Big 5 Profile:
Strengths Profile Top 5:
Gallup Personality Profile Top 5:
My proudest achievement is my children, and through my values, I am living a life I am grateful for every day.
My values come from my strong relationship with my family. My family always comes first and foremost. I am Filipino-born, moving to Hamilton, New Zealand when I was just four years old. Navigating being a young immigrant in a new and occasionally intimidating world, I looked and behaved differently. I learned about pride and humility from a very young age. I am a blend of my Filipino and Kiwi cultures, and the people around me have influenced my values and identity.
An example of these values in practice would be an ethical decision I made regarding a workplace. There was an acceptable level of negative talk; including the use of racial slurs and stereotypes. This included people that were seniors in the business, and colleagues I considered friends. I guess because I have a kiwi accent, and that I am generally polite, people forgot that I was occasionally one of the targets of these jokes, and that I found them offensive not only to myself but also on behalf of others. My job was stable and I was progressing through my career, but I knew that this was not a workplace that I was comfortable or proud to stay in. I resigned, and turned down a promotion when I was asked to stay. I told HR about the toxic culture that I felt was present. I have since found far more diverse and accepting workplaces, and to this day I am glad I made the decision to leave. Little me was not enough to change or fix the culture of the company, but choosing to leave was my way of speaking up and at least raising awareness.
My strengths will support me during my learning journey. Love and gratitude will always remind me that I am doing this for my family, and that I am so lucky to be given an opportunity to study again towards a career that will be truly fulfilling. My appreciation of beauty and excellence will bring out my creative side, as to not just learn the content but execute it to a high standard with a lot of thought and effort. Curiosity will always lead me to trying to understand the how and why of everything we learn. And finally, humility will keep me grounded. There will always be more to learn, different perspectives to see from, and I will always be trying to improve and better not only my coding skills but my human skills.
At this stage, there are a few limitations in terms of my learning and career development. Apart from some dabbling in personal websites and self-taught online tutorials, I'm fairly new to coding. A learning curve is always daunting, and it's easy to doubt myself and think that I can't do it. I've also only experienced a traditional formal education in science and marketing. I found this style to be one-directional; striving for a 'top' grade but not really considering if I truly knew and understand it. I could rote-learn large chunks of information but at times couldn't retain it much further past the last exams. Once I was out in the real research and corporate world, I wasn't confident in my practical skills.
This affects my learning journey by switching my state of mind. I'm not striving to be the top student or trying to reach that A+ anymore. I don't get hard pass or fails at every point. I'm now 100% accountable for my own learning and being motivated to do my best for myself.