Are you a Jill Of All Trades? The kind of person that is just good at everything? Then this episode was made just for you...
Here's the resource mentioned in today's episode: https://myidp.sciencecareers.org/
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Shenandoa Toote Copyright 2019, Science Sisters
Shenandoa:
All right, so today's episode, I felt it was really important to take a step back and look at what you have to take into consideration before choosing exactly which area in science, technology, engineering, or math you're actually going to go into. I think that there's sometimes there's people who are so good at different things, they actually haven't made a final decision and so I'm going to let you know about what I think is the number one resource that helped me to get a really good look at all of this information for myself. Also share that with you and then some really just practical steps as to how to go about doing this. If you haven't already or you're in a place where you're unsure, you actually made the right decision or you're just, you're just keeping your options open. So the first thing I just wanna make sure that is really clear is that one thing that's going to help you when you're going through this entire process, choosing a specific area that you want to focus on in terms of a job or a career is actually that we live in a day and age where so much has changed from what it used to be.
Shenandoa:
And it is an absolute requirement for you to have what is known as a, uh, flexible or an open mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. So just in case you haven't heard about this before, so fixed mindset is basically I'm going into work as a doctor for 40 years and I'm going to retire when I'm 65. And that's like an example. I'm very close to home because that's, that's kind of what for me, 40 years is really a long time. So I'd never really planned to be in medicine for 40 years, but for me, 10 years, I did consider, Hey, 10 years in medicine and then, you know, I'm gonna look into doing some other things. But for some people it's, they're still in the mindset of a, you have to go into one area and stay in there. And I'm bringing this up now because we've seen and we've heard examples from women who have been in some different areas and there's some things that came into the picture that they hadn't necessarily planned on.
Shenandoa:
And if you allow for yourself flexibility in your career planning, it can actually open doors to, for you finding areas where you're actually a really great fit and you're able to Excel in a tremendous way. And so there's, there's lots of different things there that are going through my head. I want to make sure that I cover, but this, this is the primary thing. Think of the career as not necessarily a road with just a straight line from one destination to another, but more like a road trip where I may go South for a little while and make a stop. You go North and then you go East and then you go back North, then you go West again. And so you're just, you're taking different stuffs along and figuring out things and how they go. What some people are able to do at the very beginning is just identify that they're really good at something and then stick with it and go with it.
Shenandoa:
Other people, and this was, this is really scenario for myself, find out that they're really good at something and they are interested in it and so they try to pursue it that may actually not be the best fit for them. So in my case, uh, like with some other people, you hear from people that you're really good at a certain area because you're able to academically get the grades needed in that area and people think it's going to be a great career path and what have you. So for me, I'm really good at sciences. I actually lacked my computer classes so that I could go into, do more sciences so that I could get more exams and have better grades. And like that's a decision that I made. Honestly though, I really feel that I would have been excellent with computers, especially if there was something to do with a design.
Shenandoa:
And then I actually had one of my brothers is in that area and he does design and computers and I know that I would have been really good at that. So there's, there's an issue when your do good in so many things, but you're trying to decide, okay, which one do I go for? So in this scenario actually went for the medical route. So I was pretty focused on that and just always a next thing, obstacle, no worry, jump over it, threw it past and whatever. And that will be fine for some people. But I'm just giving you an example for people who are not necessarily just only have one thing, but they have multiple things that they're good at. So in this scenario there's, there's things that have come across my path that I did not take into consideration because I was so focused on making sure that I do things one way.
Shenandoa:
And where that led me was to a place where I didn't feel confident about my, my decision anymore because I really wasn't making any progress professionally. And then I was also didn't even realize it, but I was on the healthy because of the work and the effort that I was putting into it without taking care of myself the way I needed to. So right now the work that I'm doing, I'm still putting in lots of hours in it, but actually my mind is clear, my body is healthier and so that then leaves me feeling happier at the end of the day. So then how did I go from working really hard and striving and only focusing on one thing to now having a more open mindset and seeing that there are different options and opportunities available. Either I can still have the science and I can have other things too and actually do something that I'm even better at than I thought I would have been in another scenario.
