Through this activity, I started thinking more about the value in creating a strong online persona to connect to academic peers and prospective employers. At the end of the talk everyone who attended wrote and read aloud a short description of themselves that they might use online. I realized through this activity that I am a generally private person, so it’s hard for me to want to share my interests with other people. My description turned out really bland as a result. I think that being a shy person always makes interviews and self-promotion difficult.

After this experience I realized that I need to practice explaining my interests in the hopes that in the future I will be able to express myself both online and offline to peers, colleagues, and potential employers. While it’s important to be humble I also think that I owe it to myself to put my best foot forward. I’m going to try writing a description of my achievements and interests without the intention of ever sharing it as a way of encouraging myself to produce a fuller description of myself. This description could then be modified and used online or in an interview. I also plan on updating my LinkedIn to showcase more of my achievements and to develop my own website to share my work and my perspective.