One of our Year 11 female coaching students had already made up her mind that she wanted to enter medicine as a profession. She had decided that Paediatrics and Emergency Medicine were for her and she had even visited a hospital to look around both departments.
While undertaking our programme, she discovered through the psychometric assessments that she was highly interested in scientific and investigative vocations and that her thinking style was very logical and methodical. She did some research and it confirmed that Medicine was her area of career interest, however, when she matched her personality traits, motivations and career interests together, she discovered that she wanted to work in a higher-skilled role and chose “Pathology”.
This choice also allowed her to do her medical training in the other two areas of speciality so that she could experience them first-hand as part of her extensive 12-year studies. She was very excited about this discovery and wanted her new career choice to challenge both her intellectual abilities as well as allow her to be the person she really was.
Lesley Brough, Swivel Careers Coach, commented on this case highlighting the importance of teenagers learning about themselves to achieve such an impressive result in their career planning:
“Some students that we coach have an idea of the career field they would like to work in, i.e. medicine, but are often unaware of the vast roles within that field and/or which roles they would be best suited to. They haven’t stopped to think about the everyday tasks performed in certain roles and if they would enjoy those or be a good match for them.
Through our coaching journey, students discover more about themselves, their personality, work preferences, ability to deal with stress, skills and interests, which enables them to ask the hard questions needed, like ‘would I be a good fit for this role?’.
By discovering how they like to work with others, their communication style, empathy, organisational skills and drive (among other things), and doing the in-depth investigation of particular roles, they can gain greater clarity and narrow down specific roles they will enjoy and excel in. There are a lot more resources available now that discuss ideal skills and personality fit for different roles, which is really valuable information.
It’s so rewarding to see the look on a students’ face when they understand themselves better and can see themselves not only well suited to a role, but also be excited by it. As in this students' example, by learning more about how she likes to work and herself, the student was able to gain that clarity needed to then discover which area of medicine she should specialise in.”
Let’s discuss how Swivel Careers can help your students find not just their field, but an actual career!
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