I first created a LinkedIn profile sometime around 2012. But since then I have not given it much attention. In the industry I have been working in for the past 8 years, LinkedIn is not used much. Most of my colleagues did not use LinkedIn and all of my jobs were offered through personal connections. I would only log in occasionally and update some things, but never gave it much thought.
At some point in 2019, I finally decided to delete it. At the time, I felt that the outdated profile hurt me more during job applications than it helped as it was so outdated.
But now that I am back in school to switch my career into the tech world, LinkedIn is more relevant for me than ever before. When I started school I knew I would have to reopen my profile and actually put thought into it, so I was happy to see it was a part of this class.
Going through the process of creating a new profile from scratch gave me the opportunity to reflect back on my career and look at my goals for the coming years. While the profile is still far from complete, this process has given me a good opportunity to reevaluate where I am in my career and think about how I will promote myself in my new career path.
I am holding off on sending invites for people to join my network until I’ve had the chance to finish some courses and build up a tech portfolio. But what I have now gives me a good base to start expanding my online professional network once I am ready to start looking for work.
Writing the report proposal and outline has also been a good opportunity to ground myself in some basics. I did my first degree in political science, so I am no stranger to the writing process.
But after years of being out of school, I have become lazy when it comes to the writing process. When I write professional reports now, I find I focus less and less on the structural outline of my writing, and more on just getting it done.
Being able to take the time to go through each step of the process, from thinking through a proposal to writing an outline, is a good way to ground myself in the writing process once again. It’s a process that is easy to ignore, but this is reflected in the final product.
The peer review process has been an opportunity for me to ask why something works and doesn’t work. When reviewing someone else’s work, it’s not enough to say “this doesn’t sound right”, or “this is wrong.” The peer review process forces me to ask why something may not sound right or how it could be improved.
During this process I spent just as much time researching grammar and syntax structure as I did on actually reviewing the document, to make sure I know why something is not reading properly or how it can be improved.
The process also gives good insight into how others use writing techniques to get their message across. The way others structure and write ideas is different from what I am used to and this can provide insight for future writings.
Getting my work reviewed also helped me think through the scope of my report proposal. The original scope of my proposal was quite ambitious. The feedback I received from Dr. Paterson and from Mitchell helped me reexamine what I should be focusing on and how I can narrow the scope of the project.
Attached is a copy of my revised report proposal. My report was reviewed by Mitchell Prost and can be found at https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2020wa/2020/10/21/peer-review-of-rodrigo-samayoas-research-proposal/