Transferable Skills Letter

In my experience as a college student, I learned that multi-tasking was key to achieving my goals of graduating. I had to learn how to juggle multiple demands on my time including, but not limited to, a demanding schedule in the Education Program at UVU, working as a pharmacy technician, and my family/church duties. By being able to learn how to meet the demands of these activities, I have learned that it is possible to find balance in life as well as in the workplace.
I also learned that having an optimistic attitude can really make one’s educational and workplace environment a better place. I suffered a few stumbling blocks on my road to a college education. For a long time I couldn’t decide what major I wanted to pursue and because of that, my grades slipped for a little while. But once I found what I wanted to do, I used my optimistic attitude to overcome obstacles that came along in pursuing and getting into the Education Program at UVU. I didn’t let the daunting task of taking the Praxis exam, group interviews, or any of the other requirements to get into the program get me down. I focused on what I had accomplished and the abilities I had that would help me achieve my goals.
In my position as a pharmacy technician, I have learned the skill of working with different kinds of people and how to meet their needs, as well as dealing with problems when they arise. In my job, I work with many different kinds of people. Some people are very driven and know exactly what they want done. Others are willing to work with you and are patient. As such, my job requires I learn to work with these different people and learn to help them meet their specific needs. Sometimes you have customers who are very upset because their insurance company will not cover a medication or they may have high co-pays because of a deductible. I have learned to calmly explain to the patients what is going on and help them look for a solution to the problem. I have also learned that if you tell patients what is happening as soon as it happens, it makes it easier to work with them rather than waiting to tell them exactly what is going on.
As a future teacher, I believe all these skills are very important in the career. I believe that through my experiences of college and my current job, I will make a very effective teacher.

Skills Assessment

3 skills I enjoy:
1. Being optimistic
2. Teaching someone how to succeed
3. Being friendly towards my coworkers

3 skills I perform well:
1. Being optimistic
2. Working as a team
3. Being dependable on the job

3 skills I would like to develop
1. Organization
2. Time management
3. Self motivation

My top couple occupations that came up were School Administrators, School Psychologists, etc, which is kinda where I am going with my elementary education degree. I hadn't really thought a ton about administration and it might be something to consider after I have been teaching for a while.
I'm working hard to try and develop the skills I'm having a hard time with. I have found that once I find something I'm passionate about, I can be a self starter, but when I don't really care about the task that I have been given then it is very hard for me to keep motivated. I'm hoping that some of my classes coming up in my major will teach me some effective ways to organize things like lesson plans and how to run a classroom but have it be organized. Not really sure what to do with Time management because I really get distracted quite easily and so it's hard for me to focus on one task and manage it effectively.

Mission Statement

This is what I wrote for my personal Values (aka things I like to do) and I really think it works well as a mission statement for me. They are:

1. Read and Write
2. Playing Computer and Video games
3. Talk to friends
4. Cooking
5. Shopping

I think the values in these activities reflect creativity and interpersonal connections.
These values are very important in a career, but there are other things that are of more value like security and stability.

My mission statement kinda ties in with my top 10 values. I really value family and friends, stability and security, as well as work that is meaningful.

Top 10 Values

I started getting back into the blog thing for my new Career and Major explorations course. I'm taking it to make sure that I really want to be an Elementary School Teacher like I say I want to be. So here goes:

Top 10 Values

1. Security-I need to be a job that is secure. I don’t want to be looking for a new job all the time. That’s very hard on a family.
2. Stability-I really strongly want a job that has stable work all year. I don’t want to be in construction where it is really only a seasonal job.
3. Benefits-You never know if I will get married or if my husband’s job will have benefits. I really think they are really important especially for a family.
4. Respects My Values-If my job doesn’t respect my values and me as a person then I can’t imagine myself staying with the job very long.
5. Helping People-I really like helping people and making their lives easier. I like having people smile.
6. Close to family-I am really close with my family and I don’t think I could move out of state just to take a job.
7. Satisfaction with my job-I really want to be satisfied with my work. If I don’t think that it’s important and contributing to the better good, then I don’t really see a point in doing that job.
8. Flexible work hours-I want to be able to have a family and be a mother as well as a member of the work force. That means I really need flexible hours to make that happen.
9. Allows a Balance in life-I really need to be able to balance a home, work, church and other things in my life. I really don’t want work to seriously interfere with that.
10. Fun Work Environment-If you don’t have fun at your job, then it’s really miserable.
Many of these values will determine what kind of job I get and where it is located. I really don’t think this list will change a whole lot considering I think this list is pretty reasonable.