Gear Up

What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?

Empathy has helped me create wonderful friendships in my life, both personal and professional. When I meet someone new, I always try to be enthusiastic and attentive. As my relationships grow and develop, I am always trying to further understand my friends and colleagues and provide my support. Because of this, I feel lucky to have accomplished many projects and adventures with the people I treasure - whether it be traveling abroad with a good friend, or finishing my capstone with the advice from my advisor.

How does empathy help you build better software?

- Practicing active listening can help you develop technology that truly helps your clientele. As a developer who is creating software for a specific purpose, or community, it is important to not make assumptions about the work you are tasked to do. The people who will use your software are not you and may not understand how to use the technology you create. By listening to the client's wants and needs, and asking questions to further your understanding of who they are and how they want to use the software, you can create more successful software.

Why is empathy important for working on a team?

- People have a range of different personalities, as well as, unique ways of working. When we come together as a team, sometimes these differences can cause issues within the group, which often cause some team members to become disengaged and feel alienated from the group. Empathy can help some members of a group recognize when another is being ignored and offers a way to remedy that situation. Active listening and asking questions in a supportive manner can bring back someone feeling left out. Working together may sometimes be difficult, but at the same time, we all have a mix of different ideas and visions for the project we are creating. By using empathy and active listening, groups can use the best ideas of everyone to make something truly unique.

Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.

- Several years ago, I worked as a research assistant for one of my college professors. I worked with one other student, who had been working on the research for a year before I started. The student was naturally a quiet, withdrawn person. When I first started working with her, I found it difficult to understand how she performed the research. She would work without really explaining what she was doing. Initially, I was upset and felt that she excluded me from the research. The more we worked together, I began to understand that I was projecting my feelings of incompetence onto myself. I learned that this was her first leadership role and didn't know the best way to help me with the work. After this realization, when we worked together I asked lots of questions and actively listened to her answers. Eventually, we learned how each other communicated and completed our research project successfully.

When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?

- I am a very open and communicative person. I like a lot of constructive criticism in my work but can sometimes shut down when I do not get any sort of positive affirmation/only receive negative criticism. I know that I am sensitive, and in these situations can reflect my own feelings of negativity into an interaction or project. I can improve these scenarios by recognizing when I am letting my own negative attitude affect the situation. I can practice letting go of that emotion and instead, bring positivity and active listening into the conversation.

I don't know why it is not doing soft wrap. I keep updating it with the soft wrap format and it doesn't save. I put my work again in the comment below.

What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?

Empathy has helped me create wonderful friendships in my life, both personal and professional. When I meet someone new, I always try to be enthusiastic and attentive. As my relationships grow and develop, I am always trying to further understand my friends and colleagues and provide my support. Because of this, I feel lucky to have accomplished many projects and adventures with the people I treasure - whether it be traveling abroad with a good friend, or finishing my capstone with the advice from my advisor.

How does empathy help you build better software?

• Practicing active listening can help you develop technology that truly helps your clientele. As a developer who is creating software for a specific purpose, or community, it is important to not make assumptions about the work you are tasked to do. The people who will use your software are not you and may not understand how to use the technology you create. By listening to the client's wants and needs, and asking questions to further your understanding of who they are and how they want to use the software, you can create more successful software.

Why is empathy important for working on a team?

• People have a range of different personalities, as well as, unique ways of working. When we come together as a team, sometimes these differences can cause issues within the group, which often cause some team members to become disengaged and feel alienated from the group. Empathy can help some members of a group recognize when another is being ignored and offers a way to remedy that situation. Active listening and asking questions in a supportive manner can bring back someone feeling left out. Working together may sometimes be difficult, but at the same time, we all have a mix of different ideas and visions for the project we are creating. By using empathy and active listening, groups can use the best ideas of everyone to make something truly unique.

Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.

• Several years ago, I worked as a research assistant for one of my college professors. I worked with one other student, who had been working on the research for a year before I started. The student was naturally a quiet, withdrawn person. When I first started working with her, I found it difficult to understand how she performed the research. She would work without really explaining what she was doing. Initially, I was upset and felt that she excluded me from the research. The more we worked together, I began to understand that I was projecting my feelings of incompetence onto myself. I learned that this was her first leadership role and didn't know the best way to help me with the work. After this realization, when we worked together I asked lots of questions and actively listened to her answers. Eventually, we learned how each other communicated and completed our research project successfully.

When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?

• I am a very open and communicative person. I like a lot of constructive criticism in my work but can sometimes shut down when I do not get any sort of positive affirmation/only receive negative criticism. I know that I am sensitive, and in these situations can reflect my own feelings of negativity into an interaction or project. I can improve these scenarios by recognizing when I am letting my own negative attitude affect the situation. I can practice letting go of that emotion and instead, bring positivity and active listening into the conversation.