Realizing Your Strengths

A few months ago, I began my Account Management internship here at TargetClick. I was excited to learn more about what TargetClick does on a daily basis as well as apply skills I have learned in my classes. Currently, I am a Senior at the University of Northern Iowa majoring in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing. As part of one of my classes, I was required to take a quiz called StrengthsQuest. This 30-minute assessment is used to find the unique talents a person possesses. Upon completion of the quiz, a report is generated with your top five strengths along with a description of each.  My top five strengths were revealed to be: responsibility, woo, activator, maximizer and communication. Each day at TargetClick, I have the opportunity to apply each of my strengths in my role as an Account Management intern. Communication is a strength which I use each day in my classes as well as my job assignments. One of the most important parts of being an account manager is making sure that the client is satisfied. This can be accomplished through a phone call or an email to gather feedback from the client and requires communication between the account managers as well as other members of the TargetClick team.  In my Public Relations classes, most of the work we do is group-based which requires me to keep in constant contact with my group members.  The communication skills I have learned in my classes tie in well with what I do every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here at TargetClick. After taking the StrengthsQuest assessment, I was surprised to see that “woo” was one of my strengths as I had no idea what this meant. Following some research, I gathered that “woo” means winning others over. Those who have “woo” as one of their top strengths enjoy meeting people and striking up conversations. Since my first day here, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with new people. This strength helped me to get acquainted with my new co-workers as well as become familiar with clients. Not only has this strength helped me here at TargetClick, but also in my classes where I am required to collaborate with others. My other three talents, activator, maximizer, and responsibility, play a large role in my duties at TargetClick. My strengths of responsibility and activator go hand in hand. As an Account Management intern, one of my main tasks is creating client contracts and assigning jobs to respective members of the TargetClick team. This requires paying close attention to detail as well as meet deadlines. One of the main aspects of being a maximizer is ensuring that completed tasks are correct and of good quality. Since I am still learning the ropes, I have to be sure to double check my work and ask questions to ensure that tasks I complete are accurate. After doing research about StrengthsQuest and seeing how it relates to what I do here at TargetClick , I realized that this assessment is beneficial to people of all ages.  Over the past couple years, StrengthsQuest has gained popularity and now is being used in workplaces and colleges all across the country. This assessment has helped me to understand how I learn best. Although there is a small cost associated with the StrengthsQuest assessment, I believe that it is extremely beneficial and would highly recommend it.