Work Experience Paper
Switching from a sales associate, better described as a bookseller in the bookstore, to a receptionist at a clinic was an intimidating and frightening idea when I first accepted the job offer. Having no experience with anything relating to a clinical setting, I went to the job with minimal experience. However, the doctor took a chance on me because my friend spoke highly of me and he trusted her judgement. At the bookstore, my duties were to assist customers find textbooks, stock the textbook shelves, occasionally run the cash register, process and ship out orders placed online, handle customer complaints and questions over the phone, and process and ship out textbooks to other universities. The clinic duties were completely different. In the clinic, I was to handle incoming patient referrals, answer phone calls, handle billing and insurance company issues, schedule and reschedule patients, and prepare patients’ charts. This switch in jobs and taking this class made me think mostly of the training of employees, which seemed to be the biggest problem for me in the new job. Also, this class allowed me to asses my work performance and understand what was not working for me on the job and work on improving my own performance. It’s somewhat ironic how as I switched to a new job where I needed to think about performance, training, and duties in a job, I take an industrial/organizational psychology class. Perhaps, I have been applying the knowledge I have gained from this class to myself unconsciously.
H. J. Ortiz 