gear_up.md

Gear Up

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

   • Empathy has played a pretty large roll in my life. Growing up I didn't have much, it wasn't till later that we became a little more lucky. I feel this gave me a pretty good sense of understanding, never taking anything for granted. My parents also raised me to be accepting of all people, that played a big roll in my life because it helped me develop good social skills, I could always talk to anyone.

2. How does empathy help you build better software?

   • It helps you because you need to understand that you are not always designing something for yourself. What you create may be used by millions of people, all of which are different. You need to take into account what they need, and learn how to make them feel included as well. In turn this will make your software better.

3. Why is empathy important for working on a team?

   • For the same reasons as listed above, not everyone on the team is the same, not everyone thinks like you, not everyone has the same interests as you, people are different and you need to be okay with that. If you can't understand and listen to others on your team it will not be a great environment for creation. People can tell the difference being genuine and faking it, you need to really show them you care and you're listening, put down your phone too.

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

   • When I was working in sales I would come across a lot of people who wanted to share their stories with us. Many times we would get in a time crunch and have to cut people short. On one occasion my colleague really wanted to console and help an older women, she knew I wanted to get going because we were going to be late to the next meeting. I could see how much she wanted to stay so I accepted what would happen because I knew this was important, she thanked me after and it was a good moment.

5. 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 find most hard to be empathetic with someone who is stubborn and can't listen. I think one of the hardest things is someone who will not stop talking, acting as if they are the only one who matters. To do better at dealing with these scenarios I plan on practicing patients more often. Letting people get their thoughts outs.