How self-motivation has made me career ready

The concept of career readiness was one that was alien to me at the beginning of this academic year and, at first, was a very daunting and frankly quite a scary prospect. The whole idea of being let out into the world and trying to find a job was also a very scary prospect, however, I have found that by looking at and developing my skills I feel far more confident in the future and I am able to better plan for the future as I have a knowledge of the skills required to succeed. I had always seen learning and academics as being something which you get a certificate for and then move onto the next stage but when coming to university I found that what I was learning and the skills that I was developing were not necessarily going to be tested and assessed but instead they were skills that I would have to apply throughout life.

Self-motivation

The skill of self-motivation, I believe, will be the most valuable skill that I have, and will continue to develop during university, especially in light of COVID-19. Originally, I found it hard to motivate myself as I had always been taught in the environment of a classroom and had a very structured and guided education: this being in the form of full days of lessons and supervised revision sessions. I can honestly say that it was a shock coming to university and realizing that to be successful in my degree, and in my future career, I had to learn how to work and learn independently. This is something that I recognize as being very important for my future and is something that I was not trained to do before coming to university. This is just one example of the skills which I have developed so far through being at university, and the environment that is brought about by it, which I know will enable me to go on to fulfill my chosen career.

Alongside skills that I have developed so far during my time at university, I have also developed more of an understanding of my strengths which has led to being able to narrow down the type of career path that I want to go in. This has developed my career readiness as prior to coming to university I did not have a realistic view of how I would get into my chosen career. What I want to do in the future has not changed however I have learned a lot more about what following my chosen career path will entail and therefore have become more prepared and ready for what the future holds. I have come to realize the importance of my motivation coming from me because I want to succeed and this self-motivation now underpins my goals and other skills that I am developing.