“What are your greatest strengths?” “What are your greatest weaknesses?” Two of the most common and dreaded interview questions. Most people think they know the answers to these questions, but I’m pretty sure most people are wrong; especially when it comes to their strengths. The things I’m not good at are fairly obvious, but discovering what I’m truly good has proven to be more difficult. I think this is because what I think are my strengths are what I want to be my strengths.
I’ve found that unbiased self-reflection is a difficult thing to do well, so in attempt to better identify my strengths and weaknesses, I’m going to try to document key decisions I make and what I want and expect to happen as a result of those decision. A year or so later the plan is to revisit these decisions and see if I was able to achieve the desired outcome.
I unknowingly started this exercise in March of 2012 when I decided to join uTest. I documented the reasons for making that decision as well as my goals and now, 18 months later what I expected to happen – develop a reputation as an expert tester – is starting to develop (at least within the uTest community).
I’m excited to see where this exercise takes me. To kick it off, my first key decision is to…. start keeping track of my key decisions 🙂