Working on assignment

Author: dphuang2

_posts/2016-12-20-uiuc-fall-2016.markdown

@@ -11,9 +11,7 @@ image: /assets/image/southquadfall.jpg
 image_webp: /assets/image/webp/southquadfall.webp
 ---
 
-Classes taken (Ranked by difficulty):
----------------------
----------------------
+# Classes taken (Ranked by difficulty):
 <ul>
   <li> ECE 391 - Systems Programming  - 40 Hours per week</li>
   <li> CS 225 - Data Structures - 10 Hours per week</li>

_posts/2018-09-20-self-analysis.markdown

@@ -8,27 +8,21 @@ image: /assets/image/self-analysis.jpg
 image-webp: /assets/image/webp/self-analysis.webp
 ---
 
-# Why?
+# Why and How?
 
 For my [TE 466](https://tec.illinois.edu/academics/course/TE466) self-branding
 assignment, I will be performing a self-analysis. To begin, I will do a
-strength/weakness analysis of myself in the form of a table and
-explanation/thoughts. Then I am going to ask myself the following questions: 
-
-1. "What are the attributes/characteristics that make me distinctive from my colleagues or
-competitors?
-2. What is my strong suit? What needs improvement?". 
-
-I will then do an external informal survey of my friends and family by asking
-them what they think my strengths, weaknesses, attributes, characteristics are.
-I will take the results from this survey and perform a congruence analysis . I
-will then create a feature-benefit model of myself that reflects my personal
-brand.
+strength/weakness analysis of myself in the form of a table with
+explanation/thoughts.  I will then do an external informal survey of my friends
+and family by asking them to list my strengths, weaknesses, attributes,
+characteristics.  I will take the results from this survey and perform a
+congruence analysis . I will then create a feature-benefit model of myself that
+reflects my personal brand.
 
 # Strengths and Weaknesses 
 
 Doing a strength/weakness analysis of myself was difficult. Not only do you have
-have a level of self-confidence to think about your strengths, but you also have
+to have a level of self-confidence to think about your strengths, but you also have
 to have the self-awareness to expose your own weaknesses in writing.
 Nevertheless, I put on my self-reflecting cap and wrote anything that came to
 mind. I feel that the strengths/weakness chart that I wrote were indicative of
@@ -48,62 +42,82 @@ explore my weaknesses after.
 ## Strengths
 
 Strengths are what make you qualified for a job, better than the next candidate,
-and excel in the workforce. I believe that the strengths that I proposed have
-been demonstrated many times in my college career or industry experience.
+and excel in the workforce. I believe that the strengths that I analyzed have
+been demonstrated in my college career or industry experience.
 
- - As a *hard-working* person, I find myself making sure that the job gets done
-   regardless of how much work is needed to be done. If it means I have to
+ - As a **hard-working** person, I find myself making sure that the job gets
+   done regardless of how much work is needed to be done. If it means I have to
    forego sleep or work during breaks to get the job done, I will see to it that
-   it gets accomplished. I believe this strength of mine is a product of my
-   upbringing and values taught as a child.
- - I am *passionate* about technology. Passion drives me to continuously
+   it gets accomplished. I believe my hard-working attitude is a product of my
+   upbringing and values that I was taught as a child
+ - I am **passionate** about technology. Passion drives me to continuously
    self-improve my technical expertise and mindset. Even if working on a project
-   does not yield me any money or A on my transcript, I often find myself
+   does not yield me any money or "A" on my transcript, I often find myself
    learning and making things regardless of their reward.
- - The ability to *quickly learn* something finds itself useful is a myriad of
+ - The ability to **quickly learn** something finds itself useful is a myriad of
    ways. Whether it be working on a foreign task at work or taking a class on an
    entirely new subject, my ability to quickly learn a field or subject has
    proven to be one of my most helpful strengths. I believe that if someone does
    not know much but is a quick learner, they will be more successful than
    someone who already knows a lot but is a slow learner.
- - Being *friendly* is a virtue of mine. I believe it is important to treat others
+ - Being **friendly** is a virtue of mine. I believe it is important to treat others
    the way you want to be treated. This especially applies in the workplace as
    it is important to foster nurturing relationships with your coworkers rather
    than detrimental ones. 
- - Having a *strong technical background* is simply a function of my passion and
+ - Having a **strong technical background** is simply a function of my passion and
    hard-working attitude. As I choose to work hard on subjects or fields that I
    am passionate about, my technical background directly benefits.
- - Although being a *natural leader* is something that I do not try to portray
-   myself. I often find myself in situations where the decision to take the
-   initiative as a leader comes natural. I think this is a strength that I do
-   not take advantage of as much as I would like. 
+ - Although being a **natural leader** is not obvious to me, I often find myself
+   in situations where the decision to take the initiative as a leader comes
+   natural.
 
