My mother says I synthesize material very well. How can I benefit from this awkward positivity?

The ability to synthesize information - lots of different information -and make heads or tails of it, is a great skills to have! Many of my grad students WISH they had that skill. This skill can be utilized in almost any occupation or setting. It's certainly a transferable skill. A few come to mind... teaching - any level, writing - communications, journalism, the law, finances - think financial planning or investing, researcher, philosophy, counseling.... imagine being able to help others see "the other side" and how they feel! etc. Mold that skill into what YOU want to do with it.. the possibilities are endless!

Hi Melissa,

You can do lots of things with that! From my own experience, I can say that synthesizing information is extremely important to me as a grant writer. I research potential funders (foundations and corporations) for my nonprofit's programs, understand their priorities and specific guidelines, and then review lots of information on the programs that need funding. After I review all this information carefully, I synthesize it into a formal grant proposal that matches with the funder. This could be a good area for you to try if you enjoy writing and helping support nonprofit programs.

Good luck!

Kate

Melissa,

This "awkward positivity", as you put it, is actually one of most important skills someone can possess for jobs in the knowledge economy--regardless of the specific field they go into. People who are skilled at determining what information is credible and how it can be combined and used with other information can help leaders in any field make better informed decisions with their limited time and attention. They are also able to catch problems (or invent solutions!) that other people probably never would have thought of.

Kate spoke about her experience as a grant writer-- my job is on the other end of that nonprofit/grant recipient equation. I help nonprofits and governments collect and analyze data to evaluate how effective their social programs are and how they can improve them. There are also evaluators that help grant-giving organizations evaluate how much (or little) change that their investments are making toward the issues they care about.

Recently I was tasked with researching how many states have (or have had) policies that incentivize early childhood educators to gain more education and stay in their jobs longer by increasing their pay when they do those things. Our state is considering passing a similar policy, but lawmakers and advocates for the pay increase needed to know how other states actually paid for those policies and what effect (if any) it had on the overall quality of teachers in the field over time. That project was 100% research and synthesizing information.

Don't doubt yourself, it's a blessing!

Hi Melissa,

Quiz: Should You Be a Writer?

https://www.thebalance.com/take-this-quiz-to-see-if-you-should-be-a-writer-4100311

Best!