7. REFLECT Action Plan

Last year we also implemented a Reflect Action plan to improve one Reflect skill. The skill I chose to improve last year was operational thinking. To work on my operational thinking skills, I decided to create a 21-day behavior change activity for managing stress and maintaining a balanced lifestyle, while becoming more aware of details. This 21- day plan was extremely helpful in cultivating my operational thinking and helped me begin to make a lasting improvement in my operational thinking. Since I already worked on operational thinking last year, this year I decided to focus on three new skills that I also did not have the best score in.

After completing Appendix C, I chose the closest thing to what I wanted to be in the future: a management consultant (I want to be a project manager.) Management consultants analyze the needs of the client and determine how processes and operations can be changed to better meet client needs. They also collect and analyze data as well as manage resources, projects, and budgets to meet the businesses’ and clients’ goals. One of their strengths is that they remain positive when businesses processes go wrong and are able to solve problems through analytics such as risk assessments. Critical skills management consultants must have include decision making, drive, and resilience. Important skills include collaboration, interpersonal intuition, and strategic vision. I chose my worst skills out of those, and ultimately chose to improve on decision making, strategic vision, and drive.

Decision Making: Stop allowing past decisions in similar situations dictate future courses of action

Firstly, I wanted to improve my decision making skills. Reflect suggested that I should stop allowing past decisions in similar situations dictate future courses of action. A time I allowed past decisions influence the way I acted was when I decided not to accept a position offered to me that I didn’t think I’d be interested in; however, my friend accepted it and told me that it was a great position that she learned a lot in. This revelation caused me to regret not accepting the offer and so I became afraid to say no and turn employers. I began interviewing at a bunch of random companies and got an offer to be a legal intern at a small firm on Route 1. My mindset at the time was to pack my resume and I was a little desperate for any internship, so I accepted even though I knew I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in a career in law. This decision was a mistake because I ended up not liking the job at all and every Monday and Wednesday I dreaded going to work, not because I didn’t like my boss, but because I had zero interest in looking up statutes and proofreading legal documents such as wills and estate contracts. This finally led me to quit when I got a better offer (I had applied to another job before I realized I landed the legal intern position) and led to an awkward conversation with both my employer and my friend who recommended me. I knew that it was unprofessional to renege on an offer and reflected poorly both on myself and her if I quit so soon after accepting, but I knew at the end of the day it was the best thing to do for professional development in the long run. It was just an uncomfortable position and could’ve been easily avoided. If I hadn’t allowed my past experience of regretting turning down an offer affect my mindset and reluctance to say no to future companies, I wouldn’t have landed myself in this rut. In the future, my action plan is to filter the companies I apply and interview at to positions in industries that actually interest me and only those I believe can add value to my experience, so only positions that have to do with information systems in general, technology consulting, business process analysis, or project management, because those are the fields I am primarily interested in pursuing a career in. I think this will greatly help me move past my past decision making mistakes and allow me to make wiser choices in the future without previous bias.

Strategic Vision: Stop letting the fear of being “wrong” prevent me from developing a vision for the future

Secondly, I also worked on my strategic vision skills. Reflect gave me the advice to stop letting the fear of being “wrong” prevent me from developing a vision for the future. An example of a past time when this occurred was in Math 220 freshman year, I never understood what was going on but was scared of asking questions in discussion because I didn’t want to sound stupid or like I didn’t know anything. I was also afraid to participate or raise my hand to answer questions because I doubted myself and didn’t want to experience the embarrassment of being “wrong.” This fear caused me to continue to fall behind and do poorly on both the weekly quizzes and exams. After failing two exams, I ended up dropping the class because I was failing and was forced to take a W. The whole experience made me realize that I shouldn’t be afraid of reaching out for help when I need it because at the end of the day my reluctance might cost my an important part of my future – not being able to fulfill the lower level requirements to take upper level classes in the business school and graduating. I ended up taking the class again in Montgomery College this past summer in order to get my credit. This time around, I learned from my past mistake and asked my teacher routine questions about concepts because I realized there’s no such thing as a stupid question. My hard works paid off in the end because I successfully passed the class and now never have to worry about calculus ever again. My action plan so this never happens again in the future is raise my hand in all my classes to respond to questions even if I am unsure of myself and believe there’s a chance I could be incorrect. I realize that everyone is human and makes mistakes, so it’s not a huge deal if I make one mistake. Not everyone cares as much as I think they do and it’s impossible to be a perfectionist all the time. Additionally, I will make the effort to schedule more meetings with my academic advisor to go over and edit my four year plan as circumstances shift and I get older because even if I have plans that may be “wrong” or not the best path to take, I would never know if I’m headed in the right direction or not if I don’t ask in the first place. Plus, the consequences of not asking are immense and my future is pretty high stakes in my opinion, so I want to ensure everything in my power that I have the best preparation possible to prepare for the future.

Drive: start accepting challenges that are outside my comfort zone

I would’ve had more success if I had the courage to join more clubs and apply to bigger internships last year. For example I knew I wanted to do PwC’s Start Internship program but I felt intimidated as a freshman and felt that I did not even have a chance so I didn’t even bother applying. This past experience was one of my biggest regrets in college. Who knows what kind of internship I could’ve had and what kind of experience I would’ve had if I had more confidence and accepted a challenge that was outside of my comfort zone. If I just stick to experiences I am already comfortable with, I realize I will never learn anything new because I will remain stuck in the same routines and habits of remaining in my shell. An action plan for the future is to join any extracurricular clubs that interest me, whether in the business school or not, because even though it may intimidate me to put myself out there and have to plan events and network with employers, I need the experience to develop professionally. Also, I often receive emails and notifications about new job openings on HireSmith or through my business fraternity, Phi Chi Theta. Instead of ignoring these notifications or making excuses that I am too busy to apply, I will try my best to apply for the ones that interest me and think could benefit my future.