Weekly Reflection #7: October 26, 2016

For the professional that I chose to interview, I decided that I wanted to choose someone who was in a career field that I was considering going into.  The field that I’m most currently considering is business, specifically marketing, so I thought the best person for me to interview would be my father, who is the head of marketing for Hanesbrands Inc.  I made sure to ask him about his college experience, as that is where I am in the process, and what factors led him to choose his major and eventual career path.  Essentially what he told me was that he had no idea what he wanted to do in college, or as a career.  When his junior year came around, he had to pick a major, so he just decided to pick business as his major because it’s a field with lots of open doors.  Hearing that he didn’t have a passion for business, but that he simply picked a career path when he was forced to and has had an ample amount of success, makes me feel better about not knowing what I want to do yet.  I talk to a lot of students who have everything for the next ten years of their life precisely planned out, and this makes me feel a little anxious about not knowing what I want to do.  But after talking to my father about his college experience, I felt a lot better about not having an exact plan from the very beginning.  Transitioning over more towards the responsibilities of his career, they don’t vary too much.  Most days he works from nine to five at an office in Winston-Salem, going in and out of meetings and doing most of his work from his desk.  Occasionally, he has to travel out of town to meet with people from major corporations like Target or Macy’s to discuss whether or not the companies will carry Hanes clothing.  Some days, he has to fly to a city early in the morning, and fly back home later that night.  This job type seems like one that interests me because on one hand, I want a career with some stability, which would be the meetings and desk job part of it.  But I also want a career that gives me time for me to pursue my leisure activities as well as present opportunities for me to travel.  After interviewing my father, I was able to take away a lot of valuable information regarding both the path he took and decisions he had to make in college, as well as the different aspects of his career and what someone going into the field of business needs to value.  In interviewing him, I was hoping to use the information he presented to me to help narrow down my choices for potential careers.  I’ve been back and forth between a career in the business family and a career in the biology family, and I’m trying to gain as much information as possible about each to help me come to a decision. 

Weekly Reflection #4: October 17, 2016 (Make-up)

            The two events that I attended were “Interview like a Pro” and a session with a board of visitors who answered questions and spoke about their previous experiences that led them to their success.  I chose to attend these two events because they each provided information regarding career’s after college, which I think many students take for granted.  There are many ways that a student can prepare for joining the work force after graduation while still in college; some opportunities can even arise that allow you to have a job waiting for you upon graduation.  I wanted to attend these events to gain valuable information that can give me an advantage when searching for a career.  At the interview event, the most important thing that I took away probably would be the list of traits that employers look for the most.  It really stuck with me when the presenter told us that employers can hire a lot of people just based on qualifications alone, but the factors that separate those who are just qualified and those who would be successful are actually the personal traits of the interviewee.  Both events were very informative, however I took away more tips and tricks from the board of visitors’ event, because they were actual people who were important in their careers, and had very valuable advice as to how they got in their position.  A few of the visitors gave some key points of advice that generally every other visitor agreed with.  One point made by David Roberts was to volunteer to do the jobs that nobody else wants to do.  He said that this is important because one, it will help you discover things about yourself, such as what career family you like, and two, this mindset will open up many more doors to you than other people have.  Take any job even relatively interesting to you, or maybe take on you have no interest in.  You never know when and where you’ll discover your passion.  Another key point was brought up by Michael Stutts was to not pursue a career that you can’t see yourself in fifteen years from now.  Nearly everyone’s goal in a job or career is to work their way up the management chain, and increase their income.  If you are thinking of starting a career, but when you think about it, you couldn’t see yourself doing it in five years, don’t even begin to pursue it.  Make sure that the career you finally choose is your passion, and you will be okay working in this field until you retire.  Another tip given by Rick Brajer was actually told to him by a mentor, who said that “you will be fired twice in your life.”  This advice may seem cruel or harsh when first heard, but the underlying meaning of this statement is to prepare you for failure, because at some point in their career, everyone is going to fail.  The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that unsuccessful people take criticism as an insult, and don’t learn from failure.  These two events have helped me tremendously in my career exploration process, and I am looking forward to where the rest of this class takes me.

Weekly Reflection #6: October 6, 2016

            After completing the FOCUS 2 Work Interest assessment, my Holland Code was ICR, which stands for investigative, conventional, and realistic.  Investigative people are said to be “the thinkers,” conventional people “the organizers,” and realistic “the doers.”  After looking at the three categories that were my lowest scores, I definitely agree with my Holland Code.  Investigative was my area with the highest score.  Investigative people are supposed to enjoy solving puzzles, analyzing data, and working independently with little supervision, all of which I enjoy.  This past summer, my family went on a week-long vacation to the beach.  While we were there, we brought a huge puzzle and opened it up on the kitchen table.  Most people while at the beach wouldn’t even think of solving a puzzle, but this giant puzzle only took my family and me one week to complete.  I had a lot of fun doing this, and was surprised that I had so much fun completing a puzzle while at the beach.  Investigative people also enjoy analyzing data and working with charts and graphs, which both relate to math.  Math has always been my best subject, because it is straight forward and factual.  In subjects such as English, a big portion of your performance in the class relies on interpretation of the statements of others.  This has always confused me, because I don’t think that a student should be tested based on their ability to interpret opinion.  This is why I have enjoyed and succeeded in the math fields, because they require straight-forward answers with no leniency.  My senior year of high school, I took a math class that I wasn’t even required to take, just because I enjoy learning about math. As far as working independently, I cannot think of a specific instance where this was evident, however, every group assignment that I was given in high school was completed almost solely by me.  This caused me to despise group activities because it meant I had to rely on others, while I would much rather do a project on my own.    Conventional and Realistic were my next two highest scores, and they both essentially have the same description as the Investigative category.  People in these categories are very factual and prefer to work with data and records.  When looking at my examples listed for the investigative group, you can see that the descriptions of conventional and realistic people matches my experiences as well.  Looking at the results of my Personality assessment, my results showed that I am practical, responsible, thorough, orderly, and sensible.  I think that this personality description matches my Holland code, as every aspect of my personality results are required for someone who is informative, realistic, and conventional.  Someone who likes to work alone like I do must be responsible, sensible, and orderly because you have nobody to rely on to keep you in check.  Many of my experiences listed would put me in a job family relating to either business or engineering, both of which I’m considering as a potential career, and the FOCUS 2 assessment has given me a chance to think about these careers.