#6 Careers
Fertile Question: What practical steps can I take over the next 10 years to make me the best candidate for my chosen career?
“We all have passions, you don't get to choose them, they pick you. But you have to be alert to them. You have to be looking for them. And when you find your passion, it's a fantastic gift for you because it gives you direction. It gives you purpose. You can have a job. You can have a career. Or you can have a calling."
Jeff Bezos - founder of Amazon
The aim of this inquiry is to give you the opportunity to investigate a career pathway that you are interested in. Perhaps more important is the need to understand what you need to do, starting now, that will enable you to successfully pursue your interest into the future.
What do you need to do?
Decide on a career that you are interested in exploring (use Career quest or No major drama to give you some options)
Find out about the career pathway: Essentially how do you do well in that career?
Explain the qualifications and qualities that you need
Create a detailed plan, this will take the form of a report, of what you need to do to get from here (now) to there (the future). Explain the rationale behind each step in your plan. Write it as a recipe for your success in this career pathway, but have in mind that we want this to serve as a “how to” resource for others. See example for the career of Teaching.
Present your plan to the class as either a presentation or a video.
Possible Research Questions:
What does the job involve?
What qualifications do I need?
How much does your job pay annually?
What skills and knowledge do I need to gain through those qualifications?
What attributes do I need to be successful in this career?
What are employers looking for when they hire people for this career?
What are the 21st Century skills/Habits of Mind/Key Competencies/ Attributes/ Characteristics Qualities . . . that I need to be successful?
How do I develop these?
How will I deal with the challenges my job involves?
What subjects do you need to take at school to prepare yourself for the career?
What extra curricular activities will help you develop the attributes you need for the job?
Resources
About the career:
Careers NZ: The first stop for information about almost every career in NZ
Just the job - heaps of short videos about a range of jobs available in NZ.
What can I do with a career in... - awesome resource from Canterbury University
Opportunity Grows here: focused on careers in agriculture and horticulture (growing things....)
Careers NZ Facebook page – heaps of video’s on what a number of different careers are like
Numerical data – Trade me Salary guide
Numerical data – Occupation data – 2013 Census
Explore the career fields offered by Google Career Certificate and check out their report on the future of work and education.
Desired Qualities
Online DISC testing – psycho metric testing used to ‘measure’ personality traits (as opposed to academic qualifications)
VIA Character survey – take this free survey to identify your character traits.
High 5 Character strength test - the free on line test reveals your strengths based on how you response to questions.
7 critical skills for jobs of the future – a good summary of those key skills and attributes most careers need.
Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills – video of desirable skills as defined by business leaders in terms of what employees need
Rocketlab's Peter Beck identifies what he looks for in an employee.
Pathways Presentation by Mr Hulsebosch
Desired Competencies (skills)
Employability skills - what are the skills that employers are looking for?
School Leavers Tool kit: Practical skills for life
