Are you a confident person?

I started college as a painfully shy fellow who was wound well too tight for his own good. The only situation I was confident in, ironically enough, was during public speaking, because I felt that I had more control over what my audience thought of me through how I present myself, as opposed to other social situations.

I became less shy and more confident during college, but my confidence only rose to its current levels when I started working as a microbiologist. I worked in quality control, making sure products weren't contaminated with microbes and such, so, believe me, I've had to deal with a lot of bullshit from everyone in the company. That taught me how to be more assertive.

I gained many job skills, and more importantly, learnt to stand by the conclusions I came to through my analyses. There was a time, for example, when I found high levels of fecal bacteria in a product, and stood by my conclusions even though the company would lose tens of thousands of dollars because of it. Independent lab analysis then confirmed my results and justified the actions I took to prevent exposure of our customers to these bacteria.

Now that I'm pursuing a Master's degree, I know that I have the skills, the background and the motivation to succeed. That is the source of my current confidence in myself.

Jam it back in, in the dark.