PBworks
Can you hear me now?...GOOD!
Finding My Natural and Personal Voice
Deneicia Lazare
Final
Table of Contents
|Title |Page |
|Opening Reflection |3 |
|Early Search Draft |12 |
|Final Search Draft |14 |
|Workshop Reflection |29 |
|Response Confessional |37 |
|Sideshadow Draft |38 |
|Shitty First Drafts (Reading Log I) |40 |
|A Topic Choosing You (Reading Log II) |42 |
|Mock Workshop: Sideshaowed Set-up (Free-Skate) |45 |
|Source Archive |50 |
|Annotated Bibliography |61 |
OPENING REFLECTION
I did not know what I wanted to achieve from this course. I just knew I wanted to improve my writing. I was skeptical that the methods of this class would give any extreme change to my way of writing. Slowly I acquire a new skill from this class that helped me. I did not really recognize this skill as an improvement in writing but just an improvement in my view on writing. But now I realize that it is an improvement.
My way of writing reflects my character, very shy, closed-up, not revealing much of myself to others, detailed and wanting perfection always. Because I was so closeted in my thinking I never liked the idea of being personal in writing. Writing to me was very objective. I believed that too much personal information, opinions or informality would lead to rejection from readers who would find me weird. I had no confidence in myself as a writer and so I played it safe with facts and figures with no emotion.
My distant way of communicating with an audience can be seen in my very first response confessional, my introduction video. I was very uncomfortable with this video because I was instructed to just speak from the heart and not to read off a paper like a robot. I just could not talk from the heart. Talking from the heart would mean I would sound personal. I tried to sound as objective as I could. I made sure the background of the video consisted of only a wall, a window and a couch. No family photos, no personal items lying in sight. I made sure the top I wore was a St. John’s University sweater. Fear of criticism of the kind top I wore led me to this decision. I wanted no designs no nothing. I recited my lines before recording and hit the stop button and started over every time I said something wrong or even smiled at the wrong time. It was a tedious task to record the three minute video. I took about fifteen takes. My body language could not come off as too informal and you could see it in my facial expression that my words had no heart to them or that I was uncomfortable. This attitude carried over to my writing. Anything I had to do for class that I had to share with others was approached with that attitude just described.
When I refer to being objective I mean writing with no emotion or writing with just the facts. An example would be how a textbook communicates to the reader. Not only is this kind of reading sometimes hard to understand but it is not very relatable. There is a distance between the work and the reader and this creates a lack of interest in reading. When I refer to being subjective, I mean including more emotion and speaking to the reader like a friend and not a student. Being more personal makes the work more understandable and relatable. There is more interest in reading when the work has more personal details included. My very first draft of my search project consisted of my set-up. This draft was all objective. I wrote things like:
I was always inclined to perform proficiently in math and math-related subjects but I had doubts that I would be satisfied with a math-based occupation. I wanted a job that I could be sure in, that was stable, that I would feel comfortable doing and one in which I would be able to live a content life. Working in the medical field was honorable but my bilious nature around certain bodily fluids crossed that option out of my mind. I was introduced to pharmacy via my mother. It had those aforementioned characteristics, was partly math-based and had allowed for less contact to substances and images that cause me anxiety.
From this excerpt, you can not only see the awkward wording with words like “bilious” and “aforementioned” but also the way it is written not in a personal voice as this is not how I speak in real life. It is more written like an essay to impress a professor. I tried to my reason for my career choice all academic to stay away from listing personal reasons like how my personality might fit into this field.
This early draft was also used as a mock workshop in class. Feedback I received conveyed that the reader picked up on this distant way of communicating. In an endnote, Kyle said, “The vocab seems uncomfortable, like she isn’t talking to herself but to a professor. Use more personal language to deepen your thoughts.” I was really hit by this comment because I thought the vocabulary I had carefully picked were the prized part of my piece. For a long time in my academic career, I would never dare write anything with just the raw vocabulary from my head. I felt this would make my work seem plain, weak and not like the product of an intellectual person. The thesaurus became my companion for writing and I felt it made my piece sound better. I realized from Kyle’s comment that being so objective and using complicated vocabulary did not impress the readers but instead distanced the readers and kept them from relating with the piece. Again, my personal voice was something I did not want shown in my work. But then this comment came from Professor April in another endnote, “Great voice (but watch the thesaurus).” Again I was disheartened but I felt that if it worked against me, I had to make an effort to remove the thesaurus and objectivity in writing from my pieces. Now I see that the thesaurus distances the readers from relating to my piece. The words become hard to read and do not fit in as something that comes from me and my emotions.
An epiphany of sorts came to me in one of the assigned reading logs: “Shitty First Drafts.” As I stated before I have a sort of strict perfectionism when it comes to writing, especially when it comes to excluding a personal or an informal voice. This comes off as a kind of stiffness in my writing. Because of this writing would sometimes take a long time to start. The words in my writing did not come from my emotions so I had to carefully choose them. It just seemed all the more tedious and made writing not enjoyable. In this reading log, I picked a quote which said, “Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it” (Lamott 22). I agree with Lamott. I might not know where I want to go, but just go somewhere. I might not know where I want to go with my paper, but just keeping searching. Choose a direction and move toward it. I realized that I did not have to be perfect and have a perfect layout of carefully constructed words. I needed to just write from the heart. While this reading log did not focus on the topic of objectivity and subjectivity, it focused on the idea of loosening up and just having fun when writing. According to Lamott, trying to write the right words in the first shot gets one nowhere. The only way to alleviate the process of writing was to just write from the heart, from my emotions and opinions at first. After this step, I could move on and revise. A quote from the reading said, “The right words and sentences just do not come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time…The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later” (22). I realized that writing a first draft is not about finding the right words but putting down words that convey simple ideas whether or not they are impressive. In other words, even if I wanted to obtain the perfect objective piece, subjectivity was a necessary step. There was no need for a thesaurus and channeling my mind to come up with words that were impressive and perfectly organized. From then on, I just spoke. The reader became a friend and not a critic. The idea of just letting my words “romp all over the place knowing that no one is going to see it” was a relief however and made the writing process easier and carefree. Even after revising my raw first draft, because Lamott introduced the idea of letting a personal voice be the base of my writing, the revision ended up having subjectivity in it anyway. So the feedback from the mock workshop and Lamott both helped me to start writing with a more personal appeal.
Quotes from interviews are of themselves pieces of information garnered from a source with no personal input of my own. Because of this fact, quotes need my personal perspective to be added to them in the form an analysis of the quote along with my opinions on them. Lack of this can serve in distancing the reader as well. In my workshop reflection where I reflected on the most helpful feedback I received, I choose a comment which focused on this sentence from my piece, “He first wanted to be a medical doctor. He says, ‘I wanted to go to medical school and I (felt) pharmacy would be a perfect stepping stone. (It) turned out to be a stumbling block.’” Jennifer Li commented, “Well if you’re not going to explain what he means by stepping stone and stumbling block maybe you should exclude the quote.” This response helped me to see that the reader needed the metaphor from the interviewee to be interpreted by me or else it would be redundant. I was in love with the interviewee’s metaphorical way of speaking and thought that the metaphor in itself would draw the attention of readers. I realize here that without my personal spin on quotes I fail at communicating effectively with the reader.
Another way to get personal in writing is to input personal experiences. Inputting personal experiences of an interviewee rather than just facts makes the interview more interesting. From the reading log, “A Topic Choosing You” I picked a quote which read,
When you write a first-rate I-Search Paper, you’ll not only be developing a useful lifetime habit and carrying out an intellectual task, but you’ll also be getting experience in writing, the sort of account often published in magazines and books these days…Readers are buying magazines and books which tell stories of experience rather than present reports that consist mainly of abstracted or generalized points and statistics accompanied by an anecdote or two.” (77)
A significant point was made in this quote about the better way to capture the audience’s attention being to tell a story derived from one’s own experiences or the experiences of others. This quote also reinforced the idea that writing in a way that just reports facts is abstract rather than relatable. This reading log not only influenced me to include personal experiences in my piece but to construct my interview questions differently. Instead of asking generalized questions about the statistics of a person’s job I tried to include questions about the interviewee’s experiences on or off the job. I did this to get to know the interviewee as a person with experiences not a laborer with facts. Including this side to the interviewee in my work really did capture the reader’s attention more. This is an excerpt from my first interview move which was sideshadowed:
But then I ask: “Have you ever questioned your choice of occupation?” “Yes, because it was not my first love, but it is a good profession so I am not sorry. It is one of the safest professions to have right now.” Because this interview was done through instant messaging, I could not see her facial expressions, but I could recall her fascination with styling hair. She would boast about her talent any time she did my hair and mention for the umpteenth time how she would have been the best hair stylist out there had she not become a nurse. The only thing I probably heard her boast about her current place of work is that someone complimented her new hairstyle while she was there.
I commented on this excerpt asking if it should be excluded because of being too personal. Layla commented and said, “AW! Maybe you should explore the fact that maybe sometimes people decide what to do based on the long run and how maybe being a hairstylist would have been a less stable life choice for you and your mother.” Layla happened to like this excerpt as did many who gave feedback on it because it showed a different side to my interviewee. In the endnote, Layla commented, “I love your writing style. It’s great, and I feel like this is so personal. I feel like I’m reading a little memoir from a great book.” You can see from this feedback how things changed from being too distant to the reader to being more personal because of my trying to place more personality into my piece. This feedback along with the reading log “A Topic Choosing You” influenced me to include more personality in my future drafts.
I started to include more of a personal aspect to myself in my drafts. As a result my final draft had paragraphs such as,
Accountants should have integrity. I cannot say I am of the highest integrity, but I try my best to be honest eighty-five percent of the time. I really do. Being one hundred percent honest at all times was a major issue for me back in the day though. I hated, and still do, the feeling I get when I give wrong information on purpose or deceive someone. I remember the time when I upset Jane Doe because I refused to tell the person outside that she was not at home. I just could not say she was not. I had reasoned that she was clearly home or else she could not have instructed me to say she was not home. My inability to tell white lies placed a label on me for a couple of years as being a little more than weird and became something that I was kind of ashamed of. I feel I have been either blessed or cursed, with a conscience which is dutiful about its job and won’t let me get away with anything, not even little things like taking that extra dollar the cashier gives by mistake in change. Nowadays I am not so strict about every little thing being perfectly honest but I know I try to be honest the best I can. Maybe accounting would be a cloak to perfectly the fit the trait I just described.
