Ladies-
So, you're almost through a month of working at SHM, and you think maybe, just maybe, you know what you do here.
Well, lets find out. Your assignment for this week is to write your "elevator speech". Wikipedia defines an elevator speech as:
"an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words)."
To help you, here are a few links:
http://www.creativekeys.net/PowerfulPresentations/article1024.html
http://www.quintcareers.com/elevator_speech_dos-donts.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMFFZ0lj41I&feature=related
Most of the full timers have crafted an elevator speech, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask around. The more creative - the better.
Looking forward to reading them!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Professional Development
My perception of professional development is discovering and understanding personal attributes and goals, in order to apply them to a career. You must first understand yourself, your purpose, your needs and desires. At this stage in my career, the most important things to focus on are personal learning and growth, management of personal and professional responsibilites and LIFE in general, and education. Eventually I will return to school for my Master's degree to become a professor and own my own firm. Education is important, as well as learning overall. The most important things I have learned in life did not come from the classroom. Over time, I feel these needs will not change but, there will be varied emphasis on each of them. I will always be in the process of learning myself. I will know more about myself, but there will always things to discover. That will come from experience. I grow each day, my perception shifts daily. Today teaches me the lesson learned tomorrow. I will be become much more adept at managing my life and responsibilites. My life will evolve in different stages, in which I will deal with accordingly. Education and knowledge are always crucial components in my career, because teaching will be a part of my career. Personal and professional development is a hand in hand relationship. The better I understand myself, the better I can serve my professional community. Over time these two arenas will merge more and more, and to me that IS success.
Not the Stuff They Teach You or the Stuff On TV
I don't know exactly how "professional development" is defined, but this is my personal perspective when I think those two words:
To me, a lot of professional development is "the stuff they don't teach you in school." It comes from the lessons you learn while experiencing life in a professional environment. Any type of development at work is something that will affect other aspects in your life - and vice versa. Aspects of life outside of work will affect how you perform professionally.
At this stage in my career, I am still learning a lot because most of what I know is based off of what I learn in the classroom. I don't have that much experience in the "real world," so I am really depending on SHM to introduce me to that.
I think the majority of professional development needs are universal. There are skills that almost all careers and jobs require. Then, there are obviously those tailored to your job specifically. Everyone needs management, assessment, and critical thinking skills. Not everyone needs to work creatively or socially as often. As a student, I know I will be in many different positions until I land my career, and each experience will help develop and hone different attributes of mine.
P.S. Todd is like Michael Scott in many ways. Actually, this office has uncanny similarities to "The Office," which motivates me to come into work some days.
To me, a lot of professional development is "the stuff they don't teach you in school." It comes from the lessons you learn while experiencing life in a professional environment. Any type of development at work is something that will affect other aspects in your life - and vice versa. Aspects of life outside of work will affect how you perform professionally.
At this stage in my career, I am still learning a lot because most of what I know is based off of what I learn in the classroom. I don't have that much experience in the "real world," so I am really depending on SHM to introduce me to that.
I think the majority of professional development needs are universal. There are skills that almost all careers and jobs require. Then, there are obviously those tailored to your job specifically. Everyone needs management, assessment, and critical thinking skills. Not everyone needs to work creatively or socially as often. As a student, I know I will be in many different positions until I land my career, and each experience will help develop and hone different attributes of mine.
P.S. Todd is like Michael Scott in many ways. Actually, this office has uncanny similarities to "The Office," which motivates me to come into work some days.
We really never stop growing..
The phrase professional development means to me my path to success. I think that success is a broad term and only I can define what I think my own success is. I’m not going to go into that right now but in order for me to become successful I need to undergo a lot of professional development. Right now I feel like I’m “developing faster” than the “normal” path because not only am I working towards my degree, and I’m getting work experience at the same time. I think that to undergo professional development there are many people and experiences one must go through in order to understand their own growth and the direction and pace of the development. For example, coming to SHM the environment is completely different than any other job I have worked at thus far. Being able to adapt and grow within the office has already helped me to not only be coached and mentored, but to work as a team player and individual. Becoming a more professionally developed person takes a long amount of time. To be professionally “seasoned” you need the life experience. Every person is different, so the evolution over time will be an individual transformation. I think that we all evolve to hopefully what we want to become, the amount of time and detours individuals may take will we different. Personally I think I will always have room to grow, but that is mostly because I change my goals on a daily basis, but then again so does the way business is run! Right now I feel like I am in the right spot for the time because when I hear the word evolving I now think about hospital medicine and how SHM is right in the prime of their profession growth, as I am.
So I was watching "The Office"..
and I was intrigued by the slightest detail. First of all, great show. Secondly, I noticed that everyone dresses so professionally in that show, and they don't do anything! That office is a joke, and only some of the co-workers actually contribute to the company. And then I thought about my workplace at SHM and realized how informal it is. Many employees come dressed in jeans, sometimes fashionably ripped; however, everyone still works hard and gets their job done. Everyone contributes to SHM!
It's rediculous how the charcaters in "The Office" try to present themeselves as hard-working individuals by dressing so formally and talking about procedures in a complicated and serious manner. Whereas at SHM, my co-workers all make fun of each other, chit-chat, dress not as formally, and still work very hard. SHM has nothing but smart individuals that are dedicated to what they do, which is the complete opposite of the show. This shows you that you can't just look good and pretend youre getting work done lol. Such charcaters in "The Office" are simply putting up an act.
