AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO SELF-PRESENTATION FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES IN A VIDEO FORMAT

Abstract

In this age of digitalisation, of sudden changes and of globalisation, well developed and refined self-presentation skills are a crucial advantage when it comes to finding a high-quality job immediately after graduation. An ever-increasing number of employers use online tools to search and select their employees. Thus, in addition to the traditional job recruitment websites that provide the opportunity for direct recruitment, employers often use "indirect" methods, searching their future employees among candidates - specifically individuals who are present and visible in the online environment or have been recommended by others, who are not actively pursuing a new job at the moment. Aside from searching on social media, blogs, and other links that include the name of the prospective candidate, more and more employers will use, as recruitment method, a Skype interview and/or will request a self-introduction video presentation. Despite being avid users of internet, a significant number of young people are not yet sufficiently versed in the use of such techniques, and often find it difficult to introduce themselves as valuable candidates during the first interviews in their career, thus missing very good job offers, despite being well qualified professionally. These are the main reasons which, in our opinion, bode well for the preparation of a "Guide" meant to teach students how to introduce themselves and highlight their professional strengths even before having completed their studies, by using new means of communication in the virtual environment, which are nowadays available to almost anyone. To this end, by considering principles drawn from the field of psychology, as well as psychotherapy, marketing, and management of human resources, our paper aims to develop an introductory guide for online self-presentation for professional purposes, which could be used as a tool for improving the self-presentation skills of students within the Career Counselling and Orientation Centres in universities. But not lastly, this tool, meant to be used by professionals in the field of career counselling and orientation, could also serve as a self-reflection technique for a better understanding, development, and strengthening of one's identity, which is a decisive factor determining the future personal and professional evolution and performance of today's students.

Headnote

Abstract: In this age of digitalisation, of sudden changes and of globalisation, well developed and refined self-presentation skills are a crucial advantage when it comes to finding a high-quality job immediately after graduation. An ever-increasing number of employers use online tools to search and select their employees. Thus, in addition to the traditional job recruitment websites that provide the opportunity for direct recruitment, employers often use "indirect" methods, searching their future employees among candidates - specifically individuals who are present and visible in the online environment or have been recommended by others, who are not actively pursuing a new job at the moment. Aside from searching on social media, blogs, and other links that include the name of the prospective candidate, more and more employers will use, as recruitment method, a Skype interview and/or will request a self-introduction video presentation. Despite being avid users of internet, a significant number of young people are not yet sufficiently versed in the use of such techniques, and often find it difficult to introduce themselves as valuable candidates during the first interviews in their career, thus missing very good job offers, despite being well qualified professionally. These are the main reasons which, in our opinion, bode well for the preparation of a "Guide" meant to teach students how to introduce themselves and highlight their professional strengths even before having completed their studies, by using new means of communication in the virtual environment, which are nowadays available to almost anyone. To this end, by considering principles drawn from the field of psychology, as well as psychotherapy, marketing, and management of human resources, our paper aims to develop an introductory guide for online self-presentation for professional purposes, which could be used as a tool for improving the self-presentation skills of students within the Career Counselling and Orientation Centres in universities. But not lastly, this tool, meant to be used by professionals in the field of career counselling and orientation, could also serve as a self-reflection technique for a better understanding, development, and strengthening of one's identity, which is a decisive factor determining the future personal and professional evolution and performance of today's students.

Keywords: skills; self-presentation; training guide; video presentation; self-reflection techniques.

I.CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The best public speakers know enough things to be afraid... the only difference between professionals and apprentices is that the professionals have trained their butterflies to fly in an organized formation.

Edward R. Murrow

The purpose of this guide is not to transform the audience, namely the students in the terminal years of engineering school, into the best "public speaker", but to help them in self-knowledge and in the development of communication and self-introduction skills that will make easier for them to get the desired job even during their studies or just after graduation.

Studies performed with engineering employers shows that the communication skills are on the first positions in the skills top which the employers expect from the graduates, together with high level technical knowledge (Silver & Johnson, 2004) [1]. Other studies indicated that engineers spend almost 60% of their working time communicating (Tenopir & Kind, 2004; Tilly & Trevelian, 2008)[2].

In the guidance and counseling practice for a university career, one of the main objectives is to offer the students the most possible opportunities to identify and develop these skills. Yet, it was found that information about the rules of efficient communication, about how to prepare and introduce yourself is not enough, and that students need more [3]. Thus, we have elaborated a reflexive, guided and interactive training program for the realization of an efficient filmed self- introduction to help better the students from terminal engineering years to develop and exercise their communication skills, to identify and set forth their aces, thus obtaining what they want from a professional standpoint.

