Last week, we had Margaret Darcher present to our class about her employer: Amazon. Margaret is a SCCA alum, and currently a Principal UX Designer for the company. What I appreciated about Margaret was her transparency about her employer. She kept it real and let us know the good and the bad which is helpful.
For me, “learn and be curious”, “think big”, and “dive deep” are the principles I have exhibited most in my life. Growing up on the internet definitely molded me into becoming a curious person. I spend large chunks of my time learning about new things and this also ties into diving deep. For the things I’m interested in, I want to learn as much as I can about it. Coming away from these things with only a basic understanding doesn’t please me and leaves me itching for more. This leads into the think big principle, because I love to understand the layers and multitudes of any given subject. Seeing how things connect on the large scale is exciting to me, and will definitely come in handy in the future. A time where I have exhibited all three of these has definitely been in my assignments at school. Spending the time to do research for projects has led me down rabbit holes, and even given me new pathways to follow so I can continue my learning. For example in Erik’s class, learning HTML and CSS has made me more curious. I went down a rabbit hole and learned of the many programming languages and frameworks that are out there. I plan to continue on with a Javascript course during our winter break.
The leadership principle I’d have the most difficulty adopting would be “have a backbone: disagree and commit”. In both school and my personal life, I have an issue with asserting myself and sharing what I mean. I often feel like a bit of a doormat, which I attribute to growing up in a dysfunctional home. The easiest route to solving conflict in my family was to not say anything, and don’t even dare to defend yourself. In group settings, I often feel nervous to give suggestions or share when something isn’t working. This stems from my fear of causing further conflict, and looked upon as bitchy or rude. This is something I’ll have to work on, because it is better to get your opinion out than let it be unheard and later feel unsatisfied with your outcomes.