8 answers
Hayden
Student
Castle Rock, Colorado
1
Question
Updated
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What is your job and what does your day to day look like at work?
I’m not sure what I want to do and I feel like most job/career descriptions don’t give a good example of what day to day life is like.
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8 answers
Briana Pelle, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech language pathology
149
Answers
Nashville, Tennessee
Updated
Briana’s Answer
I am a speech-language pathologist working in outpatient therapy. My day typically consists of:
-attending meetings for staff training
-seeing patients for therapy sessions (typically 30 minutes) and writing the session summary/notes
-seeing new patients for diagnostic assessments (typically an hour)
-writing evaluation reports
-writing progress notes for insurance purposes
-speaking to patients' caregivers for education and home exercise program follow up
-touching base with occupational and physical therapists in the same facility who also see my patients to coordinate care
-cleaning my room between sessions
-attending meetings for staff training
-seeing patients for therapy sessions (typically 30 minutes) and writing the session summary/notes
-seeing new patients for diagnostic assessments (typically an hour)
-writing evaluation reports
-writing progress notes for insurance purposes
-speaking to patients' caregivers for education and home exercise program follow up
-touching base with occupational and physical therapists in the same facility who also see my patients to coordinate care
-cleaning my room between sessions
Daniel Chung
Project Manager
35
Answers
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Updated
Daniel’s Answer
My job is Project Manager. My week typically looks like this:
1. Attending customer, internal, and executive meetings.
- Prepare presentations, pitch ideas, write notes
2. Analyze data to track KPIs
- KPI is an acronym for a key performance indicator. This is to ensure a project is going in the right direction.
3. Review SOW and strategize action plans.
- When you open a new conversation with potential customers or vendors, you write a "statement of work" to legitimize the scope of work promised to deliver by both parties.
4. Monitor project tasks and evaluate ETA
- Multiple members are involved in big projects. (IT, legal, finance) Project Manager works as a facilitator and assesses potential ETA.
1. Attending customer, internal, and executive meetings.
- Prepare presentations, pitch ideas, write notes
2. Analyze data to track KPIs
- KPI is an acronym for a key performance indicator. This is to ensure a project is going in the right direction.
3. Review SOW and strategize action plans.
- When you open a new conversation with potential customers or vendors, you write a "statement of work" to legitimize the scope of work promised to deliver by both parties.
4. Monitor project tasks and evaluate ETA
- Multiple members are involved in big projects. (IT, legal, finance) Project Manager works as a facilitator and assesses potential ETA.
Mary Bartlett
Talent Acquisition/Recruiter
4
Answers
Baldwin, New York
Updated
Mary’s Answer
My job is to recruit the best talent to our organization. A typical day involves creating a job description, posting the job on websites, reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates. It is both challenging and rewarding. But it can be stressful as well. There is pressure to fill the job quickly, but you also need to make sure it the candidate is the right fit for the job and will stay with the organization.
Claudia Garcia
5
Answers
Guadalajara
Updated
Claudia’s Answer
I'm in the IT field. I've been playing different roles and will try to be concise:
1. As a developer: I had to understand people (client) needs, get the idea and then draw a diagram. Explain that diagram to clients, make sure we both are in agreement and then start writing code. When you write code you work with yourself, even if you are part of a team, you do your part all by yourself.
2. As tester: Understand the client requirements, test the code written by developers. Make sure it does what it is supposed to do, basically here is play with it to break it :) BUT you have to document everything - every click, every step to keep record of what has been tested and its success rate
3. As an IT support person: Get to know the system/application you support, what is possible/what is not, how to interact, etc. Be patient, very patient as you might deal with clients that are stressed, want a quick and easy response and/or doesnt even know what to do, how to use the app.
4. IT reports/metrics: Doing daily data analytics, you get a big excel file and then you have to analyse the data to answer questions for executives, such as: how many ocurrences of X, are we on target?, how long will it take us to ...?, how many failures and its root cause, success rate for X, etc.
5. IT Compliance: make sure IT policies are followed, run audits and follow up till completion. Have the ability to engage people for them to understand what is missing and what needs to be done to comply.
....
I could be writing even more, most important thing everywhere is how you connect with people, how you emphatize with them.. believe, its the most important thing to either help someone or get help from them :)
1. As a developer: I had to understand people (client) needs, get the idea and then draw a diagram. Explain that diagram to clients, make sure we both are in agreement and then start writing code. When you write code you work with yourself, even if you are part of a team, you do your part all by yourself.
2. As tester: Understand the client requirements, test the code written by developers. Make sure it does what it is supposed to do, basically here is play with it to break it :) BUT you have to document everything - every click, every step to keep record of what has been tested and its success rate
3. As an IT support person: Get to know the system/application you support, what is possible/what is not, how to interact, etc. Be patient, very patient as you might deal with clients that are stressed, want a quick and easy response and/or doesnt even know what to do, how to use the app.
4. IT reports/metrics: Doing daily data analytics, you get a big excel file and then you have to analyse the data to answer questions for executives, such as: how many ocurrences of X, are we on target?, how long will it take us to ...?, how many failures and its root cause, success rate for X, etc.
5. IT Compliance: make sure IT policies are followed, run audits and follow up till completion. Have the ability to engage people for them to understand what is missing and what needs to be done to comply.
....
I could be writing even more, most important thing everywhere is how you connect with people, how you emphatize with them.. believe, its the most important thing to either help someone or get help from them :)
Arthur Lusty
Program Manager
5
Answers
Sandwich, Massachusetts
Updated
Arthur’s Answer
What I love most about my job is all the different opportunities it offers. I can never predict what each day will bring, but there are a few general items that I focus on during the week. My role is a Project Manager in Artificial Intelligence and Data organization, but I am also a Data Analyst and an engineer.
