 2010
Third edition published 2015 by
PALGRAVE
Palgrave in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street, London N1
9XW.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave is a global imprint of the above companies
and is represented throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978-1-137-42652-9
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Printed in China
Contents
List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v Part 2 Managing people and
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi tasks 129
Introduction 1 5 People skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131
Getting started; Personal development planning Evaluating your skills; Developing rapport,
(PDP); Making the right choices; Taking and listening skills and mutual trust; Team
making opportunities; How it fits together work; Action sets; Constructive criticism;
Assertiveness; Dealing with difficult people;
Negotiating; Leadership
Part 1 Self-management 2 5
6 Successful problem-solving and task
management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
1 The vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Evaluating your skills; Basic approaches and
Defining success; Personal influences, key steps to task management; Problem-
inspiration and values; Vision, goals and solving approaches and techniques; Goals,
motivation; Personal investment; Ingredients criteria, priorities, targets, action plans and
of success; Congruence and goal inertia; time planning; Starting and completing
Taking and making opportunities tasks; Projects; Performance indicators and
benchmarks; Competitiveness
2 Know yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Your life narrative; Your top forty successes;
Part 3 Extend your thinking 191
Your learning history; Responding to setbacks;
The Expertise Metaphor; Using personal
expertise 7 Thinking outside the box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
Evaluating your creative thinking skills;
3 Understanding your personal
Using your brain; Creative problem-solving
performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 techniques; Working with raw material;
Your personal performance and learning Creativity and risk taking
SHAPE; Evaluating factors in personal
performance; Your personal performance 8 The art of reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
profile; Identifying your Personal Performance Reflection in everyday life, in PDP and as a
Formula; Task-specific performance factors practitioner; What is ‘reflection’? Evaluating
your own skills in reflection; Basic steps for
4 Successful self-management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 reflection; Types of structured reflection;
SWOT analysis; Personal resources; Time Transferring skills; ‘Critical events’; Using
management; Attitudes; Responsibility, feedback; Models of reflection; Developing
self-belief and solution-focused thinking; your own model for reflection; Presenting
Emotional intelligence; Managing distress, your reflection to others
change, confusion and uncertainty; The Eight
Levels framework
Contents iii
Part 4 Employability: enhancing Resource Bank
your career prospects 247
Full contents of the Resource Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333
9 What do employers really want? . . . . . . . . . .249 Appendix 1: Applications for success . . . . . . . . . . . . .383
What is employability? Put yourself in the
employers’ shoes; What employers want; Appendix 2: Useful websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385
Translating academic skills for the workplace: References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .387
Writing skills; Communication skills; Oral
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .391
communication skills; People skills; Task
management skills; Self-management ‘skills’;
Being your own employer
10 Getting the job you want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .271
Career planning; Models of career
development; Gaining experience of work;
Make effective use of your experience of work;
What do you want from your first ‘graduate’
job? Choosing a job; What do you want
from an employer? Plan ahead; When to use
the Careers Service; Presenting yourself to
employers
11 Maintaining good personal records . . . . . .311
Making use of personal records; Making the
application; Preparing for the interview
12 Drawing it together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323
Recognising personal changes; Using the
reflective process; Raising the game; Attitude
to challenge
iv Skills for Success
List of abbreviations
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CPD continual professional development
CV curriculum vitae
CVCP Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals
HE Higher Education
HEI Higher Education Institutions
IiP Investors in People
PDP personal development planning
PI performance indicators
QAA Quality Assurance Agency
List of abbreviations v
Acknowledgements
For this edition, I offer especial thanks to the following for their contributions to Chapter 10: Femi Bola
MBE, Director of Careers and Employability, University of East London; Joanne Beaumont, Head of
Careers and Employability, University of Bradford; Dr Bob Gilworth, Director of College Careers Services,
University of London Careers Group; and Mohammed Hussain, Academic Guidance Officer, University of
Leeds.
The author and publishers would also like to thank the following who have kindly given permission for
the use of copyright material:
Shell (p. 254); Juergen Maier, Chief Executive, Siemens Industry UK (p. 257), and Danella Bagnall, Vehicle
Architecture Planning Director, Jaguar Land Rover (p. 259), in The Guardian UK 300; Donna Miller,
European HR Director, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, in Which? University; Travers Smith LLP (p. 258); Tesco PLC
(p. 262); RDS, a KCA Deutag Company (p. 263); and Heinz Company (p. 264).
vi Skills for Success
Introduction: taking charge of
your life, learning and career
Shaping your future
• What would ‘success’ look like for you – as a student, in life and in your future career?
• What skills, experience and personal qualities would you need in order to achieve such success?
• Why do personal development and forward planning matter for your career prospects?
• What is meant by ‘employability’? What do employers look for?
• How can you improve your personal performance and profile so that you ‘stand out from the
crowd’?
