Experiences in real working environment

Experiences in real working environment Introduction One of the requirement parts of the course WORK-N352 at Sharjah Womens College, of work experience subject, which is under the supervision of Mr. Abbot Jason Haroon. This course provide us to experience work in real working environment which will give students the opportunity to develop good working experience, habits and practices that has been observed in real working environment which will enable students to transfer vocational skills that learnt at the college to the work placement. The report features altogether are in five major sections. Section one is about information about the Sharjah Economic Development Department. Section two is about work details. Section three is about success of the work experience. Section four is about areas for improvement and section five which is the conclusion. Finally, Most of the information in the report was from my own experience at Sharjah Economic Development Department and some particulars from SEDD website and interviewing employees as well. The course provides work experience in a real working environment. It will provide the student the opportunity to develop good work ethics, habits and practices observed in real work situations and will enable the student to transfer vocational skills learned at the college to the workplace. Information about the company Sharjah Economic Development Department is located in Sharjah in Al-Layya Area this is the head office and also it has four other branches in Al-Dhaid, Kalba, Khorfakkan and Dibba Al-Hisn. And all of them are located in Sharjah, but these branches have only one department which is registration and license department. Sharjah Economic Development Department is under Sharjah Government which means it is a public sector. The Department has about 600 employees and this number is increasing almost every day because new employees are being hired in the department. The department has twelve Directors and deputy directors, Ali Bin Salem Almahmoud is the General Director, Khaliid Saif Ibraheem is the Director of Registration and licensing Department also Fahad Ahmad Alkhhamiri is the sub-director for this department, Nawal Askar is Director of Economic and Public Relations Department and there is a Deputy Director as well. Amna Alhamady is the Deputy Director of Finance and Administration Department. Also, there is a Managing Director, Commercial Control and Protection Director, Legal Affairs Director, Information Technology Director, Client Service Director and Deputy Quality Control Director. (See Appendix 1) There are thirteen departments in SEDD, There are four main departments in SEDD which are License and Registration Department, Commercial Control and Protection Department, Economic Relation and Public Relations Department and Finance and Administrative Affairs Department. And the other nine departments are chairman office, consultants, internal censorship section, legal affairs section, quality and control section, committees specialists, executive secretarial, IT section and planning and statistics section. (See Appendix 1) The Department provides three major services which are Licensing Services which is for renewing and issuing license, Commercial Permits which is for sales and clearance, promotional campaigns, and advertising signs and Inspection Services and Business Control which is for irregularities inquiry, fee payment for irregularities and Scheduling appointments for Technical evaluation and Business Control which is for Irregularities Inquiryand Scheduling appointments for Technical evaluation Work details Sales and Promotion Section I spent my whole work placement period at sales and promotion section. This section gives sales permits for shops who want to make sales in a specific period, clearance permits, Promotional Campaign Permits which is granted in such cases such as special offers, testing campaigns, free disrupting and product promotion, Promotional Advertising Permits like flyers, brochures, cloth signs and multimedia CDs and Exhibition Permit for commercial purposes. My daily work was to check the newspapers for shops and companies that have published advertisement in daily newspapers so that we can check if they have already taken permission for publishing this advertising and if they have permission for making sales or offers if the advertisement was including them. Also, I contacted many shops and companies if they have not come and collect the spring festival posters or if they have raffles and chose the winner, they have to bring the original coupons and the winners ID or to pay out the amount of the prizes that the winners didnt collect them within 60 days period to the sales and promotion section. I used the system which records all information about all the shops that are in Sharjah and it shows each shop sales dates, clearance dates and Irregularities dates to record any new sale, clearance and Irregularities. During my work placement I used many skills for my job, I even used some skills that I never thought I will use them. I used some basic skills such as learning, listening, reading, speaking and writing skills almost every day. Beside of that I used monitoring skills to assess my performance to make any improvements in myself and take the correct action. I used social skills such as instructing to help the new customers to bring the right documents and why they are needed and I used