OUAN502 - Personal SWOT Analysis

During our PPP seminar with Martin we were informed about a concept called; SWOT. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. As individuals we were asked to review the characteristics of SWOT and apply it to ourselves. By doing this it would mean we were being critical of ourselves and recognising our own strength and weaknesses etc. By doing this it meant we could identify specific traits and then use it to work to our strengths and improve or work on our weaknesses. It also means we can recognise opportunities whilst preparing ourselves for any threats we may face as practitioners. We reviewed these criteria in four different areas: personal, interpersonal, technical and artistic.

In terms of my strengths I would say that I was;

• Organised
• Versitile and adaptable
• Good at communication
• Reliable in a group environment
• Good at working in a variety of ways

In contrast to this, I think my weaknesses include;

• Don't have a specialism yet
• Lacking confidence in work sometimes
• Can become obsessive about meeting goals

Opportunities that I idenified are;

• Being at LCA
• Meeting potential employers and clients through social media
• Establishing myself within a creative network
• Attending festivals and conventions in order to meet people

• Other people competing for work in the industry
• Losing motivation
• Losing confidence in my work
• Being unable to connect with people in the industry

After this task had been completed on an individual basis we were arranged into groups to discover what other members of the class thought about our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. People suggested that I was good at giving presentations and communicating during crits for example, also that I was good at drawing (and creating images). It was also mentioned that I was good at working digitally, and in general using a variety of mediums to produce work. Some of the weaknesses that were listed include, having more of a social media presence as well as being more vocal in general outside of crits and presentations. Overall I think this seminar was quite interesting. It made me consider what I was good at and aspects of my practice that I needed to work on as well as realising from other people's perspective things I needed to improve on that I may not have considered.