A Self Analysis is Professionally and Personally Rewarding

Here’s How to Complete One

I was recently searching for internships for this summer, and most of the qualifications had one requirement in common. I must be a rising junior or senior to even apply. Next year I will be a senior and the year after that… an adult?

The thought of me being thrown out into the world with a $100,000 piece of paper that says I know something about business is a bit terrifying. Thanks to a decent education and supportive family I feel somewhat confident about my life after graduation. There’s just one major detail I needed to reevaluate.

Me! Using a personal SWOT analysis, I am able to take a realistic look at myself. This acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Typically used for a business, it’s extremely helpful for you and I as well. The strengths and weaknesses are personal factors that you can control, while your opportunities and threats and external and you may have limited control over.

Admittedly completing a personal SWOT analysis was not my idea, rather an assignment my leadership professor had us submit as part of our personal portfolio. I just took the assignment and ran with it. After uploading it, I read it again and found that with some changes this could be a helpful story for both current students and those who are about to enter the workforce.

Below is what I submitted for this assignment, with some edits of course. After reading my example, I highly recommend you do a self-analysis as well. The whole process took less than an hour, but the benefits are long-lasting.

After reading the examples provided, I spent a few minutes thinking about the best way to capture my life in one sentence. I had always believed in the idea of “hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst.” This was a good starting point but didn’t mention leadership or continuing to learn. After much thought, I had the perfect mission statement.

The effectively captures my true beliefs and values. Leadership is very important to me as it’s a topic for many of my articles. I also included my personal mantra of “hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst.” The last part mentions “always learning and moving forward.” I firmly believe that even after college we will never stop learning. The desire to learn can be strongly linked to personal success.

When asked to choose five personal goals and professional goals it can be challenging to focus on just a few. However, for my personal goals I chose to graduate college, pay off all debt except student loans, run a half marathon, return to Boy Scouts as a scoutmaster, and lead others to fulfill their dreams.

My professional goals are to earn and work an internship, build a community around my writing, open a computer refurbishing business, publish a book, and create more Udemy classes.

My top personal goal is to graduate college not only to feel accomplished but also to open more doors professionally. I want to also be able to pay back all my credit card debt and pay off my car. As a casual runner, it would be awesome to complete a half marathon someday as well.

When I settle down, I plan to become active in Boy Scouts again to guide other young men and women to earn their Eagle Award. Finally, as a continuing goal, I’m inspiring others to find what they want to do in life and supporting them however possible.

As for professional goals, I would love to earn an internship in either sales or management before graduating from York. I currently have about 300 followers on my Medium page and would love to keep growing this community to spread my thoughts and ideas.

One of my lifelong goals was to open a business. More recently I have decided that using my computer skills, I would like to open a computer refurbishing center. At some point, I want to publish a book on the topic of either business or time management, but this one is further down the road. At last, I would like to create at least 5 more Udemy classes based on the classes I learn here at YCP, again spreading knowledge to others.

Strengths. I am supportive of my friends and try to help them as needed and driven to succeed because I want to feel good about what I have achieved in life. I also enjoy writing and use it to talk about topics I enjoy or vent about something in an indirect way.

As for my computer skills, I use them to provide others with assistance for their computer. Using my time management skills, I can accomplish all of my assigned duties such as schoolwork quickly and properly, so I have more discretionary time for activities such as writing or doing activities with friends.

Weaknesses. While very supportive, I am unable to read a person’s emotions sometimes and may respond to them in a way that is not appropriate for the situation. I can also be too compassionate toward someone to the point where they may use me to their advantage but have been getting better at this by recognizing when I am giving more than I should in a certain situation. Often, I will look for external approval to make certain decisions, but this has been improving through self-confidence and trusting myself to make the best decision.

Opportunities. I have been using the independent writing platform, Medium as a way to express my feelings toward certain subjects and events while improving my writing. I also use this to get feedback from other writers.

Udemy is an online e-learning marketplace where I create and publish classes based on topics I write about. In the future, I will use this to continue offering my knowledge to others who desire to learn.

Finally, working at Target has been a rewarding experience professionally. It’s a great resume builder, and I plan to apply for the management internship this summer.

Threats. While I have many ideas and opportunities. Many of these cost a bit of money to fund advertising and the projects themselves. Because of this, not having enough funds is one of my weaknesses, but I have been attempting to earn passive income while at school using Udemy and Medium.

Another threat is our ever-changing world due to the pandemic. I have been offered my job back at Target during the semester break, but could receive a call at any moment, telling me that I am no longer needed. If this happens, my contingency plan is to be a Doordash driver full-time to pay for car payments and other bills.

Every environment has distractions. This can be a major roadblock for me as I am a very social person while at college and very involved. I have been getting better at accomplishing all my work by scheduling two six-hour blocks every week where I can get most of my work done.

This exercise was very helpful in allowing me to be honest with myself and create a path for my next five years. Completing the personal SWOT analysis was a great way to identify where I’m excelling, and where I should improve.

This was my personal analysis and I hope that you can use this as a sample for your own. Since creating this, I know more about myself and my goals. It can be difficult to think of your weaknesses on the spot, but an exercise like this will help you to self-analyze and begin your career with great confidence.

-ZG

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