In this blog post, we will introduce strategies for effectively incorporating the communication skills and sense of responsibility you have gained through mentoring into your HR self-introduction letter.
Growth
HR, which involves personnel and human resource management, is all about people. I have a unique way of judging and understanding people, which I believe stems from my childhood environment. My father is the eldest of seven siblings in a large family, so I naturally have more cousins than most people. Furthermore, my father married early, so I have ten younger cousins, and I am the eldest of them all. During the holidays, my job was to take my younger siblings out. They were noisy and difficult to control, so I had to make sure they didn’t get into trouble outside and didn’t disturb the adults. My ten younger siblings each had their own desires, so it was difficult to keep them all under control. However, I knew each of their characteristics and tendencies very well, and even after many years, I still had the charisma to handle them. As a result, I became the leader of my siblings, and when we went to the playground, I could feel the envious glances of other children. However, it wasn’t always like that. When I was inexperienced, it was chaos. If I looked away for a moment, my siblings would fall down, and while I was helping them up, other children would cause accidents. So, I can say that I also experienced “holiday stress” during my childhood. However, as always, with attention and affection, nothing is impossible. I think the same is true for people. Now, when we get together on holidays, we gather in one room and talk. As the oldest brother, I can sense that they trust and follow me. My younger siblings, who are in middle and high school, are mainly concerned about their future careers. My younger siblings listen intently to their older siblings’ stories with sparkling eyes. As the older cousin and mentor to my younger siblings, I have always felt the importance of my role.
School days
Having grown up with many younger siblings, I think I developed strong leadership skills at an early age. As a result, I naturally had many friends, and my teachers trusted me and entrusted me with tasks. Therefore, from elementary school to high school, I served as a class and school officer, and I became very skilled at distributing and assigning tasks according to each person’s role. Among those roles, there is one that I still continue to this day. That is my role as a mentor. Since my first year of high school, I have been working as a mentor at a local youth training center. My role is to help students with their homework and listen to their concerns. When I was in my first year of high school, I started simply because I felt pressure to fill my volunteer hours. The first students I met were elementary school students, which was not a pleasant experience for me as someone who suffered from “holiday syndrome.” However, as I met the children once a week, I grew fond of them, and they gradually opened up to me. Before I knew it, the children and I had become close, and I began to volunteer with all my heart. After becoming a university student, I became a youth camp counselor at a youth training center. Most of the camps were career exploration camps. I felt a sense of fulfillment as I helped young people who were unsure about their future careers to think about what they were interested in and what they enjoyed doing. I was especially moved when a high school student who had been forced to participate by his mother rather than voluntarily participated in the camp and said with a bright smile at the closing ceremony that he now had a little idea of what he wanted to do in the future. I have the ability to understand the capabilities of people from all walks of life, regardless of their occupation, and guide them to demonstrate those capabilities.
Strengths and weaknesses
I have a natural ability that I acquired through frequent interaction with people. It is the ability to persuade others. I am good at getting my opinions across to others. I think I acquired this skill naturally through coordinating my younger cousins’ requests and counseling my younger siblings when they had problems. In addition, I believe that reading many books has helped me develop logical thinking skills. I have a calm personality and read a lot. When I was younger, I read a variety of genres, but now I mainly read autobiographies, self-improvement books, and humanities books. The wisdom I gain from books is endless, and it becomes knowledge that I don’t even realize I have. I find it useful in persuading others when giving advice to my younger siblings or counseling my mentees. I also have keen observation skills. When talking with my younger siblings and mentees, I often point out strengths that they didn’t know they had. I recommend jobs that suit their strengths and personalities and encourage them to develop their abilities by getting them interested in those jobs.
On the other hand, I sometimes get depressed when I am lost in my thoughts. When I am around too many people, I don’t have much time for myself. However, I think this can make me seem pessimistic, and I try to make time to reflect on myself to avoid negative thinking and overcome feelings of depression.
Career history (or experience that demonstrates your work abilities)
After completing my master’s degree, I worked in the Academic Support Team while pursuing my doctorate. At that time, there were frequent instances of absenteeism among teaching assistants, resulting in gaps in exam supervision for courses that were held at night or on weekends. I believed that this led to cheating among students and needed to be improved. In order to solve this problem, I convinced the entire department and professors of the urgent need for institutional improvements, and I recruited teaching assistants who wanted to work additional hours on a priority basis to reduce the absentee rate through voluntary participation. In addition, I proposed a solution by establishing a draft plan for allocating personnel through securing additional budget. As a result, the rate of unauthorized absences among teaching assistants decreased significantly, and we were able to prevent cheating by students due to gaps in exam supervision. I believe this was possible because I accurately identified the core of the problem and analyzed people’s tendencies well in any situation.
Motivation and aspirations
Charles Caleb Colton once said, “To know a man, look not to his achievements, but to his goals. For when he fails, his pride sustains him, but when he succeeds, his pride betrays him.”
I believe that the most basic requirement for understanding people accurately is trust in them. A common misconception we often make is to ask, “Can that person really do that job?” What would happen if we changed this question to “Is that person capable of accomplishing that task?” Naturally, that person would achieve success based on our trust, and we would see everyone grow together. I believe that believing in people is the key to success or failure and the foundation of people management.
I take pride in my work and want to build trust through my expertise in human resource management. I am confident that my work skills and communication skills will be a great asset in my growth as an HR professional. I am not someone who is content with the status quo, but someone who dreams of growth. Although this will be my first job at your company, I will not be afraid of change or stop challenging myself in new environments. Just as I have worked hard to develop my abilities thus far, I will work hard at your company. I will do my best to be recognized as an HR professional who shares your vision and values.