This excerpt shows my effort to share a personal experience despite my fear of criticism. I shared with the reader a trait that I was not too proud of but I hoped the added details would capture the reader’s attention. Just as suggested by feedback before which complimented moves where I showed a personal side to the interviewee, I shared a personal aspect of me. This way the reader could relate to me and see not only what accounting entails but what that trait might mean to me. This is the opposite of my early draft where I did not include personality reasons why pharmacy would be a choice for me. This draft also included a revision of my earlier mentioned set-up,
I was always inclined to perform proficiently in math and math-related subjects but I had doubts that I would be satisfied with a math-based occupation. Math teacher? No, all my life numerous teachers have told me that they are basically overworked and underpaid for it. Accounting? It does sound attractive but I have heard of accountants getting laid off alot and, although money should never be a factor, their salary was on average fifty percent less than that of a pharmacist. Engineering? Although physics does appeal to me, the work that various engineers do does not appeal to me. I wanted a job that I could be sure in, that was stable, that I would feel comfortable doing and one in which I would be able to live a content life. Working in the medical field was honorable. Physicians, nurses, surgeons and many more occupations are greatly appreciated in society for keeping us healthy and as comfortable as possible when ailing. My sickly nature around certain bodily fluids, however, crossed that option out of my mind.
I was introduced to pharmacy through my mother. She worked in a hospital all her life being a nurse, and saw firsthand what roles pharmacists play from day to day in a hospital. Around that time where I started to question what I wanted to be in life she laid it on the table of options. I took a liking to this profession after looking into it. It was partly math-based and allowed for less contact to substances and images that cause me anxiety while allowing me to do something worthwhile like helping patients in the process. I was attracted to the promising future for pharmacy students upon leaving school and it seemed like something that I could see myself doing, as long I would not have to deal with nauseating scenes.
I took out the words gotten from the thesaurus and I inserted my own words like “sickly” instead of “bilious.” I also tried to show the reader other interests of mine such as other occupation interests and explained their importance to me and why personally I did not like them based on who I am as a person. I also showed a little more of why I was interested in pharmacy to make more clear to the reader my feelings and attitude toward this choice. At the end of my final draft I attempted to include a sense of humor as well, Overall I made an effort here to use a more personal and natural voice. “Maybe experience or observation will be the best advisor. It will be more worth it in the end to know that I killed Goliath and was victorious than to rejoice in the fact that killed his younger brother who didn’t get the giant gene.” Here you can see another improvement in writing personally. I started writing my search paper on a stiff and serious note and concluded on a light note with a joke I was not sure anyone would get.
My final draft was a big improvement from my early draft and simply early way of communicating. I found myself adding acute detail of my personal experiences and saying words from my own mind even when they seemed awkward or unimpressive. I feel like after every feedback where I realized my natural voice could not be heard in my work, I would work at finding my voice and come back to workshop like the Verizon employee from the old commercial asking “Can you hear me now?” I decided I would not stop until I found a way to make my personal voice heard in my writing and I feel like I have come a long way in communicating more freely and naturally. And that is… good!
EARLY SEARCH DRAFT
Am I Walking the Right Career Path?
My future seemed bleak. I had just entered university and already I was plagued with horror stories of how I had basically sacrificed all other aspects of my life for a six year major in pharmacy. The enervated expressions of upper pharmacy students and affirmative feedback did nothing to console me either. Conscious of this approaching doom and trying to assimilate into the new environment of university I found myself buckling under work that overwhelmed me more than it should and trying to understand why ideas that would have been grasped easily before seemed like a hieroglyphics to be decoded. Six years of nothing but this pressure increasing is a lot to digest. I began to ponder if it was really worth it after all? Had I chosen something I was cut out for or did it all seem so hard because I was not suited for this profession.
I was always inclined to perform proficiently in math and math-related subjects but I had doubts that I would be satisfied with a math-based occupation. I wanted a job that I could be sure in, that was stable, that I would feel comfortable doing and one in which I would be able to live a content life. Working in the medical field was honorable but my bilious nature around certain bodily fluids crossed that option out of my mind. I was introduced to pharmacy via my mother. It had those aforementioned characteristics, was partly math-based and had allowed for less contact to substances and images that cause me anxiety. I took a liking to this profession after research on it and decided to pursue it. I was not completely blind to the fact that it would be a long and demanding program but I always felt like I had do what needed to be done to get to where I desired to be. I was inculcated to think that anything is doable once I geared my mind and energy toward it. These beliefs were like a glass shield offering protection against discouragement, until distress rained upon it like small missiles and left me looking at the future with a distorted view. I needed restored clarity to my future. I needed restored peace of mind. How? I decided to investigate what makes a good Pharmacist and what qualities thrive in this profession. Did I have those qualities or am I making a wrong career move? I overall yearned to know: Am I on the right career path?
FINAL SEACRH DRAFT
Am I Walking the Right Career Path?
My future seemed bleak. I had just entered university and already I was plagued with horror stories of how I had basically sacrificed all other aspects of my life for a six year major in pharmacy. “I get no sleep at night,” “I have no social life,” “Sometimes I can’t even eat.” This negative feedback of upper pharmacy students intertwined with their zombie-like expressions did nothing to console me either. Conscious of this approaching doom and trying to assimilate into the new environment of university I found myself buckling under work that overwhelmed me more than it should and trying to understand why ideas that would have been grasped easily before seemed like a hieroglyphics to be decoded. Six years of nothing but this pressure increasing is a lot to digest. I began to ponder if it was really worth it after all? Had I chosen something I was cut out for or did it all seem so hard because I was not suited for this profession. I looked at the six years ahead like the Biblical character David facing the giant Goliath. In this story, David slays Goliath with only a slingshot. But I am no David and my Goliath, Pharmacy; I am sure will not succumb to a mere slingshot.
I was always inclined to perform proficiently in math and math-related subjects but I had doubts that I would be satisfied with a math-based occupation. Math teacher? No, all my life numerous teachers have told me that they are basically overworked and underpaid for it. Accounting? It does sound attractive but I have heard of accountants getting laid off a lot and, although money should never be a factor, their salary was on average fifty percent less than that of a pharmacist. Engineering? Although physics does appeal to me, the work that various engineers do does not appeal to me. I wanted a job that I could be sure in, that was stable, that I would feel comfortable doing and one in which I would be able to live a content life. Working in the medical field was honorable. Physicians, nurses, surgeons and many more occupations are greatly appreciated in society for keeping us healthy and as comfortable as possible when ailing. My sickly nature around certain bodily fluids, however, crossed that option out of my mind.
I was introduced to pharmacy through my mother. She worked in a hospital all her life being a nurse, and saw firsthand what roles pharmacists play from day to day in a hospital. Around that time where I started to question what I wanted to be in life she laid it on the table of options. I took a liking to this profession after looking into it. It was partly math-based and allowed for less contact to substances and images that cause me anxiety while allowing me to do something worthwhile like helping patients in the process. I was attracted to the promising future for pharmacy students upon leaving school and it seemed like something that I could see myself doing, as long I would not have to deal with nauseating scenes.
I decided to pursue pharmacy. I was not completely blind to the fact that it would be a long and demanding program but I always felt like I had do what needed to be done to get to where I desired to be. I was nurtured to think that anything can be achieved once I geared my mind and energy toward it. These beliefs were like a glass shield offering protection against uncertainty, until distress fell upon it like small rocks and left me looking at the future with a distorted view. The first rock to hit my glass house was absolutely no positive feedback at all from any pharmacy student. The only thing missing when they told of life in pharmacy school was the dark room and the flashlight held under their chin to add emphasis their words. I got intimated. One crack did not seem to perturb me that much but then came rock number two: inability to do understand the material easily. I began to think that if the work seemed so hard now, maybe this was a sign I should step back and take a different route but I hoped this was only due to anxiety and fear. Then came visions of an unsuccessful future; fear of not having the mental to capacity to survive the horror like the other students did, going six years and then finding out I hate the job; the pressure of trying to do well and convince myself that I was not incompetent and the scrutiny of passengers on the train when I would commute to school who really did not know anything about my situation but whose eyes penetrated me none the less telling me I did not have what it takes. Do I?
I needed restored clarity to my future and restored peace of mind. How? I decided to investigate what makes a good Pharmacist and what qualities thrive in this profession. Did I have those qualities or am I making a wrong career move? I overall yearned to know: Am I walking the right career path?
In pursuit of the answer, I planned to interview at least one pharmacist of course. Who better to tell me if there was a light at the end of the dark tunnel than the one who made it to the other side himself/herself? I also wanted to interview at least one accountant. Being that this would have been my second best choice. I wanted to see if this profession was a better fit for me and if the answer was yes automatically I would know that becoming a pharmacist is not my forte. I wanted to know things along the line of what does their job entail, what kind of character does one have to have to be able to withstand accounting and were the rumors of instability true? I needed to have a talk with the people who knew me best too, starting with my own mother of course. I wanted to get more insight into why she chose pharmacy and how she came to the conclusion that it was a good match for me. With this outline of what I more or less plan to do, I guess you could say I already have a draft of my road map to discovery and am ready to begin the journey to a resolution.
The first stop was my mother. If I could not clearly see how being a pharmacist would suit me, maybe she would. She took a liking to pharmacy after observing pharmacists at her hospital and gaining respect for the nature of their work. She says, “My work in (the) hospital (environment) allow(s) me to work closely with other members of the health team including pharmacists. I have great admiration and respect for the pharmacist(s) that I work with because of their wealth of knowledge. In today’s world a career in the health care field is a wise decision. Pharmacy seemed ideal since it does not involve direct patient care even though it is patient care.” She has first-hand observations of the work of pharmacists. She is giving a good word for pharmacists not by hearsay so her word can be trusted to a degree. At this point I feel good that she did not just guide me to be a pharmacist because it is a good job in her eyes but she actually thought about what I might or might not like in a career.
