Month: May 2020

1. What am I good at? I am good at suggesting process improvements if I am given the opportunity to look for places where change are needed. I am also good at communicating these ideas to upper management with a clear effect on the bottom line. I love working in teams and thrive in a collaborative environment. I am a very independent worker meaning that I am self motivated and will continue to improve my work, asking questions and learning new skills. I am also good at speaking up in front of a group and do not shy away from presenting my work or asking questions in a large setting.

2. What do I value? I value a work-life balance. I want to be able to love what I do for work, but also have the opportunity to love my home life and have a family and hobbies. I also love to travel and hope to somehow integrate that into my work. I value organizations that care about the environment and promote volunteer opportunities as well as have groups of like minded people.

3. How did I get here? I decided to go to Oregon State because it felt like home and I did not know what I wanted to do with my life and career yet so I decided to save money and attend a state school. Throughout my freshman year I went back and forth from business to engineering – engineering because it could pay big money in the future and business because I always had an interest in managing people and how businesses work. Interest won out and I discovered Business Information Systems to split the difference. Management and Business Information Systems are the perfect mixture of my two interests and the MECOP program allowed me to shine in these majors. My time at Daimler allowed me to narrow down my analytical interests, fueling my desire to get out into the workplace.

4. Where am I going? I am going into my second MECOP internship at ODOT after graduation to learn more about information systems and gain more skills. After that – and depending on the effects of COVID-19 – I hope to start in a program down in San Diego as a Solutions Consultant. I am excited at the opportunity to get out of Oregon and discover a new way to apply my majors as well as meet new people in a new place.

I found this personality test to be super interesting to take. Since they would ask different questions in different ways, it really got me thinking about who I am in different situations and how I have changed over various phases of my life. I could identify certain areas where I used to be one way, but have changed and grown into a different version of myself. This was a great self reflection tool.

The highest category I scored for the Big 5 traits was Openness to Experience at a 91. Honestly, this may be because I am in quarantine and am really wanting to get out and experience new places and new people. Being inside with the same individuals for months on end has made me realize how much I enjoy traveling, going on adventures and trying new things. The highest category I got for the extroversion section was assertiveness which has definitely become more prevalent since I have been attending college. For the section on agreeableness, I scored the highest on cooperation. This score did not surprise me because I want people to get along. For contentiousness I scored one of my highest singular scores in self-discipline. I know how to think through and weigh the pros and cons of various situations. Next, for neuroticism I scored the highest in immoderation which is means I place importance on short-term pleasures rather than long-term consequences. I don’t believe this is entirely true because of my self-discipline and this category definitely surprised me. Finally, for openness to experience, I scored highest on liberalism which is you know me, you know this to be true.

Since conscientiousness was my second highest of the Big 5 categories at 85 and this category is the strongest predictor of job performance, I believe an employer would be pleased with the results of my test in this aspect. Also, neuroticism was my lowest score of the Big 5 categories at a score of 58. Since there is a negative relationship for job performance for this category, I believe that employers would note that I have strong emotional stability. Another category I scored high on at a 90 was imagination. This is a good quality to have in problem solving situations and also allows me to think outside the box. I am also very achievement-striving and never stop at “good enough” when given a task or project.

Some weaknesses that this test showed me is that I do focus on short-term gains over long-term solutions which may push me to make the wrong decisions in the long run. Also, since I am assertive, this may be seen as negative considering that female assertiveness is not a favorable trait in most business settings, although I believe it is a positive trait. Finally, since I scored lowest in trust with a score of 23, employers may view this as a negative because it takes time for people to earn my trust, especially in a new setting.