Growing Up

Katharine Whitehorn once said find out what you like doing best, and get someone to pay you for it. This is a quote that I plan to follow by because if you don’t love what your doing as a job how can you be happy with your life? While exploring different careers there are many that I am interested in and I could see myself not only working there but also being happy with what I am doing.

The first career that I decided to explore was event planning. I have always had an interest in this area because I have always been such a planner through out my life and enjoy all the pieces it takes to either put together a wedding, party, or some type of charity event. For this career path I interviewed an event planner from the cities through email her name is Tami. She told me that a lot of people think that event planning is very simple but in fact it takes a lot of skill to put together an event. Not only do they have to plan the event for everyone but they also have to make sure that everything goes right at this event. What she does on a daily basis is first meeting with the client then she figures out what type of event this is and starts from there. She also then has to take care of caterers, decorations, where the event will take place, photographers, musicians, and invites. This is just a small list of what needs to take place for an event, which could take months to plan. She proceeded to tell me that if one didn’t have good communication they would not succeed as an event planner. Not only do you have to communicate well with the clients but also with all the venders that you are working with. It is important for an event planner not only to be organized but also organized through their communication so be clear in what is said, interpersonal skills are huge in this business being able to speak and listen effectively. If there was problems with poor communication skills like she said that they will simply not thrive in their business because something will go wrong with the even which will lead to unhappy clients and those clients will go tell their friends not to hire you as an event planner and your business will go down the drain. When we discussed what courses should be taken to prepare for this specific job she said I was on the right path. She suggested communication courses as the core because that is a key skill to have when it comes to event planning. Not only does event-planning interest me but also a career in some sort of management position. So for this career path I decided to interview my boss from caribou. I don’t want to just stop at a management position but I could also see myself working up in this business to something corporate like a district manager. To start off as just a manager she has a lot of tasks on her hand not only working in the store but also managing the store. On a daily basis she has to operate a lot of the expenses and take care of supplies and equipment. Also has to make sure that all of the employees are not only doing their jobs but also doing them efficiently. Especially right now since were short staffed she has been conducting interviews on a daily basis and training them which takes about a month to fully train someone in. Communication plays a key role in the management position because effective communication needs to be present in the workplace especially with her employees to make the workplace efficient and organized in a proper manner. The best communication skills she suggested one would need for her management position is to have like I mentioned with an event planner to also have effective listening, effective feedback, and maintaining a strong working relationship with her employees. Also she said problem solving is a key communication skill to have as a manager because problems will rise and you need to be able to deal with conflict constructively rather than destructively. If one does not posses some of these communication skills the workplace will not thrive and grow. If the management doesn’t have good communication how is the workplace supposes to run efficiently with barley any management? She also suggested taking a fair amount of communication classes in order to prepare for a management position.