I am guessing there must have been some weighing in my mother’s mind when considering pharmacy to judge whether or not she sees qualities in me that are befitting of a pharmacist. My curiosity leads me to want to get insight into those qualities to see if I agreed was in agreement with her judgments. My mother claims that she knows I can be thorough, a quality that can be put to use in this profession. She also claims I might not be used to the increased workload and responsibilities. The quality she selects that shows my unsuitability for pharmacy is minor I think and I can adjust to such a change. My due attention to detail has been a curse all my life. I have been scrutinized for trying to make things too perfect, told to stop being so exact. Could pharmacy be an outlet for me to let my precision run free and be appreciated? That would be great! I thought. But my type of thoroughness keeps me from getting things done in a timely fashion. In that case being thorough would mean I cannot keep up the increased workload and responsibilities she refers to. Can I easily find a way to make thoroughness and quickness coexist without much distress?
I know my mother already knows math is my stronger area of study. She never really looked into accounting however as she already had a bias for pharmacy. She shed light on this when she admitted, “I really do not know much about accounting plus I am biased towards the profession of pharmacy, what I do know is that a career in pharmacy you will be more sure of landing a job at the end of your schooling. Accounting might be a good career but the jobs are not there.” She made a good point. I know that pharmacy students have a high chance of getting employed at the end of school. That was one of the factors that made me shy away from accounting. What would happen if I gave up the opportunity to become a pharmacist and in the end regret it for some advantage pharmacists have over accountants? Then again, maybe if I end up comfortable within the field of accounts it would not even matter the disadvantage. But then again how can I be comfortable in a job I am not sure I will even have if it is true there is uncertainty of employment. I leave these fears and questions for an accountant to answer as a way to neutralize my mother’s bias.
My mother does seem pretty convincing throughout this interview. Time after time she is consistent and sure that pharmacy is indeed a good decision. I am tempted to follow her reassuring words and just end the search right now. Why am I so indecisive? She made the decision to become a nurse and did not look back. She has her head on straight and can make sound decisions. But then I see there is weakness in her certainty. Turns out, my mother was indecisive herself. She mentioned that nursing “was not my first love, but it is a good profession so I am not sorry. It is one of the safest professions to have right now.” Because this interview was done through instant messaging, I could not see her facial expressions, but I could recall her fascination with styling hair. She would boast about her talent any time she did my hair and mention for the umpteenth time how she would have been the best hair stylist out there had she not become a nurse. The only thing I probably heard her boast about her current place of work is that someone complimented her new hairstyle while she was there. I found this quote important to me because I am in the same position she was in and I feel like it is a battle between security and benefits vs. happiness. I know my mother does not necessarily hate her job, but I know it does not send a thrill up her spine when she pulls up in the hospital parking lot. My mother is happy in the sense that she lives a content life but I know being a nurse is just something she does provide food, shelter and clothing. Having such motives is not bad, but is it good either? Is it ok to live life doing something just for the benefits? Do I really need to pursue a career that sends thrills up my spine or could I just be neutral about and be ok too?
It does not take much analyzing to see that there’s a theme of playing it safe, getting respect and the prudence of picking those qualities in a job. Should I focus on being secure or truly happy? But the truth is, I feel like I haven’t had a definite infatuation for any one career. I just have a passion for math and the sciences. So of all the careers in that area, is pharmacy the right one? The search continues.
“Stop the World I Wanna Get Off.” Dr. Ethan Asedo alluded to the title of a musical on Broadway as he described life after becoming a pharmacist. Dr. Asedo description of life as a Pharmacist struck me as being caught in a whirlwind where things are out of your control.
Dr. Asedo is the pharmacist and owner of Miller’s Pharmacy on Staten Island. After being turned down by a few pharmacists in Queens, I took a leap of faith and headed over to Miller’s Pharmacy near my house to request an interview from Dr. Asedo. To my surprise, he allowed me to conduct an interview. Mr. Asedo had not started out wanting to be a pharmacist. He first wanted to be a medical doctor. He says, “I wanted to go to medical school and I (felt) pharmacy would be a perfect stepping stone. (It) turned out to be a stumbling block.” He never did leave the profession. I think Dr. Asedo calls his profession a stumbling block because of the fact that he truly wanted to do something else with his career but ended up settling for pharmacy. Instead of pharmacy aiding him to become a doctor it kept him trapped within the profession of pharmacy. For me, he serves as an example of how I might feel if I enter pharmacy without being certain it is what I want.
I was anxious to see what lies ahead after I graduate. Dr. Asedo shed light on this by describing a typical day at work as, “Hectic.” Aside from the routine reviewing and filling of prescriptions, answering questions and giving advice to patients and physicians, He described having to deal with obnoxious people, impatient patients, fighting with insurance companies and trying to decipher the handwritings of physicians. It was hard to picture myself fighting with insurance companies seeing that I hardly even raise my voice above certain decibels in any given situation. I have poor arguing skills and am not very intimidating. Everything sounded like a lot of pressure and I mostly break down under pressure. I knew impatient individuals would not have patience for that. Just thinking about the pressure made me feel like I could not breathe.
Then I thought to myself that being able to enjoy life outside of work would balance out and alleviate the pressure but Dr. Asedo does not seem to be able to do this as a retail pharmacist. He says this of his life as a pharmacist and owner of his own pharmacy, “Because I’m a prisoner here there is no lifestyle…I spend a large portion of my life here. I have two different lives really, here and at home. They are not related, there is no mixture. And let’s say it’s afforded me a decent lifestyle … it’s done more than put bread on the table and roof over the head…it’s trade- offs” That was scary. I could enjoy life in the sense that I might be able to afford a satisfactory lifestyle, but if I am a prisoner at work, would I even have time to enjoy it all? It all seemed like a strain. I am not entirely sure if I want a family of my own yet but I am sure I do not want my life to be all about working. I need a balance and time for the family I already have and friends.
Some good news was well overdue. Everything has its pros and cons and maybe in this case the pros might outweigh the cons. Dr. Asedo listed some pros to being a pharmacist. He says, “This has advantages. It’s neater, it’s cleaner…I don’t get dirty… you can make your own hours, you can work what days you please…you can earn a decent living…There was a time, many years ago, when I first got this place (and) I had a partner …We alternated days every other day. It was not bad working three days a week one week and four days a week (the other week). It was great.” In comparing the work he does now to the work he would have as a medical doctor, he finds that his present work is cleaner in the sense he does not have to deal with the guts and gore that are sometimes involved in physically attending to a patient. That had always been a plus for me from the beginning, but he added another plus: a flexible schedule. Being able to decide when and what time I get to encounter the pressures of work seemed attractive. I could feel myself breathing again.
Finally a ray of hope offered a side door out of ending up in a world where I would one day want to get off as Dr. Asedo described his life as a retail pharmacist before. This ray was another sector of pharmacy Dr. Asedo introduced in his words of wisdom imparted to me before I wrapped up the interview. He advised, “Don’t become a slave to it. Do what makes you comfortable. Go to the area of pharmacy that makes you comfortable and if you are interested in clinical work, do the clinical even if it doesn’t pay as much as well as owing your own pharmacy because you can actually go home and lie down and forget about it and just be separated from it. That’s a tremendous advantage. You actually get vacation. It’s a very different world. If you’re in industry it’s a different world. Each one has its own advantage… it’s definitely trade-offs. You have to decide works for you.” Dr. Asedo had spent eleven years working as a hospital pharmacist and so he certainly has first-hand experiences of both of these “different worlds.” I could look into focusing on being a hospital pharmacist. This world also sounds like one where I would be able to balance other aspects of my life with it. I definitely would not want to become a slave to my career.
Dr. Asedo showed me an example of a trade-off he made by switching from hospital to retail. He recalled getting five weeks vacation as a hospital pharmacist, but not enough money to go away during the five weeks. As an owner of his own pharmacy, he has enough money to go away for the five weeks, but no time to allow himself five weeks vacation. I still preferred the world of hospital pharmacy over the world Dr. Asedo lives in now. It seemed less stressful and gave me time to live life outside of work. I think this world of hospital pharmacy befits me more than retail.
Earlier I had earlier touched on the idea that if I had said “no” to pharmacy, my alternative would be accounting. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accountants keep a firm running efficiently. Their roles include keeping public records and ensuring taxes are paid on time. Accountants do not have to work for companies however, they can serve the government and individuals. They provide services like providing financial advice to clients and helping them make good budget and investment decisions (“Accountants and Auditors.”). The website also makes mention of an accountant’s best characteristics
People planning a career in accounting…should have an aptitude for mathematics and be able to analyze, compare, and interpret facts and figures quickly. They must be able to clearly communicate the results of their work to clients and managers both verbally and in writing. Accountants and auditors must be good at working with people, business systems, and computers. At a minimum, accountants and auditors should be familiar with basic accounting and computer software packages. Because financial decisions are made on the basis of their statements and services, accountants and auditors should have high standards of integrity. (“Accountants and Auditors.”)
I think the quote should have just read “People planning a career in accounting should include Deneicia.” I can safely say sixty percent of this description describes me. I have an aptitude for math and love problem-solving. I can recall spending four go.” Two hours of chemistry on the other is like “when will it end.” That’s how much hours doing math homework and at the end of it all wonder “where did the time I like math, to the point that doing mathematical problems does not seem like work but leisure. Would that mean that being an accountant would not seem like going to work, but leisure. Accountants should have integrity. I cannot say I am of the highest integrity, but I try my best to be honest eighty-five percent of the time. I really do. Being one hundred percent honest at all times was a major issue for me back in the day though. I hated, and still do, the feeling I get when I give wrong information on purpose or deceive someone. I remember the time when I upset Jane Doe because I refused to tell the person outside that she was not at home. I just could not say she was not. I had reasoned that she was clearly home or else she could not have instructed me to say she was not home. My inability to tell white lies placed a label on me for a couple of years as being a little more than weird and became something that I was kind of ashamed of. I feel I have been either blessed or cursed, with a conscience who is dutiful about its job and won’t let me get away with anything, not even little things like taking that extra dollar the cashier gives by mistake in change. Nowadays I am not so strict about every little thing being perfectly honest but I know I try to honest the best I can. Maybe accounting would be a cloak to perfectly the fit the trait I just described. I think I am fairly proficient with computers because in this age, technology is an important part of my generation’s day-to-day living. The work seems very much less stressful that of a pharmacist. Let’s hear what a real-life accountant has to say however.
Mrs. Pauline Jackson-Williams is the Vice President of Operations Risk Review, an Accountant there and a close family friend. As you saw before, I like accounting because of the problem-solving and math it involves. Mrs. Jackson-Williams felt the same way. She says,
I was always interested in numbers and the analytic side, in that how your understanding of how numbers work can affect your life and your outlook on things, being able to use numbers to determine your future economically. Accounting helped me to further achieve a higher level of understanding, and to achieve those goals.
