Steps Into the Real World

A part of growing up is learning how to maintain a stature, a poise, and present yourself in a way that makes the best first impression. The real world is full of professional opportunities in addition to hurdles, but there are also solutions for every problem.

Weekly Report 09/11/2017 to 09/17/2017

The past week was directed towards learning small gestures that reflect different levels of professionalism. The method of hand-shaking was taught as it provides the basis for first impressions which are vital to our ISM journeys, especially with the Business Symposium coming up within the next couple of weeks. With the objective of shaking at least 5 people’s hands, it was important to ensure a firm hand grip and eye contact. Although it was quite odd to take the initiative to shake a stranger’s hand, it taught several lessons on being able to approach someone without making the conversation awkward. The entire process helped, even if the slightest bit, improve communication skills which are essential to ISM through the aspects of speeches, interviews, calling professionals, etc. In addition, the styles of resumes were briefly learned in order to begin structuring and building our resumes. It was important to learn and execute certain designs onto the resumes in order for the resumes to look professional in addition to having substantial information. Writing a resume was explained as being a piece of paper to essentially “sell yourself” which made it especially difficult to make information in the resume to seem as something well-accomplished in the eyes of a professional that has been invested in the professional sphere for years. One of the major challenges in writing the resume was identifying skills without the connotation of being arrogant or conceited. However, the realization that a resume is a document to display strengths and qualification, made it simpler to write.

Furthermore, this week was the first week of purely research based assessments in which we deepened our insights into the topics of interests. Personally, the major thing focused on this week was surgery procedures including stereotactic radiosurgery or gamma knife surgery, which was especially intriguing as it is an innovative non-invasive surgery. Learning about gamma knife surgery was intuitive as it is a growing form of surgery in the neurosurgical field which makes it vital to my understanding, especially if I end up watching surgeries of that sort. However, multiple questions are still in my head regarding how 200 radioactive beams do not affect a patient negatively. Yet, the information gave greater insight into a major surgical procedure that a neurosurgical medical student should be aware of and even now as an ISM student in order to approach mentors more knowledgeably.

The following week will be composed of structuring and completing rough drafts of resumes in order to draft a resume for the Business Symposium as well as a paper to document credentials that will be useful when approaching mentors. In addition, cold-calling will be taught in order for all students to begin contacting mentors and setting interviews in order to begin the process of finding mentors. Thus, this week is an overall start to preparing for the near future in terms of obtaining mentors and being prepared professionally to do so.

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