Preparing for Success: Simple Habits That Can Help You Thrive in Any Career

You're sitting in class. The instructor explains something. Everyone around you seems to understand. Meanwhile, you're thinking: “Wait…what?” You consider raising your hand. Then another thought appears: "Maybe everyone else gets it." "I don't want to ask a stupid question." "What if I should already know this?" So you stay quiet. Later, you sit down to study and realize you still don't understand. Sound familiar? Many students hesitate to ask questions because they're afraid of appearing confused, inexperienced, or unprepared. But here's something worth remembering: You're learning. You're not supposed to enter every classroom already knowing everything you're there to learn. Questions can be an important part of education. And developing the confidence to say “I'm not sure I understand this yet” can actually be a strength. 1. Being Confused Doesn't Mean You're a Bad Student Learning something new can be uncomfortable. You're being introduced to information, terminology, ideas, or skills you may not have encountered before. Of course there may be moments when you don't immediately understand. That doesn't automatically mean: “I'm not smart enough.” It may simply mean: “I need this explained differently.” or: “I need more time with this.” or: “There's one part I'm missing.” Try not to turn a temporary moment of confusion into a judgment about your ability. You don't understand it yet . That's different from being incapable of understanding it. 2. Questions Help You Find the Missing Piece Sometimes you understand 90% of something. There's just one missing piece preventing everything else from making sense. A question can help you identify it. For example: “Can you explain what this term means?” “Can you go over that part again?” “I'm following the first step, but I'm confused about what happens next.” “Am I understanding this correctly?” A specific question gives the instructor or appropriate person a better idea of where you're getting stuck. You may discover that you were much closer to understanding than you thought. 3. Don't Pretend to Understand Just Because You're Embarrassed We've probably all done this at some point. Someone asks: “Does that make sense?” And you automatically say: “Yep!” Meanwhile, internally: Absolutely not. Pretending to understand may help you avoid embarrassment for five seconds. But later, you're still responsible for learning the information. If something genuinely doesn't make sense, it can be better to seek clarification at an appropriate time than to carry the confusion forward. Your goal isn't to look like you're learning. Your goal is to actually learn. 4. Try to Make Your Question Specific There's a difference between saying: “I don't understand anything.” and: “I understand this part, but I'm confused about this section.” Specific questions can be easier to answer. Before asking, take a moment to identify where you became confused. Ask yourself: What exactly don't I understand? What part do I understand? Where did I lose track? Is there a term I don't know? Am I confused about the explanation or the overall idea? Learning how to form good questions can become a skill of its own. 5. Write Your Questions Down While You Study Have you ever been studying at home, thought of an important question, and then completely forgotten it by the next class? Keep a question list. It can be incredibly simple. Use a notebook or your phone and write: Questions to Ask Then whenever something confuses you, add it. Later, you can determine whether the question was answered through your continued studying or whether you still need clarification. This can also help prevent you from sitting in class thinking: "I KNOW there was something I wanted to ask..." 6. Try First—Then Ask for Help Asking questions is valuable. But there's also a difference between seeking clarification and expecting someone else to do all of your thinking for you. Before asking for help, make an appropriate effort. Review your notes. Read the instructions again. Think about what was explained. Try to identify the specific point where you're confused. Then ask. Instead of: “I don't get any of this. Tell me what to do.” you may be able to say: “I reviewed this section, and I understand the first part, but I'm still confused about this. Can you explain it?” Now you're demonstrating two things: You made an effort. and You recognize where you need help. That's productive learning. 7. Your Question May Help Someone Else Too Here's something students often don't realize: You may not be the only confused person in the room. Sometimes several people are thinking: “I hope somebody asks because I have no idea what's happening.” 😂 Then one person raises their hand. Suddenly, everyone gets the clarification they needed. You shouldn't ask questions solely for other people's benefit, of course. But don't automatically assume you're the only person who didn't understand something. Other students may simply be nervous about asking too. 8. Asking Questions Can Prevent Misunderstandings When you're unsure about something, guessing can sometimes create a bigger problem. This is particularly important as students prepare for professional environments. If instructions aren't clear, an appropriate question can be better than making an assumption. If you're unsure about an expectation, clarify it. If something doesn't match what you thought you understood, ask. If you're uncertain about what you're supposed to do, seek guidance from the appropriate person. You won't always be expected to independently know every answer. But you should develop the judgment to recognize when you don't have enough information to proceed confidently. 