Secret Sauce

My personal assessment of my human capital

1.     I’ve worked at a biomedical company since I was 15.  So, I have a few years of work experience and have had a hand in R&D for a bit longer than most my age.

2.     I have an above normal appreciation for simplicity and design.

3.     Learning comes easily to me.  I am used to putting in hours into a subject and learning how something works, as opposed to just that it works.

4.     I am good at recognizing relationships in seemingly unrelated subjects and using them to develop ideas and solutions to problems.

5.     I am loyal to a fault.

Mother
 What makes me “normal” for a white male interested in engineering is an interest in math.  However, what makes me unique is my interest and skill in the arts.  I am inherently strong in math, but have also developed the language arts side.  Due to this, I am able to make unique connections.  In regards to emotions, I am very sincere with myself.  Very truthful.  But this characteristic is offset by always wanting to be right.  Being wrong is like being untrue to myself.

Father

Wide variety of knowledge.  I’m good with the theoretical, math and sciences, and also hands-on, mechanical and working on cars.  Good at getting hands dirty, but can also work with the theoretical.  Great at problem solving and using prior experience to make connections in seemingly opposite fields.  Emotion side: varies.  Even keel lately.  But I have a tendency to let the bad overrule the good.  But, I do bounce back pretty quickly if there’s a significant dose of good.

Sister
I know when to be comical and then when to be smart.  I can make situations exciting and light hearted.  To the outside world I appear to have high standards, but I’m really just a five year old at heart.  I am good at thinking of ways to fix things that are broken.  I have a tendency to envision something in mind and then create it myself.  Very determined.  Emotionally, I’m rarely in between, either very excited or miserable.

Grandmother

I am very creative and tend to reach a little farther past the standards.  A word that defines me is entrepreneur, someone who is always investigating.

Roommate

I am detailed oriented and focused.  Not a procrastinator.  Knowledgeable about math.  I’m “Pretty handy.”  I can see the different parts of a project as a collective of a whole before taking on the project.  I tend to go above and beyond, just because it makes me satisfied to do so.  I tend to look at emotional things a bit more logically.

Reflection

This activity made me laugh at some points.  I easily identified with everything they said, because, after all, they were describing me.  It felt uncomfortably narcissistic at first to be asking people to tell me what I’m good at, but, in the end, I really appreciated all that they said.  Here is how I would change my five points of human capital:

1.     Interest and skill in both mathematics and arts, theoretical and physical

2.     Problem solving:  in particular, great at making connections between seemingly opposite fields and pushing boundaries.

3.     Very sincere with myself and aware of my issues

4.     Truthful

5.     Can bounce back from crummy situations quite quickly (unfortunately, the opposite is true too)

After comparing my first list with the list made up of my interviewees’ answers, I like the interviewees’ better.