Jessica's October reflection
What goals have you set for yourself during your work term at U+/YRES? What steps did you take to make sure these goals are on track?
From this internship, one of the main competencies that I wanted to develop is management, which I had the opportunity to do with volunteers, HS co-ops, and the Waterloo experience (WE) accelerate students. To begin, volunteer management is quite different virtually and in-person. There’s a lot of behind the scenes coordination needed such as interviews, assignment to events, and constant communication. For HS co-ops, albeit I don’t directly manage them, I’ve had numerous opportunities to delegate tasks to them. Lastly, as the project supervisor for WE accelerate students, it was my responsibility to ensure I provide materials, feedback and clear instructions to the work they want to achieve here as they’re on a tight schedule. The step I have taken to ensure that everything runs smoothly is to perform perspective shifting to see what I can do to make everyone transition into their tasks quickly and efficiently.
What’s an unexpected skill you developed over the work term so far and how do you envision this bringing a positive change to your career?
An unexpected skill I’ve developed is community engagement and it has taught me how to build connections within communities, perform outreach in a professional manner, and public speak in numerous settings. I believe that these are soft skills required in every career and will spur my growth in more ways than one. Specifically, I’ve understood and witnessed on numerous occasions the beauty and power of storytelling. The Toastmaster for Seniors sessions that I host are a prominent example. Once, I gave the prompt of sharing a funny or embarrassing moment and the club members led me down an emotional rollercoaster as I hanged onto every word, trying to foreshadow the “exact” funny moment. It’s all about painting an imagery in your head so you’re so well-immersed that you don’t see the funny moment coming until it gets you, making you laugh so much because you relate. I think this is extremely valuable as anyone can have a story to tell, but the tricky part is how we get others to listen.
If you could have a super power that’ll increase the efficiency or quality of your work, what would it be?
This may be odd, but I would like to have an incredible memory. There’s many occasions where there’s numerous projects and tasks to handle and a lot of dates. If I could remember all of this information in extreme detail, it’ll save me immense time from double-checking. However, this does not necessarily mean I want photographic memory where I would remember each instance of my mind in excruciating detail and having to relive moments I would rather forget. Perhaps what I really want is selective memory, where I can store everything I witness accordingly. As a side comment, the average person, according to Dunbar’s number can only have 150 stable connections at once. This capacity may be increased if I am able to remember more people, what they do, and what they tell me.
Please give a shoutout to someone who deserves employee of the month and briefly describe why.
Shout-out to Christina for being so successful in her LEGO program as she secures numerous collaborations. Based on the times that I’ve supported the program, I can tell that Christina has dedicated her time, smiles, and effort to it. It’s harder than it seems to not be mentally drained in an environment where children are constantly asking for help!
Mini shout-out to Zhen as well, since she is “forced” to support the program when none of us can make it, especially on a tight schedule herself 🙂
Share a meme of your “most likely to…” in the workplace!
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