9. Healthcare Professionals Continue Asking Questions Too Becoming a professional doesn't mean reaching a point where you never need clarification again. Workplaces have different policies. Procedures can change. Responsibilities vary. New situations arise. People continue learning throughout their careers. Knowing when to ask the appropriate person for guidance can be part of professional judgment. This is especially important in healthcare, where individuals should work within the responsibilities of their roles and follow applicable workplace procedures. Confidence doesn't mean: “I always know the answer.” Sometimes confidence looks like: “I don't know the answer, but I know I need to ask.” 10. Ask the Right Person Not every question should be answered by whoever happens to be standing closest to you. Classmates can sometimes be helpful study partners. Coworkers can sometimes share useful information. Friends may want to help. The internet contains endless information. But when accuracy matters, consider the source. During training, your instructor or appropriate school resource may be the right place for clarification about course expectations or material. In a workplace, questions may need to go to the appropriate supervisor or designated professional according to workplace procedures. Part of asking good questions is knowing who is qualified or responsible for answering them. 11. Don't Be Embarrassed to Ask for Something to Be Explained Differently Sometimes an explanation simply doesn't connect with you the first time. That happens. You might say: “Could you explain that another way?” or: “Could you give another example?” Different explanations can help information click. Maybe the first explanation was technically clear, but your brain needed another way of looking at it. That doesn't mean the instructor explained it badly. It doesn't mean you're incapable. It simply means learning isn't always immediate. 12. Questions Can Make Studying More Effective Questions aren't only for the classroom. They can improve your independent studying too. Instead of simply reading your notes, turn the information into questions. Ask yourself: What does this mean? Why is this important? Can I explain this without looking? What am I forgetting? Which part still confuses me? What should I ask about next time? Now you're actively interacting with the material instead of simply looking at it. The questions themselves can reveal what you understand and what needs more work. 13. Don't Let One Unhelpful Experience Silence You Maybe you've asked a question before and someone made you feel embarrassed. Maybe another student laughed. Maybe someone responded impatiently. That can make you hesitant to ask again. But one uncomfortable experience doesn't mean your future questions don't deserve answers. Continue learning how to ask appropriate questions at appropriate times and through the proper channels. Your education is too important to sacrifice because you're worried someone might think you should already know something. You're there to learn. Let yourself learn. 14. Questions and Independence Can Exist Together Strong students don't necessarily ask the most questions. They also don't necessarily ask the fewest. The goal is balance. Try to solve what you reasonably can. Use the resources available to you. Think. Review. Practice. Then recognize when you've reached the point where clarification would help. Independence doesn't mean refusing help. It means taking responsibility for your learning—including recognizing when you need additional information. 15. Replace “I Should Know This” With “Let Me Learn This” That small change in language can make a big difference. Instead of: “I should already know this.” Try: “Let me make sure I understand this.” Instead of: “I'm embarrassed that I'm confused.” Try: “What exactly am I confused about?” Instead of: “I don't want anyone to think I'm struggling.” Try: “What do I need to do to improve?” Learning becomes much easier when you're more interested in understanding than appearing perfect. Final Thoughts Asking questions doesn't mean you're incapable. It means you've recognized a gap between what you currently understand and what you're trying to learn. What matters is what you do next. Make an effort. Review. Think. Identify what's confusing you. Ask an appropriate question. Listen to the answer. Then apply what you've learned. Over time, you may find yourself asking fewer questions about things that once confused you—and better questions about the new things you're learning. That's growth. Don't measure your intelligence by how rarely you need help. Measure your progress by how willing you are to learn what you don't know yet. Because sometimes one of the strongest sentences a student can say is simply: “I'm not sure I understand. Can you explain that again?” 💡 Student Success Tip Create a “Questions List” while you're studying. Whenever you become confused, write down: 1. What topic am I reviewing? 