Here a real- life accountant has the same interests as I do. This could mean that accounting is a nice fit to my interests. But accounting is not all math though it involves economics and business. I have never done business but I did economics in high school. I do not know if it was just the fact that the teacher had a very monotonous and soothing voice but the class bored the life out of me. Some topics I do admit in themselves were interesting but on a whole the class was a drag. But maybe this boredom is result of the teaching styles of the teacher rather than the subject itself. If the previous statement is not the case, then knowing business and economics in depth may be a down side to studying accounting.
Speaking of knowing business and math, I wonder what I would have to go through regarding studies to be an accountant. Mrs. Jackson Williams describes her journey:
Well first of all we all had to achieve the required amount of credits (I don’t recall how many credits needed at the time). There were some core credits that everyone one had to accomplish irrespective of what your major will be, and then based on your major there were certain amount of credits you needed to obtain a degree in that field. For accounting we also had to do some additional classes - Income Taxes, and Business Law 1 and 2. After that you will have to take the Certified Professional Accounting Exam (CPA).
Most employers require that accountants have at least a bachelor’s degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but some require or favor accountants with a master’s degree in accounting or business administration (“Accountants and Auditors.”). Compared to the courses of the pharmacy program the subjects described by Williams seem more practical than the abstract theories of general and organic chemistry. And I will be done earlier with education than I would be in the pharmacy program. Or would I? The Bureau of Labor statistics goes on to say that most states require thirty hours beyond the 4-year bachelor’s degree. As a result some schools offer a 5-year program to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree altogether (“Accountants and Auditors.”). Not to mention “The CPA examination is rigorous, and less than one-half of those who take it each year pass every part on the first try” (“Accountants and Auditors.”). Not passing all the sections of the CPA in one shot could mean another year of trying to pass all the other sections. This adds up to six years. The pharmacy program is also six years. In terms of being done with studies earler, accounting does not seem much better than the pharmacy program. I do not need to take a major exam like the CPA for the pharmacy program however. The CPA has now really pushed accounting down some points.
I also like to see the pros and cons of any situation. Then I can decide for myself if the cons are worth bearing because of the pros. I think the pros of accounting are being able to utilize my knack for problem solving and math and probably less hectic work environment. Mrs. Jackson-Williams says, “Sure, the benefits for me are good money; flexibility to choose different areas of accounting to work in, also whether you want to work in private or public accounting; traveling (and) the opportunity to visit places that I would probably not (have seen otherwise).”
I know that accountants do not make as much as pharmacists, but it seems to be more than enough for Williams. Like Pharmacy it is good to know that I can work in different areas of accounting. I am not all too fascinated about traveling but I could see traveling as an opportunity to try something new.
Now I want to know the cons. Mrs. Jackson-Williams says that the “hours” can be “too long” in accounting. Like Pharmacists as well, accountants sometimes work long hours. But just like the assignments I mention earlier, would longer hours of accounting be like “where did the time go” and hours of pharmacy be like “when will it end ?”
A common theme throughout my interviews was getting to know whether not my interviewees were doing something they loved or had a passion in the beginning. This theme is to see if they were in a similar situation as be and if so, what route did they take. Williams did not chose her first choice as a career and it sometimes bothers her. She says,
…I am always asking myself what it would be like (in all aspect - being happy, financially, etc) if I had done what I love and what I think that I was truly born to do…Accounting is not my love, and initially I came to this country to study Hotel Management and Hospitality (specializing in Food and Nutrition). That is what I should have pursued and that is what I intend to pursue. Cooking and entertaining is my love. Please make sure you are pursuing what you love, because you will not be happy. Well that is (f)or me.
Like my mother and Dr. Asedo, here’s another instance of someone who ends up choosing a career that is not necessarily their first love or passion. Is this decision just a common trend for people? Do the examples of my mother, Dr. Asedo and Mrs. Jackson-Williams prove that it is ok to do something which one finds will be more beneficial. But Williams talks about not being happy. But how can I be sure I will not be happy in the end or will be happy in either pharmacy or accounting? Could all this anxiety be just because of the materials I have to cover in my classes as a pharmacy student. Maybe at the end I would be able to like being a pharmacist.
Will I be at a complete loss if I end up not choosing a career I am one-hundred percent about? In the interview, Williams says this of her being an accountant today, “In every sense of the word, it affords me the life style that I enjoy today, and most of all to take care of my immediate family and extended family.” In the end, Williams is content with her choice to become an accountant. Accounting in the beginning was not something she intended to do but now she has a lifestyle that she can say she enjoys. She has enough resources to take care of her family. Maybe being an accountant I would be able to achieve a comfortable lifestyle even though the salary is not as high as that of a pharmacist.
Conclusion:
My mother has given me the idea, that security should be a priority in choosing a career. Pharmacy students have high prospects of getting a job at the end of training when accountants probably won’t pass their licensure exam or get employed by certain employers if they do not go on to get their master’s or have certain types of experience.
Dr. Asedo was the retail pharmacist I interviewed. Dr. Asedo was not hesitant to show the hectic life he leads as a retail pharmacist and on top of that owning his own pharmacy. But Asedo did show me that I can work into different areas of pharmacy that might be more fitting to me and that there are many benefits as well as disadvantages to being a pharmacist.
Mrs. Jackson-Williams showed me that accounting does entail doing things that I love like problem solving. She also showed that accountants can live a satisfactory lifestyle even though the salary is lesser than that of a pharmacist. I would still have to encounter subjects I do not enjoy though and will probably spend more than four years trying to officially become an accountant. Along with that, accountants still work long hours like pharmacists.
All interviewees showed me common themes however. Not everyone does what he /she loves in the end but all of them are ok with their choice because of the benefits and lifestyle it has afforded them to live. An example is my mother who sacrificed her love for styling hair for being a nurse. As her child I am reaping the benefits of this decision in the comfortable lifestyle I am able live. All careers have disadvantages as well and have some feats like the CPA or organic chemistry, that might give me a rough time to overcome.
I cannot say I am one hundred percent sure which route I want to take. You can see from my interviews that there were a lot of questions in between the lines. My resolution for now is this: Give it a shot. Pharmacy courses might seem hard now but maybe if I give it some time I will be able to iron out the kinks. I think it would help also to at least find an opportunity to observe a pharmacist like working or volunteering in a pharmacy. Maybe experience or observation will be the best advisor. It will be more worth it in the end to know that I killed Goliath and was victorious than to rejoice in the fact that killed his younger brother who didn’t get the giant gene.
WORKSHOP REFLECTION
|Your Name: | |
| |Deneicia Lazare |
|Count the number of responses you posted to PBWorks: |15 |
|Count the number of comments you wrote in the margins: |139 |
| |15 |
|Count the number of end-notes you wrote: | |
I. REFLECT ON RESPONSES YOU WROTE:
1) Look through your responses and find the most helpful or successful piece of feedback you gave.
a. Highlight your most successful response in the document.
b. Copy/Paste that ENTIRE DOCUMENT here. Seriously, I want to see it all.
Response to Chris Lipari
This whole process is a lot to take in at one time because selling and buying a car for the right prices is not the easiest thing to do. I decided to interview my Uncle Tony who I know has had a lot of success in his life in making different investments. This interview is not intended to provide a lot of information on hybrid technology, but I was looking for his opinion on the investment and his thoughts of the possible results. I started the interview off by asking him what experience has he had with investments? He replied, “I have purchased business, residential properties, homes, cars and invested money into stocks and retirement plans.” I was shocked because I knew he tied his money around into many things but I didn’t know he was this involved. He answered my next question by telling me that the most success he has had was in the real estate market because he feels like you have the best opportunity to study the data and make the best decision because it is fully in his hands. I was trying to get on topic with cars so I changed the topic a little bit. I asked him “How have you sold your cars?” He said, I have sold cars privately and have traded them into the dealer.” This was a good response for me because I am more focused on selling the car privately to try and earn sell it for the highest price I can. So I followed up with “How did you sell it privately?” He said “I started off by putting a sign in the window and then if I needed additional exposure I would place an ad in a local paper.” He explained to me that he had good experiences and bad experiences. He told me that in his best success came with putting a sign on his window and advertising just by leaving it there, but in today’s world he says that an ad online would be more fruitful and the best way to advertise. I definitely agree with him because most people do things on the Internet and are the best way to catch people’s attention with an ad on websites such as or Craig’s list. Other than fact of how to sell my car I need to know how to determine the market price. I asked him what he knows about Kelly Blue Book and how accurate it is? He said KBB is usually a base number, there are variations on how well you have taken car of your car and there are different add on to what you have added to your car like a sound system for example. I would say it is a good starting point.”
I asked him what thought about the annual savings when it comes to driving a hybrid car and his response was “Me personally I save cars for a long time and it would be beneficial to me, I have no experience with hybrids but I know it does a lot better on gas. I feel like if I had the car for three years I wouldn’t get the money back but I try to keep cars for 10 years so I feel like I would make the money and then get to enjoys the perks for the rest of life of the car.” I got a lot out of his response because it made it very clear to me that the cost upfront will be more but once you pay the car off than you enjoy the fuel economy for the rest of the life of the car. I take my search question and break it into two components, selling the car and buying a new car. Now that I am clear on what to expect when selling the car I have to move on to my next interviewee about what to purchase.
My search has started to go in a different direction due to advice I have been given. I am not ruling out the possibility of buying a hybrid but I am keeping my options open and looking into other alternatives. I decided to interview my cousin Patricia Modena who had similar issues as me because she was a commuter student to St. Johns who drove a Jeep, which certainly are not known for being fuel-efficient. I started the interview off by finding out which car she bought. She told me that she recently leased a 2011 Honda Civic coupe. I was very surprised that she went from a Jeep to a Civic because that is a drastic change from vehicles. When I asked her how she came up with her decision to get the Civic she said that she was looking for something stylish, affordable and good on gas. This car does provide all three components she was looking for and those three factors are the most important in my search. I know that a lot of modern hybrid cars tend to have a really distinct look that does not appeal to me at all. From what she tells me the Civic doesn’t lack much in performance and provide a really smooth ride. Patricia used to be a commuter student at St. Johns and now works in the 103rd precinct as a cop, which is very close to St. Johns so her commute is the same. I asked her how much money she saves a week by driving the civic instead of the Jeep. She previously told me in the interview that she got 41 mpg on the highway, she said given that fact she estimates that she saves around $50 dollars a week. Her jeep got 20mpg at best so that means she goes to the gas station half the time she normally would. That is what really gets me interested in driving a more fuel-efficient car because the money you save builds up so fast and can be used to buy other things or pay your bills.
