Career Development – What’s Your Plan?

In honor of National Career Development Month, you are encouraged to think about what you’re doing today and in the future as part of your personal career development. It is an ongoing, lifelong endeavor critical to your professional success.

At UNTHSC, we have identified six Career Readiness Skills (aka Marketable Skills) that are valued by employers and can be applied in a variety of work and other professional settings. A truly robust professional career development plan includes much more than just academic accomplishments and technical acumen.

Mastering the following skills indicates you have developed attributes that broadly prepare you to successfully transition from being a graduate student to an outstanding health care professional.

UNTHSC Career Readiness Skills:

Communication
• Able to articulate thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively in written and verbal communications.
• Confident public speaking skills, able to express ideas to others, and can write/edit memos, letters, and complex reports clearly and effectively.

Interprofessional Teamwork
• Able to build collaborative relationships with colleagues representing diverse backgrounds and viewpoints, with the ability to negotiate and manage conflict.
• Works effectively within a team structure comprised of individuals from different disciplines with shared values in order to provide an integrated and cohesive approach to problem solving and patient care.

Problem Solving
• Exercises sound reasoning to analyze issues, make decisions, and overcome problems.
• Obtains, interprets, and uses knowledge, facts, and data in this process, and may demonstrate originality and inventiveness.
• Able to generate new ideas and creative thoughts.

Leadership
• Demonstrates personal accountability and effective work habits, e.g., punctuality, working productively with others, and time workload management, and understands the impact of non-verbal communication on professional work image.
• Strong commitment to integrity and ethical behavior, acts responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind, and is able to learn from his/her mistakes.
• Leverages the strengths of others to achieve common goals and use interpersonal skills to coach and develop others.
• Able to assess and manage his/her emotions and those of others, use empathetic skills to guide and motivate, and organize, prioritize, and delegate work.

Resiliency
• Adapts well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress.
• Adept at mentally and emotionally managing crisis situations and able to quickly “bounce back” from difficult experiences such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, academic difficulties and/or financial stressors.

Intercultural Fluency
• Values, respects, and learns from diverse cultures, races, ages, genders, sexual orientations, and religions.
• Demonstrates an openness, inclusiveness, sensitivity, and the ability to interact respectfully with all people and understand individuals’ differences.

Expect more to come throughout the year regarding what you can do to master these skills. In the interim, for services and resources pertaining to your career development, please visit the Career Center online at https://www.unthsc.edu/career-center/ or in the Student Service Center, Suite 200, or contact us at careercenter@unthsc.edu or (817) 735-5020.