2. What part do I understand? 3. What specifically am I confused about? Then bring the unresolved questions to the appropriate person. This can turn: “I don't understand anything!” into: “I understand most of this, but I need help with this specific part.” That's much easier to work with. 🤔 A Question to Think About When you don't understand something, what usually stops you from asking? Are you afraid of looking inexperienced? Do you assume everyone else already understands? Do you worry your question isn't important enough? Now ask yourself: Is protecting myself from a few seconds of embarrassment worth remaining confused? Give yourself permission to be a learner. Learners ask questions. Build Your Confidence as You Learn Beginning healthcare education can mean encountering new information, terminology, expectations, and practical learning experiences. You aren't expected to approach learning as someone who already knows everything. Being willing to listen, study, practice, ask appropriate questions, and continue improving can all be part of developing as a student. If you're interested in exploring a future in direct care, Fordham Institute offers training programs for individuals interested in becoming a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) or Home Health Aide (HHA) . Contact Fordham Institute to learn more about upcoming classes, program information, and registration. 📞 Call Fordham Institute at (718) 480-1804 You don't have to know everything to move forward. Sometimes progress begins with being brave enough to ask what you don't know.

Thinking about starting a career in healthcare when you've never worked in healthcare before? You may look at your previous experience and think: “None of this has anything to do with healthcare.” Maybe you've worked in retail. Customer service. Food service. An office. Childcare. Hospitality. A completely different industry. Or maybe you've spent years managing responsibilities at home and are now considering entering or returning to the workforce. It's easy to assume that changing fields means starting completely from zero. But that's not always true. Throughout your previous jobs, education, volunteer experiences, and everyday responsibilities, you may have developed abilities known as transferable skills . These are skills that can remain useful when you move from one role or industry into another. Transferable skills don't replace healthcare-specific education, training, credentials, or the knowledge required for a particular role. But they may give you something valuable to build upon as you begin a new direction. 1. What Are Transferable Skills? Transferable skills are abilities that can be useful in more than one type of job or environment. For example, imagine someone who has spent several years working in customer service. They may never have worked in healthcare. But during those years, they may have learned how to: Communicate with many different personalities Remain calm during difficult interactions Listen carefully Manage multiple responsibilities Work as part of a team Follow workplace procedures Show up on time Solve everyday problems Ask a supervisor for help when needed The environment may change. The person's responsibilities may change. But some of the professional habits they've developed can travel with them. That's why they're called transferable skills. 2. Communication Is a Transferable Skill Think about how many jobs require communication. Receptionists communicate. Cashiers communicate. Teachers communicate. Restaurant employees communicate. Office workers communicate. Managers communicate. Customer service representatives communicate. Healthcare professionals communicate too. The exact conversations and professional responsibilities may be very different, but previous experience communicating with people can still give you a foundation to build upon. Have you learned how to listen? Explain information clearly? Speak respectfully? Ask questions? Handle misunderstandings? Adjust how you communicate with different personalities? Those experiences matter. Entering a new industry may require you to learn new terminology, expectations, and communication procedures, but you aren't necessarily learning the concept of communication for the first time. 3. Customer Service Can Teach You About Working With People Healthcare is not the same as customer service, and the responsibilities should not be treated as interchangeable. But someone with a strong customer-service background may have developed useful people skills. Think about what customer-facing work can require. Patience. Listening. Professionalism. Remaining respectful when someone is frustrated. Problem-solving. Working with people from many different backgrounds. Managing your own emotions during difficult interactions. Those experiences may help you enter another people-centered field with a better understanding of how much your attitude and communication can affect an interaction. The setting is different. The responsibilities are different. But some of the human skills can still transfer. 