Experiences Working on Projects - Personal Essay

I have had many experiences working on projects where I found I would have to tackle challenging issues individually. One recent situation occurred during a university assignment where I was project manager responsible for a team of 5 and working alongside an enterprise architect. The project was based on continuous improvement of lecture capture and how to automate it. The end deliverable included a technical impact assessment that was to be approved by the board of committees, which before completing needed research on multiple aspects. Throughout the first few months of the project we maintained efficient and effective teamwork in which we produced high quality work, however, in the last few weeks we were presented with an unsuspected turn of events. The project presented ethical issues and when we were addressed about this we were told to provide an alternative solution, we also were down one team member due to unforeseeable circumstance. This caused a big problem as we had focused a lot of research into one solution, taking initiative as project manager I held a meeting with the enterprise architect and presented to her an alternative solution that we can continue with. I then formed my group together and delegated tasks to each member keeping in mind the short time we had and the increase of each individual’s workload due to our change in group size. I had to make sure that the workload was even throughout and that the work produced maintained a high quality. In the last few weeks I also met with individual members to offer advice and ensure that work was up to standards and in context to the situation in hand. In the end we had a very well written technical impact assessment and I was praised for my quick thinking and team working skills as project manager.

During one project at university, we were given the task to create a website for a local charity. The charity insisted on having a customer enquiry section, so me and my team set about implementing this feature. My colleagues came up with an idea of logging customer enquiries however it involved entering each contact into a new customer database system. They initially believed that this would be the simplest and easiest way to for the charity to handle this system. I believed there was a better way to go about applying this system, so I led a team meeting explaining the reasons for the decision to implement a new customer database system and its benefit to the business. I demonstrated the system and showed how it would ultimately save time and provide better service to our customers. Because I was able to provide a persuasive argument for the long-term benefit of the system, it helped gain acceptance amongst colleagues and they agreed, at my suggestion.

My interest in Marsh grew as I learned more about the services they offered. They are company that deal with current affairs in the global business environment and I have always been intrigued in new and upcoming ideas being introduced into the business world. Marsh also seem to focus on technology and how it’s affecting organisations around the world which is something I am very enthusiastic about and fits perfectly into the degree that I’m currently studying. I think a role at Marsh would be great opportunity to showcase my skills knowledge that I have acquired through university. Studying aspects of IT and business I would make a suitable candidate as I have thoroughly learned about risk management especially within the IT environment.    

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