This book helps you consider such matters so that you can start planning effectively towards your
future – even if you don’t know for sure quite what you want .
What kind of future? Make it happen
Your time as a student is a major step in your 1 Aspire . Be ambitious for yourself . Aim high,
professional career . considering the portfolio of jobs you might
have over many years .
When you graduate, you will be competing with
2 Investigate . Be well informed about the range
millions of other graduates from around the
of career and life options open to you – and
world . Like you, they will be looking to stand
how to access these .
out in a graduate employment market that is
now global . The time you spend now in gaining 3 Reflect . Increase your self-awareness: develop
a good degree, in nurturing your talents and good habits of introspection, self-evaluation
building a distinctive personal profile, can make and self-questioning . Become more attuned to
the difference in how far you what matters most to you .
achieve the life you want .
4 Decide . Put time aside to think through the
implications of potential choices – and then
choose a direction . Make decisions, as this
brings focus to your planning and studies .
5 Plan . Map out what to do to have a good
chance of achieving the life, career and
academic success you want .
6 Personalise . Adapt your strategies to suit your
individual combination of skills, strengths,
experiences, interests, needs, preferences and
style .
7 Achieve . Follow through on your plans,
adapting these to suit changes in your interests
and ambitions .
Introduction 1
Getting started: initial steps
Step in the process Rationale
Read Getting started: the This provides you with some general tips for getting the most
foundations (page 3) from personal development planning (PDP) and from this book .
▼ ▼
Find out what is meant by This looks at why personal development planning is considered
personal development planning so important in higher education, and its relevance to your own
(pages 4–6) life .
▼ ▼
Consider the challenges PDP doesn’t tend to happen spontaneously, as we can see from
(pages 8–9) the students’ experiences on pages 8–9 . Give thought to where
the challenges would lie for you – so you can address them .
▼ ▼
Identify the benefits Typically, we tend to put off PDP and need to motivate
(pages 10–11) ourselves to give it the time it deserves . This can be helped by
identifying the personal benefits .
▼ ▼
Do I need personal development Complete the self-evaluation on page 12 as a means of
planning? (page 12) beginning to identify your development needs .
▼ ▼
Identify your priorities Complete the self-evaluation on pages 13–15, to tease out in
(pages 13–15) more detail your PDP priorities .
▼ ▼
Make use of opportunities Give active consideration to what opportunities are available to
(pages 16–17) you, which you can make use of, and what you could create for
yourself .
▼ ▼
Develop a sense of how it all fits Read pages 18–23 to develop your understanding of how the
together different aspects of personal development planning fit together,
(pages 18–23) the skills you will need, and what you can gain from the
different chapters in this book .
▼ ▼
Select, reflect and list Choose one or more key priorities for yourself . Decide what the
first steps are for taking these forward . Make a detailed ‘To do’
list of these .
▼ ▼
Plan into a diary Use your diary, calendar or planner to map out when, exactly,
you will undertake the first few actions .
2 Skills for Success
Getting started: the foundations
1 Give it time 5 Reflect
Be prepared to give yourself the time you Find a light notebook or set up a file or folder on a
need to investigate, reflect upon and evaluate portable device, for use as a ‘reflective journal’ . If you
yourself, your studies and your future . prefer, use a diary, log, blog, ‘ideas book’ or portfolio,
or use the e-resource bank that accompanies this text .
2 Engage
Use your reflective journal to:
Bring the right mindset: be prepared to think,
• complete reflective activities from the book
plan and act now for outcomes that might be
• capture your insights and inspiration
many years away . In practice this means such
things as: • develop your initial thoughts in more detail
• Taking responsibility for your future: it is • consider your attitudes, feelings and behaviours,
up to you to think things through and take and the implications of these for you and others
action • identify helpful and unhelpful responses to events
• Engaging with the seven aspects of the • look back over earlier entries and consider how your
process listed on page 1 perspective changes over time
• Finding out as much as you can about your • generally think things through .
options
Giving attention to your experiences in such
• Making decisions to give a focus to your ways helps to clarify your thinking and
planning and actions understanding . Put time aside regularly to make
• Using the tools available, such as the self- entries in your journal and to look back over
evaluation questionnaires, reflections and previous entries .
other activities in this book
• Monitoring your progress and keeping
yourself on track
• Keeping updated records to demonstrate
your skills and experience .
3 Experiment
Bring thought and self-awareness to the
process:
• Have a go at using resources, strategies,
models and activities that are available in the
book and through your college or workplace .
• Combine and adapt these to suit you .
• Find out what works best for your
circumstances and ways of thinking .
4 Select and personalise
• Identify chapters and sections relevant to you .
• Use these in the order that best suits you .
• Notice whether you resist undertaking
particular activities . Such resistance can be a Thandi struggled under the weight of an active
good indicator that you need those most . imagination, carefully noted on a daily basis
Introduction 3