Nowadays, the creation of a self-introduction video is in itself a relatively simple thing, accessible for everybody, mainly due to the smart phones and the Internet, where one can find a lot of resources teaching you "How to ... ".

Typically, a self-introduction with a professional goal will include, after the greeting formula, the following information:

* Your first and second name, field and level of study, as well as the complete university name;

* Your specialization, skills and competences, interests and talents;

* Your present goal and professional motivation.

Generally, it does not need to exceed 2 minutes and must provide a positive impact on the audience. Yet, at a more careful inquiry, there are very few sources and materials to learn from. At the same time, only a few people are able to introduce themselves naturally, efficiently and positively, without any previous preparation, in the contexts in which they are aware that will be assessed. It is well known that even the best public speakers are practicing long enough their introductions before presenting them.

Therefore, even if the theory is clear and apparently simple, there are few successful selfintroductions. The real learning only appears through practice, experience and not lastly, through guided reflection on that experience, such that under, similar circumstances, to make the next experiences really productive and valuable, on both professional and personal plan.

We are sure that this type of learning will occur by implementing within the Career guiding centers for universities, the training program elaborated by us within "Gh. Asachi" Technical University, Iassy, that we present in this work.

The prospective from which our program was conceived integrates within the PDP- Personal Development Planning- concept, defined by the Agency for Quality Insurance in High Schools from Great Britain (QAA) as being a "structured process supported by a person who reflects on his own learning, performances or accomplishments, through which he plans his personal educational and professional development. The main objective of PDP is to improve the individuals' capacity to understand what and how they learn, and to revise, plan and assume the responsibility of their own learning, helping students to:

- become efficient, independent, self-confident and autonomous in their learning demarche;

- understand how are they learning and correlate this learning with wider contexts;

- improve their general skills of study and career management;

- establish personal goals and assess the progress;

- cultivate a positive learning attitude all along their life "[4].

This concept joins the present tendency from high school policies and academic institutions that aim to pass from the learning theory focused on teaching stuff and the theory of career management, to the learning practice focused on students and on individual development plan as action lines integrated in learning along the entire life time, both personal and professional [5].

Within PDP concept, thinking over your experience occupies a central place. The reflexive practice mainly originates in the works of the American philosopher, psychologist and pedagogue John Dewey (1933) [6], who introduced this idea in education.

Such a process is described very well by David A. Kolb's the experiential model of reflexive learning (1984), focused on transforming the information into knowledge, that comprises four stages:

1. starting from a concrete experience;

2. through observation and reflection on this experience;

3. formulate a series of experience-based abstract ideas;

4. adopt a new understanding of experiences and future behaviors meant to be put into effect more efficiently in new or similar situations.

Therefore, starting from a concrete experience - in our case the self-introduction video for professional goals - within working groups consisting of students in terminal years, and moderated by a psychologist or counselor for career guidance, a reflexive process of analysis and feedback on the filmed material will be initiated. This will permit to capitalize and modify the initial experience, such that the students learn to know themselves and to introduce themselves in a professional manner, which will facilitate getting the job they want at a certain moment.

II. INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO SELF-INTRODUCTION VIDEO WITHIN A TRAINING PROGRAM.

Because, as we said above, making a self-introduction movie is a relatively simple action at hand for anybody nowadays, but with more or less efficient results, we have elaborated a reflexive program for the realization and utilization of an efficient filmed self-introduction, which includes the following steps, materialized in the same number of working meetings, with mean duration of 60 minutes each.

Within our program, the role of the trainer/mediator (who is recommended to be a psychologist or a career counselor) is essential. The reflection efficiency depends on the knowledge and ability of the person who facilitates this activity.

It is important to present to the participants, from the very beginning, some theoretical aspects concerning the reflection process: what it, is how does it occur and, mainly, the benefits implied.

Another aspect that needs to be presented is related to the constructive ways to offer and receive feedback, especially within a group. For a better understanding and compliance with these recommendations, it is necessary, even from the very first meeting, to establish, together with the participants, a set of rules specific for each working group, which will be posted in the working room all along the meetings.

One recommends to constitute the working group from colleagues from the same year of study of the same faculty, specialization and even the same group, to facilitate the creation of a cohesion and opening that will help providing a secure framework, enabling a free presentation and expression, without the fear of being judged.