4. Teamwork Can Follow You Into a New Industry Maybe you've never been part of a healthcare team. But have you ever been part of any team? Have you worked with coworkers to complete responsibilities? Communicated when something went wrong? Helped someone when appropriate? Accepted instructions from a supervisor? Handled disagreements professionally? Learned how your responsibilities affected everyone else's? If so, you've already had experience with teamwork. A new healthcare environment may have different roles, responsibilities, procedures, and expectations that you'll need to learn. But understanding that your work affects other people is already an important professional lesson. 5. Dependability Doesn't Belong to One Career Being dependable is valuable in many industries. Do you show up when expected? Do you take responsibilities seriously? Do you communicate appropriately if a problem occurs? Do you follow through? Do people know they can count on you to do what you've agreed to do? Those habits don't disappear when you change careers. If you've developed a reputation for being responsible in one environment, that's something you can continue strengthening in the next. A new career may require new knowledge. But responsibility itself isn't new. 6. Time Management May Be Something You've Practiced for Years Think you're bad at time management because you've never used a fancy planner? 😂 Think again. Have you ever balanced work with family responsibilities? Managed appointments? Handled several tasks during a shift? Worked while attending school? Organized children's schedules? Managed household responsibilities? Met deadlines? Arrived somewhere on time despite having several things to do beforehand? You've been practicing some form of time management. That doesn't mean every routine will transfer perfectly into a new environment. But it does mean you may already understand something important: Time has to be managed intentionally. When you enter school or a new job, you can continue developing that skill for your new responsibilities. 7. Patience Can Come From Many Life Experiences You don't need a previous healthcare job to have learned patience. Maybe you've worked with children. Maybe you've cared for family members. Maybe you've worked with the public. Maybe you've trained new employees. Maybe you've handled frustrated customers. Maybe you've worked in an environment where things didn't always go according to plan. Patience can develop through many different experiences. And patience doesn't mean allowing inappropriate behavior or ignoring important concerns. It means developing the ability to manage your response, communicate appropriately, and avoid allowing frustration to control every interaction. That's something you can continue strengthening wherever your career takes you. 8. Organization Is More Valuable Than You May Realize Have you ever: Kept track of appointments? Managed paperwork? Organized supplies? Maintained a schedule? Balanced multiple responsibilities? Created lists so you wouldn't forget something? Kept information where you could find it later? Those are organizational habits. Different workplaces will have their own systems, procedures, and requirements that employees need to follow. But if you've already learned the value of staying organized, you have a foundation for adapting to new systems. 9. Problem-Solving Is Another Skill That Can Travel With You Every job has problems. The problems themselves may be completely different, but the thinking process can sometimes be similar. Something isn't going according to plan. What do you do? Do you panic? Ignore it? Guess? Or do you stop, evaluate the situation, use the information available to you, and seek help from the appropriate person when necessary? Good problem-solving doesn't mean handling everything independently. In fact, sometimes the best decision is recognizing: “This is outside what I should handle myself. I need guidance.” Knowing when to ask for help can be part of good judgment. 10. Life Experience Can Teach Skills Too Not every useful ability comes from paid employment. Life teaches us things. Perhaps you've spent years managing a household. Maybe you've volunteered in your community. Maybe you've helped organize events. Maybe you've cared for family members. Maybe you've balanced parenting, school, appointments, finances, and countless responsibilities at the same time. Those experiences don't automatically qualify someone for a healthcare role, and informal caregiving is not the same as professional healthcare training. But life experiences may help you recognize personal strengths you've developed. Responsibility. Patience. Organization. Communication. Compassion. Adaptability. Resilience. Sometimes people underestimate themselves because they're only counting the skills that came with an official job title. 11. Transferable Skills Don't Replace Training This is an important distinction. Recognizing transferable skills doesn't mean assuming: “I'm good with people, so I already know how to work in healthcare.” Healthcare roles can involve specific knowledge, responsibilities, procedures, professional boundaries, and training requirements. Transferable skills are a foundation—not a substitute. Think of it this way: Your previous experiences may have given you some of the tools you bring with you. Training helps you develop the knowledge and skills needed for the new path you're pursuing. Both can matter. 