As students we usually get our evaluations from Professors, teachers or mentors but its not really something we do for our selves. I believe it’s because we either think too little of our selves or too much of our selves. Which leads to our own demise. When regarding to the phrase “our selves”, what I mean is our work, work ethics, professionalism and dedication. See some believe as long as you do great work you should be fine, some think you need to just get work in on time to be great and some believe it takes a great personality to make you a great employee. The thing is you need all of that to be truly the best; great work, meet deadlines and be likeable. Those are the guidelines as to how I evaluate myself.
Starting with my work. My work up to this point in the internship has been a PDF of marketing tactics for social media and 7 landing pages for Komeeda’s website. Both projects are used differently and viewed differently but still are evaluated the same.
My work evaluation questions:
- Did I do research before starting my designs?
- Did I give options for design solutions for this project?
- Did I use design principles such as grids, margins, type hierarchy, kearning, leading, color theory?
- Did I check my grammar and spelling before submitting my work?
- Did I follow brand guidelines?
- Did I stick to the brief?
Once I go through my questions I then answer them with true honesty. Regarding both assignments I can say I did all the following above. I did not have to give options for the marketing tactics because it was mainly research rather than a full on visual design. I did check my grammar and spelling but I will say I like to go over that section of my guidelines more than once to make complete sure that I didn’t miss anything which I didn’t do for the marketing tactics this time around.
The second evaluation is toward deadlines. But this section also entails organization and presentation.
My deadline evaluation questions:
- Did I finish my work on the deadline asked of me?
- Did I send in the final presentation of work as both a image file and as editable documents?
- Did I submit it during my work hours or did I send it at a late hour?
- Did I email a confirmation and send a Slack post so that my supervisor is sure to see/receive it?
- Did I name the final files appropriate names that can clearly identify each file?
- Do I check my emails each day and respond at a timely manner?
During the deadline evaluation I make it clear to check on my organization and presentation at the same time because this is when it is most necessary. Things like naming my files appropriately shows my ability to be detail oriented. I know that sometimes companies re-purpose designs for future updates so making sure to hand in a editable version shows your care for their future success. When it comes to my work during my internship I kept my deadlines extremely tight and well thought out because I actually find it extremely annoying when I find a mistake and want to change it but it has already been sent through. So best to be thorough and double check this section which I did.
The last section of my evaluation is personality also known as communications.
My communications evaluation questions:
- Did I dress appropriate during video calls?
- Did I speak with professionalism?
- Did I compliment those who I worked on collaborations?
- Did I give credit to other team members for their portion of work to our supervisor during conferences?
- Did my emails and posts on Slack, address team mates with respect by using their full names?
- Did I smile often during video conferences?
- Did I praise people for adding good ideas to my work?
- Did I ask smart questions and take initiative when new work was given to me?
- Did I do extra work to make other team members work load a bit less?
This last section I did to the tea except for one awkward moment during a conference meeting. During a conference meeting I pretty much forgot everyone can see my face. I broke composure during the meeting when I heard the amount of landing pages I needed to create because I didn’t understand it. But instead of asking the right questions and getting more information I made a confused face as though they might be wrong in their tactic. I could of handled it a bit better but from this experience I learned to compose myself better and to be aware of my facial expressions.
In the end I would grade myself with a 90 taking some points off for one or two mistakes but overall I kept to my work ethics and manners of professionalism. Having all my work on the deadlines, is a huge success. Being that I work from home time management can be difficult because no one is on top of you to get your work done, it is your job to do that. It is your job to double check yourself and it is your job to evaluate yourself. Knowing whether your hitting the marks of what a great designer should be, helps you become an ideal employee which becomes the goal for all of us after we graduate. Feel free to take these questions and use them to evaluate yourself on your projects.
Till next time everyone!
Haijra Heidi Bajraktarevic, Komeeda, Dept. of Communication Design, NYCCT/CUNY, Summer 2018, COMD-4900/D032[7372]
