SWOT ANALYSIS
'The point of a SWOT analysis is to help you develop a strong business strategy by making sure you’ve considered all of your business’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats it faces in the marketplace.'- Bplans.com
STRENGTHS
I have multiple strengths that I either have already achieved or am working on. The first strength I have is that I am a independent worker and can do work for myself if given the information that I need. I am able to research the topics to help me understand what I need to do before producing a final product, such as an essay or video. Because I am independent, I can focus on my work and complete it to high quality without disturbing others or being dependent on others.
Although I am an independent worker I can apply myself in a group to provide the best work that I can produce to help improve the group project. I can work well with others, being able to understand their strengths and weaknesses and how to apply my own to be compatible with those in the group. For both of these elements, being good at team work and in-dependency, I am also punctual and rarely late to any event. I am normally ten minutes early to any event to check I am in the right spot and to work on things beforehand, such as setting up equipment for a shoot.
This can also lead into myself being organized, knowing what I want to get for the final product before going out to film. I plan out all of my work through pre-production and planning before stepping out to film to make sure I know what I am going to film and to not waste time. Added to this I am conscientious, disciplined and self motivated in my work and am good at time management being able to get work done before the deadline. I can focus on my work and stick to a schedule so I don't fall behind on projects because I am disciplined and self motivated, myself finding a way to focus and do work. Another couple of strengths are my written communication and critical thinking as I can write a well communicated essay and am a rational thinker, being able to apply both aspects into a project to get the most realistic outcome. I work well in planning processes because of these strengths and can get work done without distraction to get the best possible outcome for a project.
WEAKNESSES
Although I may have many strengths, I also have many weaknesses that can hold me back or is something to overcome. The first weakness is that I am not very flexible in my ideas such as when I stick to an idea I find it hard to split from this decision. I need to be able to be more flexible when things go wrong and to apply this to the best possibility from the outcome of this situation. One of my biggest weaknesses is my stress tolerance which can become much more of an issue when projects go wrong or not to plan, myself stressing as I force myself to figure out another way of getting the final project done in time for the deadline. This is an issue that has happened in a past project that I managed to overcome.
Another big weakness of mine is that I am self critical and a perfectionist which makes it hard for me to see the positive in my own work unless told by others that it is better than I think. Being self critical can hold back my production because of the perfectionist in me that doesn't want to ruin the project as I have a visionary I want to follow. Both of these elements can hold me back from going out and filming for a project and delay the times of me filming as I am questioning shots and my ideas at the last second. I need to be able to understand this weakness of mine and overcome it by going out and filming more often to push myself past this issue, allowing me to get used to going out and filming without the issue of knowing what I am filming.
Linking to the weakness above, my self confidence in my own work is much lower making it hard for me to think my ideas are positive and makes me lack in verbal communication. Although I work well in a group, because of my self confidence, I don't speak up to share ideas as I believe them to be worse than the others produced by the group, holding me back from following my own ideas and lacking in confidence. I need to be able to talk more in groups and to put forward my ideas no matter the response by showing others my work and getting critical feedback that I can take into account and use to my own advantage. Assertiveness and confrontation are also issues I have, myself hating confrontation and find it difficult to be assertive to others unless put in a position to do so. I don't think this is as much as a weakness as the others as I have done more work as a director for my music videos and other projects, myself being able to work on these weaknesses.
OPPORTUINITY
I may have many opportunities for the future in my selected career in media, specifically TV and film. I have opportunities such as attending university to continue my studies in media production and to learn more before going into the industry. I may also have opportunities to do more client projects and work alongside them, producing a video for them whether a music video or promotional video. I also have opportunities in part time work with a smaller industry or possibly a job at a starting point. Getting a job is a lower opportunity as I haven't attended university and it is hard to get a job straight out of college in the field you want to follow but they may provide me with work experience over a job to practice and hone my skills. Another opportunity I may have is to get an apprenticeship with a company to continue my studies and to gain experience in the workplace.