12. Learn How to Describe Your Transferable Skills When changing careers, people sometimes look at their résumé and think: “Nothing I've done is relevant.” Instead of only looking at job titles, look underneath them. What did the job require from you? Suppose you worked in retail. Instead of only thinking: “I worked in a store.” You might recognize that the role helped you practice: Customer communication Teamwork Time management Organization Handling multiple responsibilities Following workplace procedures The goal isn't to exaggerate your experience or pretend it was healthcare experience. Always represent your background accurately. But you can still recognize and appropriately describe the abilities you genuinely developed. 13. Don't Disqualify Yourself Before You Begin Career changers sometimes compare themselves to people who already have years of experience in the field. Then they think: “Everyone knows more than me.” Of course someone with years of experience may know more about that particular field. They've had years to learn. You haven't had those years yet . Being new doesn't mean you have nothing to offer. You're bringing your previous experiences with you while beginning to develop new knowledge. Instead of asking: “Why am I not already as experienced as them?” ask: “What strengths am I bringing with me, and what do I need to learn next?” That's a much more useful question. 14. Your Previous Career Wasn't Necessarily Wasted Time This is especially important for adults making a career change. You may look back and think: “I should have started sooner.” But your previous years weren't automatically wasted. You worked. You learned. You dealt with people. You solved problems. You discovered things about yourself. You developed strengths. You probably made mistakes and learned from some of those too. Your next career doesn't have to erase everything that came before it. Sometimes you bring pieces of your previous experiences with you. 15. Start Taking Inventory of What You Already Have Before focusing entirely on what you still need to learn, take a moment to recognize what you've already developed. Ask yourself: What responsibilities have I handled? What kinds of people have I worked with? What difficult situations have I learned to navigate? What do people usually rely on me for? What professional habits have I developed? What skills from my previous experiences could still be useful somewhere new? Then ask: What do I need to learn next? Now you're looking at the complete picture. Not: “I know nothing.” But: “I have a foundation—and now I need to build on it.” Final Thoughts Changing careers can make you feel like you're starting over. In some ways, you are beginning something new. You'll have new information to learn. New expectations. New responsibilities. New environments. New challenges. But beginning something new doesn't mean everything you've learned before suddenly disappears. Your communication skills can come with you. Your work ethic can come with you. Your patience can come with you. Your organizational habits can come with you. Your ability to work with others can come with you. Your life experience comes with you too. Then education, training, experience, and continued learning can help you build the skills and knowledge required for your new direction. So if you've been thinking: “I don't have healthcare experience. I'm starting with nothing.” Take another look. You may be starting a new field . But you aren't necessarily starting as a person with no skills at all. 💡 Career Tip Take a piece of paper and create two columns. In the first, write: “Things I've Done” In the second, write: “Skills They Taught Me” For example: Worked in customer service → Communication, patience, problem-solving Managed an office → Organization, time management, communication Worked in a restaurant → Teamwork, working under pressure, multitasking Managed family responsibilities → Organization, patience, scheduling, responsibility Don't exaggerate. Simply identify the genuine skills you've developed. You may realize you have more to build upon than you thought. 🤔 A Question to Think About Think about all of your previous jobs, responsibilities, education, and life experiences. What is one skill you've developed outside of healthcare that could help you become a stronger student or future professional? And then ask: What new skill would I like to develop next? Your future doesn't have to begin by throwing away your past. Sometimes it begins by building on it. Thinking About Bringing Your Skills Into Healthcare? If you've developed strong people skills, responsibility, patience, communication, or other transferable abilities and you're interested in exploring healthcare, your next step may be learning more about the training required for a specific role. Fordham Institute offers training programs for individuals interested in becoming a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) or Home Health Aide (HHA). Healthcare-specific training is an opportunity to build new knowledge and practical skills on top of the strengths and experiences you already bring with you. Contact Fordham Institute to learn more about upcoming classes, program information, and registration. 📞 Call Fordham Institute at (718) 480-1804 You may be entering a new field—but you're bringing everything you've learned along the way with you.