I had a situation where I cut a really close friend out of my life because I thought their values were in the
wrong place. Now usually for me I tend to want to make everybody happy, so my usual stance would have been to
take my friend’s side and help them feel better, but this was a unique situation where I just couldn’t do so. I
thought about what was important to me here. I love to have good relationships with everybody as I am a people
pleaser, but more important than that, is what I value about those relationships. Things like honesty, respect,
and loyalty.
After some thinking, I decided then and there to cut this person out of my life because I don't appreciate
somebody who treats their friends the way they were treating others and myself as well.
The consequences from this of course, was that I lost a friendship that I really did enjoy. We were adventurous,
spontaneous, and always wanting to do something fun which was awesome for me being in an unfamiliar town at the
time, but I knew that there were no
long-term benefits of having this person in my life. And afterwards things actually got better for everybody
else involved, as they chose to do the same. Follow your gut as they say, and don’t keep people around you who
spread toxicity.
For me this is the first time I had done something like this, because I always wanted to make people happy and have them like me. But this was where I realised that now that I’m older, making everybody happy isn’t important anymore, and I was really proud of myself for making such a big sacrifice at the time. I still am today.
I would say I grew up in a typical New Zealand family, went to a pretty typical school, and made some classic
kiwi friends. I say this because throughout my life I’ve been surrounded by the classic kiwi culture of being a
New Zealander. After doing some thinking and talking with friends and family, I would strongly agree that all of
this has shaped me into the person I am today, especially when it comes to my values, and my identity. One prime
example of this is with the kiwi culture’s way of communication. Having spoken with a couple of people about
this, we concluded that we are very well known for our acceptance of outsiders, whether it be a stranger from
down the road, or a foreigner from another country.
We are great at passing time with somebody we’ve never spoken to before and can form a bond very quickly due to
our friendly nature, and I see this in myself. I love meeting new people and embracing others. My close friend
group of only a small amount of people contains people who come from vastly different cultures all over the
world, and I love that. I love embracing new things and learning about other experiences from people’s lives.
Even my partner is from Germany, and we have compared so many differences about our cultures which some would
say isn’t a good fit sometimes, but I believe learning from our differences can make us both better people.
Another part of my life that has impacted my identity a lot, is the kiwi ‘can do’ attitude. My friends, family
and I have a very optimistic mindset when it comes to just about anything. Even in situations where things are
looking pretty bad like your car is halfway across a river and you don’t think you’re going to make it. Instead
of panicking we tend to look at each other and say ‘She’ll be right mate.’ This has greatly influenced my values
in the workplace. Ask any boss I’ve worked for and they’ll tell you that I’ve always taken on any task given to
me with a smile and said ‘sure thing.’ Granted sometimes I wish I hadn’t, but I want to prove that I am somebody
you can rely on, when you need to. I like to take on challenges, and I like to make people happy in the process.
I’d say one of my strengths is the ability to get on with others, and work well in a team. For me I learn well
from discussing with those who are more advanced than I am, and working hands on with them to help develop my
skills and knowledge. I love working in a team and bouncing ideas off each other, and I always believe that a
team can get much better results than working alone. In terms of my career and learning, I use think this course
will benefit me great as it allows for just that. Working with classmates and teaching each other new things
every day. I hope to form good relationships with anybody I meet in both school, and work to help me make the
most out of this new industry.
As for a limitation I have, just like teamwork being a benefit for me, I think being alone will slow me down a
lot. I’m not saying I can’t work alone and do a good job, but when it comes to actually learning, that’s where I
can struggle. I learn by communicating and doing, and with the first part of this course being mainly
researching and teaching myself, I know I can easily get lost or confused when met with new material. Usually I
consider myself a fast learner, but only under certain circumstances, and I am slightly concerned that because I
find some of this stuff hard to understand at first, I’m going to fall behind my other cohort members.
For me I think it has to be communication. In terms of my learning journey, I know that I want to learn. A big
part of being a programmer is being able to problem solve, and that is just the sort of thing I love doing. I
don’t like being handed the answer unless I really need it. When I’m stuck, it’s because I don’t understand
something properly, and I don’t want to be given a step by step instruction manual of how to get what I want. I
would much rather have somebody explain to me what each step actually does and why we’re doing it, so that I can
apply that knowledge to all future projects.
So communication is what is extremely important here. I'm pretty open about admitting when I'm stuck or lost,
and I always welcome other people's input or advise. The goal is for me to reach the level of confidence where I
can explain things simply for others, and for me that comes with being able to communicate freely with anybody.
In my last job I worked as an audio engineer in radio. Part of this job I got to create some really cool and
fun projects. I worked with voice talent, creative writers, and musicians to make some awesome stuff. One of the
things we made are your well-known annoying jingles.
During this process we often had lots of resistance, and it would have come from so many different areas. The
client doesn’t like the music, the writer doesn’t agree with the client, the message doesn’t fit the client’s
business etc. the list goes on.
One particular time we had a situation where myself and the writer behind the jingle had two very different
ideas on how the jingle should sound. We ended up getting into a couple of light arguments which slowed the
whole process down, and backtracking a lot because one of us wouldn’t be happy with the other’s decision.
At the time, to get through it we decided to make multiple versions so we could send them all off and hear what
the client thought. Although this worked at the time, I believe that it was still a waste of our production time
and resources compared to other situations.
If I was to do this again, I would try bringing another colleague to give in their input, or ask the client
first for a better explanation of what they wanted (they had said but they were very vague). I also think it’s
important to come to a compromise earlier on rather than continuing to have small debates all throughout the
working process slowing everything down.