This winter break, I had the opportunity to participate in the Emerging Professionals Program through Career Planning & Resources. For one week, 17 Scripps students and I participated in a series of workshops and activities meant to build up our professional portfolios and gain skills to help us succeed in the professional world. Overall, I cannot say enough wonderful things about this program and would highly recommend EPP to any and all Scripps students.

Looking back at this week, I gained so much more than I expected. Thanks to the help of an amazing cohort, and the incredibly talented career counselors at CP&R, I learned more about myself and where I want my career to go, than ever before. Although intensive, the long days of introspection and nervousness were worth the struggle and headache as I came out of the week with a heightened sense of personal awareness and newly developed skills for success.

Since I learned so much last week, there is a lot to unpack and digest. My next few posts will be about breaking down what I have gained as a result of my experience with EPP, in order further process my experience and spread the wealth of knowledge endowed to me by the CP&R family.

I would primarily like to touch on the idea of self-knowledge and realization. In general, I really struggle with introspective exercises, and have always despised the question “tell me about yourself” in any setting, whether it is asked to me in an interview, on the first day of class, or on a first date. I can proudly say that I now know myself so much better after participating in EPP, and can confidently answer that question, not just in an interview, but in a more personal and intimate setting as well (and how to eloquently express who I am in different situations and settings, to differing audiences).

Although difficult and sometimes uncomfortable, delving deep into past experiences, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses and personality preferences, all come together to form a cohesive identity. CP&R helped me through this process of self-realization first by explaining and helping us process the several personality/interest tests we took, such as the Meyers-Briggs test and the Strong Inventory Assessments Each of these tools built on one another, as we analyzed what it means to be introverted versus extroverted, or have creative versus realistic tendencies, for example. By the end of the week, although I was all talked out, I had truly thought more deeply and more intensely about the question “who are you”, than I had ever before. Putting all of the test results and introspection together, I came to the final day of EPP with a clearer understanding of my goals, strengths and weaknesses and how I can grow from here.

If you feel like you struggle with answering the question, “Who are you?”,
I would highly recommend utilizing the resources CP&R offers, such as these online tests, and then making an appointment with a career counselor to discuss these results, in order to begin the process of self-understanding and realization. Allowing yourself the opportunity to perform some level of self-reflection becomes invaluable when asked to define who you are, which is often very tough for people to do.

Overall, I feel that in order to grow professionally and personally, a level of introspection is so incredibly necessary toward any sort of growth and progress. I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know myself on a deeper level and would love to help others on their personal journeys as well.

The amazing EPP Cohort!