negotiation and persuasion skills to make some customers change their minds that if they made sales during Sharjah spring festival it will be cheaper for them if they made it after the festival. I used to report to Miss Mona Qambar and Mrs. Mariam Saif, both them are service coordinators at Sales and Promotion section. But unfortunately Miss Mona has been shifted to another department by week 5. I didnt get any on-the-job training because im only a temporary trainee in SEDD so they just showed me how the daily and the monthly reports are done and what they do everyday. Arabic was the main language but English was used too but not as much as Arabic. English was used only with foreign customers while Arabic was used also between customers and between employees. In addition, all the reports and letters were written in Arabic I used many types of equipment at my work such as the telephone to communicate with the shops that didnt bring the original coupons for checking or to pay money for the prizes that has not been received by the winners. The printer was used to print reports and letters and fax as well. Also I used the computer to record information about shops. Beside of using the computer I used Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft Outlook. The word was used to write the monthly report. Whereas the excel was used to write the daily report and to calculate the amount collected for the day and PowerPoint to record the companies names, location and offers for the Sharjah Spring Festival and used to create the organizational chart for the Economic Relation and Public Relations Department and Microsoft Outlook was used to send and receive emails among employees. I have faced some problems in my work experience. One of the problems I had, when Mrs. Mariam was absent I was in here place and an angry customer came in because she gave him a notice because they published sales advertisement in the newspaper without getting a permit for that. I looked back in the files of shops that have been given notes and took out the one for his shop. When I looked back on the reason of the note that his shop was given, it appeared that they are making sales all around Emirates but the sales was only in Dubai, so he was supposed to write down in the advertisement that the sales are only in Dubai. He still was angry and he didnt believe. I went back to the brochure of Sales and Promotion section and showed him the conditions of making sales which says that he must specify where the sales is happening and in which branches and Emirates. He just turned red and apologized. As I am a fan of shopping, it is important for me to know when the sales days for my favourite shops are going to start. Besides I liked my colleagues and it was nice to work with them because they are always there to help each other if any of them is in a problem, I really felt that they were my family. Also, the daily work wasnt so hard and it was easy to understand. But there are things I hated in my work that sometimes I spent days without doing anything at all which was extremely boring and the employees also dont have any work at all that they get so bored. I asked them many times to transfer me to any section that might needs extra help but unfortunately no one want any help because they have enough trainees. successes of the work experience My manager and the other employees that I worked with treated me as I am one of them. They showed me how the work is done and watches me while im doing it until they make sure I can do it by my own. Briefly, they were so helpful and love to make others learn. the manager or whoever showed u how the work is done,, they treat me like am one of the real emplyees not a trainer I believe I was good and did well at calculations and report typing and being accurate in recording information in the system because my supervisor said to me usually we dont allow any trainees to use our system in recording any information because everything inside the system should be accurate and without any mistakes. There are some skills I gained from the college. One of these skills is taking the initiative. For example, when I completed my third week, I knew my daily job very well without going to the supervisor to tell me what im supposed to do and after I finish she give extra work if there is some work or she give me a one hour break to rest. Briefly, I was Self-starting rather than passively accepting the work. Taking the Initiative- I remember doing only what I needed to do to get by when I was in college. It was easy doing only what my professors required of me, and often, most students never learned to think for themselves. My boss now expects me to come up with ideas and unique solutions to problems, not just meeting the minimum standard. Strategic Planning- Though I learned study skills in college, I never had a clear plan or strategy for what I was doing or where I was going, other than completing my courses. In the business world, every outcome is measured, every result analyzed. I have learned to formulate strategic plans to accomplish my objectives so that I am more focused and productive. I have learnt a lot from the work experience I have attended over the last 8 weeks. I learnt the speed of the procedure while maintaining the accuracy, Building a database of personal customers especially next to the public database and Completion of a days work at the same time and not to give an opportunity for the accumulation of