Q: What is your greatest strength and how do you know?
A: Kindness! Kindness is often seen as a characteristic of someone, but what it really is, is a choice that a person makes. It isn't once choice either, it is choosing kindness with every thought and action you take. I have been choosing to operate out of a place of kindness. This pairs up with almost all of my civic insights, Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration & Teamwork, Civic Literacy & Citizenship, Social Responsibility & Action, Social Awareness. All these at their core have kindness. I was happy to see in there that I am inclined to build rapport and cause people to smile 😊
Q: How do you work best?
A: By understanding why. The why behind what we do is just as important to me as the outcome. I work best when I can ask questions, lots and lots of questions in real time in person. Seeing how my learning can be applied in the future is very motivational as well. I also like to go deep when I learn. Not necessarily an expert level, but much more than abroad understanding. This pairs well with Curiosity and inquisitiveness that fell in my Entrepreneurial insights. Here I am likely to, "check things out" when something doesn't make sense. Absolutely! I am able to accept things that dong make sense and go along, part of my flexibility and adaptability from my personal insights, however when I am less confident (not understanding) I need some time to work through it.
What is your greatest area of improvement?
A: Able to convince others to do things my way. My ideas are usually decent at worst, so they tend to work and many times work well. The problem I have is getting others to use those ideas. After a while, people see consistency in my work and ideas and then I am put in charge, but I don't want to wait that long. We usually have to, unnecessarily, fail for me to get a shot because someone else who is better at convincing gets everyone on board. So I would like to get better at influencing people right away.
Q: How do you hope to maximize your strengths for your new career in software development?
A: I am very calm, which comes in handy in high-stress environments. If there is an issue, I can stay level headed and work through it, making decisions that help the immediate situation while thinking about the long term effects that will have and minimizing any negatives that may come from that. I hope to use my current skill set every day with my cohort as well as those before and after me, building relationships and practicing my skills and strengths with all. I hope to engage in regular feedback from those I am working with to ensure I am continuing along the path I wish to go down. Knowing the strengths I have, I will have those top of mind as I go through Turing to see which are the most powerful in the software engineering field as I adjust to a career change.
Q: How might knowing about your strengths and working preferences benefit you as a software developer?
A: This is a different career I am stepping into, I need to be able to flex the strengths that I have while start building up those areas most advantageous to a software engineer. I found Parin about 50% true and rather unhelpful in this exercise. Knowing my strengths and working preferences will help me connect with a business, I can work well for and set up my environment to lean on those for my success. Looking at all the insights this provided by Pairin, I now have a better vocabulary in which to speak about my strengths and can much easier find examples that showcase those from my past.