Jack Health Blog
January 11th, 2024 By Sofia Aldana
Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you had chosen a different career path?
If you do, you’re just like me. Throughout my life, I have had different passions which made me feel like an indecisive person with no definitive route. Up until a year ago, if you would have told me I would be in healthcare marketing… I would have thought you were crazy. But reflecting on my journey here, I know the empathy and passion I found within myself while exploring other paths led me right where I belong – with Jack Health, helping clients not only reach but connect with their audiences in ways that can change their lives.
I’ve always been an emotional and empathetic person which led me to study psychology. As a result, my emotional intelligence deepened, allowing me to validate people’s emotions and understand their needs through verbal and non-verbal communication. I knew these skills would one day work perfectly for a career in clinical psychology, but there was one problem: I didn’t connect with the clinical side of psychology.
This empathetic trait of mine has found its way into many aspects of my life, including another important part of my identity. At four years old I started singing and haven’t stopped since. Throughout the years, I realized singing connected me with people who were going through similar experiences, and it allowed me to bond with others. So, during my last two years studying psychology, I decided to chase a career in music. I started recording covers by popular artists. I then wrote and recorded two original songs, That’s Not Me and Turn Around, with a producer.
During those years I wrote lyrics that I still connect with so deeply – but for different reasons.
My song, Turn Around, expresses the frustration of living a life that doesn’t align with your desires and that it’s never too late to take a new path. At the time, I thought I had been singing this from a place of wisdom because I had already turned around and landed in the music industry. What I didn’t know is I would turn around again.
While I was singing and making music, I learned how to tell stories through songs. I found out that I could make people feel emotions and connect with them using my music. I realized that telling stories is important in healthcare too, just like in music. So, I decided to use my skills from singing and understanding people’s feelings in a new way – by helping healthcare brands share their stories.
Two years into my post-graduate career, I am coming off my summer internship at Jack Health and entering a new role as a member of the Jack team. Upon reflection, I see how the talents and skills I have acquired so far have helped me get where I am now. Psychology not only gave me the ability to empathize and understand people’s needs, but it also planted the seed for my passion for telling healthcare and clinical stories for brands. Music gave me the ability to connect, express, create, and gave me an understanding of production processes that I use every day. I get to apply all these skills and help healthcare brands express themselves by making their visions come to life. I take all the moving pieces of a project, the ideation, the planning and coordinating and put them together to make something beautiful. It’s an exhilarating, magical feeling that brings me joy every day.
After all these twists and turns, I still believe every one of the paths I took allowed me to expand my skillset and become a more versatile person. So, if you’re nervous about not having the right background or not being good enough for a role, don’t be. Some people might say I wasted five years of my life exploring areas I’m not currently pursuing. But I disagree. I think life has a magical way of getting you where you’re supposed to be. And for me, that’s here, at Jack Health.