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Values, Strengths and Limitations

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.

When I was 17 I had moved to a new school and met a group of friends who had all known each other from kindergarten. They were all extremely close to one another and I was new, and they invited me into their group. One morning while we were all together chatting away before class, one of the friends said something out loud that was on the lines of self-harm. It went unnoticed by everyone else as they assumed it was another one of his dark jokes but I felt concerned and checked in on him myself and learned that he had been self-harming. After I spoke to him I informed his close friends and told them that they needed to speak to him as they’re his closest friends and it would mean more having support from them than just me. After they spoke to him he was much happier and opened up to them about what he had been going through and he was much better after that experience. Upon reflection I am glad I trusted my instincts to notice him reaching out but also to allow myself to step back and allow the people that mattered to him most to be the support he needed. Although now as I am older I would also encourage counselling for further support and to tackle deeper turmoil he may have been facing.

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

I grew up in a culture where we treated our community as family and treated people with kindness and respect. Those are values I have carried with me in my life try to show kindness and respect where ever possible to friends, family and strangers too. When I was young we also grew up poor and we didn’t have a lot to live on most of the time. I remember when I was young how children as little as 8 would knock on our door begging for food for them and their family. Even though we had a little, my mother would bathe them, feed them and give them what she could for their families. A level of kindness I’ve tried to carry in my own life to give to others.

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

I have two core strengths that have actively aided and supported me throughout my career. The first is my extreme determination towards a goal. I often aim to create work at a high level as my father taught me to always be an artist to my craft whatever that may be. Often this method will require a lot of time and determination to go the extra mile for every project I am working on. It allows me to care about the work I am producing and never compromising quality of work. The second strength I have is the regular self-reflection I do within my work. This allows me to acknowledge my own flaws and mistakes and do what I can to amend and overcome them. I’ve found this to be especially helpful in team environments so that I can ensure I’m working effectively as a team member and also giving a high level of respect to my team members too.

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

I often get imposter syndrome. Because of this I would overthink my work and second guess my abilities and feel like the work I am producing isn’t enough and that I am not knowledgeable enough to do what I am doing. This will attack my confidence and sometimes discourage me from making the work in the way I hope to. I used to get this in the early stages of my Graphic Design career and time has allowed me to reflect and see that time will build and strengthen my confidence in myself and abilities. So I am hoping that as time goes by in this course that imposter syndrome will feel less and less.

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 my previous job I created a training video shoot for Mitre 10 staff. This had footage of my General Manager at the time of our products being sold as well as their own Category Manager. Tension quickly grew when the Mitre 10 team requested the final production of the video be completed 2 weeks in before the original due date. In the editing process this was an unrealistic expectation and the strategies we used we were to first explain the editing process and negotiate bringing the deadline down by a few days rather than weeks. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for them, and we had to seek external support to assist us and complete the edits to fit their updated deadline. Looking back on this I believe the best strategy would have been to communicate clearly from the start of the project of a realistic timeline, why it would take that long and specify why it wouldn’t be possible to do it any sooner if needed. I believe this clear communication at the start would’ve allowed them to understand our teams limitations early on.