Assignment:
In the employee writing assignment, I use the Ikigai model which is a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being,” that helps individuals discover their purpose. We use this model to analyze what would intrinsically and extrinsically motivate us when pursuing a career path. We had to analyze the pros and cons of different job prospects, for example, some careers may have been more exciting but less economically viable. The point of this assignment was being realistic while also aligning decisions with our personal values and beliefs.
My Ikigai Diagram:
Individual Assignment Reflection:
This assignment was very useful for me since it provides a framework for me to objectively view potential career paths. Our individual values can be often overshadowed by monetary incentive which can be a hard pill to swallow. However, this doesn’t mean we can’t do something that we value. This assignment allowed me to reflect on the importance of preparation which is kind of what a polytechnic school like KPU is designed for. KPU allows me to practically apply the concepts that I learn and teaches me a variety of soft/technical skills that can be applied in variety of career fields that I am interested in. It also allowed me to reflect on the pro’s and con’s of being an entrepreneur vs working a traditional job. Entrepreneurship seems to have an allure especially online since it requires “being your own boss” and “forging your own path”. Succeeding as an entrepreneur requires a lot of knowledge, self discipline, luck and an ability to monetize ventures. The more traditional and “stable” route is working for a company which can help me get first-hand experience and improve my qualifications.
Development:
Specific: Utilizing time blocking to organize sections of my day for specific tasks. For example the majority of the week can be relegated to time-sensitive tasks such as school assignments and some days can be dedicated to building projects when I have spare time. Publishing these projects on Github will be the first step in sharing these projects with other people. The next step requires networking, which includes promoting these projects on social media or adding it to my resume for employers.
Measurable: Github has an option to see the amount of contributions that you make which can act as a metric for how often I am building projects or contributing to other projects. The amount of stars that my projects get can act as another metric of community engagement (stars act as a metric for how popular a repository is on Github). Lastly, the amount of new job opportunities that I receive can act as indicators that the skills displayed in my projects are valued by employers.
Attainable: As long as I have the technical programming skills and enough discipline to follow through on projects then building them will be difficult but attainable. I just need to be careful about burnout and not overextending myself.
Relevant: This is relevant since many software companies look at projects as an indicator of a developer’s skills. This is since projects are interactive and more indicative of what a developer would encounter in a real work environment.
Time-bound: This will require sustained effort over months depending on the size of a project. As mentioned in the specific section, I need to have clear pre-determined sections of my day for doing time-sensitive tasks. After fulfilling these time sensitive tasks, I need to have time blocks where I can work on my own individual projects.