Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Academic and Personal Proficiencies (2015)

· Personal Essays

For the past 17 years, I have honed my skills and experience to making me successful in my professional life. The experiences I gained had also translated over well to my academic life. In my work environments, I have learned how to lead teams, being an effective leader, learned how to communicate effectively, and how to manage properly. And over time, I have learned that it takes hard work to be a leader and leaders are not born (Marques, 2013). These skills have allowed me to a great employee and have allowed me to move up the ladder in my current field.

Over the years, I have realized that I have the grit in order to succeed. I remember watching a TED talk on why people are successful. It has little to do with their education, but with grit. Despite not having a degree, I worked in the IT field for over 10 years without one. I easily became a top person in my field because I worked hard and I wanted it. Although the research isn’t the same as psychology, I spent a lot of time researching what I needed to know in order to become successful. However, this also meant I had a handicap in other things. Therefore, it took time in order to learn programming theory. I had to learn best practices and also different programming methodologies. I spend a lot of time making sure I am up to date on what the latest technology that’s out there with regards to my field.

Even though I had not been in school for 13 years, I was able to prove that I had what it takes in order to complete my education. I finished my bachelor’s degree at Walden with a 4.0 and presidential commendation. Time management seems to be my biggest issue. It’s an area that I know I need to work on and that I continue to improve in. Much like many others who attend an online institution of higher learning, I have a lot of responsibilities and I have a lot going on in my life. Being at Walden gives me the flexibility to go to school and still work and raise a family. Learning how to properly manage my time within my academic studies will definitely translate over to my professional career.

I have learned many things with regards to interacting with people. Likewise, I have learned many lessons on what it takes to succeed. My first tenure in college wasn’t the best time for me. I wasn’t ready. I had just finished high school and I was dealing with a lot of stress. My focus and attention span wasn’t there and with a few deaths in the family, everything came crashing down for me. I ended up leaving school and I had to learn from the ground up what it took to be successful in corporate America. I have learned, over time, what it means to be ethical, what it means to work hard, and how to research things properly. I have also learned that you cannot and probably will not make it far without reading regularly. I have a strong sense of integrity that I will not compromise for anyone. We live in an individualistic society and we’re not keen on helping others in comparison to a collectivistic society, but I value helping others. I do not only want to be a good classmate, but I also would like to be a good member of the research community as well. And being a good student will directly affect my ability to be a good scholar-practitioner.

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