Rationale: In this assignment, you will explore one physiology career pathway. You will focus on the skills that are particularly important for the path. My goal is not to get you to change your mind about your career goal. Instead, my goal is to get you to think critically about translational skills.
A second goal of the assignment is to help you become familiar with the O-Net OnLine website. There is an overwhelming amount of information and tools on O-Net, so I will help you explore one small section of it.
Homework instructions:
1. Choose one job category that was reviewed in class (i.e. medical writing, healthcare administration, public health, clinical research administration, or business).
2. Explore that job category using the links below. For this assignment, it will be helpful for you to look at job descriptions, lists of skills, or lists of competencies.
3. Explore that job category some more, by using O-Net OnLine (
https://www.onetonline.org/
). In the upper right corner of the O-Net homepage, use the “Occupation Quick Search”. Input one of the job titles that are listed below. For example, if you are exploring medical writing careers, you will input “technical writer” in the Quick Search box. Once you get to the “Summary Report” for a specific job, look at the entire page. Near the top of the page, you will find a list of the tasks, meaning the things you would do daily. Further down the page, you will find a list of skills and abilities (i.e. translational/essential skills). You might also be interested in the “work values” (Do they resonate with you?) and the median salary.
· If you are exploring medical writing careers, search for “technical writer”
· If you are exploring healthcare administration careers, search for “Medical and Health Services Manager”
· If you are exploring careers in public health, search for “Health Educator” or “Epidemiologist”
· If you are exploring careers in clinical research administration, search for “Clinical Research Coordinator”
· If you are exploring careers in business, search for “Regulatory Affairs Specialist”
4. Now that you have used multiple resources to explore a career path, please compose an essay that incorporates your answers to A-D. The essay must be at least 4,500 characters including spaces.
A. Which job did you explore in step 3? Do not tell me about being a physician, physician assistant, dentist, etc. You must discuss one of the jobs listed above (i.e. Technical writer, medical/health services manager, health educator, epidemiologist, clinical research coordinator, or regulatory affairs specialist).
B. Describe
three skills that are necessary for that job. You could describe skills that were mentioned in class, skills that were listed in a job posting, skills or abilities that were listed in O-Net, or skills that you found during your exploration of the career path.
C. Consider the skills necessary for that job. What experience(s) could you describe to an employer to demonstrate that you have one of the skills (or are currently developing the skill)?
D. Of the three skills that you described in B, which one is your weakest and why? What could you do as a college student to develop that skill?
Resources:
1. O-Net Online:
www.onetonline.org
2. Careers in medical/scientific writing
· American Medical Writers Association
www.amwa.org
3. Careers in Healthcare Administration
· American College of Healthcare Executives
https://www.ache.org/career-resource-center
· Page 2 of their Competencies Booklet is a good resource for identifying the skills that an administrator needs
https://www.ache.org/-/media/ache/career-resource-center/competencies_booklet
4. Careers in public health
· Resources to help you understand what public health is:
https://www.apha.org/what-is-public-health
and
https://www.aspph.org/discover/profiles-public-health/
· Association of Schools & Programs of Public Health
5. Careers in clinical research
· Association of clinical research professionals
www.acrpnet.org
· To identify the skills you’ll need, look at their page on competencies
https://www.acrpnet.org/professional-development/competency-domains-clinical-research-professionals/
· To explore job opportunities, search the UMich jobs site:
http://careers.umich.edu/search/
. Select “Research” in the “Career Interest” category. Look for job titles like Clinical research coordinator, Clinical subjects coordinator, and Clinical data project manager.
6. Careers in business:
https://careers.stryker.com/en-US/page/college-recruitment
and
https://careers.stryker.com/en-US/search
. In particular, look at jobs in sales, customer services, regulatory affairs, and clinical affairs.
