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Rubric.pdf
Your ongoing imagining of your future, aided by some focus brought to the topic by this course, and specifically some of the career "matches" yielded by the self-assessments and inventories we undertook earlier, has by now perhaps shed further light on what goals you plan to set for your future life experience, formal and informal education, work and/or vocation.
Before we look at some essential steps that will help you to connect to a vocation out there that awaits you, your next task is to zero in on one specific job out there that you may, at the very least, have an interest in exploring in greater detail.
The Xello Website, its Matchmaker features, and Explore Careers section, will provide you with most if not all the information you will need, but feel free to explore other sources further.
Your next task is to create a slide presentation that explores key elements of a job topic of your choice. This exercise will hopefully help you think about some of the key questions one would want to know when deciding if a job is for you. Specifically,
Identifying and generally describing what the occupation is
A description of the general skills and personal characteristics needed for this career
A flow chart (or variation thereof) communicating this career's educational and training requirements. Include what high school credits/prerequisites one should/could take to get into the post-secondary programme you’re exploring. The link below will also be helpful.
Examples of the kinds of specific tasks someone in this job does
A hypothetical schedule of what a typical day on the job might look like for this career
Statistics, etc. about this job (numbers nationally, internationally), salary range, security, benefits; safety issues; employment prospects
An overall explanation of why this profession may be one you personally may be interested in. How is it a good match for you and what you want out of life and your career?
Find one newspaper/magazine article/news story that is about (or at least makes reference to) people in this profession. Provide a link to your article on the slide. Write a summary of the news story you found.
see Other Creative Considerations for Slides (below):
Other Creative Considerations for Slides:
In general when creating slides, always try to include interesting visual elements (photos, etc.) to accompany the information (don't use "cartoony" internet graphics; teach your viewers with actual photographs of people in action, their work place, and related charts and graphs, etc. that are relevant to your topic).
Break up information/words into clear bullet points.
(there are different ways of designing "slide shows;" in this case, be sure that each slide contains bullet points that are specific / substantial enough that your audience would learn about your subject matter even if you weren't there to present it orally.
In relation to the bullet above, try to strike an effective visual balance between specific information and the clutter of 'too many words.'
Be mindful of the overall visual layout of your words and pictures.
Be sure to upload your final product to the VLE.
Be ready to inspire the class with more career options!
Now that you have devoted some time to exploring different career paths that may await you, let's consider some practical steps one might need to take to actually secure employment -- to land a job!
Social media has transformed the world of people connecting with career challenges. Before the rise of the internet and social media, an informative, well-crafted resume and cover letter -- and getting them into the hands of a potential employer -- were two of the key, deliberate steps to take to represent yourself and what you have to offer the world of work. They ideally help get you "in the door" and in place for a job interview.
That remains the case today as well -- with the "digital footprint" of whatever "representation" of "you" that exists in the online world being an added layer of information these days future employers could potentially consider as part of their determination of what you have to offer. As always with media literacy, it is important to note that while some of this "representation" may be in your control (and accurate), some of it is not. Potential employers and employees should cautiously bear this in mind as they make judgements and decisions about people, and what intentionally or not is made public online about people -- sometimes by others, anonymously, without the best of intentions!
In addition, online work placement platforms such as LinkedIn, as well as websites for individual employers, provide job seekers secure (and private) opportunities to network and share information about themselves with potential employers. All such platforms rely heavily on their capacity to search for the right matches, making use of key words found in people's profiles and resumes.
Currently, however, being able to upload a resume of yourself, ideally tailored more specifically to a particular job for which you are applying, remains a standard approach one can expect as part of your job search. One way or another, a potential employer needs some kind of starting point about you.
In fact, the resume (and cover letter) are often the first tangible "products" that you have created that potential employers can see. What you want to avoid is being generic (meaning "lacking imagination or originality; predictable and unoriginal.") That is why one has to be very careful with relying on "resume builder" programmes like the one even offered by Xello (in the "About Me" section). Do you want to present a generic, cookie-cutter image of yourself (and what you are capable of doing, even with a task like this), or do you want to represent yourself in an authentic, unique way? Do you choose to communicate something in the same, generic way that countless other people have also done? That choice alone may tell an employer a lot about who you are. Whose resume would YOU put on the top of the pile? What pile would the generic ones go into?
If you want, you can explore the "resume maker" function and tips on Xello, and even try it out to provide you with an initial guide. At the end of its process, it creates a PDF for you containing information you'll want to incorporate into your final product. Perhaps you'll find other resume "templates" online that you like. Remember though: Do you like the "product" it spits out at the end, or could you do better? How will you set yourself apart from others who settle for such cookie-cutter, template versions? Most importantly, what are you saying with the content you are displaying about yourself, and how are you saying it? Use the work we do today to arrive at your own, unique, non-generic resume.
One way to find out is to look at six examples of resumes produced about the same person (we will do the same with some sample cover letters). As a class, we will critique each of these examples. Each one is designed to be progressively "better" than the next. You be the judge! But first, read this "tip sheet" on resumes.
We will repeat this process for cover letters, beginning with this tip sheet:
Here are the resume and cover letter samples (of what, and what not, to do!)
Resume A: Room for Improvement?
Resume B: What other improvements could be made?
Resume C: What other improvements could be made?
Resume D: What other improvements could be made?
Resume E: What other improvements could be made?
Resume F: Are we done? You be the judge!
As discussed, we will undertake the same process of critique for the following, sample cover letters....
