Personal Skills Reflection

Skills Assessment

            When we take a look at what we can offer a company and how to improve ourselves it is always a great place to start with looking at your skill set.  By improving your skill set and working on your week areas allows you to become a better employee and manager.  So as I took the assessment not only did I find the skills I would use but the ones that I could improve on.  By the time I am done writing this paper I hope you hae a feel for what skills I possess and what needs to be improved do that I can succeed.

            Probably the biggest skill that I will have to rely on for this internship is time

Management.  While working a full time job already, spending time with my daughters, my other school work, and the internship time will be tight.  Balancing the time will be a challenge but, one that is manageable and it necessary so I can complete a life goal to graduate college. This will aid me in the future as I further my career and take on more responsibilities.

            Decision Making is also a big one that will be used over the next eight weeks.  Right now the decisions are when and how to do the work asked of me but, in the upcoming weeks it will impact those interns that are placed under my leadership.  The ensuing challenge here is to make decisions that favor all those involved and not just use my own needs as the basis of the decision. The decision making process will aid me in the understanding of how to make a decision that affects those that work for me not just who I work for.

            Communication to say the least is going be huge and it is always one of the keys to success.  I am presented with communication that is more challenging than we encounter within most of our jobs.  I do not have the option of face to face communication but, have to rely on technology to assist me.  And that is not the only barrier to good communication in the internship.  With interns spread out all over the nation and in some cases world, I will have to deal with time zone differences.  Email will aid in the time zone barrier but, something are needed to be communicated using the phone.  So where communication does come with its natural barriers there are added barriers to this skill.

            Reading comprehension with be key to my success in the internship as well.  With email being the primary mode of communication I will need to be able to comprehend what the sender is needing and is needed of me.  Within the meetings sometimes there is a lot of information on the slides that will need to be understood as well.  Being able to read and understand these things properly will make the transition through the program smoother.

            As I think of where this internship may take me, I feel that Service Orientation could turn into a great skill to display.  Thinking about how I can help others and acting on it could help a fellow intern learn easier or be able to complete a challenging task.  This skill will work closing alongside Social Perceptiveness.  Being able to read people and understand what is going on with them will aid me in the endeavor to help them.  Sometimes people are reluctant to ask for help so if I sense they need help and offer it then maybe the person will be able to complete a task that is confusing them.

            So as I start to get deeply involved with this internship and now have talked about the skills that I feel I will need to the most and their role in the scheme of things, I will push myself to put all these into practice.  Sometimes I may come across something new that I need help with and it is my duty as a student and a seeker of knowledge to not be afraid to search out the help and answer.  If I sit still and do nothing to better myself then I will not only fail myself but, fail those around me that depend on my strength, knowledge, and leadership.