Academic and Personal Proficiencies (2014)

Over the years, I have had a myriad of experiences that have made me successful in both my personal and professional life. Many of these experiences translated over directly to my academic life as well. I’ve had the chance to lead teams effectively, be a leader, learn management skills, and be an effective communicator. I believe that in order to become a good leader, leadership skills are learned and a person isn’t a good leader by virtue alone. These skills have allowed me to move my way up in the IT field over the past 17 years that I have been doing it.

One of the best things that have happened to me is that I learned that I have the drive and the grit to want to succeed. I spent my entire IT career working my way up the corporate ladder without a degree. However, in doing so, it meant that I spent a lot of time researching different topics on my own. This included programing theory and learning different methodologies and business processes. Currently, I’m at the top of my field and I have never had a problem finding a job. I spent a majority of my time constantly learning the latest and the greatest with regards to programming as time progressed.

I have proven during my undergraduate at Walden University that I am a good worker. After all, I managed to finish my degree program with a 4.0 GPA. However, an issue that I struggle with from time to time is time management. It’s the one area that I need to improve upon. I have a lot of things going on in my life and I have a ton of responsibilities. I often feel the weight of these responsibilities bearing down on me. When this happens, my priorities on whatever I’m doing go out the window. After two and a half years at Walden, I still have not gotten time management in my own personal life down. In some cases, this leads to procrastination. Being able to properly manage my academic life is a skill that can easily transfer over to my professional life.

My experiences have taught me a lot about dealing with people and how to succeed. When I first attended college, I wasn’t ready. There were a lot of things going on that affected my ability to focus on school. What followed after that was years of experience of learning the hard way on how to succeed in a corporate marketplace. I understand what it means to work hard, be ethical, and do proper research. I learned the importance of reading and staying up to date with regards to knowledge and best practices. I have also developed a strong sense of integrity. I’m a huge proponent that even though we’re in a society that focuses on individual successes, I prefer to help others to succeed as well. My experiences, I feel, will not only benefit be in being a good student and scholar-practitioner, but a good classmate and member of the research community as well.