Self-Evaluation I Am Currently Employed,

Self-Evaluation

I am currently employed, full time at a retail stationary company, as a Product Manager. In this position I have learned a great deal about the retail industry and product management, yet I have a great desire to expand my skills by learning the skills that would be obtained through an MS in Project Management. I believe such skills will improve my management skills and allow me to progress in my current employment as well as any future employment I seek. The specific skills I desire are those involving the management of people, as currently my work has focused more on the product aspects of the industry and I would like to expand my skill set to include a greater awareness of human resources and specific challenges faced when managing projects and established goals.

A chose this university because I believe that the convenience of an online curriculum will allow me to further my education while still maintaining my current career. I seek to coordinate these two aspects of my life out of necessity, as very much enjoy my job and I would like to continue to work while I am going to school. I also have significant personal responsibilities which make this a necessity. I have researched other programs and determined that this university meets the most of my needs effectively, in a cost effective manner. Additionally, I found the non-specific nature of the program as foundational to my career goals. I wish to demonstrate skills outside of the specific field in which I work, as the field can seem limited and I would like to grow into other professional sets of responsabilty.

In my personal experience communication growth has been difficult, yet I believe that the format of this program will allow me to communicate effectively and gain greater communication skills in a non-threatening environment. An example of this is individual work experiences where communications have broken down and projects did not get done in the manner in which they need to be done. In fact there has been at least one situation, within a goal set that created a profit loss for the company, because one person did not get or understand the information completely with regard to the needs of the project. Post-mortem meetings with regard to the project, illuminated these concerns and allowed me and others to address the potential for this occurrence in the future. Additionally, I have the ability to learn new things, with regard to technology very quickly and I believe that will be a great asset to assimilating the new information offered in this program. I assimilate technology very quickly and have learned several new software systems rapidly in my work, in so doing I believe I have proven my ability to adapt to new things and will do so in this program.

I have a relatively flexible work schedule, and I have a very supportive family. My family and my employer are as committed to my personal and professional growth as I am and I believe I should have little problem maintaining a 15-20-hour a week schedule for school. My approach to my academics will be one where I add hours to my day prior to work, in the morning and in the evening after work as well as, as much time as is need to complete my assigned work on the weekend. If the need arises for me to take time off work I have explained the possibility to my employers and I will approach, my supervisor when needed to secure additional time for my educational needs. This is particularly true of educational project deadlines, as I will make my academic schedule known to my supervisors and take vacation and/or personal time off if the need arises, during the term and at crucial beginning and end periods of the term. My employer has also emphasized the desire for me to bring school work to my job site if I have down time, during the day but still need to be there to deal with problems and/or situations as they occur. My supervisor has also offered me flex time to work at home or on call, if needed and has expressed the desire to assist me by contributing to the technology I might need to do so.