A skill I'm using where I am feeling more confident in is my independence. Now that I'm cleared on protocol and procedures I don't need someone to be there while I do stuff because I've been cleared to do things on my own. So I feel more confident in my movements and plans for the day.
A skill I would like to continue working on is taking constructive criticism and feedback. It's been difficult to take feedback at my internship site because it feels like a lot of responsibility that I have to do on my own. My supervisors and teammates help the best they can but since they aren't going through the same process as me anymore it's hard for them to give me the correct advice or help that I am looking for so I don't seek their feedback much.
I am using my existing strength of confronting challenges and failures by using tools and resources to help take a step on the road to success. I am doing this by taking what I know should be the correct outcome and applying that to my end product. If my end product isn't as similar to the correct outcome I'm looking for I'll try to narrow down what I think I did wrong and go back and redo it till I get it right.
This internship has helped me gain a deeper understanding of my coursework by showing how important it is to have background knowledge on what I'm doing and also building on to that knowledge. A way I do this in my internship is by knowing first the general information on what steps to follow but then I deepen that understanding by figuring out why following the steps in a certain order is so important. I ask myself what would happen if I didn't follow it in this order what would happen? Or what about this step is so important for the end product?
One skill I am more confident about since the fall is my teamwork ability and communication. The only teamwork experience I have is form projects in classes but I've been able to further that experience by helping in the lab and helping colleagues with their tasks. Not only am I helping them accomplish a task faster or easier but I'm also learning from them and getting to add a new accomplishment to my resume.
Another skill I am more confident about since the fall is my independence ability. Even though I do need to ask for tasks every once in a while I am about to do things on my own now. Sometimes I do get trained or watch before I step in but I get to the lab and know what I need to do. When I'm done with that I know where to look if I need some work to do.
A skill I'd like to work on is my communication ability to express how I'm feeling across all audiences and settings. A few times this Spring I've gotten really frustrated because I felt like I wasn't progressing like I thought I would. I felt very stuck and felt like I was just a body to do the tasks my supervisors or other teammates didn't want to do. Eventually I got tired of just doing a routine or just sitting there and spoke up about what else I could be doing. I need to work on communicating how I feel before it's too late and I'm over frustrated. A way I can grow this skill is if I feel like I have down time or want to switch up my day I can go directly to my supervisors and asks for more tasks or what I can help with before I let my emotions stew for a while.