Shenandoa:
Okay. So tool that I [inaudible] is really, has that just changed the way that I was able to think about and look at somethings. I'm definitely going to mention that in a minute, but maybe more than a minute, but before that. So again, so this is, think about it as there's is transitions. The the road may not be the straight forward as you thought. You may have to deal with some uncertainty before you're able to figure things out, but that is okay and you're not the only person that goes through that, but trying to help you to get to a place where you can understand where a good fit is a better fit and perhaps your best fit is that's, that's the goal for today. Thinking about different parts of a decision process when you're going through and exploring what career it is you're going to be going into, you really have to take really good inventory of yourself.
Shenandoa:
And so this self assessment is what are your skills? What D? What do you value? What are your interests? These are very important because there are some jobs that you might be really good at in terms of technicalities, but they don't line up with your values and for me that is huge difference in why one career makes a better fit for me than another because I enjoy traveling and time freedom and so working from home or working from the computer working online is a better fit for me than clocking at this time and clock out at that time. That's just, that's one thing that I had to take into consideration for myself and you know after you go through this tool you'll be able to see that there's some things that you can take a at take into account and decide whether or not they would be a good fit for you.
Shenandoa:
Some interests that you have, your personality, your learning style, what are your preferences in terms of work hours or location? What is your style of leadership? Have you developed those leadership skills yet or do you have some natural tendencies, areas that you're good at? Are there other things you need to work on? The tools that I mentioned that really just made a huge difference for me is called a my IDP. And I'm actually gonna share with you like my personal results from this. You can understand perhaps a little bit like what this means and how this looks practically for me as individual and how it might turn out for you or things that you might need to keep into to take into consideration. I'm going to share that link, but just in case you can't see in your description, it's going to be my IDP.
Shenandoa:
Those are the letters IDP, myIDP.sciencecareers.org, and so I signed up on this site, took an exam that just helped me to organize some things in terms of what I'm good at and what I'm interested in. So then it gave me a huge list of not necessarily jobs but areas or careers that are paths that I could take. And so it orders them in from the top. Your skills match how's the percentage, you have an interest match with a percentage as well. And then, uh, the also consider your values. So these are just things that they couldn't necessarily put into a quiz and organize for you. So you have to take that into consideration. For me, the first area was support of science related products. This could have been technical support specialists, a field application specialists, production or product development scientist or engineer.
Shenandoa:
And so this was huge skills match and for me at an 82% I actually didn't have anything else that skill matched or did. I had a couple of other things. A skill match at like 81 or 82% of my interest match was really high on this one. And so they put it at the top. So my interests match with a 75% on this one. Um, then we have science education for non scientists and so that's education or public outreach specialist such as a science museum or a scientific society. And my skills match, again high and is 78% and interest is 77% so higher interests match for that one, but a Laura's skills match. And you know, the algorithm decided to order it that way for me because they put the skills match first and then the interest match. Now for, for this, it's actually, this is funny because I actually was in a science communication fellowship, which is part of what this project was birthed out of.
Shenandoa:
So science and education is definitely something that I feel strongly we should have in society and I want to be a part of. So then the next one for me is sales and marketing of science related products. Hi, skills match at 81% interest much again, relatively compared to the rest is high. It's 72% and so this is a medical science liaison, a technical sales representative and a marketing specialists. And this is funny because I've been in sales before and I'm actually, I want to say that I'm the best at it, but it interests me enough that I would go back into sales if I found something that I was really passionate about. I'm selling for someone or to someone. And then the marketing specialist, actually I have been in marketing for this November for about 10 months going on 11 months now. And I find it fascinating.
Shenandoa:
And so this is actually where I've been putting a lot of my, my, my own time, learning more about how it works and getting better at understanding it and then being able to apply it and then do some of these things for other people. So right now and the middle of connecting with, um, people who are in marketing also had, have their different other areas of strengths that compliment mine so that we can help doctors in the area or other health professionals with their marketing. So that is, if you see me on LinkedIn, it will say, you know, medical marketing and that's what I'm doing because I actually find that very interesting. And also it's something that I can do from the comfort of my own home, which then is for me a high value. So that's why this is a really good fit for me at this time.
