My SWOT Analysis

Cassidy Lobaugh | Nutrition/Dietetics

FACS 168 Senior Seminar | Fall 2016

Professor Esther Amato M.B.A

Who are you????

Strengths Organization

With everything I do, I always try to organize in some type of way be it writing in my planner or keeping my school work in one set of folders and my internship work in another. I truly believe organization helps me stay focused and become more successful.

Goal Oriented

It is extremely important to me that I stay driven and work towards my goals each day. I know that if I am motivated and strive to achieve my goals to the best of my ability, then in return many positive things will come my way.

Interpersonal Skills

Fortunately, I have experienced many situations in which I was required to speak to and interact with all different kinds of people. These experiences have allowed my interpersonal skills to develop over time and I now feel very comfortable and proficient at connecting with others.

Weaknesses Self Critical

Being critical of myself is something I have struggled with because I constantly want everything I do to come out perfectly. If I achieve less than perfection, I reprimand myself slightly because I feel that I should be doing better or working harder.

Strong-willed

Sometimes when I have an idea of how certain things should be done, I like to stick with this idea and refrain from letting anyone else change my mind about it. I am trying to work on becoming more open minded, especially since I will be working together with other people who may have different ideas than I do in the real world.

Multitasking

I am not an expert at multitasking; I have a hard time making my brain focus on more than one thing at a time. With the way I work, I tend to do things one right after the other so that I can focus all my energy and brain power into one task at a time and make sure that task is completed with quality.

Opportunities Internships

In the field of nutrition, there are many opportunities to work or volunteer for organizations or companies that deal with all sorts of nutrition related issues. These opportunities are definitely something to take advantage of. Currently, I am an intern for UCANR’s CalFresh Nutrition Education Program.

Prevalence of Nutrition Related Health Issues in America

Because of the increasing amount of people developing health issues like obesity and hypertension, there will always be a need for people with knowledge of how to treat these health issues through proper nutrition. This entails that I will have a wide range of job opportunities once I graduate with my degree in dietetics.

Lifestyle Changes

Because more and more people are realizing that nutrition is so detrimental to their health, they are becoming more willing to change their eating habits to better their quality of life. This grants me the opportunity of being able to share my knowledge with these people and even making my own nutritional lifestyle changes as I learn more about food and how it affects my body.

Threats Competition

Many people I know have the same ultimate career goal as I do: to become a Registered Dietitian. This is a threat to me because there is always that thought in the back of my mind that someone somewhere is doing something better or doing more than I am to achieve the goal faster than I will be able to. This, however, only makes me work harder and strive to gain as much experience as I can so I will have a leg-up over the others.

Time

I only have a certain amount of time to gain experience and complete the required classes before I graduate and must apply to a dietetic internship. Time can be my friend but it can also be my enemy in the sense that I must do all these things before I graduate and subsequently be on my way to success.

Experience

As of right now, I feel that I do not have as much experience as I would like to have in the nutrition field. This puts pressure on me because I know that if I want to be accepted into a dietetic internship after college, I need to have a competitive amount of volunteer/work hours on my belt. I am always keeping my eye out for experience opportunities.

Final Thoughts…I am learning to appreciate not only my strengths and opportunities but also my weaknesses and things that may be a potential threat to me. All of these things push me to become better at what I do now

and what I will do in the future. Life is a learning experience, and I am learning that I am not the only one who has ups and downs while

trying to achieve my goals. All I can do is try to turn my weaknesses into strengths, keep my eyes open for great opportunities, and battle

the threats head on.