I am about to graduate and be certified by May, but what is difficult is finding a job. Networking, a useful tool that I have been able to use a little, is a great way to get my name in the pool for a job. The only problem I have with this is, I do not know that many people who will be able to help me land the job I want. I know a couple of AT’s back home and a handful of people who work within a school system that would be more than willing to help me out once I am done with school. I just don’t have a broad network as of right now. I know how to broaden my network now after being in college for four years. When I was younger the only way I would talk to someone was if they would talk to me, but now I can confidently talk to anyone and figure out if they like me. I actually tried this with one of my roommate’s dad. He is an Athletic Director at a High School so I just asked how their AT’s work and get hired out there. He explained everything to me as I listened and asked questions as well. I was trying to leave the impression that I was serious about my major while creating a new opportunity. Before he left to go back home, he asked me if I wanted to know more that he would send my information to the guy that contracts out the AT’s in Richmond. So that was my first networking building experience, and I think it went as good as it could have. He was obviously more inclined to like me because I am his son roommate, but it was still good practice to see if I could create that opportunity for myself. If I had to talk to someone at conference who had no prior knowledge of who I am, I think that would be much harder to do. Either way though, I am going to show interest in what he or she is saying, sell my skill sets and knowledge of AT (subtlety), and leave with an impression that I am personable. I could be wrong of course, as many people are just different and may not like someone who is trying to push themselves onto another. That is why you have to listen when someone talks to get a good feel of what kind of personality they have. It may sound like I am judging, but I am trying to figure how I need to talk to this person. If they are very lively then I can be a bit more relaxed with, but if they seem more serious then I need to as professional as I can. Building a relationship with someone in a positive manner will highly increase my network which in the long run may just land me a job here soon.
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While in the program, I have found it hard to get athletes sometimes to trust in what I say. Other times it took no effort at all for an athlete to trust me. This was usually because they already knew me before any kind of treatments or evaluation. For the athletes I never got to meet beforehand, I found it difficult for them to trust in my advice. Trust is very essential for the relationship between Athletic Trainer and athlete. Without trust, an athlete will always be skeptical of any intervention, diagnoses, or advice from the Athletic Trainer. I have seen this first hand during my early years in the program. I do not blame upperclassmen for not listening to me when I was a sophomore because I was not confident in the information I had at the time. Confidence and the detail for what I was doing at the time were not there, so naturally people probably thought I did not know what I was talking about. This is why I do not blame them for not listening to me. I would not want to listen to a physician who was not confident in his decisions. As the months went on, I started grow my weaknesses and began to build trust with some athletes. I took time to reflect on those relationships to better understand how I got their trust. Majority of it was just explaining what and why I was doing, with a smidge of confidence. As more athletes began to seek out my advice, I noticed myself not worrying about what I knew but instead what I could for them. Trust can be built through many different ways, but I focus on the patient and what their needs are. I try to be a friend to them first so they can feel comfortable telling me their issues. I am not trying to show them I know what I am talking about because they expect me to know more about what is going on with them, in most cases. Once I have some kind of positive relationship, I use honesty to tell them what I see and what I can do. I know that sometimes the truth hurts, but if it can ultimately help someone then it must be utilized. That is why trust is such an important tool Athletic Trainers should use. We are here to take care of people when they are need, so must show care and compassion for them to let us help.
The BOC exam is something that have been dreading and looking forward to. I am not overly fond of very long test that mean very much on my years here in the program. I get very anxious about it because there is just so much material to go over and I feel like I will not be prepared regardless. With that feeling, it drives me constantly be thinking of how I am going to study. Since the practice test two weeks ago I was too confident in myself and thought that I could not study much and be fine for the next one. I found out how wrong I was and saw more things that I did not know well. It is time for me to really sit down and evaluate how I am going to take this beast of a test down. I was very upset with my performance on this last test, but I sat down and asked myself what should I have done differently. The past two weeks I haven’t studied very much at all. I let distractions take place and got behind on some homework that I should not have. My overwhelming feeling got the better of me, and every time I sat down to study all I could think about is how much material there is to study. I am not going to let that happen again by, calming myself and focus on the material that I am currently looking at, going over the material two or three times instead of just once, and try to create questions or quiz myself from the material. I am going to prepare for this next practice test as if it is the real one. I can’t afford to let the little things pull me away from my goal of being certified after years of making sacrifices. If I let the distractions win then my goal becomes the sacrifice and that is not who I am or who I want to be. I know what I need to correct and I am excited to improve. I am not looking at this anymore as studying for a test, but as preparing for my life after Emory & Henry College.
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April 2019
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