The rise of gas prices means a lot to me and has a great effect on what I will do, Patricia has different views than me. I asked her what type of car she would have gotten if gas were cheaper and more affordable like it was. She replied, “Gas prices definitely influenced my decision on which car to choose. I probably still would have chosen the same car or at least one similar to the body type, even if the gas prices were lower than they currently are.” Patricia is all about saving money and she would have gotten a more fuel efficient car no what the gas prices are because she still saves around half the money she would have spent on gas while still driving the Jeep. I am different than her; if gas prices were around $2.80 I would definitely buy a fast car because I would enjoy the perks of a sports car rather than enjoying fuel efficiency. If I were not spending a lot of money on gas that it wouldn’t bother me to go to the gas station more often. I know Patricia did enjoy driving the Jeep especially in the winter so I asked her what are the perks that she loses by driving the civic? She replied “A more economical car meant me having to give up power due to a lower cylinder engine and less power in the winter. I have yet to try it out in the winter, but I’m sure as it approaches I will learn how to handle it differently than having an AWD vehicle. I will not be able to easily maneuver it in snow but it is still safe enough to drive in the winter.”
After asking all these questions about saving money, I went to the other aspect of the question. I asked if her choice to buy the Civic had anything to do with keeping a cleaner environment? She told me that wasn’t the reason at all but it is definitely a plus and whatever she can do to help works. I feel the same way as I her I wouldn’t go out of my way to help the environment, as awful as that may sound but I would definitely be happy if I was. When I was over I noticed a magazine one the table from the NYPD and I saw a picture of the Chevy Volt on it and it said 2013. So I understood that the NYPD were going to get rid of the gas guzzling Crown Vics and switch the Chevy Volts. The Volt is called a plug in hybrid and how that particular car works gas is only used the charge the battery. The car runs electronically but the gas charges the battery as you drives and so do other things such as brakes. Modern technology can turn kinetic energy gained when stopping into energy that can be stored or used to immediately to power something. I asked Patricia how she felt about driving Chevy Volts in the future instead of the Crown Vics. She said “The Crown Vics definitely provide much more power when it is necessary to respond to a radio run but the switch to Chevy Volts will save the department money in the long run. Although we will be losing the power, the Chevy Volts will provide for a cleaner environment and more economical police department.” In this tough economy saving money is key and can help run the Police Department use money towards other things.
Endnotes
The interviews were not boring because the information interviewees gave were interesting. Try to change your questions into statements and analyze/add your personal thoughts at the end of each some quotes to wrap them up like you did for most your quotes.
c. Explain why you feel the writer found this response to be the most helpful, below:
I feel the writer found this response most helpful because I suggested a variety of options or suggestions to their comment. This response had many helpful feedback within one comment so that the writer could choose what best suited his intentions or style of writing.
2) Look through your responses and find the least helpful or successful piece of feedback you gave.
a. Highlight your least successful response in the document.
b. Copy/Paste that ENTIRE DOCUMENT here. Seriously, I want to see it all.
Response to Anna Tsakas
It seems that fate always brings things your way for a reason. A week after school had begun, a group of friends asked me to attend a pharmacy sorority meeting. I was iffy about checking it out because I felt that I should just focus on my studies for now. However, I figured just going to one meeting couldn’t hurt, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and decided to attend. At this meeting I met a sister, Christina Michael, from the sorority that had actually studied abroad. I was so happy to actually meet a pharmacy student that studied abroad, I began to ask her questions about the trip and she gave me positive replies. I then decided to interview her, and she became my motivation to continue with this search.
There were just so many questions that I wanted to ask Cristina, but our time was limited due to our demanding school and work schedules. I wanted to know what actually made Christina decide to study abroad. “I heard about it during my first year. A couple of older girls I knew had gone. I made up my mind right then and there that I WILL be going I just had to convince my parents when the time came to give a deposit. Luckily, that was easier than I thought it would be” Christina didn’t seem to have the same internal struggles that I am facing. She didn’t think twice about studying abroad. I feel that she also had less time to make the decision and just decided to go, because one thing that I have realized in this search is that the more time I have to make a decision, the more difficult that decision becomes. I have realized that I have a tendency to over consider any decisions that I make. This drove me to be more decisive and want to take risks and not over think my decision. There are always two things that hold me back, mom and dad.
As I have previously mentioned, a huge factor for me are my parents. They are completely against the idea of me studying abroad, and they seem to always have control over my decisions. I always keep their wishes in the back of my mind. I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I go against my parents wishes, I might enjoy the trip, but I will scar the relationship I have with them, however, if I don’t go on the trip, and please my parents, I might lose the experience of a lifetime. I was seeking advice on how to approach my parents, so I asked Christina how she approached hers. “Its different for every person because some people have stricter parents than others, I would say my parents are a level 7 out of 10 on being strict. They saw how much I wanted it, and when I told them, they were surprised but I had already made up my mind. I told them I would take out my own loans if I had to.“ Christina truly opened up my eyes when she said that she had already made up her mind. Am I a pushover, do I allow my parents to control me just to avoid conflict?
I know that my parents just want to look out for me, but when does just looking out cross the line and become controlling? They believe that if I study abroad, I will lose my good study habits and that my grades will drop, and to be honest, I fear the same thing. I have poor time management skills when I get caught up in having fun, I need someone to give me a dose of reality from time to time and that someone is usually my parents. Christina gave me a boost of self-confidence when she said; “Staying on track with schoolwork was somewhat difficult because you don't want to be doing work while in Europe, there’s so much to see. However, you have to do it if you want the good grades so theres no choice.. but you will learn what to put your focus on and what other things aren't as important especially since you are going to be with other pharmacy students, they serve as a support team and your grades will be just fine, some students actually got better grades abroad than they did here at St.John’s.” I was shocked to find out that some students actually got better grades abroad than they did here. I felt a sense of relief throughout my body, I was afraid that Christina was going to tell me that her grades dropped. I love that she was honest and told me that the last thing she wanted to do was study but she felt compelled to do so, and therefore her work got done. I have to find a way to prove to my parents that I can manage to maintain my high grades overseas as well. I have to come up with a study schedule that realistic and one that I can stick to. I have to also make a budget that I can stick to because I know that life can get pricy when you’re away from home.
St.John’s has been squeezing every penny out of me lately and it has taken a toll on my life. Lately it seems as if we’re pinching pennies to make ends meet. My parents tell me that they cannot afford to send me to another country to study abroad because they simply cannot afford it. My father advises me not to take out a loan because the interest rates are so high that in the end ill pay back way more than I ever borrowed. The banks are money hungry and they target vulnerable college students such as myself. Christina has previously mentioned that she told her parents she would take out a loan if she had to just to study abroad. She reaffirmed my fears when she told me just how much she actually spent on this trip. “Well, you pay for the semester of classes which is around 15K and then plus the 8.5K study abroad program fee and then plus 4-6K in personal expenses (this varies on how much you travel and how much shopping you do). The personal expenses vary GREATLY... I know someone last year who only spend about 2.5K .. he's very frugal and money smart. I, however traveled a lot more and shopped a lot more, I guess... so I was around 5.5K” I was actually surprised to find out the amount of money that Christina spent, almost six thousand in just 3 months seems like a lot, especially when your room and board are already covered. This got me thinking if this trip is truly worth getting a loan and going completely broke, I needed another opinion.
I continued my search by talking to a fourth year pharmacy student, Mohammad Tahir, who didn’t study abroad. He flat out told me that I was wasting my time and money and that St.Johns just wants to sucker me out of every penny I have. But what I really wanted to know was if he looks back on his decision and regrets it. “Well to be honest I don’t even think about it,. Its not worth wasting my time thinking about what I could have done. Also I was pretty into my school work I didn’t want to mess up my grades by going away. I hear all those kids do is party over there.” This answer left me unsatisfied, I feel like in his tone, there was some sort of regret, almost as if he was trying to convince himself that he didn’t care. “. My parents did not want me going on this trip, they thought I was going to go wild and party and fail all my classes, typical brown parent’s mentality. My advice to you would be to just put your parents wishes in the back seat for this one and follow your heart, your parents will just have to deal with it and they’ll eventually get over it. Hopefully.” When he said this, he reaffirmed my assumptions of regret. I feel as If he truly regrets not going especially when he told me to not think about my parents to much and to just follow my heart. Should I take Moe’s advice and follow my heart?
Endnotes
I liked that your interviews were relevant and contained substantial information. It was not boring at all. Interesting to see how other people dealt with the challenges that come with making your decision. I don’t think you should cut down quotes.
c. Explain why you feel the writer found this response to be unhelpful, below:
I believe the writer found this comment least helpful because I did not give her the suggestion she asked for. Because the sentence sounded ok to me I told her to leave it as is. This might have disappointed her if the sentence really sounded awkward to her because I did not help her to change it.
II. REFLECT ON RESPONSES YOU RECEIVED:
1) Look through your responses and find the most helpful or successful piece of feedback you RECEIVED.
a. Highlight the response you found most helpful in the document.
In yellow
b. Copy/Paste that ENTIRE DOCUMENT here. Seriously, I want to see it all.
Response from Jennifer Li
In pursuit of the answer, I planned to interview at least one pharmacist of course. Who better to tell me if there was a light at the end of the dark tunnel than the one who made it to the other side himself/herself? I also wanted to interview at least one accountant. Being that this would have been my second best choice. I wanted to see if this profession was a better fit for me and if the answer was yes automatically I would know that becoming a pharmacist is not my forte. I wanted to know things along the line of what does their job entail, what kind of character does one have to have to be able to withstand accounting and were the rumors of instability true? I needed to have a talk with the people who knew me best too, starting with my own mother of course. I wanted to get more insight into why she chose pharmacy and how she came to the conclusion that it was a good match for me. I already have a draft of my road map to discovery and am ready to begin the journey to a resolution.
