Speaker 1: Okay, so let's see, I think I'm live but move this to the side and let's get the show on

Speaker 2: the road.

Speaker 1: Okay, okay.

Speaker 2: Okay, had to turn the

Speaker 3: volume down on that one. Alright, so yeah, we're live. Welcome to Professor Ashley. I'm Dr. Ashley Hussain Okafor. And here we are. Let's do this. Um, alright, so I already took the liberty of looking through a couple questions here on my phone that people have left in the comments. So I figured I'd start with this one, where it says, Is it good to start with diploma certificate program of healthcare administration, for example, at Conestoga? Well, first of all, I also googled Conestoga. So there is a community college in Conestoga, and that is in Canada. And they have degree and certificate programs and things like that. So really, it's just it, you know, it's, it's a community college, and it has programs. It's a standard education. So I don't think it really matters exactly which school. All I will say about what schools you go to is just make sure that they are accredited. And they need to be. I'll leave, I can leave a different accreditation companies and the description that will tell you, you know, which accreditation organizations you want to look for and just make sure that the schools you apply to are accredited by those organizations. The reason for that is because a lot of depending on where you go to work, and especially if, especially if you're going to work in the government, so if you want to work in the public sector, they every government job that I've ever applied to even, even working for Cal State, which is, you know, it's a state government job of the state of California as a professor, they still wanted to check all of my transcripts. And they verified whether I went to schools that were accredited. Of course, they were, but they had to verify that they checked the transcripts, they did everything. So if you're going to a government sector job, they are going to dig into that. That's what they do. Okay, now, if you're working in the public sector, it is going to, it really just depends on the company. Actually, when I first started, well, yeah, most of the private sector jobs that I've ever had, like corporate jobs, they didn't actually check anything. They, I mean, I, you know, in your application information, you tell them what schools you went to. So I don't know what they did on their end with HR. But since the jobs that I had applied to didn't really require any specific licensure, licensures or certifications where they needed an actual number to verify, they didn't really, they didn't check anything past that. Or I don't know what they did on their end, but they did not ask for my diploma, certificates, degrees, like they didn't need to see the piece of paper, nor did they care about checking the transcripts. So it really just depends on where you apply for work afterwards. But everyone across the board will always, if they require a college education, or if they require specific degrees for that job, then they will say it needs to be from an accredited institution. So make sure it's accredited just in case they check. That's the best thing I can say. Now, is it good to start in healthcare administration with a certification rather than going for a bachelor's or a master's degree? I, well, first of all, the very first thing that I need you guys to evaluate is what are your goals? Okay, what are your goals? Where do you want to end up in five years? Okay. I mean, so exactly where do you see yourself? How far do you want to take your career? Okay. And once you know that, that will generally tell you exactly what are the, what are the educational requirements to ultimately get there. Now, certifications will actually be a very, very good start to get into healthcare administration because you don't, they're going to take a lot less time to complete. And then, and then you can just start, you know, you have, you have some level of education in the field and it's going to, so it will get you started or help get your foot in the door a lot sooner than if you're waiting until after you graduate from, you know, with your bachelor's degree or from grad school, right? So it will help you start in the field. Now, how far are you going to take this career if all you have is just a certification? Well, given that many jobs, many executive jobs, many jobs that are in leadership positions and you know, many high level managerial or director type jobs, they will all require master's degrees. You're not going to go that far without college, without an MHA or an MBA, right? You're going to somewhat stick, I think pretty much your, your experience is going, over time, your experience is going to be amazing, right? Because you're, you're going to gather so many skills of working in the field and hopefully you can continue education as you go and you'll find more certifications and continuing education courses that you can take to develop your skills even more, make yourself even more hireable. So throughout your career, hopefully you can gather more of that and, but if you ultimately don't go for, you know, a graduate degree or anything, then pretty much your education will or your career might cap off around like a line manager type of a position, like a line manager or a mid-level management, which is not bad at all. That's totally, that's great. If that's your goal, then yeah, I would, you know, I, to be honest, I'm actually a believer and figure out exactly what you want to do with your life first and then figure out the education, the degrees that you need to get because education doesn't just mean degrees, all right? I, you know, being at this level where I am, I, throughout life, I've learned that these degrees, they're really just pieces of paper. They're pieces of paper that tell people that you have certain levels of knowledge. You've taken certain courses and they're mostly for prestige and to jump certain levels, right? You, you, it's like you have this paper and it grants you admission into certain exclusive jobs and whatnot, but other than that, your education does not depend on the degree. The skills you develop throughout life does not depend on a degree, okay? Your education is everything that you pick up throughout life and that you've learned. So the only problem with that in your career is that usually in a career, especially in healthcare, you have to have proof that you have certain education. So usually you have to have pieces of paper that say you've taken certain courses or that you say you have certain degrees. That's the only thing. Otherwise you can be as smart as you want and you can go out there and learn anything you want. You can read tons of books. Their internet is full of a wealth of information that you have access to. Everyone really does have access to free education via the internet, right? But you