deferred work. Beside of the previous skills I gained new skills. Sometimes angry customers with no knowledge of Arabic or English come to me to finish their work but some time misunderstanding happens so what I learnt is to maintain calm to deal with others. areas for improvment Almost every two weeks, the Head Sales and Promotion Mr. Mohammed Bin Fares sets a meeting around 1:00 pm to discuss with the staff any problem that they have faced during these two weeks and they have to add recommendations at the end of the meeting. What the manager did that he announced about the meeting without telling me to join them, I was really sad because I really wanted to give them some ideas that might be useful for them. While I am there, I saw Miss Mona and Mr. Abdul-Aziz register the shops when they come to make sales or want to advertise. I told Miss Mona to let me do it for one day and it was difficult. For example, if any shop wanted to hang pictures on their windows as advertisement, I have to know how many windows and doors in this shop by meters and according that I have to calculate how much they have to pay for this advertisement which is I didnt get it until now. In my college Ive learnt how to be responsible and how to be in charge of many tasks. Also, Ive learnt how to manage my time between my personal time and my working time and do all what my the tasks that are given to me on me and submit them neatly. Ive learned in the university the responsibility and how to be in charge of many tasks. also ive learned how to manage my time and do all what given to me on time neatly I believe that the college didnt prepare us well for this work experience, well it might be but I think for the private sector not the public sector, because at the work experience I faced some difficulty at the beginning in writing Arabic reports and letters which I believe is extremely different than writing them in English and much harder. Now I know how to write Arabic reports and letters but I dont think as professional and neatly as the English. If I was an employee in Sharjah Economic Development I would participate more in sessions that are held by the department itself to improve myself. For example, there are sessions for communications, how to deal with customers and sessions of how to answer the phone. I believe these sessions are made for the fresh graduates and for new employees with no degree so they can learn what they might not learnt before. conclusion I would recommend this work experience for students and at the same time I wouldnt recommend it. I recommend it for students who would like to work in public sector, where they can see how the working environment there and prefer less working hours. While I dont recommend it for students who would like to work for public sector, because in public sector Arabic is wildly used which I think it would affect what they have studied at college and it will be difficult for them at the beginning. Another thing which I think it is most important, in public sector, employees dont ever work regarding their degree which I think it is a waste for all the years that they have studied. For example, in my working experience I wanted some accounting work and they said that the section is full, and then the lady there told me do you think tomorrow if you applied here you will work as an accountant? She said in our department most of the employees here got high degrees but they are working in different jobs than what they have studied. In the future I would like to work in this department or a similar department because im welling to work in any public sector as it has many advantages such as accommodating high market fluctuations and favourable work environment. In addition, the working hours in public sectors are very flexible which is very important to me as Im a mother, besides of that most of the public departments are near to my home so Im taking advantage of that. The work placement gave me a chance to apply some of my studies in the field. In addition, I experienced the real deal in applying my knowledge in work placement and how the real job is done also use my knowledge in solving some workplace problems using team techniques I studied. I strongly want to work in public sector and Im planning to work in any public sector. Briefly, in the future I want to be in a position where I can use my skills I have learnt and challenge my colleagues. I strongly want to work in public sector and im planning to work in any public sector. Briefly. in the future i want to be in a position were i can use my skills i learned and challange my colleges i;ve learned alot in this experince placement and ive experinced how the real job is don, and in the future i want to be in a position were i can use my skills i learned and challange my colleges It may mark a turning point or change to your way of thinking or acting in a particular way. http://images.google.ae/imgres?imgurl=http://www.iktissad.com/files/media/parties/sedd-logo.jpgimgrefurl=http://www.iktissad.com/events/AIEZC/1usg=__hTcBQPUcOE_U1hvq9PUOnugZHoE=h=100w=119sz=5hl=arstart=9um=1itbs=1tbnid=GUKlK2v4gXVX5M:tbnh=74tbnw=88prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsharjah%2Beconomic%2Bdevelopment%2Blogo%26hl%3Dar%26rlz%3D1C1DVCA_enAE325AE336%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1 http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/domino/dom7.htm http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/kettleby/ket7.htm