Natalie Brotto April 29, 2012 Dr. V Sell Yourself 1. Tell me about yourself?

My name is Natalie and I go to school at DePaul University, College of Commerce located right in the heart of Chicagos loop district. Here there is a culmination of schools, businesses, residential buildings, that each attract people from all walks of life. Going to DePaul, one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation, I have been able to adapt to many new surroundings and situations that I feel have helped me grow into the person I am today. DePaul really pushes group projects in classes, so it gives me an opportunity to hear about others lives, opinions, and share knowledge of different subjects back and forth. I feel that these group projects give me a great basis to work off of when going out into the real working world because there too I will also be working with many different people, who each have different beliefs about how things should be done. This has taught me that communication and patience are two great qualities to have if you want to succeed. 2. Tell me about a goal you set and how you achieved it? A recent goal I achieved was being able to find an internship over the summer going into my senior year. I searched DePauls Experience website, updated and edited my resume, created a LinkedIn account, and networked with people in all different business industries. Being that I am going to school to get a degree in management, this let me apply to many different jobs. I focused on applying to jobs I found on the Experience website because the site let me filter jobs, positions, and responsibilities. I also worked on networking with others more, because it seems like you need

to know someone to get anywhere in life these days. Turns out, I was able to get an internship for the summer with an insurance company, found through networking. After sending in my resume, I received a phone call, set up an interview, and did well enough in the interview for them to hire me a few days later. 3. What is your greatest strength? My greatest strength is seen in my organizational skills. I love being organized, from knowing where everything is to knowing what I have to do and when I need to do it. I like having a plan and keeping everything neat and in order in my life. In college, my most stressful times often come around the point in the quarter of midterm and exams. Often, there are many assignments, papers, group projects, and exams that need to be completed. I like to allocate time to each of those in a way that will let me accomplish everything I need to do without becoming too stressed out. This quarter, I have taken the extra effort to begin group projects earlier, so that I am able to get them completed and out of the way by the time I need to start studying for exams. By doing this, I have more time on my hands to study for hard tests at times when the quarter gets extremely busy and stressful for me. This quality has been beneficial for me because it allows me to assure that everything I need to accomplish gets done without any deadlines passing or slacking in order to just get it done. Not only will this internship provide me with good, hands on experience in the industry I hope to be in, it will also fulfill my junior year learning requirement for DePaul. 4. What is your greatest weakness? I would say my greatest weakness is communicating my feelings. I have a hard time telling people what is bothering me and what is on my mind. I find this trait to be good and bad. It is beneficial that I am able to conceal my feelings because in a work setting this can be crucial. I have

seen people with bad tempers make a complete fool out of themselves in front of a whole class because they are unable to control their emotions. Not only does it look bad on their part, they also may be hurting and embarrassing others involved. I had a classmate storm out of the class before because the teacher had called him out on texting. Eventually he was asked to leave the classroom and in doing so he made rude remarks about the teacher. It may be harmful to me that I am not a good communicator of my feelings because at times I need to remember to stick up for myself and what I believe in. 5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? In five years, I see myself becoming a successful business woman who is eager to reach new levels in her career. In order to accomplish this, during year one of my career I hope to get acquainted with the company, meet the peers I will be working closely with, and learn the fundamentals and foundations of my job within the company. During year two, I hope to be doing more hands on tasks, working within my division to achieve goals and analyzing what I can change within my own work to better the company. In year three, I hope to be moving up within the company to another managerial level, hopefully training other managers to take my previous position. Within years four and five, I hope to be meeting other professionals within my industry, possibly in other companies, and learning of how they run their business and what is beneficial for them. I hope to then implement those same fundamentals in my own company and continue moving up from there. At the end of year five, I hope to have a managerial position that is closer to working with top management professionals, as that would be a step in furthering my career. A specific time when I had to analyze a group setting and make changes to better perform was when I was doing a team project for a marketing class I took. The team would meet three

times a week, but I felt that these meetings were a waste of time because nothing was getting accomplished. We had no goals of what needed to be done, no outline of how we were going to do it, and no set time of when we were going to finish. Finally, I stepped up and helped the team to create a guide of what needed to be done, how, and who was going to do it. We also set up deadlines so that we would be able to finish the project on time and present it to the other groups in the class in a professional manner. 6. What is your greatest accomplishment? My greatest accomplishment is being set to graduate from DePaul University in three years. Regardless of what people tell me, oh you dont want to graduate early, stay in college as long as you can, I feel that this plan to graduate early has given me a sense of accomplishment and self worth. I have put in the extra efforts, taking more classes during the quarters and taking classes over the summer, and it is finally paying off. When I met with my counselor last week and she told me that I would defiantly be able to graduate by next spring I was so excited. Although, a sense of worry did begin to set in, what will I do after college?, I know that I will be fine if I keep dedicating myself and putting my mind to it. Graduating college in three years is defiantly something I can say I had to plan for and work hard for. 7. What is an example of a good team experience and why bad team and why? A good team experience I had was when two of my teammates and I collaborated on an essay for part of a project and did extremely well on it. We took initiative and proved that we would be able to handle the essay by planning ahead and communicating with other members of our group. We met outside of class at designated times and did research together and started drafting the essay together to ensure that it would not be repetitive and covering the same

