I would’ve never bet that being a seasonal employee for my local cookie and ice-cream shop would’ve given me any skills that would be applicable to a future career in medicine. However, it’s a good thing I never bet on it because I would have been very mistaken.
During the summer of 2021, I worked at Bear Paw Cookies Bakery in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Being one of the oldest staff members of a high-school dominated crew, I quickly assumed more responsibilities: transporting goods between locations, opening and closing the shop, working shifts alone, placing inventory orders and verifying cash transactions matched the register. While I’ve always had a strong work ethic, this challenged my ability to take initiative and problem-solve on the job. As a doctor, this skill will help me handle unexpected cases and create ideas for treatment plans. Additionally, it strengthened important leadership skills through the delegation of roles. Working in healthcare is a very team-based career, and effective leadership helps maximize efficiency so that it provides many people with quality care. Delegation helps achieve this, because each person has different qualifications and strengths. Finally, this job challenged my communication skills. My small downtown is a tourist hotspot, and I interacted with different types of people from all around the world. This motivated me to try to connect with complete strangers in only a couple minutes, in order to leave a positive impact on their vacation. Since I aspire to work in an emergency room, this is an extremely important skill as I will not know the majority of patients that cross my path. It’s important to establish real connections to understand who they are and what’s wrong, instead of seeing them as just another patient to treat.
It’s evident that the type of work at Bear Paw is extremely different from the work I’ll encounter in the medical field. Regardless of how different the jobs may be, the transferable skills that Bear Paw equipped me with help me excel as a future doctor.