ASSISTANTS: BOOST YOUR CAREER!

Be curious about your profession and your employer. Spend time reading professional publications and blogs about audiology assistants and speech-language pathology assistants. Sign up for training when it’s offered, and even discuss external training opportunities with your supervisor. Join a special interest group (SIG); these are professional communities that focus on a specific topic in speech, language, hearing, and related areas. You’ll find a wealth of information and communities through ASHA, devoted to many topics including school-based issues, telepractice, hearing and hearing disorders in childhood, and craniofacial and velopharyngeal disorders, among others. Plus, SIGs are a great way to build your network of colleagues.Be curious about your profession and your employer. Spend time reading professional publications and blogs about audiology assistants and speech-language pathology assistants. Sign up for training when it’s offered, and even discuss external training opportunities with your supervisor. Join a special interest group (SIG); these are professional communities that focus on a specific topic in speech, language, hearing, and related areas. You’ll find a wealth of information and communities through ASHA, devoted to many topics including school-based issues, telepractice, hearing and hearing disorders in childhood, and craniofacial and velopharyngeal disorders, among others. Plus, SIGs are a great way to build your network of colleagues.

Collaboration works. Audiology assistants and speech-language pathology assistants remember your supervisor is your most valuable asset in terms of procedures and appropriate tasks related to your position. They can help you grow! Always listen to what they share and ask questions. Make sure you try to see the big picture in the same way that they do.

Set small goals throughout the year related to your daily work. Identify new skills you can learn as an audiology assistant and speech-language pathology assistant to help you advance. Make a list of goals and set deadlines for reaching them. Share them with your supervisor. With your supervisor’s permission, expand outside your comfort zone—present at a meeting, write an article for your organization’s newsletter, or something else that makes you stretch.

Take initiative and volunteer for new tasks. You never know what you’ll learn along the way. See each of these new opportunities as a chance to learn and grow as an audiology assistant and speech-language pathology assistant.

Doing continual self-assessment is important, but so is getting feedback from others. Make sure you ask for feedback with some key questions like, “How is this working for you?” or, “What could I do to make this even better next time?” These simple questions can help you continually learn and advance.