Marwa Alsabbagh

201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930

Semester

Semester B 2013-2014

Course No.

GSP5203

Assessment Title

Second Assessment / Reflection 2

Tutors

Rhea Fitzpatrick

Weight

10 %

Late Rule

A penalty of 5% will be applied for each calendar day the assessment

is submitted late.

Due Date

14 December, 2014

Course Title

Student ID

201101638

Student Name

Marwa Alsabbagh

Time

Market Yourself

17:05 pm

By submitting this assessment for marking, either electronically or as hard copy, I confirm the
following:
This assignment is my own work.
Any information used has been properly referenced.
I understand that a copy of my work may be used for moderation.
I have kept a copy of this assignment.

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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930

Table of Contents
Reflection Assessment 2 .............................................................................................................. 3
References ................................................................................................................................... 8

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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930

Reflection Assessment 2
The aim of this course is to teach us how to market our selves in the real world to gain a job.
Writing a CV, cover letter and doing an interview was an excellent preparation for our future. I
have learned a lot from this experience and it provided me a large amount of information and it
would help me to decrease the stress in my future interviews.
Although I have a prepared CV before this course, I have found a way to enhance and organize
my information in the CV based on my tutors instructions. I deleted a lot of unnecessary
information were included in my CV. Also, I made my it in one format (before it has data in
tables and other are not, but then I deleted all tables and I organized it). Therefore, now it looks
more real, organized and rich of useful information about me and my skills so I can definitely
use it in my future to apply for a job. However, i have learned how to write a cover letter and
how to benefits from my knowledge and information about a company/organization by including
these information in the cover letter to impress the company/organization. Most of Bahraini
companies do not require a cover letter, but there is a possibility that I apply for a non-Bahraini
company thus it might help me in my future. In addition, it is always a good thing to practice and
prepare for all kinds of pre-job procedures that a person might face in future.

Doing a mock interview at this course was a clever idea to prepare the students well for their
future jobs. Although interviews are not difficult and they are just a few minutes test, most of
people including me get panic and nervous from it. Well, most of people having a trouble of
expressing their selves and usually talking about their personality is not easy for them. Also,
imagining that one test would evaluate my skills, experiences, and studies would either give me a
job or not can increases the stress. Therefore, people should practice and prepare their selves by
doing mock interviews which is what we have did during Market yourself course.

After this test I knew how to response to questions in the interview and how to show the good
side of my personality. Even if the question requires me to show the bad side of my personality I
should answer it and make it appears as strength or a lesson in my life, for instance; what is your
greatest weakness question?
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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930
Therefore, in my future interviews I would exactly know how to response and be clever in my
answers to impress who is interviewing me. Also, I can use cover letter template we took as well
as the CV I made in the future. However, during the interview I was not really comfortable for
my reasons. First, I was sick at the time of interview, and there were three people inside the room
which makes the interview more difficult to me. The reason of that, presence of three people
evaluating my responses and my body language make me feel more stressed and tense. As well
as being judged by people it was a new experience for me.

As I said previously, although interview only containing question about people personalities,
achievements, opinions and skills and it usually do not include any practical tests, it is really
tough for many people. As it is my first job interview at my life, I learned a lot about myself. It
sounds weird, but it is the reality. Usually I do not talk about myself in-front of others and maybe
because I did not really know myself very well. After practicing all interview questions I
discover a side of my personality that I was not ware about before. I discover that I am a hard
worker and a person who really love what she is doing. I realized that I am a self-learner and a
problem solver. Moreover, I knew my weaknesses and my strengths, also I realized that my
thinking is complex and I cannot be satisfied without attention to the small details of something I
really care about. All these specifications and characteristics have been discovered based on
interviews questions.
Thus, I realized that I was underestimating myself a lot and I do not really know the value of
myself and skills. Before, I always thought that there are better people than me out there, but I
realize now that I should focus on my personality and work out to enhance my skills and work on
my weaknesses to be a better person. For instance, I discover that I sometimes think in a
complex way which is really makes many things in my life complicated, even my assignments
and coding I prefer to do them in a complex hard way and trying to provide deep detailing. I do
not deny, this way of thinking helped me to get high marks at collage but I should be aware of it
in my real life. I should decrease my attention to the small details because it would make my life
more complicated. Moreover, my target now is practicing to think in a more simple way as well
as ignoring simple issues and not giving these issues more than they deserve to make my life
easier and to decrease the outcome stress of my thinking.
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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930
In addition, the simulated interview would absolutely help me to enhance my performance and
responses at future jobs interviews.

