Career Reflection Essay Example
Thinking about a career is scary. Many dependent variables will affect the way that I will feel about achieving the goals I set for myself towards pursuing my career. While it is scary to think I will be out in the world on my own in just under 2 years it is also reality. A reality that I have to think seriously about.
Accomplishment, something everybody wants to feel, I know at least I do. I will be the first person in my entire family to attend college and pursue a career. That in itself is something that I do consider an accomplishment, I´ve worked hard, had some determination, and have been planning for college and my future career for years now. It will be an even greater accomplishment to go to college and be successful and live out the career that I go for. Going to college, having a career, having great accomplishments, will be something that not only I can be proud of but also my family. In having a career, striving for accomplishment will be good for me, it will push me out of my comfort zone, there will always be the need to achieve more in the careers that I wish to pursue. I think that the urge to feel accomplished is good in moderation, to have goals and determination towards the things that you wish to achieve. Sense of accomplishment is both a good thing and a bad thing, I would hope that I don´t experience that accomplishment that I will lose myself within, and that the sense of that accomplishment will become bigger than the actual accomplishment and myself.
On the topic of accomplishment and college, how difficult will it be to study towards the career I wish to pursue? I think that the difficulty of college will always be set, as in there will always be some challenges in learning but I also think that the difficulty will depend on my attitude and mindset towards learning beyond high school. A question that I lately have been asking myself is, ¨ Can I do it?¨ Can I go to college and have that positive attitude towards learning, taking the time to study, and knowing what goals I need to achieve? The biggest thing preventing me from knowing I can do it right now is myself. I tell myself that I can´t so when I try telling myself that I can I don´t believe myself. Especially concerning the careers that I want in the future. As of right now, I plan on either becoming a high school teacher or an obstetric gynecologist. Both careers require extreme determination. With teaching I´m looking at four or more years of schooling as to OB/GYN I´m looking at nearly another decade-plus of schooling. Am I willing to spend that amount of time pursuing those? Looking at the time that I would spend on school, will either career bring happiness? Both are great questions to ask when I am considering my future.
Speaking financially, going towards teaching would cost much less with only having to attend a 4-year university where I would spend many years paying off student loans. On the other hand, becoming an OB/ GYN will put me in debt nearly $200,000 and have to attend a 4-year university, 4 years of med school, and then another 3-4 years of residency but would be able to afford to pay my student loans off in the first 5 years of having that career. It´s really a tough decision to have to make, but it is one I must make soon.
After college, after all, is said and done, I want the ability to grow within my career. I know that with becoming an OB/GYN there are many areas of growth available. Many places offer advancement opportunities and overall great things that I could accomplish. Many areas in which I can grow mostly materially. With teaching, I don´t know of the available advancements. If I think about it, I´m going to school to become a teacher, not a principle, not an admin, a teacher. The only places to grow while teaching that I can think of is myself, my ability to teach, and my knowledge. All of which are more personal growth than material growth. Over the years with all the growth that should happen within my career will I get bored? I am a person to easily gets bored. Repetition is something that I don´t sit well with. With becoming a teacher I feel like that´s what happens very often. You repeat yourself year after year. The same syllabuses, the same material, the same things over and over. The only thing that I feel wouldn't be repetitive would be myself. I feel like that would be the only thing changing within that career. While becoming an OB/GYN I know that things aren´t repetitive. That each day in the future things will be different than the day before. One day I might be in the office, the next I might be consulting with a patient, the next I might be delivering a baby. Each day would be different.
Now, during, and after college I will always have a family and relationships. I value my relationships and family dearly and feel like they will become even more important once I have experienced the world a little more. Eventually, in the future I want to marry and have children, will my career allow me to keep up with a family of my own? I hope to move away from Wisconsin, which is away from the entirety of my family, I would hope to have the luxury of visiting them periodically. I would also hope that my career wouldn´t interfere with my ability to maintain those relationships. If I´m thinking of family it is important to think about the security and financial situation that each career would provide. With the thought of both careers, I feel like there is a good chance of a stable financial situation. Also, there would be a great amount of job security with either.
Tampa or Chicago. That is where I would like to live and pursue my career. Though I feel I would be more rooted if I would choose to root myself in a certain location, I wouldn´t mind traveling for work. I know that with both careers there is the opportunity for travel. With teaching, there´s the option of traveling to different places to teach and with OB/GYN there is the possibility of traveling between hospitals for work. I wouldn´t mind a little bit of travel in the future. That is something to decide on another day. People, places, goals, and plans are all things that can change at the drop of a dime. I think that when thinking about wanting either a set location or travel it is hard to make a decision now as a high school student and is something that I will need more experience in the world to decide what I want in terms of where I live. I can say that I want to travel now and I make my life plans around that and then a few years from now, after traveling I decide that it’s not for me and have to rearrange my entire life? So thinking about it I think that it all depends on how the future rolls and the dependent variables related to the situation like the salary, the economics, safety, the conditions of working there, and my happiness in that place. The conditions of the place I work will be important. I want a sense that I know what I´m doing without having to worry about mine and others' safety. I would prefer a safer neighborhood to work in than an unsafe one. Within my career, I don´t mind having to follow the uniform codes. With being a teacher, the dress code is pretty casual but professional, you at least have the ability to be comfortable at work. The dress code for becoming an OB/GYN would include scrubs, which I already live in working at an Assisted Living and being a CNA. I wouldn´t mind having to wear them often in the future, because they are comfortable though scrubs tend to be expensive. I feel like both careers are free of any terrible physical labor which I favor. With teaching, I know the hours would be the same mostly as to becoming an OB/GYN there would be fewer set hours as there is a lot of being on call and working when you are needed or when you have a planned birth or an appointment with a patient. With being an OB/GYN I could be getting calls in the middle of the night because one of my patients is soon to have their child and it would be my job to be there. Another condition that will need to be considered is the attitude of the place where I work. Being a teacher I feel will be both a fun job and a serious job. Almost as if the two attitudes would balance each other out. Being an OB/GYN it´s a lot more serious than teaching would be. I would like to look forward to a fun environment to go to every day but also what relationships would I form in the workplace all conditions considered and where? For example, will those workplace relationships grow my social network leading me to promotions and greater career opportunities?
I think an important question to pose when considering pursuing a career is where will I be in 5, 20, or 40 years? Will I be happy with the decisions that I will have made and will I be happy with the place in which I reside? All things considered, I want big things for myself in the future. I want to accomplish my goals and be a successful person. I think that now that is all up to me to achieve the goals that I have for myself. So the most important thing I want to leave myself with my future career in mind is will I be happy and accomplished?
