Module 1 Journal Reflections

career_journal_week1mod1.md

Module 1 Journal Reflections

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Week 1

1. Describe one of your strengths:

   • What is something you have learned to do well (list a skill)?

     I can... organize through emphasizing visual clarity.

   • What is something you know about (list some knowledge/expertise you have)?

     I know... that I work best / more efficiently when I have a plan clearly written out, feel organized and not rushed - when there is a place for everything and everything is in its place I am less likely to miss something.

   • What is something you have a natural ability to do well (list a talent)?

     I am... thorough and dig in to make sure I have a solid plan for action or understand a concept before moving forward.

   • How could you combine these to describe a specific strength?

   I am good at setting up a plan, breaking down the larger pieces to smaller steps, and cautious to anticipate pitfalls in planning ahead to avoid/address complications before they arise. I want to make sure I've gathered &/or assessed all of the resources that I expect to need as I take action to move forward.

2. Read through your Top 4 results from Pairin In your own words, what do these top 4 qualities tell you about yourself? Do they resonate with you? Why/why not? How do they relate to the strength you wrote about in Prompt #1?

   My top qualities returned from the Pairin results were Thinking Style: Intuitive-Conceptual Strongest Driver: Loyalist EQ Competency: Calm, Cool and Collected Virtue Class: Lover of Moderation

   Pairin's assessment of my top thinking style is highly reflective of the strength I described above, not only as it relates to my compulsion toward planning and organizing, but also to a perpetual replaying and analyzing of events or interactions. "I strategize, synthesize and associate cause & effect." In reflecting here, I sense that this also informs my returned EQ competency as the strategizing, breaking down and assessment of scenarios from multiple perspectives (or possible courses of cause and effect) serves to regulate my reactivity in the moment. The assessed result with which I resonate the least (and actually feel an instinctual rejection of) is the 'Loyalist' driver. I can understand that it reflects my strength in the role of a supportive team member, but I would like to find more confidence in approaching leadership roles, without the self-sabotage and doubt that I feel is more of a pollutant to this aspect of the assessment.

3. Challenges with strengths:

   What can make it challenging to recognize your strengths? How can you work through those challenges? Do you ever see yourself overusing certain strengths? In what circumstances would you want to use them less and amplify other strengths? How could you adjust your approach in those instances?

   I've recognized a tendency to use some (many) of my strengths in ways that tend to be more destructive or debilitating to the progress I'm trying to make. This does generally seem to be a matter of extremity or over-using the quality of that strength. For the example I described above, this often manifests as difficulty in recognizing where I must cut myself off in the pursuit of organizing/planning/assessing, and act with the foundation that I have so far. It is uncomfortable to accept that I have done as much as I can, that there is still much undone/unknown, and that I have to move forward regardless of that disparity. While I feel that I can exercise a strong sense of discipline, and see that reflected in my Pairin results as well, I find that often becomes twisted into enabling my desire to keep planning and synthesizing. Rather, it would benefit me to develop this strength around discipline to regulate my time for input and introspection, and more broadly - to manage my time in a more balanced way which recognizes the reality that I cannot sustainably allow every individual action item take as much of my time as it does, that there are many things I will not be able to accomplish to my satisfaction, simply because forcing the alternative means something else will inevitably be compromised.

4. Strengths in action

   Write 1-2 sentences describing how you like to work (i.e., Do you pre-plan? Do you talk through your ideas first? Do you work better with deadlines? How do you stay organized?) How could you describe these working preferences to your project teammates? Your mentor? Your instructors? What would you need to be aware of when working with people who have different strengths from you? How could your Pairin results help you better understand your everyday working preferences?

   I like to keep all of my references handy once I do feel that I know what they are. I take overly-developed notes across multiple formats, but I am starting to incorporate Toby for managing my browser tabs/windows. I find having clearly established lists of tasks helpful to track progress as I move through a project or toward a goal - this is easier and I am more sure of setting myself up when the expectation is more concrete, I feel weaker in this when applied to more distant or abstract goals. I appreciated learning about the KanBan methodology and want to refine how to best apply this strategy for myself. I've set up a project board to collaborate on GitHub, but want to become more familiar to implement the benefits of this strategy through Trello. It is undeniably important for me to recognize (learn from and embrace) the working styles of people with strengths different from my own. I have a strong drive to get things 'right' and to satisfy set goals as completely as possible, but that can foster a rigidity which I do not want to create friction when collaborating with teammates. I want to make sure a collaborator and I are starting from an agreed upon source of truth and are on the same page to progress forward - if a partner is ready to move ahead from the set up and planning phases to start accomplishing the actual work, I want to be ready to move forward at that same pace, rather than resisting and holding anyone else back (which, expectedly could also create conflict).

5. Continued growth

   Is there any particular strength you’d like to sharpen while you’re at Turing? Any area you consider a weakness that you’d like to strengthen? What are some steps you could take here? How could you be aware of progress you’re making?

   I need to take a cue from those who are more comfortable taking risks, trying without over-thinking / over-complicating / hesitating for fear of failure. While it may still take me longer to acheive a level of comprehension I can act on, I will need to be ready to jump without the hangups of anxious doubt once I do reach that point. I recognize that this is a basic concept in Turing and the development environment - striking a balance between achieving high-competency and embracing persistant unknowns, accepting failures as points of reference for resolutions to progress. Ultimately, I think (intend) that the work in rebalancing discipline around my input/intellection-based strength will improve my ability to manage my allocation of time and energy, which definitely feels like the area most in need of my focused effort.