Identity, Values, and Strengths

Explain a situation where you have made an ethical decision. Discuss how you weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision you made, and how you reflect on the decision now.

Recently I found a ring in the Wellington railway station and handed it in to the staff working there. It looked like a valuable ring (but not not crazy valuable!) I thought about how much it might be worth, but always knew that I would hand it in as that was the right thing to do. I thought about how whoever had lost it might be upset at losing it (but then also wondered - was it lost, or was it left on purpose after an argument with their partner?).

Describe how your culture and the people around you have influenced your values and identity.

I am very close with my family and as we were growing up, they instilled in me good solid values to help me succeed in life (the value of working hard, honesty etc). Many of my friends at college and university came from a similar background and we all took it as given that we would go on to university study and get degrees etc and then join the workforce. In my last job the people in my team had some traits in common, we all valued the analytical/logical thinking, being precise and accurate etc, which probably just worked to reinforce these traits in us all.

Identify your strengths and how they will support you during your learning journey.

I am good at analytical, logical thinking and problem solving which are all very important skills for a programmer, as a lot of programming involves problem solving and applying logic to develop an accurate solution to a given problem. I am methodical and detail focussed which will help me to approach problems in a structured way and not overlook any aspects. My determination will help drive me to keep trying when difficulties arise, and my curiousity will mean that I want to figure out how something works, or how to resolve the problem I'm facing. I am conscientious so that I will demonstrate a good work ethic.

Evaluate your limitations in terms of your learning and career development. How might these affect your learning journey?

I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times and this can make it difficult to start things - I sometimes spend too long thinking of the 'best' way rather than getting started with a good way. I have not had any formal 'leadership' responsibilities in a job, I might come across as a little stand-offish, and when learning I generally tend to be self-contained, so I may need to make more of an effort to make the learning journey more of a collaborative one. I can sometimes be passive, a bit risk-averse and reluctant to make promises around deadlines (unless I am confident I can deliver on them). I will probably need to be more bold and put my thoughts across, and may need to get more comfortable with taking a chance and setting more ambitious targets.

Share an example of when you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension. Discuss strategies you tried at the time, how effective they were, and your reflections on what other strategies you would try now and why.

In a previous role, there were some new staff joining our team and as someone who had been in the team for a while, I was explaining about the team and its work to them. However, at various points they were unhappy with how little effort had been taken for integrating them into the team. There weren't any particular strategies I tried to use. I did make an effort to try and get them involved with the team's work but this was only successful some of the time. Unfortunately, it may have been too late, they felt isolated and a bit of an 'us/them' dynamic developed.