The first stop was my mother…(*Interview with my mother goes here*)
“Stop the World I Wanna Get Off.” Dr. Ethan Asedo alluded to the title of a musical on Broadway as he described life after becoming a pharmacist. Dr. Asedo is the pharmacist and owner of Miller’s Pharmacy on Staten Island. After being turned down by a few pharmacists in Queens, I took a leap of faith and headed over to Miller’s Pharmacy near my house to request an interview from Dr. Asedo. To my surprise, he allowed me to conduct an interview. Mr. Asedo had not started out wanting to be a pharmacist. He first wanted to be a medical doctor. He says, “I wanted to go to medical school and I (felt) pharmacy would be a perfect stepping stone. (It) turned out to be a stumbling block.” He never did leave the profession. He went to Columbia University College of Pharmacy, which is no longer around and then went on to get his Master’s from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy, which is presently apart of Long Island University.
I was anxious what lies ahead after I graduate. Dr. Asedo shed light on this by describing a typical day at work as, “Hectic.” Aside from the routine reviewing and filling of prescriptions, answering questions and giving advice to patients and physicians, He described having to deal with obnoxious people, impatient patients, fighting with insurance companies and trying to decipher the handwritings of physicians. It was hard to picture myself fighting with insurance companies seeing that I hardly even raise my voice above certain decibels in any given situation. I have poor arguing skills and am not very intimidating. Everything sounded like a lot of pressure and I mostly break down under pressure. I knew impatient individuals would not have patience for that. Just thinking about the pressure made me feel like I could not breathe.
Then I thought to myself that being able to enjoy life outside of work would balance out and alleviate the pressure but Dr. Asedo does not seem to be able to do this as a retail pharmacist. He says this of his life as a pharmacist and owner of his own pharmacy, “Because I’m a prisoner here there is no lifestyle…I spend a large portion of my life here. I have two different lives really, here and at home. They are not related, there is no mixture. And let’s say it’s afforded me a decent lifestyle … it’s done more than put bread on the table, ok, and roof over the head, ok…it’s trade- offs” That was scary. I could enjoy life in the sense that I might be able to afford a satisfactory lifestyle, but if I am a prisoner at work, would I even have time to enjoy it all? It all seemed like a strain.
Some good news was well overdue. Everything has its pros and cons and maybe in this case the pros might outweigh the cons. Dr. Asedo listed some pros to being a pharmacist. He says, “This has advantages. It’s neater, it’s cleaner…I don’t get dirty… you can make your own hours, you can work what days you please…you can earn a decent living…There was a time, many years ago, when I first got this place (and) I had a partner …We alternated days every other day. It was not bad working three days a week one week and four days a week (the other week). It was great.” In comparing the work he does now to the work he would have as a medical doctor, he finds that his present work is cleaner in the sense he does not have to deal with the guts and gore that are sometimes involved in physically attending to a patient. That had always been a plus for me from the beginning, but he added another plus: a flexible schedule. Being able to decide when and what time I get to encounter the pressures of work seemed attractive. I could feel myself breathing again.
Finally a ray of hope offered a side door out of ending up “…on a tread mill,” as Dr. Asedo described his life as a retail pharmacist. This ray was another sector of pharmacy Dr. Asedo introduced in his words of wisdom imparted to me before I wrapped up the interview. He advised, “Don’t become a slave to it. Do what makes you comfortable. Go to the area of pharmacy that makes you comfortable and if you are interested in clinical work, do the clinical even if it doesn’t pay as much as well as owing your own pharmacy because you can actually go home and lie down and forget about it and just be separated from it. That’s a tremendous advantage. You actually get vacation. It’s a very different world. If you’re in industry it’s a different world. Each one has its own advantage… it’s definitely trade-offs. You have to decide works for you.” Dr. Asedo had spent eleven years working as a hospital pharmacist and so he certainly has first-hand experiences of both of these “different worlds.” I could look into focusing on being a hospital pharmacist. He showed me an example of a trade-off he made by switching from hospital to retail. He recalled getting five weeks vacation as a hospital pharmacist, but not enough money to go away during the five weeks. As an owner of his own pharmacy, he has enough money to go away for the five weeks, but no time to allow himself five weeks vacation. I still preferred the world of hospital pharmacy over the world Dr. Asedo lives in now. It seemed less stressful and gave me time to live life outside of work. I think my next move will be to get insight into this world. [i]
c. Explain how this response helped you revise, below:
This response helped me to see that the reader needed the metaphor from the interviewee to be interpreted by me or else it would be redundant.
2) Look through your responses and find the least helpful or successful piece of feedback you RECEIVED.
a. Highlight the response you found least helpful.
In green
b. Copy/Paste that ENTIRE DOCUMENT here. Seriously, I want to see it all.
Same document as Number 1.
c. Explain how this response could have been better, below:
I wanted her to tell me why she thinks the wording is ok to see if I agree with her reasoning or not.
III. REFLECT ON WHAT YOU LEARNED:
➢ List 1-3 things you’ve learned about writing from responding to your classmates and participating in workshop:
1. One needs details when writing to avoid miscommunication or ambiguity
2. Others can see the writing errors of your writing that may not be so clear to you at first.
➢ List 1-3 things you liked about workshop:
1. Constructive criticism
➢ List 1-3 things you would like to change about workshop:
1. Responders should post responses electronically on writer’s page.
IV. ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE?
RESPONSE CONFESSIONAL
SIDESHADOW DRAFT
Response from Layla
I interviewed my mother. If I could not clearly see how being a pharmacist would suit me, maybe she would. What about Pharmacy captured her interest? What ways did it connect with me in her brain? She says “My work in (the) hospital (environment) allow(s) me to work closely with other members of the health team including pharmacists. I have great admiration and respect for the pharmacist(s) that I work with because of their wealth of knowledge. In today’s world a career in the health care field is a wise decision. Pharmacy seemed ideal since it does not involve direct patient care even though it is patient care.” She has first-hand observations of the work of pharmacists. She is giving a good word for pharmacists not by hearsay so her word can be trusted to a degree. At this point I feel good that she did not just guide me to be a pharmacist because it is a good job in her eyes but she actually thought about what I might or might not like in a career. But she still has not told me the connection she made between those pharmacists and me. So I ask her, “In what other ways do you think I am, or am not, suitable for this profession?” She claims that she knows I can be thorough, a quality that can be put to use in this profession. She also claims I might not be used to the increased workload and responsibilities. The quality she selects that shows my unsuitability for pharmacy is minor I think and I can adjust to such a change.
She already knows math is my stronger area of study. What are her views on accounting versus pharmacy? “I really do not know much about accounting plus I am biased towards the profession of pharmacy, what I do know is that a career in pharmacy you will be more sure of landing a job at the end of your schooling. Accounting might be a good career but the jobs are not there.” She admits to being biased and I did take note. A major in Pharmacy can secure a job more easily than accounting but does she think regardless it would have been a better fit for my nature, my character? “No, pharmacy has a wealth of knowledge that will earn you a lot of respect.” I am tempted to follow her reassuring words and just end the search right now. Why am I so indecisive? She made the decision to become a nurse and did not look back. She has her head on straight and can make sound decisions. But then I ask: “Have you ever questioned your choice of occupation?” “Yes, because it was not my first love, but it is a good profession so I am not sorry. It is one of the safest professions to have right now.” Because this interview was done through instant messaging, I could not see her facial expressions, but I could recall her fascination with styling hair. She would boast about her talent any time she did my hair and mention for the umpteenth time how she would have been the best hair stylist out there had she not become a nurse. The only thing I probably heard her boast about her current place of work is that someone complimented her new hairstyle while she was there.
It does not take much analyzing to see that there’s a theme of playing it safe, getting respect and the prudence of picking those qualities in a job. Should I focus on being secure or truly happy? But the truth is, I feel like I haven’t had a definite infatuation for any one career. I just have a passion for math and the sciences. So of all the careers in that area, is pharmacy the right one? The search continues.
End Note
I love your writing style. It’s great, and I feel like this is so personal. I feel like I’m reading a little memoir from a great book.
