Introduction
I have been working at WSIDD for around three months now, and a lot has happened in the short time I’ve worked here. It’s crazy to think how fast I’ve went from training on different skills and sitting in on meetings to managing development projects and running meeting my myself.
Goal Reflections
Throughout the work term I tried my best to keep these goals in mind and focused on learning and improving these skills. Here are my reflections on how I feel I did:
Organization/Time Management
Going into this work term, my organization skills were one of my biggest weaknesses. It was something I have always struggled with, but I feel as if I have improved a lot over the past few years. But as a project manager, my ability to stay organized is a necessary asset. Throughout the work term I have changed the way I stay organized multiple times to keep on trying to improve my ability. Working on my organization was the main learning goal I focused on throughout the term and I believe I have improved a lot, but I still feel as if I have a lot of room for improvement.
Communication
My oral and written and communication skills were one of the learning goals I was really focusing on this term. Before this work term I knew that my communication skills were not something I was strong at, but I knew that it would be an important skill not only in my position at WSI but in all my future jobs. So working on communication skills was something that I worked hard at improving along with Nicole’s help. At the beginning of the year, most of the meetings I was a part of I mainly sat and listened, only talking when I had a point to add. But as I got more comfortable talking and commanding a meeting I starting being a much bigger part of our meetings and now I now am comfortable running an internal or external meeting myself.
Critical and Creative Thinking
Throughout the work term, one of my responsibilities I really focused on was performance analysis for the websites I was managing. I have spent a lot of time over the past three months reading through the performance data from websites. Being able to deduct conclusions about the issues from the data is probably what I improved on the most as at the beginning I was spending most of my time doing research on how to fix some of the problems but I am now at a point where I can just review the website and data and figure out how to improve the website performance.
Technological Literacy
Throughout my work term. I have used a lot of different tools to help me with my job. I have got very accustomed with task management, time management, data analysis, and communication tools. I’ve learnt a lot about how to use these different technologies but the big thing I learned is how important these technologies are, and why when used correctly they can increase your organization, productivity, and efficiency. Without using tools such as Teamwork, Asana, Google Calendar, Google Data Studio, GTmetrix, and Zoom I wouldn’t have been able to stay organized and keep my projects on track.
Global Understanding
In my position, I have had to work with people from all over the world. I have learned about how different cultures can influence peoples way of thinking and communication. Being able to work efficiently with people from other cultures was not something I ever thought would be that difficult (ignoring possible language barriers). But I have learned how better understanding another’s culture can help communication between them.
Conclusion
These past three months have probably been the best learning experience of my life. Being able to work in a position related to my career has been an amazing learning opportunity and has helped me grow so much. I can already understand how skills I have been learning will be instrumental in my future career and life.