What do you know about your field of interest? Do you think
you already know a lot? Do you need to learn more about it? These were the kinds
of questions that I used to answer with: “Yes, I know a lot about marketing and
business, because it is something that I have had a passion for, for long
time”. Unfortunately, I was totally wrong; what I knew about my field was very
little compared to the actual dimensions of it.
I actually discovered this during my second semester of
college, when this blog emerged in my writing class. The project was supposed to be a blog about your field of study, your major and professional interests,
with the goal of making you have more certainty about your choice or making you rethink it. Now, I can see that this project transformed, in my
eyes, from a random writing project into an amazing possibility for me to grow.
This was an opportunity for me to improve my writing, improve my researching,
and the best part of it, for me to know and think more about my future field of
work.
While writing the blog posts during these 10 weeks, I
discovered something new all the time. Because this was not just getting in
front of the computer and writing something from my mind, I had to prepare
myself and get content to write about. I always thought that the things that I
did not know about my field were going to come to me during my college time and
this project proved that right. I had to look, search, ask, review, watch, read
and write things about what I am going to do for the rest of my life.
When I look back, I see that it is a blog that started
recently, only since the beginning of this year. But this is what impressed me
the most, I can see that I grew a lot in terms of knowledge, new habits,
questions and thoughts about my future profession. I will share with you some
of the remarkable changes that the blog had on me.
Habit of reading and researching:
I have never been the type of person that has a passion for
reading. This was always a big challenge for me, because I have always wanted
to read and have the habit of reading. When the blog project started, I was
desperate because I did not have anything to write about my field, even though
I thought I knew a lot about marketing and business. This is when my new habit developed,
the habit to check important news websites, business magazines, periodicals and
academic articles. The effect of this is amazing, because it made me much more
aware of what is going on in the world, what kinds of research people are doing
in my field and interesting facts about it. I did not write about all the
things that I read, but just the fact that now I have this habit of reading and
acquiring more knowledge about my field, makes me more prepared for situations
that I would find in the future.
Awareness of the field:
The blog motivated me to search more and more, about
business or what is happening in the world. This research has brought me a lot
of new information and facts. I was impressed with the dimensions that business
and marketing have, I read about things that I could have never imagined. Some
examples are:
- The Science of Colors, which I mentioned on the prompted post for week 9;
- I discovered that a company is not made by just a few positions; it has a huge number of departments, divisions and levels, free post of week 5.
- The Sochi Olympics polemic and how it has to deal with marketing and business in general, week 7 prompted post;
Other than this, there was all the information that I
acquired from articles and news, which made me realize that what I am going to
do in the future will impact many other companies, the population, people that
study my field and also a mere student, just as me.
Ways to deal with the scope of the field:
At the same time that I started to discover the immensity of
business and marketing, I also started to look for ways that I could work in it
and where I would fit in. The interview with a professional from my field
helped me a lot; I discovered that I do not need to have a specific education
to work in a specific position or job. The
field is very broad and I realized that I should also have a broad education
and a degree that is going to make me be able to fit in as many places as
possible inside this area. After this project, I started to consider doing a
minor in another field such as economics, German or international business,
which would generate more opportunities for me in the future.
Reflection about experiences in my field:
The posts about experiences in the field presented me with
the opportunity to reflect about my previous experiences and also about what to
look for in the future. Certainly, the Junior Enterprise I took part in, is the
thing that I feel more proud to have done so far in my life, it was the closest
that I ever got to a real job. The organizational experience at Marketing Mix, brought
me a new perspective about the American experience and how students make things
work here, even while being just a student. While writing the posts about the
Junior Enterprise, I was able to realize how much this contributed to my skills
and experience. Adding to that, the organization on campus made me become part
of a group that is very interesting and maybe if the blog did not require me to
do this, I would have never joined.
As you can see, this was not a tedious project as I expected
it to be, it was a fun way to discover many things about my field of interest and
also discover a lot of things about my abilities and my future plans. This
demonstrates that an assignment does not have to be boring and limited to what
is requested from you, if you want, you can turn it into a very nice experience
with a lot of benefits at the end.