SHITTY FIRST DRAFTS (READING LOG I)
RL “First Drafts”
|Quotes and Notes |Reaction |Reflection |
|“Very few writers really know what they are |You might not know where you want to go, but |This quote helped me to change my view of |
|doing until they’ve done it.” (22) |just go somewhere. I might not know where I |writing. Writing seems a lot easier knowing |
| |want to go with my paper, but just keeping |that I do not have to know what I want to write|
| |searching. Choose a direction and move toward |in order to get started. |
| |it. | |
|“The right words and sentences just do not come|The right words do not always come in the first|Focusing on impressiveness led to my own demise|
|pouring out like ticker tape most of the |shot. Writing a first draft is not about |when writing. Perfectionism is impossible when |
|time…The first draft is the child’s draft, |finding the right words but just putting down |writing. I learned this from this reading log |
|where you let it all pour out and then let it |words that are connected with your theme and |and put it into practice. This really helped me|
|romp all over the place, knowing that no one is|making sentences that convey simple ideas |to get the process of writing started. |
|going to see it and that you can shape it |whether or not they are impressive. Writing in | |
|later.” (22) |own words first and then decorating piece later| |
| |and not worrying about grammar and | |
| |impressiveness of the piece. | |
|“Just get it all down on paper, because there |Over thinking can lead to writer’s block and |This contributed to the stiffness in my |
|may be something great in those six crazy pages|limit creativity. Write freely from the heart |writing. I over thought things to the point |
|that you would never have gotten to by more |and worry about maturity of the words later. |where writing anything felt futile. Being a |
|rational, grown-up means.” (23) | |little less stiff allowed me to be more |
| | |personal, natural and creative. |
|“There may be something in the very last line |Six pages for one line? |I still think it is a little much to write a |
|of the very last paragraph on page six that you| |first draft where the only thing I will get |
|just love…but there was no way to get to this | |from it is one line. |
|without first getting through the first five | | |
|and half pages.” (23) | | |
|“Some readers took umbrage at my comparing |Umbrage – Offense, annoyance |I got the meaning of this word better. |
|mounds of vegetable puree with various | | |
|ex-presidents’ brains.” (23) | | |
|“…the first draft is the down draft-you just |The first draft is for getting ideas down and |Although I sometimes do not get around to the |
|get it down. The second draft is the up |the second draft is for reviewing and |third draft I found this tool very useful and |
|draft-you fix it up. You try to say what you |decorating those ideas to become meaningful |less stressful than trying to get the perfect |
|have to say more accurately. And the third |sentences and paragraphs. Third draft is for |piece in the first draft. |
|draft is the dental draft where you check every|checking for mistakes and areas that need more | |
|tooth, to see it’s loose or cramped or |reviewing. | |
|decayed…” (26) | | |
|“…exchanging repartee with them…” (26) |Repartee – witty reply |I got the meaning of this word better. |
A TOPIC CHOOSING YOU (READING LOG II)
RL “A Topic Choosing You”
|Quotes and Notes |Reaction |Reflection |
|Decrepit (83) |Weak; deteriorated |Understood better the meaning of the word |
|“The search was challenging for she did the |I thought this quote was significant because it|This quote really prepared me for the project |
|essential things: she learned from a salesman |shows how I should go about conducting the |and guided me to the right approach of |
|but didn’t let his word dominate her. Through a|Search Project by not making conclusions at the|conducting research. Throughout my document I |
|friend she met a camera expert who had no |first source I stumble upon but looking to |kept questioning each interviewee’s statements |
|advantage to gain by recommending one camera or|validate or disprove information obtained from |until the end where I made my conclusion. |
|another- and unbiased authority. She read a |a previous source through another source. The | |
|little about cameras, but not so much that she |results will be more effective for my audience | |
|became dizzy with new information. She thought |if I use a variety of sources and weigh my | |
|about everyone involved in the matter, |results and options to arrive at the best | |
|including her parents, who were putting up the |conclusion. | |
|money” (71). | | |
|“The I-Search project is designed to give you |This quote highlights the secondary things I |I definitely learned how to conduct |
|lifetime skills in listening, interviewing, |should ensure I learn from this project. The |interviewees better. This course and reading |
|reading, quoting, reporting, and writing in a |aim is to not only focus on getting the project|log helped me to formulate my interview |
|way that others will profit from and enjoy. No |done but to acquire certain skills in the |questions in a way to get maximum information |
|matter how small a question you’re asking, you |process that I will utilize to complete the |and substantial information. |
|can make the project teach you many skills” |project such as the skill of conducting a good | |
|(71). |interview which comes from conducting | |
| |interviews during the project. | |
|“When you write a first-rate I-Search Paper, |A significant point was made in this quote |I agree with this quote still. Adding personal |
|you’ll not only be developing a useful lifetime|about the better way to capture the audience’s |experiences to my piece did do justice in |
|habit and carrying out an intellectual task, |attention being to tell a story derived from |making my writing more relatable and |
|but you’ll also be getting experience in |one’s own experiences or the experiences of |interesting. |
|writing, the sort of account often published in|others. Therefore, in order to understand a | |
|magazines and books these days…Readers are |topic which I am not familiar with through my | |
|buying magazines and books which tell stories |own experiences, I should get experience | |
|of experience rather than present reports that |through trying, observing and asking a | |
|consist mainly of abstracted or generalized |professional about the thing of which I am | |
|points and statistics accompanied by an |curious. | |
|anecdote or two” (77). | | |
|“Originally the story was much longer…as usual,|Too many details do not necessarily make the |I semi-agree with this. Too little details was |
|in such cutting some lively things were lost; |project better and can subtract from the |an issue for me and so I have to try to tell |
|but overall, I think the story became more |ability of the work to allure attention. |myself the opposite and say too little details |
|attractive to most readers because it was short| |do not do my writing justice either. |
|enough to entice them to begin it” (87). | | |
|“But the professionals and the students both |Objectivity – not being influenced by personal |Here was where I first examine the difference |
|let their topics choose them. They were doing |feelings and biases. |between subjectivity and objectivity. I still |
|searching writing…They involve curiosity and |Subjectivity – being based on personal emotions|agree that writing needs a mixture of both. My |
|reflection. They teach the searchers and others|and biases. |writing use to consist of too much objectivity |
|who read the accounts not only about the |The Search should teach beyond mere facts on |but now I try to incorporate more than just the|
|activities centered on but about the ways of |the topic being investigated by showing |fact when writing. |
|human perception, about objectivity and |different views on the topic, biased and | |
|subjectivity and the difficulties of coming to |unbiased information and the struggle to arrive| |
|firm judgments about complex matters” (87 – |at a sound conclusion with these conflicting | |
|88). |information from conflicting sources | |
MOCK WORKSHOP: SIDESHADOWED SET-UP (FREE-SKATE)
Original Document
Am I Walking the Right Career Path?
My future seemed bleak. I had just entered university and already I was plagued with horror stories of how I had basically sacrificed all other aspects of my life for a six year major in pharmacy. The enervated expressions of upper pharmacy students and affirmative feedback did nothing to console me either. Conscious of this approaching doom and trying to assimilate into the new environment of university I found myself buckling under work that overwhelmed me more than it should and trying to understand why ideas that would have been grasped easily before seemed like a hieroglyphics to be decoded. Six years of nothing but this pressure increasing is a lot to digest. I began to ponder if it was really worth it after all? Had I chosen something I was cut out for or did it all seem so hard because I was not suited for this profession.
I was always inclined to perform proficiently in math and math-related subjects but I had doubts that I would be satisfied with a math-based occupation. I wanted a job that I could be sure in, that was stable, that I would feel comfortable doing and one in which I would be able to live a content life. Working in the medical field was honorable but my bilious nature around certain bodily fluids crossed that option out of my mind. I was introduced to pharmacy via my mother. It had those aforementioned characteristics, was partly math-based and had allowed for less contact to substances and images that cause me anxiety. I took a liking to this profession after research on it and decided to pursue it. I was not completely blind to the fact that it would be a long and demanding program but I always felt like I had do what needed to be done to get to where I desired to be. I was inculcated to think that anything is doable once I geared my mind and energy toward it. These beliefs were like a glass shield offering protection against discouragement, until distress rained upon it like small missiles and left me looking at the future with a distorted view. I needed restored clarity to my future. I needed restored peace of mind. How? I decided to investigate what makes a good Pharmacist and what qualities thrive in this profession. Did I have those qualities or am I making a wrong career move? I overall yearned to know: Am I on the right career path?
Kyle’s Response (Front Page)
[pic]
Close-up of Kyle’s End-note
[pic]
Professor April’s Response (Front Page)
[pic]
Professor April’s Response (Back Page and End-note)
[pic]
SOURCE ARCHIVE
Interview with Pharmacist Transcript
October 1, 2011
DENEICIA(D): What is your name and title?
DR. ASEDO (A): Ethan. E-T-H-A-N
D: Etehn?
A: E-T-H-A-N. Asedo. A-S-E-D-O. And I am the owner and pharmacist here.
D: How did you become interested in Pharmacy as a profession?
A: I wanted to go to medical school. And I (felt) pharmacy would be a perfect stepping stone. It turned out to be a stumbling block.
D: Really, how so?
A: Most of my classmates at this point either went on to medical, dental or law school. Now, some of it had to do with basic education and desire; some of it had to do with the timing. When we graduated it was the height of the Vietnam War and the only way not to go to war was to go to college. So we all applied to every single graduate school we could think of.
D: So was um, so obviously doctor was your first choice.
A: Yes.
D: So does it bother you that you did not choose your first choice?
A: This has advantages. It’s neater, it’s cleaner. I don’t have to deal with smelly, you know, disgusting people. I don’t get dirty. It’s alright.
D: So, um, which educational facility did you attend?-
A: I went to Columbia University College of Pharmacy and they are no longer around. I think their last class was in something like 1977. And, then I got my Master’s from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy which is now part of Long Island University.
D: So how hard was it for, um, the courses for you?
A: Well, I spent too many afternoons and evenings at Gabby’s tavern and not enough time hitting the books. But it really was not the most difficult thing. I did find that my education in Columbia was far (more) superior than what they had as an education at Long Island University because when I went for my Master’s, I slept and it was more of a review than anything else. It was nothing earth shattering or nothing that I hadn’t had years before.
D: Describe a typical day as a pharmacist.
A: Hectic.
D: Hectic?
A: You have a thousand people screaming at you “why it takes so long?” “what the hell is going on?” and “why is it so expensive?” and “what do you mean my insurance doesn’t cover the copay?”
D: What duties, like, during the day, do you perform?
A: Counting, pulling, lick and stick. I mean, it’s basically, it’s receipt, review the prescription, check for and verify the patient’s profile. You know, hopefully you produce a prescription correctly I mean if you can decipher the physicians handwriting, uh, have a couple of fights with the insurance companies because they don’t want to pay you the appropriate amount. Um then having a very unpleasant discussion with most people, because they want a prescription and they do not want to pay for it.
D: Um, could, um, could you name any more benefits and/or disadvantages to this job?
A: Benefits: you can make your own hours, you can work what days you please, what hours you please. You can earn a decent living (more) than you use to be able to, and your day flies by. You are usually fairly busy. I mean there is a lot of aggravation and it does take its toll but you know, it’s not that bad.
D: Disadvantages?
A: Disadvantages: sometimes you are putting up with long hours, sometimes you are putting up with obnoxious people. Sometimes you are putting up with difficulties and a great deal of pressure and stress.
D: Um, looking back would you do it all over again and why?
A: No. No. Definitely not.
D: Why? Because…
A: I think I would find something that was a lot more relaxing, a lot more creative and I would get more of a charge out of it.
D: Um, what are your views on the status of women and minorities in this profession? You don’t know?
A: Let’s put it this way, ok? I have always worked with women, no matter where I’ve been. In hospitals, in retail. I’ve worked with people (who are) all shapes, all sizes, all colors and all ethnicities. Anyway, so, it doesn’t make any difference to me.
D: Um, what characteristics help you to thrive in this occupation?
A: What?
D: What characteristics help you to, um, succeed in this …do well in this profession?
A: What helps one do well? What secrets?
D: Yeah, like what skills or talents or abilities?
A: I think you have to be more than slightly crazy, you have to be able to put up with obnoxious people, you have to be quick and you have to let a lot of it just not phase you, let it roll off your back.
D: How flexible is your work schedule?
A: As flexible as I want to make it. I mean, I’m personally a prisoner here but that is my choice. If business was better I would have more leave. There was a time, many years ago, when I first got this place (and) I had a partner and we were both semi-retired. We alternated days every other day. It was not bad working three days a week one week and four days a week (the other week). It was great. It didn’t last forever but other than that, that’s …that is (not) a problem
D: Which do you consider is harder: the road to becoming a pharmacist, or the road after?