Shenandoa:
Those are my top three and I'm not gonna read them all because it gives you an entire list of categories. But I did want to just point out, so clinical practice, although I absolutely love working with patients and I found a specialty that I really just felt very strongly about and that I could be really effective in it. And that was ophthalmology because there were some different, in terms of like interest in terms of uh, value clashes. That was me trying to stay in a fixed position and not just live in a space where it was something was the best fit for me. So the clinical practice for me is out of all of these, it's number six in the list. Clinicians such as genetics, counselor, therapist, physician, my skills matches it is 79% interest, matches it a 67%. So that is actually relatively low.
Shenandoa:
I have some others that go, you know, really low interests in like 35 and 50 for skills match. But, but considering how high the others where this is a relatively low match for me, but having not done this, having not had access to a career counselor, that meant that I really just, I didn't know any better because I was interested in it. I thought it would be the best fit for me and I pursued it really hard. This is just an example of how it will be okay if things are changing as you go throughout your career and you will find a spot that's good for you. But with a resource like my IDP, you can do that so much faster. So if I'd been able to find something like this when I was in high school trying to decide what to do for college or in college and you know, having these conversations with people and really feeling like it's one thing.
Shenandoa:
But if I had seen something like this, who knows, perhaps I would have helped me to make better decisions in terms of fits for myself or as an individual. Although to keep in mind over time your, your interests might change. So it would be something maybe you want to check in. If you're in high school, you check it, but then in college as you go through and expose to other things, you might want to see if that has changed at all. Or if you are interested in something else or you look at the list again, you're like, Oh, I even think about this thing. If I looked at this any, if I looked at this cause I actually did this when I was interning at the NIH, that was over a year and a half ago. I didn't even see marketing specialists. That wasn't even on my radar. But when I started to get exposed to marketing, now I come back and I look at the lists and make so much sense.
Shenandoa:
So just give everything a chance. And so w where are you? Go from there. If you are like, okay, I have no idea. Now you've shown me even more things that I would be good at. So where do I go from here? How do I narrow that down and really know whether or not something's going to be a good fit for me? Excellent question. Glad you asked when you go and you figured out, okay, I'm, these are like my top three are, these are my top five and I want to explore these a little more and see how well they can fit me. The next step then in this, in this exploration would be to do what are known as informational interviews. Informational interviews are basically a way for you to get information from the horse's mouth. We all know that people mourn for you to come onto the job having already had experienced in these areas, but you can't really get experience until you have the degree and then what if you choose the degree first and then it's not the right fit for the job.
Shenandoa:
Okay, so how do we get around this really oxymoronic scenario, this rock and the hard place catch 22 that society has us in. You can use LinkedIn as a way to find people who are in these career areas or these career paths that you're interested in. This is not you asking for a job, this is you trying to find out whether or not a career or a path or it's going to be a good fit for you. You find people who are in these areas and you just send a connect message say, Hey I'm, I'm just wanting to connect with you cause I wanted to find out if I can interview you about the position you're in now. So you can ask things like what their current position is, how they got into the field, what are some long term opportunities in that field, what are some professional societies related to that field?
Shenandoa:
Because you do not need to have experience in order to get into some of the professional society meetings. Perhaps you can go as a student so you can go to these professional society meetings and even meet more people and get a better sense of what this career offers, what the lifestyle is like and then you can have a more complete picture of whether or not this would be something that is worth you investing time and energy and money in to prepare yourself for. In terms of a career. Remember you're choosing a career but one size doesn't fit all and you might have different sizes that fit you on different parts of your career journey so you may have a good fit at the beginning of your career that might not be a fit towards the end of your career because there are some different skills that you are, that you are improving over time or that you're no longer interested in using and these can be variety, whether they are your science or technical or engineering or math skills, your your verbal communication, your written communication, teaching and mentoring skills, your leadership and so just have how much you have explored your career already, different things like that.
Shenandoa:
Whether you have the confidence to go through what it is or the competence that you need, whether you're looking for direction or support or you want to be independent. All of these are going to affect what it is that you can and will do at various points in your career. I hope that you have found this helpful information and if so CLIs please, please comment. That is really important right now that we get this information in front of people who really need it. So if you're, if this is something that either you thought was helpful for you, thought it would be helpful for someone else, please make sure that you comment and if it's something that has brought up another question for you, go ahead. Leave that question in the comments so that I know that it's a topic that will be of service to you in the future.