Laila Dows

Theo Clark

ACAD

11 November 2025

Career Competencies Assignments

After completing the Strong Interest Inventory and getting my results back, it made me

think about my strengths and weaknesses in the career competency aspects as these are crucial

and very important to my career of being a psychiatrist in the future after graduating.

The first one that I will be addressing is career and self-development, the way how I define

career and self-development is the ability to be able to identify the areas you are the strongest in

and the area you could improve, show interest in the topic with participating and volunteering,

looking out for opportunities and beginning to create plans for your future. To me this is one of

the competency skills that I’m the best I'm, a great example of me doing this skill was attending

the career fair back in September which was highly recommended by my PYSCH 104 professor.

The career fair was a great opportunity to learn more about potential internships and part-time

jobs. Even though there weren’t many opportunities for psychology, I found one called the “New

Hope Treatment Center”. I may not have been qualified due to my age, but they still gave me a

paper and told me to reach out to them when I’m above age. That’s me taking the first necessary

steps for my career.

The second of the career competencies skill that I’m relatively good at but know that I

can improve would have to be communication. I know that I need to get better when it comes to

speaking and communicating with others as communicating is one of the most important things

that I need to be able to do with my wanting to pressure my psychiatrist career after graduating.
All thought I have gotten better with communicating with others it is still hard for me to do as

growing up I have never felt comfortable or confident of speaking especially if it’s people I don’t

know as when I would speak I can remember my peers saying “wow she talks?” or “I can’t hear

her can she speak up?” Due to those experiences I’m not the most confident about speaking, but

if I want to pressure my career I will have to speak up and communicate especially with my

patients since it’s my job to give them advice and to be the person who they can talk to whenever

they need assurance and support.

When it comes to critical thinking, I would have to believe that I have to say that I’ve

used my critical thinking skills the most recent as of late. I say this because the week before last I

had my first major problem of the semester, which was finically and even risking the chance of

me not being able for registration and maybe having to leave Winthrop. The first thing I did was

go to the student account services to figure out exactly what was going on and things I could do

to lower my balance and stay in Winthrop. The process was not easy by any means, I would

honestly have to say it was one of the worst things too happened to me during my time in college

for the current semester, but I was still able to pull through. I had to go to both financial aid and

student account services many times throughout the day and week, with my dad on the phone, he

was also another reason why I kept fighting even when there were times, I wanted to give up I

didn’t which was the best thing I done. Now after a stressful week I was able to lower my

balance and now able to choose my classes for next semester, I fully believe if I didn’t take

immediate action, told my dad and go to both offices I would of had to leave but due to me doing

all those things I’m able to stay which shows me doing critical thinking.

When it comes to equity and inclusion, I would have to say that I have done a good job

doing this by attending the Vietnamese Student Association meetings on campus. VSA is a club
on campus that teaches students about Vietnamese culture, history and traditions, I remember the

first time I saw the VSA at one of the campuses engagement assignments that we needed to

complete in our first weeks of ACAD. The VSA was one of the first tables that caught my

attention and that I went to talk to because of the different prizes, games and wanting to learn

more about the Vietnamese culture. The reason why I like Winthrop is because of the diversity,

which was rare in my small town so having the opportunity to learn more about different

countries, cultures and traditions, I quickly took the opportunity. Their last meeting was in

September, and I attended since I was interested and was in the same building, so I went and had

a good time. We we’re shown a PowerPoint presentation discussing how Vietnam New Years,

played their version of bingo called “Lô Tô, and even try mooncakes. It was a unique experience

not just because of the games and food but because having the chance to learn about a different

culture was very enjoyable.

When it comes to the leadership aspect of career competencies, I would have to say that I

have used them whenever planning my assignments. Typically, every day before or after class I

make an agenda for the day of what I will work on, how long I will work on it and plan out when

I will be done before the deadline. A good example of me doing this would have to be when I go

to the library to work on my essays, I prefer to work in the library because I feel like it’s the best

place to do work considering the there’s no distractions or too much noise and the library is

when I feel the most comfortable and confident in my work. A great example of my leadership

would have to be when completing this ACAD essay. To be honest, I started on it late due to me

not having the best week when this essay was assigned but after our last class, I began to plan it

out so I will have it done before our next class. I began to work on this paper last Thursday, after

our class and that’s when I began to make my agenda, so since I need to write about all eight
career competencies I can do two a day, which is what I did. On Thursday, I did career and self-

development and communication. On Monday, I would do critical thinking and equity, and

inclusion. On Tuesday, I would do leadership and professionalism so on Wednesday I would be

left with the remaining two so I can have my essay finished a day before our next class. Me

breaking down my time and the sections shows me leadership.

I always try my best to be professional as I know professionalism is one of the most

important skills to have before beginning not just your dream job but any job in general,

professionalism is one of the first things you learn about in school and in the workplace. If you

don’t have professionalism or try to be professional, then you will not make it far in not just the

workplace but in the world. I have grown accustomed to being professional as back in high

school we would be constantly told “You’re going to have to work with people you don’t like”.

So since then, even if I hate group projects (which I do) I will still participate and do my part as

it’s the professional thing to do as it reflects on my character and how the teacher will know that

I take their class and my grade seriously, which will also male them respect and appreciate me

for my dedication and hard work towards their class. It is always your best interest to be

professional even if you don’t like your circumstances, the activity or the group you are working

with you should still do it because it reflects your character, what professionals will think about

you and will make you look responsible and professional which is the number one thing you

always want to do.

Teamwork is another aspect of career competencies that everyone needs to know and

have experience with. Teamwork is when everyone contributes to their part of an assignment or

project; it is also one of the things that you will do in college and in the workplace. Teamwork is

very important as if you don’t help or contribute to your team then you look unprofessional not
just to your classmates but also to your professors, which does not reflect positively on yourself.

The way I’ve used teamwork is for group projects, like the one that I’m doing for my political

science class. During class we all get together to contribute and give each other ideas for our

project and help those who need help. Everyone needs experience with teamwork.

Technology is the last one of the career competencies that I have the most experience with

considering how technology is one of the most important aspects in our daily lives as technology

is always advancing and we use it for everyday tasks. I have started to learn more about

technology as this is my first time owning my own computer, now this isn’t my first time using a

computer for school, but it was never my own personal computer as it was the school’s and we

had many restrictions when it came to the Chromebook. We weren’t allowed to use YouTube

during school, couldn’t listen to music, couldn’t access cool math games and we couldn’t use the

computers after 10 o clock, so now owning my own computer I have more freedom. My dad

always asked me during the holiday season if I wanted my own computer, I always said no as I

didn’t see the real need for it at the time, I thought I was fine with just having my phone but after

getting a commuter for school I see why it’s very important.