So I'm glad that SHM is formal and informal at the same time. It's a great environment and I'm glad that there are people here that are so hard working and actually want to be here!
It's rediculous how the charcaters in "The Office" try to present themeselves as hard-working individuals by dressing so formally and talking about procedures in a complicated and serious manner. Whereas at SHM, my co-workers all make fun of each other, chit-chat, dress not as formally, and still work very hard. SHM has nothing but smart individuals that are dedicated to what they do, which is the complete opposite of the show. This shows you that you can't just look good and pretend youre getting work done lol. Such charcaters in "The Office" are simply putting up an act.
So I'm glad that SHM is formal and informal at the same time. It's a great environment and I'm glad that there are people here that are so hard working and actually want to be here!
Professionalism
It’s sad that I googled the definition of “professional development” before I started writing this. Maybe it’s because this is my first real job ever! Lol. But I decided to create my own meaning of professional development. To me, it simply means learning and growing. As any intern/worker/professional gains knowledge through learning and work experience, they grow and develop into great thinkers that contribute to society. This is what professional development is, and should be. Anyone who works, no matter in what position or setting, should be able to learn and apply the learned information to his/her self as well as society. There are many aspects through which a working man or woman may do so. It could be as simple as learning to get to work on time, or more effort consuming as diagnosing a patient after analyzing test and x-ray results. Also, showing good professionalism after learning about the formalities and skills behind it is a component of professional development. All of these aspects mentioned involve learning and growing, so I feel that these two components should be combined to yield professional development.
At this stage of my career, I should be focusing on the learning everything that I can so I can gain the characteristics of a professional. I have to present myself in a clean matter. I have to shake hands with new people that I am introduced to at work. I have to learn and improve my communication skills with co-workers. There are so many ways that I can build my skills and improve in the professional world. I just have to focus on learning and applying.
Professional development needs do evolve over time as the professional world is changing and developing as well. In the corporate world, companies often expand by joining other relative companies. This demands an increased need of professional development in each individual that is involved with these companies, since there is a huge change. Another example is the growing and changing field of medicine. As this field changes, more demand in professional development is expected as new medical discoveries and technologies form and medical professionals must learn and adjust themselves to these new advances. So, I feel that professional development needs are always going to evolve, as long as the concept of change exists.
At this stage of my career, I should be focusing on the learning everything that I can so I can gain the characteristics of a professional. I have to present myself in a clean matter. I have to shake hands with new people that I am introduced to at work. I have to learn and improve my communication skills with co-workers. There are so many ways that I can build my skills and improve in the professional world. I just have to focus on learning and applying.
Professional development needs do evolve over time as the professional world is changing and developing as well. In the corporate world, companies often expand by joining other relative companies. This demands an increased need of professional development in each individual that is involved with these companies, since there is a huge change. Another example is the growing and changing field of medicine. As this field changes, more demand in professional development is expected as new medical discoveries and technologies form and medical professionals must learn and adjust themselves to these new advances. So, I feel that professional development needs are always going to evolve, as long as the concept of change exists.
Professional Development
There are a lot of things that go into professional development, and I discovered the other day that I do not know a whole lot about this topic. To me, professional development is recognizing your goals and figuring out how to achieve your goals. As a company, there are many goals that SHM want to accomplish, and each goal that I want will ultimately help accomplish SHM's goals. In order to become truly successful, you have to grow every day - and develop yourself personally, and professionally. If one does not grow over a time span, they are obviously not listening and learning every day the way that they should be.
Currently, I think there are a lot of things that I need to develop. There are a lot of long term and short term tasks that I need to complete in order to develop. When it comes to a daily basis - I need to be more vocal, and not be afraid to ask questions, because in the long run, it will allow me to grow in the professional world. Also, I need to focus more on learning something every day. To this point, I have learned a lot of things. However, thus far in my career, I know about one thousandth, or maybe even less of that, of what I will need to know. There will never be a point where I have all the knowledge in the world, but there will be a point that I know enough to be success and teach that knowledge to others on a daily basis. Over time, professional development grows a lot. Right now, I believe communication is a big part of mine - but as I grow, I do not think it will be as big as it is now. However, with evey job - the communication is different, so even though I may grow an immense amount here at SHM, my next job may have different approaches that I will then have to adjust to. Therefore, I guess the needs are always there for development - but with each stage in your life, they change!
That's all for now... seeya!
Currently, I think there are a lot of things that I need to develop. There are a lot of long term and short term tasks that I need to complete in order to develop. When it comes to a daily basis - I need to be more vocal, and not be afraid to ask questions, because in the long run, it will allow me to grow in the professional world. Also, I need to focus more on learning something every day. To this point, I have learned a lot of things. However, thus far in my career, I know about one thousandth, or maybe even less of that, of what I will need to know. There will never be a point where I have all the knowledge in the world, but there will be a point that I know enough to be success and teach that knowledge to others on a daily basis. Over time, professional development grows a lot. Right now, I believe communication is a big part of mine - but as I grow, I do not think it will be as big as it is now. However, with evey job - the communication is different, so even though I may grow an immense amount here at SHM, my next job may have different approaches that I will then have to adjust to. Therefore, I guess the needs are always there for development - but with each stage in your life, they change!
That's all for now... seeya!
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