PPD

As part of the master’s program at NHLStenden University of Applied Sciences it is required to articulate my goals in this Personal and Professional Development paper. It should show where I stood at the beginning of the program, what my goals were, what I did to achieve these, and where I am now.

I chose to discuss both a soft skill and a hard skill. The soft skill being my presentation skills, while the hard skill is what I really enjoy doing and where I hope to find a job in. This is becoming a professional content strategist. This is also why I chose to do NHLStenden master’s program in Content and Strategy, with a specialization in creating content. The reason being that I have always been attracted to a creative career such as one in website design, interactive video, editing videos etc.

For each of the two aspects I will determine what my starting point was before the master’s program, what my goals were, what I did to achieve the goals, and finally what the result is.

Improving my presentation skills

I realize that in a career of a professional content strategist it is important to be able to present ideas and proposals to relevant decision makers. To do this, good presentation skills are indispensable.

2.1 Starting point

At the beginning of this master’s program, I had some experience with presenting in my bachelor’s program. Nevertheless, I had little self-confidence and as a result I was quite nervous before each presentation. Actually, I suffered from real presentation anxiety, because for those not born with natural eloquence, public speaking can be remarkably nerve-racking. This, in turn, added to my little self-esteem in presenting. In this master’s program I decided to actively do something about it.

2.2 Goal

The goal I really wanted to achieve was to improve my self-confidence in giving presentations. I wanted to be able to present with less stress and with more tranquillity before and during my presentation. To realize that I needed to learn how to give a presentation in a more natural way without being nervous.  

2.3 Actions

There are several actions that I deliberately took.

  1. Despite my anxiety I didn’t run away for giving presentations. I deliberately volunteered to give presentations when teacher Mr. Sonny Prent asked someone to present their work during the Friday content creation courses. For this course and other courses, I wanted to give as many presentations as possible, but at least 10.
  2. I knew that for my FCA Assignment I would need to present my work to managers at Emma & Arnold Reliable Logistics (E&A). I decided to prepare these presentations well; see next two action points.
  3. Before each presentation I would practice at home.
  4. I also went online to get myself informed. I looked at videos that discuss presenting techniques and looked at speeches from professional public speakers on You Tube. I did this once a week or two weeks.

2.4 End point

At the end of this program, I can say that I certainly got a lot better in my presentation skills. There still is room for further improvement, but the situation is much better than at the start of the year. Before each presentation I still have some anxiety, but it got much less. There are three pieces of evidence for this:

I did a small enquiry with my fellow students, for which I made a brief questionnaire that I sent to my group. There were five questions: on nervousness, clear speech, understandable presentation, length of the presentation, and catching attention. From the 27 people in my group, I received 10 responses (see appendix A). The results indicate that I did improve my presentation skills in all five categories.

In total I did eleven presentations: 3 content creation presentations, 1 personal presentation and 2 group presentations on implementation plan, and 5 prototype testing presentations.

After the last Friday presentation, the tutor Mr. Sonny Prent said, “I like your confidence in presenting, but you could still use a bit more of it, and you should look more at the audience. You have an open stance and are well structured” (also see screenshot of the ‘pitch’ feedback below). Apparently, the level of confidence was okay, but could still be improved.

Mr. Sonny Prent’s feedback

 

I gave three presentations for E&A, one of which was quite intense because there were many questions and it lasted for about 2 hours. Nevertheless, one of the shareholders from the US said that if he had to rate my presentation it would be 8 out of 10. Another shareholder (Mr. Arnold Mbiydzengeh) said that I was doing great. In both evaluations of the FCA (January and May 2022) they graded my communication with the firm with a ‘strongly agree’ (see appendices B and C). Although these appraisals relate to the whole communication with the firm, a not unimportant part of it were the presentations (in the mid-term FCA feedback in Appendix C it explicitly says that I have “been accurate in all his communications with our organization”).

improve my professional content strategy skills

During my bachelor’s I learned about media entertainment management. Since I am very interested in a creative career in i.e. website design, interactive video, editing videos, the current master’s program gives me an excellent opportunity to understand and experience media and technology sector. Of specific interest to me is content strategy.

3.1 Starting point

During my bachelor’s program there was little about content strategy. During my internship at Neopost, part of the bachelor’s program, there was some work on content creation, but little about strategy.

3.2 Goal

My goal is to become a professional content strategist, not only creating and designing content but also being able to do relevant analysis, give advice, and consult. 

3.3 Actions

The actions that I undertook to achieve my goal are the following:

  1. After my bachelor’s I chose to do this master’s program, part of which is an FCA Assignment whereby I could work for a company to create an online content. This company was E&A.
  2. At E&A I worked on their content strategy. For this I conducted interviews with managers at E&A and with their customers. I created a Persona for them (a persona is a semi-fictional person created to represent the ideal customer) and as part of that I created a customer journey. I also did analysis on the outcomes of a questionnaire and gave advice with respect to their content strategy.
  3. Outside the master’s program, I decided to create various content (logos, flyers, posters, social media banners) for several individuals and institutions. Even though these were no major activities like for E&A, they were activities for which I could use the knowledge acquired during the courses.
  4. I did some research on the Internet and looked up sites with specific information on how to develop a content strategy. The URLs can be found in appendix D. I also studied Margot Bloomstein’s book Content Strategy at Work and Joe Pulizzi’s book Epic Content Marketing. And I also followed the course Google Analytics for Beginners to learn how to analyse content (see appendix E).

3.4 End point

Even though I have not yet completed the master’s program, I surely have the feeling that I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience in content strategy during this program.

According to the FCA feedback, E&A was quite enthusiast about the work that I did for them. This can be seen from appendix B with the final evaluation, where it says that I have a good understanding of the whole process and that they are quite pleased with the suggestion of organizing an event for their clients. From the final FCA feedback: “He understands the whole process and he already know the outcomes of the project, even though we don’t have so much time because our busy schedule”, and “The whole outcome is impressive, for example, the event part of Hero contents that will connect all our clients together once in a year. We are looking forward to organizing this event in the future”. It can also be seen in appendix C with the mid-term FCA feedback, where it says that the research was well conducted and can be implemented.

I created various content for about 15 individuals and institutions in Canva. From Canva I got evidence that I made 50 designs (see appendix F), but these include several designs for one and the same individual or institution. Please see the same appendix for a screenshot of some of the designs.

Reflection 

This PPD report discusses two specific goals and the achievements together with lessons learned during the master’s program. The two goals were improving presentation skills (soft skills) and improving professional content strategy skills (hard skills). When looking back, the two desired improvements were sufficiently realized, in my opinion. This is mainly supported by a questionnaire that I conducted to get feedback from fellow students on my presentation skills, and the FCA feedback with respect to the content strategy. Of course, there remains room for further improvement, which could be realized through gaining further experience.

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