Career Development Gist

JohnA_Turing_Career_Development.md

1. What is your greatest strength and how do you know?

• My greatest strength is my ability to strategically problem solve with a high attention for detail. This strength has led to success in past jobs and is also feedback I have received from past employers. Most jobs are essentially a serious of problems or issues that need solving in a timely manner, especially if you work in sales/customer service, and the ability to strategically and efficiently solve those problems will lead to success. I feel like in past jobs I often became the person in the office that people would come to if they have a question about something. Being able to think ahead and see the potential outcomes and plan accordingly is very beneficial and often saves time in the long run as well as eliminating potential mistakes. I think this strength is the leading factor in the career successes I have experienced thus far.

2. How do you work best?

• I often work best by myself or on a very small team - like me and a couple of other people. I work best when I am challenged and busy. I have noticed that I become less productive when I have less to do and find myself getting distracted easier when there is not a pressure or urgency in what I am doing. The type of work that I find stimulating and exciting is project oriented problems, where there is a definitive end goal, product, or solution that I am working toward. Then once that is done you are able to move on to the next objective and pursue it. I feel like this type of work can be less monotonous or repetitive, and I find that avoiding those areas results in higher quality work.

3. What is your greatest area of improvement?

• My greatest area of improvement is around my lack of assertiveness and taking the initiative. This is something that I have struggled with in previous jobs. I have the knowledge and skills to succeed and improve upon my position, but taking the initiative on my own to do those things outside of my basic tasks is something I find challenging. I need to speak my mind more and contribute to the group in a positive and effective way rather than taking the observer position. I suppose this would be the engagement mindset in active participation with community. This is definitely the area where I have the most potential and room for improvement.

4. How do you hope to maximize your strengths for your new career in software development?

• One of the major reasons I am making this career change is because I believe that working in software development will play to my personal strengths significantly more than what I have been doing in the past. I hope to be in a working environment that is project based and that consistently challenges me and presents learning and growing opportunities. I think that using Turing to identify and refine my strengths will be essential to starting a successful career in software development. Once I am able to accurately identify my strengths and how they apply to software development then I can use those to refine what areas are most interested to me and that I want to focus on. By beginning to refine those skills and knowledge then I will have a better idea of what type of company/job will best suite me once I graduate from Turing.

5. How might knowing about your strengths and working preferences benefit you as a software developer?

• I think that knowing these things benefits you in any career no matter the field. It helps you to refine and specialize in an area that works in conjunction with your strengths and work criteria. Through that refining process you begin to further figure out what works and what does not work for yourself. Focusing on the areas that do work will help to insure that you don't end up in a situation that is not beneficial to yourself. Having that confidence and vision when entering the job market and search process is extremely beneficial and will increase the chances of finding the right job quickly. Specifically as a software developer knowing these things will help you find the right company fit as well as the areas of specialization that fit best with yourself.