Month: February 2023

I thought what Adam said about always delivering quality work to the best of your ability was very meaningful. Sometimes I find myself not always putting my best foot forward just because external expectations are low or because I don’t really care about the project. Hearing Adam talk made me really think about that. When people see the work that you put out, they don’t care about the scenario or your head space when you were making the work, all they see is the work, and that is what they have to judge. So if you put out work that is below your personal potential, viewers, potential employers, colleagues, will judge you based on that work. So therefore it is important to always do your best no matter the expectations, or how motivated you are. I guess the important thing is to have a high standard for yourself and don’t let external standards determine the quality of your work. Always hold yourself to a high standard and try to live up to that as best you can. There’s definitely been some of Jason’s projects this quarter where I feel like I have turned in work that was below my standard because I didn’t like the assignment so I wasn’t motivated to put in my best effort, instead I focused that effort into other projects that I was more interested in. But I think when you enter the workplace, you have to do your best to make sure anything with your name on it lives up to the high standards that you set for yourself, and that is how you will succeed.

They say “hard skills will get you the interview, soft skills will get you the job”. To me, this means that employers are looking for qualifications when deciding who to invite to an interview, but once in the interview, they are looking at what type of person you are, and trying to get to know you a little better. I’d say my top 3 skills to get me an interview are my knowledge of the Adobe Suite, branding, and design. In terms of branding, I think I’m good at understanding a company’s feel and distilling that into designs that match they’re tone and business goals. I would say my three top soft skills are adaptability, creativity, and collaboration. I think I am good at collaborating because I’m a good listener and know how to take the best aspects of peoples’ ideas and combining them into one cohesive final product. Two hard skills that I’m excited about gaining in this program are html and css programming and layout design. I had no experience in coding prior to entering the program and feel so far, that has been my biggest area of improvement. It’s been a rewarding challenge getting better at something that is so daunting at first. Two soft skills I would like to develop during the program are networking and time-management. Being in such a demanding and rigorous program has already forced me to exercise my time management skills. Forcing myself to get to work when I would rather eat a snack or watch NBA is something I’m working on getting better at every week. I think I have the hard skills to do a job, but networking, finding the right opportunities, and selling myself to the right people is something to improve that can increase my chances of landing a quality job when it’s time to get hired. I think the follow through part is important for me when I meet new people that could lead to potential job opportunities, but at the same time, I have a lot on my plate right now and not a lot of extra capacity to take on new challenges outside of school at the moment. I just want to get through school, improve my hard and soft skills as much as I can before I graduate, in order to be ready to enter the workforce in a year and a half.