I used to believe that professional self-assessments were unnecessary, but as I look back and see everything I’ve done and how it led up to what I am doing now, I believe it helps. As a student working in IT, balancing complex coursework (such as exploring the impacts of artificial intelligence) with hands-on technical environments has shown me that growth requires rigor and adaptability. This self-assessment shows my recent academic work, my professional milestones and leadership skills, and ultimately establishes a strategic roadmap for my future.

I did have a recent challenge I had to accomplish pretty recently, which was completing a paper that examined the impacts of AI and cognitive thinking. For this topic, it required myself going past surface-level information and really digging deep into analyzing how machine learning could really alter human cognitive thinking. With humans really relying mostly on AI and how AI really shaped our world, people tend to not really use their brains anymore and just rely solely on machines. Seeing how I was able to really go deep into information and see what really is going on in the world, I believe that it shows that I’m capable of finding the right answer and expanding off of information that I’ve seen rather than just putting surface-level information out there. I would say this is also the same with my practical experience. For example I have a background in IT support, which I have done for a company called You Break I Fix. I used it mostly just to surface-level things: completing tasks like building a computer, fixing some things, and just calling it a day. During my time there I really dug deeper into fixing people’s software, giving them tips on what they can use or what they can do to improve their setups or fix their own things rather than just giving them the solution.

I would believe that some future priorities that I would have to deal with would be trying to get all of my certifications and pass all my courses to get my bachelor’s degree. I know that there will be some obstacles, such as life getting in the way and probably me getting a job in my field which would be getting in the way of getting more certifications and probably hindering myself from completing coursework on time. But I would learn to beat that obstacle with time management and determination. With that in mind I also would have some support, such as my parents or my friends helping me out. In the long run I believe that support is always something that you should have rather than doing things by yourself, since you can’t really do all tasks by yourself.

There were certain times when I had to be a leader in some aspects. For example I had a group project I had to do with multiple people, say five, and we were all over the place. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know what each of us had to focus on. We were just all doing each other’s work so I just took the time to step in and give each other our roles: “Hey you do the research, you do an outline, you do the references” etc., etc. I wouldn’t really consider myself a leader. I do also like to lay back and try to just work with the team and have someone else lead as well, but there will be times where I have to step in and try to be the bigger person.

Some additional support that would be needed to be more successful would just have to be maybe online support, such as forums or people online that have a better understanding than myself. Though I don’t really trust people online, because people can fabricate their own information just to see you fail (which is unfortunately a thing), I do trust some individuals online if they’re credited by other people or by my friends that I know. Same for my team, I would also do the same thing as I do for myself: get information online but also make sure that it’s credited.

My proudest work that I’ve done that benefited my club at ODU, which was the tech club, was helping them out with computers and other tasks that were needed. Some people in the club didn’t know what some things were because they were either not informed or didn’t really have the knowledge of things so I stepped in and helped them out as well. I also branched out and was a part of the help desk, helping people out by fixing their computers. For example, if they’re locked out of their email, I could always go in there and change their password if they are the person they say they are.

Some important skills that I would have to work on to improve my portfolio or resume would be my coding skills. Coding is the bread and butter of technology and having that on my resume would really help me out in the long run. Also having an understanding of AI or generative/agentic AI would be really helpful. Doing projects as well (for example, doing coding projects or projects that really benefit me for my tech career) would really help me out.