This week long event we title as ‘Career Week’ has had a great impact on my life, including academia, fitness/sports, networks, and my professional life in general. Career Week, consisting of 14 speakers, a scavenger hunt, workshops, prizes, and a Career Fair has positively influenced the way I think and the way I plan to continue leading my professional life. Each speaker had their own unique way of getting the attention of the audience while sticking to the main overall theme: “The Amazing Career Race: Fight to the Finish”. As I think back to the talks I listened to and the people I engaged with, they all tied together, some in a very subtle way, and some very obviously.
I remember one speaker, Bryce Carlson, more than a lot of the others because he connected his presentation to athletics, and more specifically, his athletic goals and accomplishments. I can relate very easy to this kind of talk because I have always been very athletic and involved in sports and physical activity, by choice. What was great about it, was that you didn’t have to be able to relate to the athletic part of the presentation because the academia/professional life side was incredibly impactful and memorable as well. There was a lot of talk about how you have to find out what you love to do and do it, you have to have experiences before you know what you really love. I found this so important because more often than not I know that students worry about their GPA over everything else, and they are earning that GPA doing something they don’t even enjoy just because they want to have a big paycheck, or make someone else happy (maybe their parents). The way I see it, the only person to worry about making happy is yourself, the rest will fall in place once you know you are happy, and you cannot be happy if you are stuck in a career that you do not enjoy. In Carlson’s presentation he played a video at the end, a very motivational and inspirational video, basically tying together everything he talked about with athletics and your professional life. From this video I wrote down a quote that I found very powerful, “If there’s no enemy within, the enemy outside can do no harm”. This stuck out to me because it ties back in with my point of being happy, and finding a career path that you truly enjoy and want to learn everything about that you possibly can. I want to want to learn, and since I switched my major to doing what I truly love, at least for now, I am enjoying learning more than ever before.
Since I have been enjoying what I am learning, and teaching myself even more outside of the classroom as well, I was able to really connect with Josh Boyd’s presentation on Sustaining Healthy Brands. Boyd made his presentation so that it was focused around his brand, and how he got that brand, and why he is successful. The biggest thing that I got from his presentation was not only networking, but making yourself memorable. You want to stand out to any and every employer and even just your network, because once people start remembering who you are, more opportunities arise. Boyd also tied in the topic of finding that career you enjoy, even if it takes multiple other paths to get there, you just have to get there.
Not only did these presentations, along with many others, catch my attention and keep it, but they have stuck in my mind well enough that I have found myself relating personal situations and general conversation with some of the general topics and key points. I am very grateful for the experience to listen to these successful professionals and get their true opinions and helpful advice as I journey on a path toward my goals and my dream career.
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