What is your greatest strength and how do you know? My greatest strength is my imagination. I'm at my best and happiest when I am able to imagine the possibilities for a project, a product, or the world, especially when I have other people who are right there with me bouncing ideas and imagining possibilities without judgment. I believe it's my greatest strength because it's when I feel the most joy working.
How do you work best? I work best when I have a clear understanding of exactly what I need to do, and the free reign to go do it. If I'm fuzzy or unclear on exactly how to do something, I tend to procrastinate that thing, but if I'm clear on what to do and how to do it, I'm good. I also work well with a boss who treats me as an equal, rather than an underling, but in a way that still holds me accountable.
What is your greatest area of improvement? As I alluded to in the question above, I procrastinate when I don't know exactly how to do what I'm trying to do. Procrastination is an emotional coping mechanism, so I try to make whatever task I'm doing as pleasant as possible by breaking it down into tiny, simple pieces, then starting with the easiest one. Once I'm started, it's much easier to keep going. I just have to get started.
How do you hope to maximize your strengths for your new career in software development? One of the things that drew me toward software development in the first place is the world of possibilities that you can build with code. Even when I am early on in my software dev career, likely working for a company that tells me what to build, I can work on my own passion projects on the side. Later on, I see myself working for a startup, where I will have lots of control to build what I imagine.
How might knowing about your strengths and working preferences benefit you as a software developer? One of the keys to happiness in life and success in careers is to do more of what you're good at and less of what you're bad at. This is true in software development as much as anything. The trick is to know the difference. Frequent reflection - through collection and analysis of data, journaling, etc. - can help to know the difference.