information. We were able to address every aspect that was addressed in the rubric and were even able to hand it in before the due date to have the teacher look over it and give us feedback on our work. A bad team experience occurred when one half of a group agreed to something they could not do. The other team members claimed they would be able to do half of the project, a PowerPoint presentation yet couldnt live up to their promise. The teammates waited until the last minute to do the presentation, and were constantly asking us (the other half) what needed to be addressed in it, what they needed to talk about, and how they were going to get the information across to the class. Of course we were willing to help because our grade was also reflection of their half, but they should not have claimed they would do it on their own if they knew they were not going to be able to finish their part of the project adequately. 8. Tell me about a time you had a problem and how you solved it? During the summer going into college, I worked at a newly opened breakfast and lunch restaurant in the heart of downtown Naperville. I started working there a few days before they opened so the owners could introduce their new employees to the basics of operating a restaurant. I quickly realized that the owners were not experienced running a restaurant like this. The owners were young and seemingly inexperienced so often their parents came in (also restaurant owners) to try to help out. They were constantly arguing in front of employees and guests about how things should be done, making the atmosphere uncomfortable for everyone. Being one of two hostesses, I worked over twenty hours a week, typically two, ten hour shifts, often by myself as the other hostess would rarely show up, without notice of her absence. The restaurant quickly became busy on the weekends and I had to figure out how I would manage to answer phone calls,

greet guests, seat guests, and make sure every need was being met. I was able to do it with the help of other servers, also realizing that the restaurant was poorly managed, and together we were able to keep the guests coming in week after week. However, when they too began to see the flaws in the management, in things out of the servers and hostesses control, business quickly dwindled. I would say that this job as a hostess taught me the most about the business world as often times you are faced with dilemmas that are beyond your control and you need to be the one to take the initiative to try and fix it. 9. Tell me 4 NEW stories that highlight qualities you have that employers desire that have not already been mentioned. You must list the quality and then give your proof example. Motivation: In my business math class last quarter, I started off not doing so well. I did extremely bad on my first test and was a big setback for me. I considered dropping the class so that next quarter I could get a fresh start but I knew that would not be the smartest decision. I knew that I was capable of better work so I set my mind to studying and putting the time and effort in that was required to do well. After that first test, I began doing the homework without looking in the back for the solutions to the problems. I also went to see a tutor or a teacher if there was a concept in class or in the homework that I did not understand and I found this to be a big help. I had never seen a tutor before so this was a big step for me in going in the right direction. Seeing a tutor was defiantly a good choice for me and that was seen in the next test. I ended up getting a one hundred percent and getting seven points extra credit, totaling one hundred and seven percent. I was estatic, for as far as I can remember, that is the best grade I had ever gotten on a test. From then on I kept doing the assignments, meeting with the teacher, and going to see a tutor when needed and I could tell it paid off. If not for the first test, I easily could have passed the class with an A+.

Willingness to cooperate: When you are working in groups or teams you often get placed with people who want the power to make all of the decisions. In my management class, we got placed in larger groups to work on a relatively small project. There is a girl in our group that obviously wants to be the leader, which is fine with me, but she is not allowing anyone else to give their input. Although she is a good leader, organized and knows what she is doing, it is hard for us to sit back and do everything she tells us when we may disagree. I have learned that to avoid disputes in the group, to just go along with it and do the work that is assigned to me. By doing this, I feel that we are cooperating with her and with what the group project entails. Willingness to explore new places: Over winter break I decided to go abroad. I had never been out of the country and figured that in college was the best time to do it. I traveled alone to Poland, and there I met some new friends and attempted to learn a new language. Although most of that language did not stick, I gained a lot of experience and knowledge of a different place. Going to Poland really taught me to be grateful for what I have, as many are not as fortunate as we are in the United States. It also taught me that everyone is not like us and that we need to be aware of what is going on in the world around us, not just in America itself. Traveling abroad gave me a sense of independence and made me more responsive to things going on around me. If given the opportunity to travel abroad again, I would definitely take it in a heartbeat as it is always a chance to learn and explore a new culture. Intuitive:

I had no idea that the EL even existed before I came to DePaul. Underground train? What? Where? Ive never seen that Those were my thoughts when the orientation leader said we were going to be taking the el from the Lincoln Park campus to the Loop campus. I was so shocked that we were going underground and that we would somehow make it to the other campus. After that initial train ride, I was determined to get the el system down. I wanted to practice going on it so that by the first day of school I would know exactly what I was doing. I explored going on different lines to get to the loop (taking the brown line to and from school) and I even experimented going to different locations such as Belmont, Watertower, and the Grand stop located near Michigan Avenue and the river. I quickly got the hang of it, realizing that there were more trains circulating during rush hour and that I could easily get to Union Station via the brown line. Although the El isnt my favorite form of transportation it is defiantly the most convenient form of transportation in the city for me.