Cover Letter A: Room for improvement?
Cover Letter B: More or less effective? Why?
Cover Letter C: More or less effective? Why?
Cover Letter D: More or less effective? Why?
Cover Letter E: More or less effective? Why?
Resume Tips.pdfHere, again, are the tip sheets for resumes....
Cover Letter Tips.pdf...and for cover letters.
You are now in a better position to create your own resume and cover letter. Be sure to include these in your Learning Portfolio. Rubric
The resume and cover letter that you have worked on in this course may provide you with the foundation for all of your resumes and cover letters to come. It can serve as a document which you can regularly update and tailor to different job applications as, one step at a time, you build upon your life experiences and have more and more things about yourself to include.
Depending upon the "career" route you take, all that will then remain for you to do to at least secure a job interview with a potential employer will be to explore all the possible ways one can search for and locate a specific job opening in today's world.
That is the next item on our agenda
Imagine you have completed whatever life experiences and education that for now you think you need. You are now ready to pursue that vocation -- perhaps one that you explored as part of your work in this course. Perhaps you've saved enough money and/or created circumstances through friends and family that you now have the freedom, for a little while anyway, to devote yourself completely to a job search -- while staying healthy and ready to go for when that job interview / opportunity comes along.
It's an exciting prospect. Perhaps you sit yourself down in a coffee shop, the sunlight shining through the windows, a hot or cool beverage of your choice by your side -- it's just you, your laptop and/or other device, and your future! But where to begin?
Work your way through the following task, record your progress, and include the end result in your Careers Folder.
Now imagine you've landed that job interview. This, often, is the final step in the process of securing employment. The temptation, perhaps, is to see a job interview as this moment where the onus is ALL ON YOU to blow them away with just how amazing you are and what you can do...but looking at it that way puts a lot of imaginary pressure on yourself.
Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)
Ottawa Construction Association - Careers
AM: We Built This City
PM: We Built This City
You've worked hard, you know what you can do, you have the qualifications, and you've identified a job where you think you can make a meaningful difference. This preparedness is part of where confidence comes from.
Thus, look at a job interview as an opportunity to confidently brainstorm with the one or more people who are interviewing you about how, together, you can work towards advancing the organization's objectives -- how you may be a good fit for their team, and how this team may be a good fit for you.
In a sense, see it as an opportunity to interview them! Is this organization, and this team of people, a good fit for you? Now that imaginary pressure is off. It's not about you, or even them. It's about achieving the larger goals of the organization together. You're ready; with respect -- are they?
A few additional fundamentals you could bear in mind going into the job interview:
Do your research: have a good sense of what the job, and the organization you are applying for, is all about; understand what they need and be ready with solutions.
Anticipate the kinds of questions you might get; be ready with answers that provide examples of how you have done or dealt with something in the past, and how you might do so in the future -- specifics, details that tell them more about who you are and what you can do. In this way, try to lead the conversation, rather than leaving it up to the interviewer to come up with the next topic of conversation;
One of the magical things about film, like other forms of art, is that it helps us to see worlds other than our own. It can show us what is possible in other people's lives, and in our own life too if we try! Take Rudy for example. Stay tuned for our very own case study in dreams....
Be ready to be authentic and genuine. Be ready for a question like, "tell me about yourself;" what qualities and experiences can you talk about and draw upon about yourself that you can then relate to the job, and the organization, you're applying to be a part of?
Get a good night's sleep / eat well / exercise / be prepared with what you need to bring / be on time / dress and groom in a way you think gives the best personal impression of who you are in the workplace; use the bathroom before heading in!
Listen to what they have to say, and be ready to summarize your understanding of what you've heard, as part of that "brainstorming," "right fit" process. Resist telling them what you think they want to hear; instead, intelligently contribute to a conversation about the organization's goals.
Search for "job interview tip" videos for more insights. Here are a few to look at:
To end our work together, we return to the beginning, where, among other things, we established that this course is, above all, about the fulfillment of what dreams you have, and what dreams may come, for the life you have now and the one that lies ahead.
As you embark on this journey of many steps beneath you feet, remember our discussions about marching to your own beat, that this is YOUR journey. Be respectful of advice you may receive, duties and responsibilities you may have, and even the expectations that others may have for you -- family, culture, society...much of it no doubt comes from a loving place. But at the end of the day, follow your OWN dreams, your own intuition, your own decision-making process, and don't let anyone tell you something you hope to achieve for your life is not possible.
With that, some friends of mine and I send you off with some of that same advice we've already discussed in our work together. The ancient Chinese philosopher K'ung Fu-Tze (Confucius), who lived from 551 BCE to 478 BCE, and said:
"Find a job that you love and you will never work a day in your life."
...the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived a hundred years after K'ung Fu-Tze, and seemed to link all of these ideas about how the work you do, the work you enjoy doing, can helps others:
"Where your interests and the needs of the world meet, there lies your vocation."
and Viktor Frankl, who in his book Man's Search for Meaning, wrote:
"...a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy."
I hope you have discovered that work can be what can provide one such reason.
We'll let Lao Tzu, the contemporary of our friend K'ung Fu-Tze (Confucius) and recognized as the founder of Taoism, have the second last word. It was he who was said to have written:
"A journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one's feet," or, as people often re-work this quotation from Book Two, Chapter LXIV of the Tao Te Ching to say, "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Go now. Make your dreams for you and the world come true. Be kind, shoot for the stars, and Enjoy!
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