If you’re looking for some inspiration as you think about career options in the health professions, our friends at Health Professions Week have some helpful videos on their YouTube channel that are worth checking out.
This video of a popular 2022 Health Professions Week (HPW) webinar, entitled “Finding Your Fit in Healthcare,” features Joanne Snapp, EdD.
Known on Instagram as “My Honest Advisor,” Joanne’s knowledge helps students identify where they fit in the health care world. She has worked in graduate medical admissions and most recently in undergraduate pre-health advising and postbac programs helping students get ready to apply.
“It’s so funny that I was asked to speak on this because I’m actually not a health professional myself,” Joanne confided. “If you had asked me 20 years ago if I would ever be talking about this topic, I would have told you absolutely not—I was going to be a high school English teacher! Sometimes the way to a particular career is not necessarily linear.”
When Joanne started her career thinking she was going to be a high school English teacher, she moved to New York City to look for jobs.
“I couldn’t find a job in teaching, so my first job was in admissions at a podiatric medical school—which is ironic because I couldn’t even say ‘podiatric medicine’ when I interviewed. And I had no idea what podiatric medicine was…” Joanne admitted.
“I ended up shadowing physicians. I sat in on classes. I traveled around the country speaking about this profession, and learned anything and everything I could,” she shared.
Joanne described an experience after her podiatric training that left a deep impression on her. Giving a presentation in Texas to laymen on podiatric medicine, there was one podiatrist in the audience who approached her afterwards with high praise. He shared that she communicated the information like a podiatrist would. Joanne felt moved and empowered and knew then that she was following the right path.
“From there, I went over to a nursing college in New York and I spent two years helping people navigate mostly nursing careers. But I also helped a lot of people who wanted to go into fields like speech language pathology and music therapy, and some other outside-of-the-box health professions,” Joanne said.
Joanne’s next move was to an allopathic medical school. “I learned a lot about public health, and worked with MDs, DOs, nurses, and PAs. We had all the health professionals working on our team at the medical schools. I then took all this information to the undergraduate side where my breadth of knowledge could make a real difference in supporting pre-health students.”
Watch now to get Joanne’s full take on the diverse and exciting health career options that are available, with plenty of her own shared insights and guidance. She’ll show you how to narrow down your choices toward your own best path.
Your career decision may be one that was obvious for years, or just like Joanne’s, it could be a surprise even to you!