Views expressed in guest blogs are the author’s own. 

Olympic National Park

What do nurse logs have to do with anything? Jobs are like nurse logs for your career. Take my career journey for example… Back in high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Honestly, I still don’t, but I know I’m not alone with this feeling. In a society that constantly asks children what they want to be when they grow up, it feels like you have to know what your career is from a very young age. Fortunately, I’ve learned this does not have to be the case. In college, I studied computer science with a focus in human-computer interaction (HCI) because my interests leaned towards the visual, front-end side of technology. I participated in an HCI research group, contributing to a project by developing applications, running user studies, and iterating on the apps based on user feedback. While I enjoyed being a research assistant, I knew academia wasn’t for me. It did, however, provide facilitation to the next step in my career – an internship doing user experience (UX) research – just as a nurse log helps facilitate a seedling. My research project had given me the foundational skills I needed to talk to real customers at the internship, investigate what they did and didn’t like, and come up with solutions to improve the product.

Nurselogs

After graduating, I joined a tech company as a web developer. I quickly learned that I was not interested in coding, but I did enjoy the part of the job that involved working with data. This led to a role at Intel doing business and data analysis with an HR chatbot. Another tree growing from the nurse logs! Not only did the previous role help me improve upon the analysis process for this role, but my past UX experiences also helped me lead a redesign of the chatbot interface with something more modern and user-friendly. Sure enough, that role in HR became a nurse log too. Just a few weeks ago, I started a new role as a system analyst in the healthcare industry. Though I’ve never worked in healthcare, I’ve seen how all my previous roles helped me succeed. I’ll let my experiences guide me in this seedling phase. Already I can see where I could utilize my UX skills to ensure user-friendly interfaces for clinicians, my business and data analysis skills to determine what the best solutions are, and my developer skills to troubleshoot defects in the system.

My career path may not have been very defined or linear, but neither is growth in general. Whether you’re growing from the ground or a nurse log, from college education or previous work experiences, everything provides some sort of “nutrition” from one place to the next. I never would’ve thought to pursue any of these past roles of mine as a kid, and I’m glad I didn’t restrict myself to one path because I would’ve missed out on an interesting journey. I no longer feel pressured to know what I want to do with my life anymore, knowing that all my experiences will plant the foundation for the future.

Opinions expressed are the author’s own.

I recently visited Olympic National Park and learned about nurse logs. Wikipedia defines nurse logs as “a fallen tree, which, as it decays, provides ecological facilitation to seedlings.” The grounds of the forest floor is so covered with other plants that it can be hard to compete as a seedling. One way to grow is to use nutrients and resources from decaying trees.

Olympic National Park

Back in high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Honestly, I still don’t, but I know I’m not alone with this feeling. In a society that constantly asks children what they want to be when they grow up, it feels like you have to know what your career is from a very young age. Fortunately, I’ve learned this does not have to be the case. In college, I studied computer science with a focus in human-computer interaction (HCI) because my interests leaned towards the visual, front-end side of technology. I participated in an HCI research group, contributing to a project by developing applications, running user studies, and iterating on the apps based on user feedback. While I enjoyed being a research assistant, I knew academia wasn’t for me. It did, however, provide facilitation to the next step in my career – an internship doing user experience (UX) research – just as a nurse log helps facilitate a seedling. My research project had given me the foundational skills I needed to talk to real customers at the internship, investigate what they did and didn’t like, and come up with solutions to improve the product.

nurselogs

After graduating, I joined a tech company as a web developer. I quickly learned that I was not interested in coding, but I did enjoy the part of the job that involved working with data. This led to a role at Intel doing business and data analysis with an HR chatbot. Another tree growing from the nurse logs! Not only did the previous role help me improve upon the analysis process for this role, but my past UX experiences also helped me lead a redesign of the chatbot interface with something more modern and user-friendly. Sure enough, that role in HR became a nurse log too. Just a few weeks ago, I started a new role as a system analyst in the healthcare industry. Though I’ve never worked in healthcare, I’ve seen how all my previous roles helped me succeed. I’ll let my past experiences guide me in this seedling phase. Already I can see where I could utilize my UX skills to ensure user-friendly interfaces for clinicians, my business and data analysis skills to determine what the best solutions are, and my developer skills to troubleshoot defects in the system.

My career path may not have been very defined or linear, but neither is growth in general. Whether you’re growing from the ground or a nurse log, from college education or previous work experiences, everything provides some sort of “nutrition” from one place to the next. I never would’ve thought to pursue any of these past roles of mine as a kid, and I’m glad I didn’t restrict myself to one path because I would’ve missed out on an interesting journey. I no longer feel pressured to know what I want to do with my life anymore, knowing that all my experiences will plant the foundation for the future.

Finn Lin

He / Him / His

System Analyst | OHSU

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