ES2007S: Professional Communications

The painfully personal statement. Saturday, September 12, 2009 2:55 AM

The Question about what makes you YOU:

What characteristic/trait makes you unique/special?

As overused as this question may be, I can never quite come out with something that I feel is truly (100%) honest. In fact, I feel this way for most of the questions asked during interviews. Oftentimes, interviews can result in a great deal of self-searching. And mostly, I wind up pondering about my self-worth and purpose here on earth and then questioning the existence of humanity itself. Just wondering, how many of you actually lay your cards out everytime, without fail? Or do you simply use the politically correct answers and customise it a little just to avoid sounding like you're a liar? How honest are you, really? Or do you think it's stupid to tell it all? Just a trivial thought. And yes, I am asking because I am curious. You don't have to answer, and even if you do, you don't even have to be honest. I won't know, would I?

Well, sorry for the sidetrack. It's just that I find personal statements such a pain (in the ass) and it often gets me into a melancholy - evidently, huh? Is it even possible to describe yourself in 250-300 words? How do you decide which part of you do you like best? Statistics have shown that most people have 5-10 incredible gifts/talents. Oddly, I actually have a problem identifying them in the first place. Sometimes, I wonder if it's just an evil ploy that some scheming HR manager came up with to make the application process a little more unbearable. If so, I'd like to find out who this great man/lady is and send my love, along with a box of poisoned chocolates.

Okay, I'd love to continue rambling about everything else, but I do realise that at the end of the post - when I do reach Blogger's word limit, I'd still have to write about myself and compress it into a neat little 250-word personal statement. And so, here goes. Share my pain.

___________________________________________________________________
The Answer:

I believe that self-motivation is an inherent trait that I possess. It is a trait I am proud to have and one that has influenced many of the decisions I have made in my life. When I was little, my mother never had to hustle me into studying or tidying my room. As I grew older, I often felt impelled to act on something that I felt was lacking or could be improved upon. In addition, I have a penchant for taking on new challenges, especially those that I have no prior experience in. For example, being a sports-inclined individual with null experience in committees or management-related activities, I decided to sign myself up for a spot on my faculty club’s management committee in my freshman year in university. Even though I had no experiences to back my election campaign, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and had accomplished what I set out to do. A continuous source of self-motivation has driven me to achieve the many things I never thought possible. It has also given me the strength and will to overcome the frequent obstacles in life. Self-motivation, I am sure, is a trait that has set me apart as a unique individual.

___________________________________________________________________

There, done. PHEW.

(EDITED)

★Posted by g.

There are 6 comments!

BOBAG commented at September 13, 2009 at 11:32 AM :

Hey gwen,
I have just done my post and commented on sherlynn's and I just read your's and I think many of us will be blogging about the same thing.

Self-motivation and challenging ourselves.

Funny what this blogging exercise brings out in us.

Just a thought, what would have been your takeaway point from your experience in engine club?(assuming u did get in, haha)

cheers

Michelle commented at September 13, 2009 at 9:22 PM :

Hello Gwen,

I too had a hard time writing mine, but I guess it was quite a rewarding experience at the end. Okay, now on to yours.

Your personal statement is interesting, language is correctly used. Examples/experiences were stated clearly. In all, it does convince me you're a self-motivated person.

Regards,
Michelle

Brad Blackstone commented at September 14, 2009 at 5:36 AM :

Gwen,

I like this statement: clear, concise and well focused. It also doesn't force me to work too hard in analyzing the language use. Just a few problems:

1) It is a trait I am proud to have and has influenced many of the decisions I have made in my life. > It is a trait I am proud to have and ONE THAT has influenced many of the decisions I have made in my life.

2) ...and accomplished what I have set out to do. > this is the perfect place to use a past perfect tense verb

Thanks for the fine job.

g. commented at September 14, 2009 at 6:59 AM :

This comment has been removed by the author.

g. commented at September 14, 2009 at 7:00 AM :

Hello all,

Thank you for your comments.

Feodor: Yes, I did manage to get into engin club. What I learnt is that organising one pageant constitues an insane amount of work and thankfully, was a worthwhile effort because it was a success. And most importantly, you need more than one individual to accomplish great things; you need a team.

Brad: Thank you for pointing out the errors! I will
make the changes!

Cheers
Gwen

Best Website Hosting commented at May 25, 2011 at 3:38 AM :

self-motivation is secret key of our success. challenging is another part of success key.

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