 ## Weaknesses
 
 Weaknesses are things that I felt that I should improve on. These are the things
 that I feel do not necessarily define me, but make it harder for me to excel on
-the job. And almost all of them have to do with a specific negative mindset.
-They are all things that I would love to improve on but I understand take time
-to train. 
+the job. My most interesting weakness is impostor syndrome. I strongly believe
+everyone has the potential to do great work, but it is a matter of their ability
+to hone their strengths and make them useful. The impostor syndrome is a
+psychological pattern in which individuals doubt their accomplishments and have
+a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Although I do not
+think this is a devastating weakness of mine, it still requires careful thought.
+I often find myself doubting my ability to accomplish a task and need to realign
+my perspective to motivate myself.  The following diagram does a great job of
+explaining this phenomenon.
+
+![Impostor Syndrome](/assets/image/impostorsyndrome.png)
 
 # External Analysis
 
 After interviewing a dozen of friends and a few family members, I came up with a
 summary of myself based on other people's perspective. The general consensus was
-that I was a really hard-worker with the motivation to do some pretty great
-things in the future. This was mainly due to a proven track-record of working
-hard and doing difficult things. Whether it was taking a lot of classes, going
-the extra mile at work, or working on a lot of personal projects, my peers felt
-that I had the qualities of a hard worker. I was very proud of this strength and
-I think it is a quality that differentiates me from other people. I also found
-out that most people think that I can be stubborn. This analysis did not
-surprise me as I expected this weakness to be obvious in my character. There has
-been many situations where I believed my idea or method was superior without
-taking into the account the ideas or methods of others. This is something that I
-recognize and am always working on and I believe has drastically improved during
-my time in college.
+that I was a really hard-worker with lots of self-motivation. This was mainly
+due to a proven track-record of working hard and doing difficult things. Whether
+it was taking a lot of classes, going the extra mile at work, or working on a
+lot of personal projects, my peers felt that I had the qualities of a hard
+worker. I was very proud of this strength and I think it is a quality that
+differentiates me from other people. Another strength that aligned was my
+friendliness. My peers felt that I was generally a friendly and thoughtful
+person based on anecdotal experiences. I also found out that most people think
+that I can be stubborn. This observation did not surprise me as stubbornness is
+an obvious character of mine. I can think of multiple situations where I
+believed my idea or method was superior without considering the ideas or methods
+of others. This is something I am always working on and feel has drastically
+improved during my time in college. No one mentioned anything about impostor
+syndrome or impatience. I was not surprised that no one mentioned impostor
+syndrome as that is an internal psychological phenomena that is not outwardly
+obvious. But I was surprised that no one mentioned my impatience. I know from
+experience that I tend to get impatient when it comes to results or finding
+solutions—maybe it is a sign of improvement.
 
 # Congruence Analysis
 
 I was lucky to find that my friends and family's perspectives of me aligned with
-my self-analysis. 
+my self-analysis. I think this is a testament to some of my self-awareness but
+obviously requires a larger sample size to truly determine the reality of other
+people's perspectives. I also think it is hard for friends/family to write about
+your weaknesses without exposing too much about what they think of you.
+
+# Feature-Benefit Model
+
+