What Skills Are Employers Looking For?
Personal Reflection Paper
The current job market can be quite competitive. With the unemployment rate at 7.9 %(Fontes, 2013), many individuals are going back to school to earn their degree. This is in part from employers requiring potential hires to think critically. ("What Skills Are Employers Looking For?," 2013). Employers will appreciate the hard work that goes into earning a degree, but if one cannot think critically, the chances of landing that job are slim.
To determine a definition for critical thinking, one must think critically about the various forms of mental process. Examples of these are remembering, imagining, reading a textbook, day-dreaming, and critical thinking. The simple act of remembering will bring facts or events to light, yet unless one will stop to develop these thoughts as one would …show more content…
do in critical thinking, the intricate details will be lost. Critical thinking is essentially the process in which one examines thoughts and begins to use them to differentiate information. Without thinking critically, an article, book, or even a lecture will lose the meaning or point that it is attempting to make. During this course student’s look at themselves and the way they think. I learned early in week one that I was an unreflective thinking. After reading text and typing my summary to the first week assignment, I then saw my way of thinking changing to a challenged thinker, which is the second developmental stage of thinking. A significant tool or thought process I learned in this course is to read critically, listen, and view things. Too often people are busy going about their day reading messages or commercials and taking them for face value. This may lead to undesirable effects, such as taking a new enhancement pill that guarantees a certain result without reading the side effects. Often times I find myself thinking about the many people whom have thought of and developed an idea into a business or simply an invention that has generated monetary success. What I have learned about during this course is that these amazing ideas were not the first, second, or even 20th idea this person had. Producing ideas in short is a number game and just as aiming at a target will take a number of tries before hitting the bulls’ eye, so are ideas. All new ideas should be at least considered but most are worthless. The process in which I think has changed dramatically from the start of this course. Prior to reading about critical thinking and the process of, I would often take statements people make or commercials I would see on television as truth. I find myself questioning almost everything I encounter during the day. Week one my stage of development in critical thinking was an unreflective thinker, only to jump to the second stage as a challenged thinker as I began to take control of my thoughts.
As the course is ending, I have moved to the stage of a practicing thinker. At this stage I have begun to see and recognize the thought process of others and attempt to understand an opinion other than my own. I believe that this change in stages has occurred from thinking critically about relevant topics.
To move to the final stage of master thinker, I must keep an open mind even though I do not agree with a certain statement or position. Developing new habits in my thought process will need to happen such as listening and observing more. The urge to speak my mind will be a tough habit to break but a necessary one. Thinking critically will be lifelong venture that will take hard work and determination. The benefit will be there as this skill will help in all aspects of life, especially in a career. To continue the improvement of this skill, I will need to remain open and keep a critical
eye.
References
What Skills Are Employers Looking For?. (2013).
Retrieved from http://www.aarpworksearch.org/Inside/Pages/HowEmployableAmI.aspx
Fontes, N. (2013). United States Unemployment Rate.
Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate
The current job market can be quite competitive. With the unemployment rate at 7.9 %(Fontes, 2013), many individuals are going back to school to earn their degree. This is in part from employers requiring potential hires to think critically. ("What Skills Are Employers Looking For?," 2013). Employers will appreciate the hard work that goes into earning a degree, but if one cannot think critically, the chances of landing that job are slim.
To determine a definition for critical thinking, one must think critically about the various forms of mental process. Examples of these are remembering, imagining, reading a textbook, day-dreaming, and critical thinking. The simple act of remembering will bring facts or events to light, yet unless one will stop to develop these thoughts as one would …show more content…
do in critical thinking, the intricate details will be lost. Critical thinking is essentially the process in which one examines thoughts and begins to use them to differentiate information. Without thinking critically, an article, book, or even a lecture will lose the meaning or point that it is attempting to make. During this course student’s look at themselves and the way they think. I learned early in week one that I was an unreflective thinking. After reading text and typing my summary to the first week assignment, I then saw my way of thinking changing to a challenged thinker, which is the second developmental stage of thinking. A significant tool or thought process I learned in this course is to read critically, listen, and view things. Too often people are busy going about their day reading messages or commercials and taking them for face value. This may lead to undesirable effects, such as taking a new enhancement pill that guarantees a certain result without reading the side effects. Often times I find myself thinking about the many people whom have thought of and developed an idea into a business or simply an invention that has generated monetary success. What I have learned about during this course is that these amazing ideas were not the first, second, or even 20th idea this person had. Producing ideas in short is a number game and just as aiming at a target will take a number of tries before hitting the bulls’ eye, so are ideas. All new ideas should be at least considered but most are worthless. The process in which I think has changed dramatically from the start of this course. Prior to reading about critical thinking and the process of, I would often take statements people make or commercials I would see on television as truth. I find myself questioning almost everything I encounter during the day. Week one my stage of development in critical thinking was an unreflective thinker, only to jump to the second stage as a challenged thinker as I began to take control of my thoughts.
As the course is ending, I have moved to the stage of a practicing thinker. At this stage I have begun to see and recognize the thought process of others and attempt to understand an opinion other than my own. I believe that this change in stages has occurred from thinking critically about relevant topics.
To move to the final stage of master thinker, I must keep an open mind even though I do not agree with a certain statement or position. Developing new habits in my thought process will need to happen such as listening and observing more. The urge to speak my mind will be a tough habit to break but a necessary one. Thinking critically will be lifelong venture that will take hard work and determination. The benefit will be there as this skill will help in all aspects of life, especially in a career. To continue the improvement of this skill, I will need to remain open and keep a critical
eye.
References
What Skills Are Employers Looking For?. (2013).
Retrieved from http://www.aarpworksearch.org/Inside/Pages/HowEmployableAmI.aspx
Fontes, N. (2013). United States Unemployment Rate.
Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate