Month 3: My Brand Development Journey

For this assignment, we were tasked with completing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis on myself. As suggested by Quast (2013), I started with Threats and thought about how these external instances can impact my abilities at school. As Professor Kratz (2019) mentioned, this exercise is used to take a look at yourself and consider ways in which you can improve.

Threats:

The threats I thought of stem from my sporadic work schedule, the requirements often found in job announcements, and that those who have more work experience in the field. These threats are external, but now that I have identified them I can make plans to address them. With this knowledge, I was able to think about the opportunities I have available to me.

Opportunities:

Once I identified my threats, I had to take some time to think about ways I could overcome them. First, I realized that because I am in retail, it is possible for me to change my schedule easier than it might be in other jobs. In addition, scheduling my off days so that I’m getting more assignments done on time as well as learning new skills. This leads to my next opportunity of using Lynda.com to continue building my job skills. While I cannot ever hope to catch up to people who have already gained experience in this field, I can start gaining my own experience as my church is currently looking for volunteers in their Media Room. I just have to take the initiative and call to sign up!

Weaknesses:

My weaknesses were also easy to identify as they come up almost everyday in my coursework. I often feel I have Imposter Syndrome in this program as I don’t have a design background. It also makes it difficult when completing coursework using software I’ve never used before. This causes me to become overly focused on the details of my designs regardless of the deadline and at times, to procrastinate because I become overwhelmed before I ever start. All of this culminates with me second guessing myself, often.

My Strengths:

In the end, my strengths have allowed me to keep going throughout this process. Despite knowing this, identifying my strengths was the hardest part of completing my SWOT analysis. I’m not suprised that it was difficult, but I do wish this was something that came easier. Through completing my assignments and discussing with my previous professors, I have found that the identified strengths will help me moving forward.

MY VISION BOARD SWOT Analysis:

When completing my personal SWOT Analysis, I realized I could complete this analysis in relation to my boards as well. One of the Threats to completing my boards was the time frame the assignment was going to be due and my not having used Adobe InDesign. I took the Opportunity to stay up late and complete the boards the first round. Unfortunately, I created stylesheets rather than actual vision boards. However, one of my strengths is being able to adapt to new software after minimal exposure. On the other hand, my weakness is second guessing myself. So, while I felt like I was learning how to use InDesign fairly quick, I was still unsure how to proceed with creating vision boards. In the end, I had to stick with what worked for the sake of turning the assignment in as it was due. These are all experiences I will continue to have, but by making myself aware of them, I can work towards my goals.