1) Meetings - Way too many meetings actually. Some are regular, some crop up to discuss particular issues. Pre-COVID, some would happen in meeting rooms, but now most are conducted using meeting software like Zoom, Google Meet, and BlueJeans.
2) Training - There is never enough time, but I try to spend at least 4 hours a day learning something new. Especially in the Data Science field. There is always something to learn and it is important to keep up on skills training and knowledge of industry trends.
3) Spreadsheet management - We use multiple forms of spreadsheets, including MS Excel, Google Sheets, and Smartsheets. We use these tools (and some others) to track the status of projects and make sure that work is getting done
4) Escalations - Inevitably, projects are not getting done fast enough. Or someone is out of the office and we need to fins someone else to do the work. Tracking down someone to complete a task and escalating issues to management take up a bit of time.
5) Presentations - This is the fun part where we talk to our boss, or other leaders about the work we have been doing and the current status. This is our opportunity to "show off."
6) Handling the curve ball - Once in a while, things go off the rails and as a project manager, we gather up the right people to pull together to set them back on track. Not everything will go according to plan, so this is the fun part where we tackle issues and run them to ground.
7) Socializing - This is very important. Even with Covid, I find time to socialize virtually. Get involved with Employee Resource Groups, talk with work friends, and find opportunities to learn about those you work with. We don't gather around the water cooler anymore, but seize a few moments every day to engage with co-workers on non-work items to maintain morale. Just make sure its in moderation :).
1) Meetings - Way too many meetings actually. Some are regular, some crop up to discuss particular issues. Pre-COVID, some would happen in meeting rooms, but now most are conducted using meeting software like Zoom, Google Meet, and BlueJeans.
2) Training - There is never enough time, but I try to spend at least 4 hours a day learning something new. Especially in the Data Science field. There is always something to learn and it is important to keep up on skills training and knowledge of industry trends.
3) Spreadsheet management - We use multiple forms of spreadsheets, including MS Excel, Google Sheets, and Smartsheets. We use these tools (and some others) to track the status of projects and make sure that work is getting done
4) Escalations - Inevitably, projects are not getting done fast enough. Or someone is out of the office and we need to fins someone else to do the work. Tracking down someone to complete a task and escalating issues to management take up a bit of time.
5) Presentations - This is the fun part where we talk to our boss, or other leaders about the work we have been doing and the current status. This is our opportunity to "show off."
6) Handling the curve ball - Once in a while, things go off the rails and as a project manager, we gather up the right people to pull together to set them back on track. Not everything will go according to plan, so this is the fun part where we tackle issues and run them to ground.
7) Socializing - This is very important. Even with Covid, I find time to socialize virtually. Get involved with Employee Resource Groups, talk with work friends, and find opportunities to learn about those you work with. We don't gather around the water cooler anymore, but seize a few moments every day to engage with co-workers on non-work items to maintain morale. Just make sure its in moderation :).
Hsinlin Lai
IT Senior Director
4
Answers
Austin, Texas
Updated
Hsinlin’s Answer
I am a director (manager). I have managers report to me and have individuals report to those managers. Majority of my days go to attend/drive Meetings: meetings can have various intent; some meetings are for people to sync up on a topic, solve a problem or clarify confusions; some meetings are for one-on-one connections with individuals (team members, business stakeholders, people reporting to me). During those meetings (using Zoom), we need to:
- Solve Problems
- Resolve escalations/Remove roadblocks
- Make connections with people/be resourceful
- Build business cases - does it make sense to make certain investments
- Negotiate with vendors
- Motivate/encourage/mentor people
- Make tough decisions
- Simplify the complex and communicate the context/intent
I also use Teams/Zoom to chat with people and get/provide answers.
Other parts of my day go to deeper thinking/coming up with solutions and options. Looking out 3-6 months or 1-2 years and provide those directions/strategies to leadership and team members.
- Solve Problems
- Resolve escalations/Remove roadblocks
- Make connections with people/be resourceful
- Build business cases - does it make sense to make certain investments
- Negotiate with vendors
- Motivate/encourage/mentor people
- Make tough decisions
- Simplify the complex and communicate the context/intent
I also use Teams/Zoom to chat with people and get/provide answers.
Other parts of my day go to deeper thinking/coming up with solutions and options. Looking out 3-6 months or 1-2 years and provide those directions/strategies to leadership and team members.
Carlos Andres Salazar Lopez
Optometrist
1
Answer
Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Updated
Carlos Andres’s Answer
a normal day is: to meet the schedule of patient appointments, to provide good treatment and guidance to patients, to support the needs of the company, to come home in the evening to spend time with the family.
Cheri Overstreet, Ba (Spanish concentration) Modern Lang
FT Patrolman & PT University Police Officer
10
Answers
Monticello, Arkansas
Updated
Cheri’s Answer
Hi Hayden! I'm a police officer in a small SE Arkansan town. I'm also certified as Advance Dispatch Operator and an EMT-B. Some days are quite busy while some days are quite slow. If you are curious about different professions, try watching videos. More specifically, go to YouTube & enter "A Day in the Life of [enter profession here]".
You could also ask your academic advisor or counselor about shadowing or ride along programs. Note that some require you and your parents to sign a Liability Waiver to participate in any way. Keep seeking & you will find that which you seek. I hope this helps! Best of luck!
You could also ask your academic advisor or counselor about shadowing or ride along programs. Note that some require you and your parents to sign a Liability Waiver to participate in any way. Keep seeking & you will find that which you seek. I hope this helps! Best of luck!