Please write a ~500 word piece (or upload a reflection in another medium, such as video) on your second meeting with either your campus employment supervisor or the course instructor. If the former, they should have asked you the following questions:
- What do you feel you learned from this experience?
- How did this work complement your academic, extracurricular, or career interests?
- What could I have done differently to support you in your role?
- Looking at the six Ideals into Practice competencies, where do you feel you developed the most this semester through your work here?
Yesterday, I had a great discussion with my boss, Lydia Casparie about these questions and about my career in general. I think having these open, two-way conversations with her has been incredibly helpful in figuring out the direction I want to take within my job and further along in my career. Creating the time to reflect on this job has allowed me to understand my tasks better and what I want to achieve which has been amazing.
- What do you feel you learned from this experience?
From this experience, I’ve learnt so many tangible and soft skills that I wouldn’t have thought I would gain. On a very basic level, I feel as though my graphic design skills have improved and I’ve learnt a lot how to manage TikTok; whether it be analyzing the analytics and tracking growth or creating a content calendar and staying up to date with trends, I feel as though I understand how to navigate the app as a creator much more confidently.
On the other hand, I think that this experience has taught me to take more initiative as I have the creative agency to come up with new ideas and act on them. This job has also taught me a lot about myself and how I’ve come to view myself as a person; I’ve grown a lot more confident in my abilities and I’d like to think that with all the interviews I’ve had, I’ve become more forward facing which is something I’ve wanted to work on for a while now. Overall, I think that this experience has given me a step up into understanding the world of social media and marketing which I would love to enter later on in life.
2. How did this work complement your academic, extracurricular, or career interests?
This work has definitely gone hand-in-hand with my extracurricular activities as I’m the social media manager for the Thai Student Association; I’ve tried harder to make the feed aesthetically pleasing through graphic design skills I’ve learnt from this job. In terms of academic interests, I think I’ve taken more initiative and creative agency in my painting class which has been directly translated from work. In terms of career, I think this job continues to solidify the fact that I want to try and work in social media, communications and marketing.
3. What could I have done differently to support you in your role?
I think Lydia is an incredible boss and has given me so much freedom to explore and I’ve worked on multiple different projects so I don’t think she could’ve done a better job.
4. Looking at the six Ideals into Practice competencies, where do you feel you developed the most this semester through your work here?
I think I’ve developed the most in creativity but I also think my socio-cultural awareness has grown immensely after interviewing many different people and hearing their unique and different backgrounds. Being able to make space for underrepresented voices continues to be my goal for this job and many more in the future.