I have recently researched into courses that I would be able to apply for at university in media production or film and television. I used the UCAS website to help navigate my options to make sure that they covered the topics that I wanted to study and to gain knowledge in. My choices are Bridgwater and Taunton College, Exeter College, University of Bristol, Plymouth University and Weymouth College. All of these courses have the entry requirement of a merit at it's highest regarding in teriff points. All of these courses also are close by to where I live, making it easy to travel between university and my family. These are possibilities from my strengths as I would be able to work in a business and focus on the working, being able to work in a group and to provide my best input for the final outcome. Out of all my opportunities, university seems to be the most likely to happen as it would be able to help me hone my skills whilst studying and to develop my own style before going out into the work place, allowing me to develop a style that stands out from others.
THREAT
Some threats are that with the weaknesses I have I may not be able to do certain jobs without training in them because of my lack of confidence or stress tolerance. This means I may miss out on job opportunities that occur but many of these may be missed because I have not yet attended university and don't have much work experience to show an employer. Because of my weaknesses I may also be put in lower opportunities as they would believe that I am not capable of doing the work they would provide me with or give me a lower grade because of my weaknesses compared to what I could actually obtain if given the opportunity. Another threat of mine is that I do not have a driving license, many jobs asking for this as a required skill for travel.
This is a threat as I may miss out on opportunities that I could have got or jobs that I could have obtained because the inability to drive. By analysing this, I now know that I will have to gain a driving license by starting driving lessons before leaving my education to have the skills needed to work in companies that are a further distance away as distance is also a big issue for my opportunities and jobs that I could apply for. Because of this, I need to work on my weaknesses to try and get these opportunities that I may be missing out on because of them. By working on my weaknesses, I can overcome many obstacles that I have and be able to access many more opportunities in the media industry and many more routes of progression after attending college.
EVALUATION
After analysing my weaknesses and strengths to understand what opportunities and threats I may have in the future, I now understand that I need to work on my weaknesses to be able to reach my ambitions. My ambition is to make films or videos that make people smile or to provoke an emotion into the audience either through directing, script writing or camera operating. By working on my weaknesses I will be able to get into more director roles because most of my weaknesses involve issues with self-confidence, being a perfectionist or being self critical with a lack of skill in being assertive to others. To overcome these weaknesses I need to go out and film more, gaining for skills in my confidence and camera operating skills to apply to the future of my work and projects to help me gain many more opportunities in the future that I may miss because of these weaknesses. I also need to start filming more short films as I wish to create my own short film that I am proud of so by doing this I will gain more skills and will be able to understand the process behind it. My lack in communication is also an issue, myself having to work on this to be able to provide ideas to a group. I can practise this and assert myself into a group during the TV show that we have to film in the future, this opportunity being for me to push myself into the work and to be more assertive to those in the group to keep the work in the main focus of the group.
Another aspiration of mine is to start my own business or to join a company that creates videos to make people provoke an emotion; films. To start my own business I will have to work on my communication skills and assertiveness to help me to be more confident in my choices as I would have to be confident in my work to get any business because if I wasn’t people wouldn’t rely on me to create a professional video. The other choice of joining a small company will also need me to be assertive and have a lower stress tolerance about projects as they will be creating multiple projects in a month, myself having to be more flexible in my work and home life. This will have to be worked on and I will need to go and film more projects by myself to gain feedback that I can use to a positive progression of my work.
By working on my weaknesses and honing my strengths to the best of my ability, it will open many more opportunities and paths for me that I may not have noticed at the time or that I cannot access right now. I will be able to focus on my aspirations and career choices because I would gain more skills and lower the amount of weaknesses I have, making me more appealing for hire by larger companies or industries. I will also have to gain more work experience to stand out from the crowd, the employer looking for those with more experience, and this may be a good choice to attend university for extra time in deciding my choices and to keep practicing my skills, developing a different and unique style.
References
Bplans Blog. (2017). What Is a SWOT Analysis? - Bplans Blog. [online] Available at: http://articles.bplans.com/how-to-perform-swot-analysis/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Skillszone.ca. (2017). What are my opportunities?. [online] Available at: http://www.skillszone.ca/index_osp_ipp_opportunities.html [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
