On The Move

October 5th, 2020

Over the past week in ISM, I have learned many professional skills, including how to properly develop a resume, dress appropriately and professionally when conducting interviews or meeting with professionals, and create questions that I can ask professionals in the future when conducting interviews to look for a mentor, as well as the type of questions that I may be asked when a professional is interviewing me. By properly developing my resume, I was able to highlight my strongest areas and skills, and present it in a way that is both relevant and beneficial to my chosen topic of study, for a professional to view. By being aware of how I would dress when going to a meeting, or conducting interviews, I can be successful in presenting myself, gaining opportunities that will help me in the future, and walk in and out of those scenarios with the self-confidence that may not have existed if I hadn’t been dressed appropriately. Lastly, by not only developing the type of questions that I would ask professionals to further expand my knowledge on my topic of choice, but also that they would ask me to prepare me for future job and career searches, I won’t be phased or as nervous as I would have been had I not come up with those questions, nor developed my responses to them.

As a result of what I’ve learned, the only question that’s arisen, as far as I can think of, is what I can do beyond what I’ve learned to push myself further ahead and start looking for professionals to mentor, in hopes of settling down on a mentor after interviewing between 5 and 7 professionals. The question came to mind because I’ve always been someone who’s proactive, and likes to plan ahead in the future, By doing this, I am able to take the necessary steps in becoming more successful with my interviews and take a somewhat speedier and more efficient process in finding my mentor and further expanding my knowledge on my career field, as well as the specific topic of choice.

Some challenges that I’ve faced during the past week were developing self-confidence and getting rid of my nervousness while preparing myself for the interviews that are occurring this week, as well as learning to stress less with my school work and personal life in general. I’ve always been a very timid person, and as a result, I’m very lacking in self-confidence. So when Mr.Pirtle told us last week that we were going to be interviewed by a couple professionals this week for Business Symposium, you could imagine that I was having a panic and anxiety attack, although you can’t see it physically. As this happened though, I realized something: rather than being nervous and anxious about the whole situation, why not prepare myself for it, so I’m less worried about it when it actually happens?

So I did just that. I spent the weekend running through the questions with my parents, and practicing my responses to them, and in doing so, I was able to gain more confidence with each run I went through, With that out of the way, I had one less thing to stress about. But, as I said, I’ve always been the kind of person to stress about everything, even the little things. But I handled the stress situation by writing down three simple words on a sticky note, and putting it on my laptop: “Remember to breathe”. By doing this, I was able to look at it each time before I began stressing, or being on my way to a mental breakdown. By doing something as simple as this, I was able to better control my emotions, and not let them consume me, nor affect my work that I had to get done.

In doing those things that I mentioned above, I was able to be successful in controlling my emotions, and gaining that self-confidence I had always lacked. Although the sticky note thing isn’t 100% guaranteed to get rid of my stress problems, it’s a good way for me to calm down, and remember that even when it feels like there’s too much to do, and that I can’t get it all done, if I take a few seconds to breathe and prioritize what I have to get done, as well as how soon it has to get done, I am able to help myself in accomplishing all my school work, and in turn, this gives more time to do what I want to do, to make me happy and calm myself down. Similarly, although running through the questions doesn’t guarantee that I won’t be nervous at all, or stutter during my interviews with the professionals, it gave me that self-confidence that makes me feel better prepared, even if it’s just by 25%. Something as little as that was able to give me something in the area that I had always been lacking in, and in turn, has made me more successful and better prepared for future interviews and meetings with professionals.

In the next week, I need to work on doing research on which professionals I should contact and interview in order to find and settle down on my mentor. As Mr,Pirtle said, we should interview 5-7 professionals, and so I think that if I can generate that list of people, I’ll be better prepared in the long-run, and feel more accomplished and successful internally, I know that we aren’t supposed to have any of this done until he tells us we need to do it, but planning ahead never hurt anyone.

To conclude this, I would like to say that in coming up with these questions, I want to know the reality of my profession in the real world. Once I get that license to become a Certified Public Accountant, then what? Or, how do CPAs go about looking for the jobs that they’ll use to get the experience part of their license, and how did they study for the exam? It’s the little things like this that I want to know more about because I feel that it will go a long way in helping me better understand and prepare for when it comes to my time to become a CPA, and open up my own accounting firm.