Focus on the Process, Not the Results

Nov. 16th, 2020

Over the past week in ISM, I set up interviews with professionals for this week, and created a guest list for Winter Showcase in January. I was able to set up interviews with professionals for this week by sending follow up emails, leaving voice messages, and reaching out to my parents to post on their Facebook accounts, saying that if anyone was or knew someone who works in the accounting field, to let them know so that they could let me know, so that I could talk to them and arrange a brief discussion about their profession. This taught me that effort, consistency, patience, and professionalism go a long way, and often yield the results that you want. In creating a guest list for Winter Showcase, I was able to take a moment to sit down and think about the people closest to me, both in terms of family and friends, and realize that the people that I would be inviting would not only be people that I know well, but also that these were the people who constantly checked up on me, and always wanted to see how I was doing and what I was up to,

As a result of what I’ve learned about scheduling interviews, the only question that’s come up is how I can apply the same methods that I’ve used in the past week, and how to apply them to not only future interviews, but other things that I may do in life. As I mentioned before, this process taught me that patience and effort go a long way, and more often than not, yield results not only that you might not expect, but more than that. Are there perhaps different, more efficient ways that I can produce the same results as those I achieved last week? Or maybe is there some sort of formula that translates these methods into something I can use for my other AP classes? After all, if I can even just slightly improve my performance in ISM and other classes alike, it’ll make the chance of succeeding in each of those that much better.

Some challenges that I’ve faced during the past week were keeping my head held high while contacting professionals to schedule interviews, as well as keeping myself motivated to perform just as efficiently and accurately in other classes. Because contacting professionals didn’t result in immediate results, I was having hard time staying determined and focused, to the point where I wasn’t even sure if I’d receive any responses. However, I found that within 1-2 business days, I had received responses back from some of the professionals, and was able to schedule an interview with some of them for this week. Additionally, I think I’ve reached that point in the year when I start feeling less motivated and more stressed to get all of my work done, not only in a timely manner, but also with the right amount of effort it deserves. Luckily, by creating an agenda for what needs to get done, as well as when it needs to get done, I was able to make sure everything was getting done, although looking back at it, I could have put more time and effort into it.

In terms of contacting professionals, I was able to successfully schedule interviews for this week, as well as prepare myself for the conversations and discussions I’d be having with these professionals. For the interview I had today, it went successfully because I had prepared my questions to ask the person beforehand, as well as the fact that I practiced and rehearsed the things I was going to be saying to them during the interview. In terms of creating my Contact List, I was able to successfully reach out to the friends I don’t speak to quite as often, and to let them know that Winter Showcase would be happening in January.

In the next week, I need to work on being confident when I talk to these professionals during our interviews, so that I can get a response and so that I can schedule more meetings with them and other professionals to begin expanding my knowledge of the field of accounting, as well as to start learning about what it’s like being a CPA on the daily. I also need to work on prioritizing ISM with my other classes, so that I don’t fall too behind in anything. I want to make sure that I’m putting an equal amount of time and effort into everything I do, no matter how easy or hard it is. By working harder on setting up more interviews, I am working towards succeeding in my ISM journey, as I will be getting closer to my end goal: finding a mentor and gaining the real-world experience of the career I wish to pursue. As I’ve mentioned before, being able to not only be efficient and hard working in ISM, but also in my other classes as well, will allow me to put forth the necessary time and effort to ensure that everything is equal to each other, and that I can succeed in each of my classes.

To conclude this, I would like to say that I’m still working on a way to be more efficient with my work in ISM. I don’t want to fall behind in conducting my research on my topic of interest, but I also want to be able to complete my weekly assignments in a timely, efficient manner (as I’ve been doing). I think I’ll explore different methods, and decide which one works best for me at the end. I will also work on finishing my other assignments for other classes as soon as I can, so that I have more time to focus on my research and assignments in ISM, as it will have the greatest impact on my future. I will do all of this with efficiency, time and effort, of course.