III. PROGRAM BENEFITS IN TERMS OF ABILITIES AND COMPETENCES

Among the key competences that can contribute to a successfully career are, no doubt, selfintroduction abilities, essential for getting a job, together with specific technical knowledge and competences acquired during academic studies.

A professional efficient self-introduction is the one that reflects, from a psychological standpoint, in the first place, the following features and abilities:

- very good self-knowledge of both his personality and, most of all, his abilities, competences and interests;

- balance and emotional self-control;

- good communication abilities;

- self-confidence;

- opening and desire of success

- real interest for the considered field or company.

It must have a positive impact on the person who sees it, and lead to a concrete result, in our case, the invitation to a face-to-face employment interview.

The type of personality, self-confidence degree, and the general level of social anxiety, are the internal factors that mostly influence the self-introduction capacity. In this connection, the introvert persons with a relatively high level of anxiety will have the biggest difficulties for self-introduction.

To these factors, one must also add the self-knowledge level: how much do you know your temperament, personality, capacities, preferences, values and interests. These are the main dimensions on which we shall work within our program, before we effectively produce efficient self-presentation. One need not neglect the communication abilities, which will develop better exactly by means of the group's exercises.

Other important aspects concern awareness of personal non-verbal behavior, acquiring cognitive, emotional and behavioral congruence, as well as a good knowledge and valorization of its own strongholds.

Last but not the least, through these group workshops the participants will learn how to master their own emotions and to communicate assertively using cognitive behavioral techniques.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

Starting from the results of our researches that set forth the communication abilities for both getting a job and for an optimum progress in carrying out professional activities in all the fields of activity, inclusively in engineering field [8], as well as from our findings in the practice with students concerning their real need and desire to exert and optimize these abilities even during academic studies [9], we have developed a training program dedicated to students from the terminal years of engineering studies. Within it, we propose to use the filmed self-introduction as reflexive practice based on Kolb's experience-based learning pattern, thus becoming a tool for learning and personal development for participants, as well as a tool for career management and professional promotion in real situations.

Accordingly, at the end of our programs, the students will know:

* the structure and content of a short and efficient professional self-introduction;

* their personal and professional strong points which they can capitalize,

and mainly, they will acquire more self-knowledge, self-confidence and reliability in situations when they need to face and be assessed.

From this point of view, our program has a double utility:

* In personal development, through practice, self-reflection, feedback, integration and optimization.

* In professional promotion, as at the end of the program, the students will remain with a self-introduction video, which they can use in real professional contexts, helping them to get the job or the collaboration contract they want at a certain moment. In this connection, the self-introduction video can be either sent to a prospective employer or collaborator at their request (after classical job application by means of the CV), or self-moved, through a spontaneous candidacy.

The next step will consist in the application of this program within the Center of Career Guidance and Counseling from the "Gh. Asachi" Technical University of Jassy. We propose not only to offer our students a practical and efficient way to exert and develop verbal communication abilities, very necessary in the world of labor, but also to document the extent and manners in which our program has contributed to this, meaning to present the results in future studies.

References

Reference Text and Citation

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[2] Bhattacharyya, E., Walk the Talk: Technical Oral Presentations of Engineers in the 21st Century, Social and Behavioral Sciences 123 ( 2014 ) 344 - 352.

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[4] David, A., Personal Development Planning,, University of the West of England, Edited by David Newlands, University of Aberdeen, The Handbook for Economics Lecturers, p.4-5.

[5] Luca, G. P.; Verzea, I.; Cozminca, I., 2010, Some findings concerning the trends of the real quality in the romanian higher educational system, Paper Conference 6th International Seminar on the Quality Management in Higher Education Location: Tulcea, Romania, Quality Management in Higher Education, vol.1,Pages: 159-162.

[6] Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. New York: D.C. Heath.

[7] http://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html.

[8] Luca, G. P.; Verzea, I., 2010, The Romanian Higher Educational System as a major player on a turbulent labor market in a continuously changing environement, Paper Conference: 6th International Seminar on the Quality Management in Higher Education Location: Tulcea, Romania,, Quality Management in Higher Education, vol.1, Pages: 163-166 .

[9] Turgul, T., 2012, Student Perceptions of an Educational Technology Tool: Video Recordings of Project Presentations, Social and Behavioral Sciences 64, (2012 ) 133 - 140.