For those of you who have stumbled across this deserted webpage, a SWAT analysis is a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis, where I list my self assessment of each. If you want to get to know me, here’s a good start.
Strengths:
I would consider myself creative, mainly musically, but also literally. And by that I mean literature, not literal. I can play 2 instruments and muddle along on many more. I write short stories and other forms of words on a page, but in an educational sense I have a good ability to come up with original ideas.
I would also say that I am eloquent, due possibly to the excessive quantity of books that I read as a child, and the strange books I read now.
Another Strength that I would consider is in my possession is that I am an intellectual. I read literature and philosophy for enjoyment, I find complex mental situations and problems enjoyable to solve, and enjoy debates over most subjects.
Logic has always been clear to me, and I would say that I have a very logical mind and process of doing most things. This has made maths feel very natural to me, and also philosophy, seeing as it is problem solving for life.
My biggest strength that I would say I have is my stability. I am not easily fazed by things and have a very stable background at home. There is little to distract me from what I am doing at the time.
Weaknesses:
My biggest weakness is that I am bad on paper, I have 14 years previous experience of being bad at exams but good in the class and in almost all situations running up to the exam. I have so far not found a reason for this.
I would also consider myself arrogant at times, which is always a weakness; it can lead me to overlook certain things, dismiss upset people and generally get in the way of a good job.
I have been described consistently as naive, and in my own opinion I would say that this is not too far from the truth. In business especially my ideas lack experience and are impractical or ineffectual.
Spelling is another problem area for me. I have never been good at spelling; although hopefully this shouldn’t impact my course too much seeing as now I can use spell check every five minuets.
Opportunities:
Should I succeed and complete this course there is a very real chance that I will “make it” as it were. By this I mean get lots of money and have an enjoyable job with interesting people and problems. Everything I want from life really.
There is always my fathers business, which, being an only child, I am almost certain to inherit. It is in such a bad way at the moment that I feel just by being there without my father managing it, it will do better. There is so much room for improvement and modernisation that I could be kept busy and happy there for several lifetimes.
While working for my father I have and will continue to pick up many skills which are often overlooked. The ability to sweep up, or paint, service a car, organise a computer system, sell cars and memorise sets of information. All of these things I have learnt or am in the process of learning from the business.
With my partner of more than 2 years, I have the very real opportunity to start a family and be with her for the rest of our lives. A mate for life as it were, this is possibly my biggest opportunity, and one I am very eager to see through.
Threats:
Equally, as I have mentioned my partner, her constant pleading for a child right now is a very big threat to my entire education. As she is becoming increasingly desperate and my resolve is growing ever thinner, the chances of her becoming pregnant are growing exponentially.
As I have mentioned before, the garage is in a bad way, this is a threat because should it fail, I will no longer have any from of stability, and my family will be utterly bankrupted. This fear is in fact the reason why I am on this course, in order to have something to fall back on should the garage go down. I cannot begin to comprehend what I would do should the garage go down.
The biggest threat to this whole thing and any furthering of my educational life is that I will continue my spree of exam failure. The new regulations are especially worrying, but it does make sense, I feel betrayed really, that I seem to be as good if not better than most of my peers in all situations other than the exam hall, yet all those other situations matter for nothing compared to the exam hall.
The main internal threat to me is that my electronics, permanently my weakest technological area, is now the main focus of my course. It feels like everything I am doing is related to electronics, and I simply do not know even the most basic things. The mechatronics is not quite as bad as I thought, but it is still challenging, even at its most basic stage.
That is my SWAT analysis, hope you enjoyed it.
Peace