know, essentially in the corporate world, we do have to have these pieces of paper that says we have the standard education for, you know, for specific things. So that being said, my best thing I can say in this situation is just make sure that you know what your goals are. And then what I would do is figure out, LinkedIn is an amazing, amazing resource and there's so many ways you can use LinkedIn to reverse engineer and figure out exactly what steps you need to take to get to the position that you want in life, okay? So figure out exactly the career, do some research, all right? Then look those people up, look those job titles up on LinkedIn, find people who have them and then study their profiles because they're going to show you the education that they have. And they're going to show you the, you know, the different jobs that they've had and the positions that they've had in the past and what duties were, what they had to do in those jobs. And they'll probably show other things that they've done in their careers and the skills that they've been able to accumulate. You know, it's, if you want to also make sure you go to profiles that have just, that seem like they're very transparent about their entire career path because those you can learn so much from. Those are amazing ones. Also, they're very hireable. Those people usually will attract recruiters and those are the people who normally always get recruiters going after them, asking them if they want to be hired by such and such, this amazing company over here because it looks like you have all the experience. Those are the people that when you embellish your entire profile out there, then you get people coming to you, begging you to work for them. All right. So I think I threw out some gems right there. I hope that helps. And let's see if there's something else I can answer because I think I hear my child moving around and she's probably going to start crying any minute now. So let's see if there's anything else that I should go through right now before I hear her scream. Um, can, okay, yeah, I can do that. Let's see. This was so helpful for my HR course. Okay, you're welcome. Can I find, how can I find a mentor, a good one? Could you please shed some light on this? She's screaming. Okay, so really quick, the best way to find a mentor, there are a couple ways you can do this. Go, if you're not, if you don't have a job in healthcare already, or you don't have, if you have a job in healthcare, an entry-level job, perfect. Okay, so I'm assuming if you already do, maybe you're thinking this is your start, your foot got in the door, and you're just going to work your way through the ladder. If that's the case, then what I would do is network like crazy. Just try to meet, talk and get, make really good connections with all the people that you work with, people who are higher, a little bit higher authority. So the best you can do, yeah, just really connect with them and try to see if they're really good to talk to. If you have a shared connection with them, they seem like they care about your career and all that, start asking them questions about like, how did you get here? What does it take? What education do you think I should get, you know, to make it into this direction? And eventually you can come out and say, hey, will you be my mentor? But sometimes in those situations, especially the nice organic relationships that you build, it might, it might add pressure to the relationship, but if they seem like they are just, they're, they're really great friends, really great coworkers who are a little bit higher than you, and they're willing to help you and share everything that they know, that's amazing. That is a good mentor. That's a great mentor right there. And I would take that same concept that I just mentioned. And if you're able to get into a job shadowing situation or a volunteering experience or an internship, whether it's paid or unpaid, do the same thing. Find people around that you can talk to, you can connect with who are maybe managers or, you know, they they're in some sort of leadership position, something that you admire and you think that's sort of a direction that you want to go and really try to build a relationship with them and ask them everything you can. And if they seem like they're, they're connecting and they're willing to share, to go with it, just go with it and build a beautiful relationship with them and they're going to help you out so much. All right. Other than that, other ways you can do it, you can go to LinkedIn, you can find people on social media and YouTube is full of people who offer paid mentorships. All right. I used to do that, but I, you know, my child doesn't really let me have too much time to spend with you guys. So I don't really, I don't do that anymore. Maybe I will in the future, but right now I can't. And she's crying right now. So this is it. But yes, that would be a good way for you to find a good mentor, a free mentor, and probably a more genuine mentor. Okay. You guys, I will I'll talk to you later. I'll answer more questions later. Please give me questions if you have them. And also I'm coming up with a course very soon where I'm going to go dig in deep and give you guys all of the details to go from college up to executive level in healthcare administration. I mean, I'm going to spill everything. This course is going to be amazing. I feel like this is one of my greatest life's work. I'm putting everything into this and I just hope that you guys, you know, I'll let you guys know when it's released. And I hope that it helps everyone for all of you who decide to look into it and to purchase it. I swear I'm going to give you literally everything, everything, the very steps you need to take. I'm going to share, also give you guys templates for cold emailing about jobs and follow-up emails. And I'm going to give you cover letter templates. I'm going to give you a blueprint on how to find the best keywords for the ATS systems. And I'm going to give you the, you know, just worksheets on worksheets of how to, you know, network and everything. All right. There's a lot here that I'm working on, but it's coming up soon and it's going to be magical. And it's honestly, it's everything that I could, it's the, my greatest gift to this profession. So I hope that, and that you all go after it anyway. I will talk to you guys all later, please go to professorashley.com. There's so much, so many articles, a lot of information out there that will help you get into jobs and also help you possibly inspire you in healthcare, healthcare administration, and also other little gems in here and whatnot that you could pick up in the shop that might help you, some guides and things like that, that would help with your journey throughout healthcare administration and finding the best jobs for you. I had to go, my baby's crying, but I will see you guys later.