Where I am headed? My Career Compass Reflection

Focus 2 Career Assessment

My Focus 2 Career Assessment combined results showed that not many occupations align with each aspect of my life. I had no careers that matched results from all 5 of my assessments and only 1 career that matched 4 out of the 5 assessment results. The highest recommended career for me is marine architecture. Most of the other highly rated careers were types of engineering and STEM-based careers such as biochemist and mathematician. My current path in veterinary medicine was only recommended based on the results of 2 of my assessment categories: values and skills.

I was not surprised by my recommended careers because I have considered these careers for myself in the past. Throughout high school, I was interested in marine science and spent a lot of my time volunteering at non-profit organizations working with marine species. My early attraction to this field aligns with my highest-rated career, marine architect. When I entered college in 2022, I was a biomedical sciences major with a plan to become a biomedical engineer. I considered several other types of engineering as well including environmental, aerospace, and mechanical, all of which are recommended in my combined results. I ultimately decided to pursue veterinary medicine and have been working to gain experience in the field. My combined results showed that my values and skills align with those required in a veterinary career. While these are both important categories, the most important categories to me are personality and skills because veterinary medicine requires advanced skills in many categories and requires a specific type of personality to be satisfied in the career. My Holland code was IRA: investigative, realistic, and artistic. I agree I am investigative and realistic and other personal tests I have taken, such as True Colors, provide results that align with these characteristics. While I do believe I am artistic, I do not usually apply this to my work and instead take on artistic projects in my free time. In Veterinary medicine, it is important to be both investigative and realistic because you are always looking for possible solutions while taking into account the needs of the patient and client. Veterinary medicine is unique in that the client and the patient are not the same thing and you must consider the necessities of both. This presents complex situations that need to be navigated carefully and apply both investigative and realistic mindsets. If I own my own practice someday, it may also be important to be artistic to create a functional and aesthetic hospital where clients feel welcome. Prioritizing function and comfort in a vet hospital will require an artistic mindset. I agree that the Holland code IRA relates to careers in engineering very well. Engineers need to be able to design, execute, and implement creations thus requiring them to be investigative, realistic, and artistic. I believe that I could be a good engineer but because of my personal interests, I believe veterinary medicine will be more rewarding to me as a life-long career.