One more example, doing an interview with stranger people reminds me of meeting new people.
In this case, the difference might be practice and preparation. For the interview, I will absolutely
prepare myself, answers, CV and cover letter to impress the stranger employer to gain the job.
Unlike meeting other stranger people, there are many scenarios, i might or might not be prepared
to meet these people. I might not be dressed well, and I might meet them in weirdest strange
places. Moreover, meeting new people does not really require me to impress them to like me,
because we do not usually care if some people liked us or not. In addition, being late might not
be an issue with people, but at interview it is definitely a big deal and it could be a sign of a
careless employer. At regular meetings i can talk informally, about my feelings, values in life,
people i love/hate and my opinions comfortably to show the real me. At interviews, i should
think hard before any answer; all my answers should show the good side of me, I just should be
perfect at the interview!, which is not who I am.
I cannot be perfect because no one can. Each person has his own weaknesses and a dark side
personality. Even If I tried to be, I cannot because No one can be perfect all the time.
However, at interview all what I was trying to do is to show the good of me to impress, and push
them to take me. It is like what poets do; we should arrange and order good, embellished words
to impress audience. This all what interviews are about. It is like watermelon; it boasts, attract
people from the outside but you cannot ever know whether it taste good and red from the inside
until you open it! Thus interviews are all about being good and perfect but they cannot know the
real personality unless they tried the persons job and work with his/her.
At this part of reflection I would compare and contrast between the simulated job interview and a
text from Google How to prepare for a job interview. The text shows a list of advices for jobseekers to guides them to do well at job interviews. It shows three types of guides; before, during
and after job interview.

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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930
The text highlights important steps to do before the interview which are: researching about the
companys profile and background, preparing a question to ask the interviewer and practice with
a friend.
Our tutor told us to research well before the interview about PABCO because it is always good
to have a background about the place you are applying in. I research about PABCO and I used
the information in my cover letter. Also, the interviewer asked me about my interests in PABCO
and the industry. Therefore, the research helped me to answer in more professional way as well
as impressing the interviewer. Moreover, it gives a hint for the interviewer that I care, know and
have variety of information about this industry. However, i prepare a list of questions for the
interview. The text shows that my question should reflect my interests in future prospects or it
should be about what have been discussed during the interview itself. For me, I think I missed
this point as my question was not about the future interests it was about employment
responsibilities. I choose this question because at advertisement the responsibilities were not
declared. However, I practice in-front my mirror and a friend on my eye contacts, body
language, voice tone and my answers.
Second guides were about the day of interview. It highlights on simplicity as the job-seeker must
talk about what he/she really know. As he/she is talking and trying to convince a stranger that
he/she is qualified for the job. Therefore, the person should answers in short, simple and clear
way. At the simulated interview, I did not answer all questions in simple and short way. The
reason is, there are several of questions I did not really knew how to respond so I think I take a
key word from the question and started answering the question about the key word i take.
However, my answers were not so short because I have to explain and convince the interviewer
that I am good and qualified enough for the job.
Lastly, after the interview the text shows that job-seeker must shake hands the interviewer to
show him/her that you respect him/her. Also, it shows that interviewee should send a thank-you
letter after the interview to show your respect. At simulated interview, I did not shake hands any
ones for a variety of reasons. First, the interviewer was a man and in term to my religion I cannot
shake a stranger man hands. Moreover, I was so tense and nervous that is why I could not shake
hands the other interviewee at the room. Also, I did not send a thank letter as it is a simulated
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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930
test. In my perspective, the thanks letter would not change how the interviewer thinks about you
and it would not change their opinion of hiring you, so for me I will not send any letters in my
future.
At the end, the simulated interview helps me a lot to know myself better by realizing many
aspects of my personality. Also, it is a good preparation for my future job interviews and it
definitely would help perform and response good at my future interviews.

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Marwa Alsabbagh
201101638
Market Yourself / Second Reflection
Word count: 1,930

References
How to Prepare for a Job Interview. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from
http://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-for-a-Job-Interview

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