A: The road to becoming a pharmacist is six years, you know (that it) does end. The other one you’re on a tread mill ok? It was a musical on Broadway called, “Stop the World I Wanna Get Off” and it’s kind of what it’s like
D: Ok so, how has your job affected your lifestyle?
A: Because I’m a prisoner here there is no lifestyle, ok? I spend a large portion of my life here. I have two different lives really, here and at home. They are not related, there is no mixture. And let’s say it’s afforded me a decent lifestyle, just not here. I mean, it’s done more than put bread on the table, ok, and roof over the head, ok. I mean it’s been decent food that you can eat and the roof isn’t half bad, so, it’s trade- offs
D: So, um, my last question is: do you have any advice for an aspiring pharmacist?
A: Yes. Don’t become a slave to it. Do what makes you comfortable. Go to the area of pharmacy that makes you comfortable and if you are interested in clinical work, do the clinical even if it doesn’t pay as much as well as owning your own pharmacy because you can actually go home and lie down and forget about it and just be separated from it. That’s a tremendous advantage. You actually get vacation. It’s a very different world. If you’re in industry it’s a different world. Each one has its own advantage. I spent 11 years in hospitals. There was a time I was director of pharmacy and I realized this was not cutting it. I mean I’ve gone as far as I could go and the only place else I could go is if somebody else died and I got their job. I mean there was nothing. So that’s when I said, “screw it” and I came here for the hopes of, you know, better rewards and whatever but you pay for it. You pay for it in a change of lifestyle. I use to work Monday through Friday but was on call 7 days a week, 24 hours a day but I had five weeks vacation. They didn’t pay me enough to go away with that money, you know, with the five weeks ok, so you go and do your own business and do whatever (so) you can make some money so you can afford to go away for the five weeks but you can’t get the time so it’s definitely trade-offs. You have to decide works for you.
D: Ok, thank you
A: That’s it?
D: Yeah
A: I hope it helps. Then you can change your career and go into something more exciting.
Consent Form
[pic]
Interview with Accountant Transcript
November 14, 2011
Interview With An Accountant (via Email)
1. What is your name and title?
Name : Pauline Jackson-Williams
Title: Vice President - Operations Risk Review
2. How did you become interested in Accounting?
I was always interested in numbers and the analytic side, in that how your understanding of how numbers work can affect your life and your outlook on things. Being able to use numbers to determine your future economically. Accounting helped me to further achieve a higher level of understanding, and to achieve those goals.
3. What type of Accountant are you?
When I graduated from college I was considered to be a Financial Accountant, where my job mainly included analyzing how companies reported things on their Financial statements and to make sure that they were in compliance to certain laws and regulations. Later on I focused on the Risk Management side of Accounting. Here I was evaluating the various types of risks that we in the market place and determine whether the company I was working for had those respective risks in place and to evaluate whether they had specific controls in place to mitigate those risks.
4. Was it your first choice as a profession?
No. Accounting was not my first choice.
5. (If no) Does it bother you that you did not choose your first choice? Why?
Yes, because I am always asking myself what it would be like (in all aspect - being happy, financially, etc) if I had done what I love and what I think that I was truly born to do,
6. Which educational facility did you attend to obtain your degree? Was it hard to obtain it?
I attended Brooklyn College. To be honest, I did not find it hard at the time, (based on the educational background that I have this made it easier for me)
7. What requirements did you have to adhere to in order to obtain a degree/license? Were there any major exams you had to sit?
Well first of all we all had to achieve the required amount of credits ( I don’t recall how many credits needed at the time). There were some core credits that everyone one had to accomplish irrespective of what your major will be, and then based on your major there were certain amount of credits you needed to obtain a degree in that field. For accounting we also had to do some additional classes - Income Taxes, and Business Law 1 and 2. After that you will have to take the Certified Professional Accounting Exam (CPA).
8. Describe a typical day?
Oh boy, that is difficult to explain. You see I usually work on projects ( have several to complete in a month, quarter, yearly). So my day will vary from project to project, day to day. Also depending on if I am working in the office or if I am traveling.
9. Are there any benefits or disadvantages to being an Accountant?
Sure, the benefits for me are
1. Good money
2. Flexibility to choose different areas of accounting to work in, also whether you want to work in private or public accounting.
3. Traveling - the opportunity to visit places that I would probably not
4. Because I work on various projects it gives me the opportunity to meet a lot a people. I am not dealing with the same people ever day.
Disadvantages
1. Too long hours
2. With a family - it eventually is too hard when you have small kids.
10. Do you recall any challenging and/or fulfilling experiences?
There are a lot of fulfilling experiences for me being an Accountant, especially when I was promoted to Vice President in my company. I came to this country as an International Student and had to fight very hard to complete my degree and to climb the corporate ladder, so yes I am proud of my accomplishments, and the opportunities that my profession affords me.
Being the only black woman in my team there were always challenges. Most time it was evident that you were treated different from your white counterparts, but, they were very careful not to be blatant in their actions. So I always had to pretend that the race ism was not there, and tried to focus on doing my work, while protecting my back at all times.
11. What do you like and/or dislike about your job?
See my comments for question 9
12. How would you describe the working atmosphere and the people with whom you work? In general I would say that the working environments were pretty civil, yet challenging at the same time. You know in life you will meet a wide cross section of people (some good and some lets say not so good), so you will have to determine very early what your goals are and how you are going to achieve them. that being said, you will then have to find the right way to make things work for you in order to achieve your goals.
13. Looking back, would you do it all over again? Why?
NO. Accounting is not my love, and initially I came to this country to study Hotel Management and Hospitality (specializing in Food and Nutrition). That is what I should have pursued and that is what I intend to pursue. Cooking and entertaining is my love. Please make sure you are pursuing what you love, because you will not be happy. Well that is or me.
14. What abilities or personal qualities do you believe contribute most to success in this job?
Well you must be knowledgeable and know how to perform your job. But, I must say that my greatest attributes lies in my warm and friendly personality.
15. What characteristics would you say should stay away from this occupation?
I really don't know the answer for this question, because once you apply yourself you should be able be an Accountant.
16. How flexible is your work schedule?
In the beginning of my career there was very little flexibly, but, over the years as things and time evolve there was more flexibility ( we were allowed to work from home some days, the hours were still long. As they would say there was no 9 AM to 5 PM jobs again.)
17. How has your job affected your lifestyle?
In every sense of the word, it affords me the life style that I enjoy today, and most of all to take care of my immediate family and extended family.
Consent Form
[pic]
Interview with Mother Transcript
September 28, 2011
[6:14:28 PM] Deneicia: Hi
[6:16:26 PM] Maxine Webb: Hi Deneicia,
[6:19:22 PM] Deneicia: The first thing I want to know is...what about pharmacy captured your interest?
[6:23:56 PM] Maxine Webb: Well my work in hospital allow me to work closely with other members of the health team including pharmacist. i have great admiration and respect for the pharmacist that i work with because of there wealth of knowledge.
[6:25:02 PM] Deneicia: Why did you suggest pharmacy as an occupation for me?
[6:30:06 PM] Maxine Webb: in todays world a career in the health care field is a wise decision. pharmacy seemed ideal since it does not involve direct patient care even though it is patient care.
[6:31:47 PM] Deneicia: So you thought indirect patient care would be ideal for me?
[6:33:42 PM] Maxine Webb: yes because you had expressed your fear of the sight blood and body injuries.
[6:35:41 PM] Deneicia: In what other ways do you think i am, or am not, suitable for this profession?
[6:38:25 PM] Maxine Webb: suitable cause you hasve to be thorough when performing your job, which you can be. unsuitable cause you must be prepared for increased responsibility which you are not used to
[6:41:14 PM] Deneicia: What do you think about accounting as a profession vs. Pharmacy?
[6:44:32 PM] Maxine Webb: i really do not know much about accounting plus i am biased towards the profession of pharmacy. what i do know is that a career in pharmacy you will be more sure of landing a job at the end of your schooling.accounting might be a good career but the jobs are not there.
[6:45:21 PM] Deneicia: Despite your bias, do you think accounting would have been a better fit for me?
[6:47:07 PM] Maxine Webb: we may never know but it depends. are you referring to the content of the coursework or the career itself?
[6:47:48 PM] Deneicia: Refering to both
[6:48:54 PM] Deneicia: And please state why you do or don't think so?
[6:50:47 PM] Maxine Webb: No, pharmacy has a wealth of knowledge that will earn you a lot of respect.
[6:51:00 PM] Deneicia: Have you ever questioned your choice of occupation?
[7:03:22 PM] Maxine Webb: yes, because it was not my first love, but it is a good profession so i am not sorry. it is one of the safest profession to have right now.
[7:08:02 PM] Deneicia: So now you are content? If you could do it all over again would you pick your first love or your current occupation?
[7:09:13 PM] Maxine Webb: my current first and then do the other as a second career.
[7:10:06 PM] Deneicia: I feel stressed already, so before you go, do you have any advice to keep me peesevereing to the end?
[7:12:35 PM] Maxine Webb: Sure, take one day at a time. remember others have done it so you can do it too.
[7:13:41 PM] Deneicia: Thank you for taking time for this interview bye
[7:14:02 PM] Maxine Webb: goodluck and all the best.
Consent Form
[pic]
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Accountants and Auditors." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Department of Labor, 17 Dec. 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. .
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides statistical information on careers in the United States. I used this website to find information on the work of accountants, their salary, their training and the outlook for their job.
Asedo, Ethan. Personal interview. 1 Oct. 2011.
This interview with Dr. Ethan Asedo showed me insight into life as a Pharmacist. My search question was to find out if pharmacy was the right career path for me. I utilized this source to get information on the positives and negatives of being a pharmacist and how life for me could be like as a pharmacist.
Jackson-Williams, Pauline. E-mail interview. 14 Nov. 2011.
This interview was with an accountant. I utilized this interview to gain information on the life of an accountant and what the career entails. I also used this interview to get the pros and cons of being an accountant so that I could compare this career against being a pharmacist.
Webb, Maxine. Online interview. 28 Sept. 2011.
This interview was used to get information on why a person who knows me personally would see pharmacy as a befitting career for me. I used the interviewee's answers to see if the reasoning behind the interviewee's suggestion of pharmacy for me was fair.
-----------------------
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.