School of Industrial and Labor Relations: Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. In your essay please address how the ILR curriculum will help you fulfill these interests and your long-term goals.
In retrospect, the idea of efficiency fascinated me from an early age. Mundane, yet essential tasks such as washing up in the morning and completing household chores were always mental assignments as much as they were physical ones. I realized that the order and manner of execution were the keys to minimizing the time and effort required for work.
This mentality of efficiency became subconscious as I involved it into everything I did. When my burgeoning desire for pocket money was obstructed by age restrictions, I would beg my parents for a ride to the video store where I could buy discounted games, only to resell them at another store. As a result, I would walk away doubling my otherwise stagnant wallet. After doing this a few times, I was startled when I realized I enjoyed the process of reselling games as much as I did playing them. The proposition of maximizing my productivity within my constraints was exhilarating, and more importantly, fulfilling. There was an immediate sense of cause and effect, wherein my reward was the result of my efficiency.
As I aged and my school workload inevitably swelled, this concept proved to be invaluable. During some of my high school years in particular, a well-orchestrated course of action granted an extra hour of sleep. In addition to shaping my time management skills, high school provided the academic exposure that cemented my interest in efficiency. When I optimized the cost of containers using calculus, I saw the real-world applications behind the work more explicitly than anything I had done before. I would think to myself, "As I solve this problem, somewhere in the world a corporate employee could be doing the same thing." Furthermore, my interest in optimizing cost was extended to the prospect of optimizing work performance within social relations.
As one of my strengths, efficiency is something I know I must exercise in my career to its fullest extent. At the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, I would be learning how to do just that. My passion would enable me to fulfill essential components of the ILR curriculum, such as analyzing data in order to make well-informed decisions that reap the most benefit. More specifically, it would help me to excel in courses concerning economics and resource management. Through it all, there is no other place better suited to nurture my growth. The intellectual and comprehensive environment would provide to me all the resources and motivation to strive.
In retrospect, the idea of efficiency fascinated me from an early age. Mundane, yet essential tasks such as washing up in the morning and completing household chores were always mental assignments as much as they were physical ones. I realized that the order and manner of execution were the keys to minimizing the time and effort required for work.
This mentality of efficiency became subconscious as I involved it into everything I did. When my burgeoning desire for pocket money was obstructed by age restrictions, I would beg my parents for a ride to the video store where I could buy discounted games, only to resell them at another store. As a result, I would walk away doubling my otherwise stagnant wallet. After doing this a few times, I was startled when I realized I enjoyed the process of reselling games as much as I did playing them. The proposition of maximizing my productivity within my constraints was exhilarating, and more importantly, fulfilling. There was an immediate sense of cause and effect, wherein my reward was the result of my efficiency.
As I aged and my school workload inevitably swelled, this concept proved to be invaluable. During some of my high school years in particular, a well-orchestrated course of action granted an extra hour of sleep. In addition to shaping my time management skills, high school provided the academic exposure that cemented my interest in efficiency. When I optimized the cost of containers using calculus, I saw the real-world applications behind the work more explicitly than anything I had done before. I would think to myself, "As I solve this problem, somewhere in the world a corporate employee could be doing the same thing." Furthermore, my interest in optimizing cost was extended to the prospect of optimizing work performance within social relations.
As one of my strengths, efficiency is something I know I must exercise in my career to its fullest extent. At the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, I would be learning how to do just that. My passion would enable me to fulfill essential components of the ILR curriculum, such as analyzing data in order to make well-informed decisions that reap the most benefit. More specifically, it would help me to excel in courses concerning economics and resource management. Through it all, there is no other place better suited to nurture my growth. The intellectual and comprehensive environment would provide to me all the resources and motivation to strive.
