When I was entering my freshman year, I remember having to complete the Coursera Career Decisions: From Insight to Impact course either shortly before or during the fall semester. Since that counts as all four of the necessary skills modules, I’ll reflect on what I remember learning from that course:
For one, I don’t typically tend to find these skills modules super applicable to my every day life and career aspirations–frankly I find them to be a bit of a waste of time at times. However, I did appreciate that this course had me look inward on my motivations for my career aspirations (specially, going to med school) to see if I’m making the right choice or closing off other options to without considering them as valid career paths for myself. I will say that when I really spent some time questioning these things, I still came to the same conclusion that I am making the right decision, but it was affirming to know that I had really considered all my options.
When it came to analyzing my motivations with regard to my personal view of success and my familial background, that’s where it got a bit more interesting. See, my father is also a physician, and I was raised with a very complicated relationship to the idea of success (in that, according to my father, success meant being better than others, rather than just doing your personal best). However, as I’ve gotten older, he has pulled back on this ideology, and while I am still working to unlearn it, I definitely have made some progress. I still think that my motivations for med school are untainted, however, because my father actually does not want me to go to med school! (He says I should go into computer science instead). So, certainly I am not making this decision based on outside pressure to do so, though perhaps there is an inward pressure to attain the same level of success as my own dad.
In exploring the skills that I currently possess, I found that I have great people skills–I really love to talk and engage with others, and I especially love teaching. I found this to be apparent even in my work this semester as a course assistant, where I got to utilize these skills every day. Furthermore, these skills aided me in getting hired as a tour guide this semester as well! I think that these skills are also incredibly important to the field of medicine because you are working directly with patients, many of whom are in an incredibly scary, vulnerable state. It is thus essential to be able to communicate information to them in an understandable, non-threatening way, as an equal rather than a superior. Because I am so passionate about developing these skills (I really enjoy it), I know that medicine is a great field for me.
Though I can’t find the capstone project I completed in the end, I do remember that it was helpful in solidifying my desire for going into medicine. Overall, I learned that, through careful consideration of my motivations, as well as leaning into my strengths with people skills and communication (through shadowing, information interviews, etc.), I can really make a difference and succeed in the medical field.
