I used to work part time as department store loss prevention. One time, I pulled in a person who was spotted by other staff acting strange earlier. I caught him on cameras putting on a t-shirt that he didn't pay for and walked out wearing it without paying. He told me he did not realise he was wearing the t-shirt. Unsure whether or not I believed him, I stayed polite around him but simultaneously suspicious. He gave out the reasons that his mum was distracting him whilst he put the t-shirt on, and the way he talked gave off a tone that may or may not be interpreted as lying, leading me to doubt him. Taking my time to decide where to go with this, I decided based on security footage that he was indeed telling the truth (his mum actually did seem to be distracting him), and my own judgement that no one stealing would be stupid enough to walk out wearing an item that is still labelled, so I let him go, despite keeping some suspicion.
This was my first time handling a potential shoplifter at work on my own, so I felt a lot of pressure in making the right decision, as this responsibility was all mine and if I made the wrong choice (ie. accusing him of theft) it could have bad consequences. I felt that through getting in touch with three of my core values, patience (in my thinking), honesty (with my point of view on the evidence) and empathy (seeing things from his point of view besides my own suspicions), that I was able to make what I felt was the right choice. I'm usually more of the type to put kindness first, which I feel I did by being as polite as possible even when I felt suspicion towards him, which ultimately ended up being the right way to go about it as he was let off the hook in the end.
Though I cannot say for certain that culture was the reason for these strengths, being born to a Japanese mother and growing up learning about Japanese tradition as well as visiting the country numerous times, may have influenced my core behaviours of being honest, patient, and empathetic. Japan has a national identity of being kind and polite, and this attitude is instilled in most people that you meet. In terms of my culture growing up in general, having gone through being a more shy and quiet kid throughout school and going through things like bullying (both giving and receiving) and struggling to find my place, I've seen that bringing people together and dealing with problems are done best through making kindness and being understanding my first priority, and that is why I feel that having an empathetic and tolerable nature is quite rewarding. Close friends and family have told me that I am soft spoken, easy going, patient, and very hard working.
Recently I had made a huge decision to leave university. I had spent the past four and a half years studying at university. The last two and a half years there had been a huge struggle for me with the pursuit of a computer science degree. Every time I found myself not doing well, I told myself that I wasn't working as hard as I could of, and to remain focused on the future goal of getting a degree, and stay positive. But this year it came to a stop when, after putting every inch of my soul into studying at university and not doing so well in the end I had finally realised I had been wasting my time for something that was just not right for me. I weighed up the decision to leave through honesty and autonomy, telling myself that university is not right for me and that there are many other opportunities for success. These same two values made me realise that the best option for me was to attend Dev Academy, considering I already have web development knowledge and feeling confident about it overall.
Being born to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother, I inherited the idea of a consistent and relentlessly focused work ethic. This taught me to be more patient over the years and a lot more strict towards my working abilities. I also feel that this became exaggerated by going to a school that had an attitude along the lines of "go to university, or else you will be unsuccessful", which is obviously completely false. Therefore, the capability of making more self-inspired decisions came a bit more recently.
My hard work ethic and empathy will definitely be useful in my learning journey, from putting maximal time and effort into my work for the best results and to be productive and at peace when working with people. Of course, limitations come with these strengths. Being self-critical of not working hard enough and forcing myself to work harder often does not resolve the issue of getting things done. Being too empathetic and understanding towards people can sometimes cloud my judgement of what needs to be done, especially when someone that I am working with is not working the way they should be. To ensure that these limitations do not create obstacles in my learning, I feel that implementing honesty and assertiveness upon myself and other people in the right situations will create greater guarantee for success.
A minor example of when I tried to work productively with others was during developing a group presentation involving data sets. A girl in the group made a section that had way too much data, but it was very presented. One of the guys complained about how it was too large, which caused a small argument. Though I agreed with the guy, I felt that the best way to deal with it was to emphasise the good qualities of her work before telling her that it had too much detail.