Quick Learning

I had a math class in particular that proved to be challenging in my junior year of high school. Not because the subject was difficult, but because our teacher was poor at explaining the material. This lead to me practicing my self-teaching skills and using it to assist some of my classmates in learning the material as well.

Because of this experience, I catch on to jobs rapidly. In my first job at the Regent theater, I quickly became one of the most thorough workers and by the time the company needed to hire again, they relied on me to train the incoming employees.

I attribute my ability to learn quickly in part to my willingness to ask questions. It’s important in any job to understand why things are done they way they are and how to properly do them. Asking questions is a part of my growth mindset. A growth mindset is the belief that you can constantly work to improve yourself while having the willingness to do so.

People who have a growth mindset, such as myself, are far more eager to try new things, make mistakes, and challenge themselves to learn from their experiences. If I ever do come across a mistake I see it as a learning opportunity to better myself and enhance my productivity, making it a point to never to create the same mistake twice.


For a long time, I held the belief that good communication was a skill that one was either born with or born without. But this idea changed for me when I received a job at the local library.  In this job I was in a position where I had no choice but to interact with people regularly, giving me the opportunity to experiment.

I observed what things worked and didn’t work and from there I built my professional social skills. And when my father suggested to me that I read How to Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie my skills only further improved as I applied the things I read to my day-to-day life.

By building my social skills, I have built better relationships. There are many people who I see at one of my jobs who know me by name and I know them by name. Daily, I joke around with our UPS delivery man, there are kids who will stop in who get excited to see that I’m working that day, and there are patrons who ask for me by name because I made a strong impression as someone who can easily and effectively help them.

Upon one occasion my boss relayed a compliment to me that he had received during a phone call in which the person said “I always love coming to the library when Aly’s working, she’s always so friendly. But not too friendly- I hate when people do that.”

Aesthetic Sense

Having an aesthetic sense didn’t come naturally to me. It was only after I began to observe what other people enjoyed visually and apply it to my own social media did I begin to realize the power of aesthetic. By posting content that was more trendy I was able to grow my own follower count on several different platforms by at least 100+ followers each.

I’ve learned that aesthetic applies to not just fashion wear and home decor, but to business as well. Consumer’s decisions in where they take their business are made very quickly and more often than not their choice is hinged on looks. Every business needs to have a brand to be easily identifiable by potential and frequent customers and a company’s aesthetic is a means for customers to instantly see how professional and legitimate a business is.

I have utilized this in both of my jobs from assisting with putting up eye-catching displays to organizing common areas to be visually appealing and inviting, keeping everything in line with our brand.

In my job at a vintage movie theater, I’ve used the building’s art deco theme to inspire different projects and advertisements, extending the art deco style and history of the building into our social media. This has helped us to capitalize on the classic aspect of our theater that large-scale cinemas simply don’t have.