Notes

Introduction:
The portfolio record and reflets the personal and professional development during the work
experience enhanced by the employability prospective. It explains the deep level of
understanding of legal, social, ethical and professional issues in the working environment. It
further demonstrates the effective communication, independent learning and team working. At
the end it explains the PDP action plan. Gibbs model is effective tool to organise the work
experience portfolio (Gibbs, 1998). I have made use of Gibbs Reflective cycle to deliver the
experience I have received from the working environment.
Description
The work experience was primarily targeted towards the opportunity for working within the
computing field and other related areas and my work experience was over two semesters during
which I was taught about a wide range of elements associated with the computer and IT industry
in order to improve my potential for chasing my career aspirations. The placement activity
involved the Special Silver Training Program alongside several work opportunities such as
industrial internship programs and after undertaking all these activities, I was assigned with a
work opportunity with CyberCare Services that deals with cybercrime and assisting the ones
facing such issues to maximise the security over their networks and devices. The covid 19 has
witnessed a major spike within cybercrimes and that has led to mrising need for cyber security
to protect the privacy and data of individuals and organisations (Abukari and Bankas, 2020). I
have worked within the Cyber Training Department where I obtained training through practical
experiences and also communicating with the clients.
Feeling
In the initial stages, I had the feeling of nervousness since I had read about several instances of
cyber crime happening all over the globe and that involved attacks over the hospital networks
within Europe for data theft (Kamal et al. 2020). My nervousness was further due to the
following work experience being the first for me since till now I have only received theoretical
experience regarding working with various IT tools and I had lower amount of confidence if I
would be able to use my theoretical skills for solving various real time issues especially during
the pandemic when cyber crimes were at a rise. In addition to that my supervisor as well as my
other team members provided me with significant encouragement at motivation that however
had a positive impact over my confidence and somewhere I felt greater amount of dedication
regarding my work and it also made me feel determined to help out the clients and make a
positive impression in the perspective of my managers.

Evaluation
From the following experience, I was able to understand that social interactions and events
make me uneasy and it also results in my inability to ask for help from others. However, during
my experience I was able to use my research skills and undertake a wide range of knowledge
acquisition activities in order to understand the present scenario of cyber crimes as well as the
most likely cyber crimes happening around the UK in order to make sure that I am able to use
all the knowledge during my internship opportunity. Apart from that I also realised that I will
be required to be more open to communication service and also overcome my fears associated
with taking the lead or pitching in my opinion or idea within any discussion. A good part of
the experience involved the experience being a significant boost to my knowledge base
regarding the activities and software and hardware knowledge associated with effective
cybersecurity and it further led to improved knowledge of data security policies and
regulations. However, the experience also made me deal with a few difficult clients and also
there were situations when I had to work beyond office hours that made me go through several
psychological impacts (Kotera et al. 2020).
Analysis
I feel that my curiosity is one of the primary reasons that made me more open to understanding
and acquiring new knowledge about theoretical and practical areas of cyber crime and data
security. Hence within this aspect I realised that my constantly improving research skill turned
out to be one of the key strengths that I gained but at the same time it also turned out to be a
driver towards taking excessive pressure and also unhealthy work life balance. In addition to
that, I was able to recognise my prime weakness to be my lack of confidence within social
interactions and also weak communication skills which made me awkward within various
social conversations and also prevented me from opening up about my ideas. In addition to
that, I also lacked adequate confidence to take the lead within any project that reflected my
nervousness and ineffective leadership competences. However, at the same time I realised that
I also had a broad range of critical thinking capabilities that enabled me to handle difficult
clients and also provide them with security solutions that resulted in improving the
organisational reputation in the market.
Conclusion
Hence, from the reflective portfolio, it can be concluded that the work experience was a
significant step towards recognizing my present knowledge and also gaining understanding of
the areas of improvement. In addition to that it also furnished me with relevant practical knowledge regarding the areas of cyber security alongside improving my ability of people
management and working in a team. It further led to greater knowledge acquisition regarding
my research skill as well as critical thinking capabilities leading to greater improvement of my
career potential.