Today I went to the, What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? First Year Experience Event put on by the Center for Career Planning. I was attracted to this event not only because it was during one of my very few open time slots in the week, but also because of the event's description. The description read, "Students will explore their interests, skills, values and abilities in an interactive workshop using career and personality assessments. Topics will also include creating a 4-year plan and exploring Otterbein majors." This sounded perfect for me because I've been curious about exploring careers in other majors and because of this I decided to attend.
I will admit I was a bit disappointed by the event. This supposedly hour long event only lasted twenty minutes. Furthermore, the description was not correct because there were no interactive career and personality assessments used, nor was there any exploration of Otterbein majors. There was a simple PowerPoint presentation which, while the speaker was very engaging and upbeat, did not provide me with as much helpful information as I had hoped. I was introduced to the career process that I should be following over my four years here at Otterbein; however I was hoping to get more out of this event than the same basic information that the Center for Career Planning has on their page on Otterbein's website. The one extremely helpful tidbit of information that I gleaned from this event was the fact that Otterbein has a link to the Focus2 career assessment on the Otterbein website.
With this piece of knowledge I have spent the rest of my evening going through the Focus2 career assessment to figure out whether or not I am making the right career decision. I have discovered that I have exactly, and I really mean exactly, split interests between Intellectual (Sciences and Math), and Artistic (English, Languages and Arts). However even with these split interests my values and skills remain the same and in all instances I was given medical careers as my best option. This has helped to reinforce my decision to pursue a career in medicine, but it has also opened my eyes to some different career choices within my field that I had not considered before. All in all I'm glad I went to this event because I believe this one random fact that led me to find the Focus2 career assessment may have really helped me to rethink my college and future career.
Wow. Sorry to hear that the event was such a bust! I'm glad you at least got something out of it, but I definitely would have hoped for/expected more out of the event, too!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your interests are split between, essentially, right and left brain! I'm like that, too! I was a pre-vet major for the first 1.5 years of college, and although I liked it, I didn't love. I lean much more towards the humanities such as English and Women's Studies :] But, being able to dabble in both worlds will prove VERY advantageous to you as you go along your academic career. My science background has certainly helped me just like your love of English will certainly help you, too.