- I've had a passion for career planning ever since I took a career planning workshop in 1983. (Story) Although I do not have the certifications, I’ve spent the intervening 29 years accumulating enough knowledge and skills in career planning to be almost the equivalent of a Career Development Facilitator or a Career Coach.
- I spent the last 6 years (17 years ago) in IBM as a programmer for the education and personnel departments.
- I was a member of The National Career Development Association (NCDA) [a founding division of the American Counseling Association (ACA)] for 5 years and received the President's Award in 2005 for developing a "Career Development Forum".
- I was an Association of Computer-based Systems for Career Information (ACSCI) board member for 6 years. ACSCI and portions of America's Career Resource Network (ACRN) have merged to create a new organization called Alliance of Career Resource Professionals (ACRP)
- I'm been developing Internet-based tools that anyone in the world can use to do their career planning.
- It began in 2006 with a blogging platform I started called LifeWork Planning Services.
- In 2010 I learned about Google Docs (GD) and GD Templates and saw that as a better tool for Internet users. Here is the set of Google Docs
- In November of 2011 I discovered that I could create a Google Site website that I could offer as a simpler and more elegant template that a user could copy (in one click) and edit to their needs. This is it. I try to spend about 2 hrs a day working on it by moving text from my blog and GDs. It is only 40% complete. When it is 100% complete, I will offer it as a template.
Why I want to mentor a student
When I was about ten years old, someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and it didn't take me long to reply "doctor". To this day, I still wonder where that came from because no one (not even my parents) ever counseled me on career paths. Dad was an engineer and mom a housewife and neither offered any career advice. The only thing that I can recall is that I wanted to make a lot of money and I wanted to be respected. I've since learned that that is NOT the basis for planning a career and it is very important that others learn this as early as possible.
I'm retired now and I want to give back. I believe I have a lot to offer a student who is motivated to want to discover what they want to do with their life.
My ideal mentoring situation
I know this is an ideal environment. I would like to have at least one student, who meets the following criteria, to perform the tasks listed below and work with me in a quid-pro-quo fashion where I will offer my career cybermentoring [1] services to him so he can effectively do his career/LifeWork planning, and he will evaluate this Google Site Template from a student's point of view and suggest improvements. The most important qualifications are at the top.
- Interest in and use of the Internet: The student must have a strong interest in the Internet and enjoy using it.
- Access to the Internet: Once a student begins work on LWPS, she will need to spend some time to learn how to use its functions and features. So, I think, an average of an hour a day access to the Internet is reasonable. In most cases, she may average only 10-15 minutes a day to journal, check on activity, interact with others, etc. At other times, she may want to spend hours exploring.
- Parental approval and participation: Parental approval is a prerequisite. Parental participation and oversight is requested and encouraged.
- e-mail address: Parents must be either willing to have the student use their e-mail address to receive e-mail notifications of comments to posts and announcements from me, or provide me with a note that the student may use his own e-mail address.
- Highly motivated to learn about themselves: The student should want to learn more about herself and want to plan for her future. It would help if she had strong leadership skills as well as the willingness and ability to follow instructions.
- ePortfolio: The student is eager to convert her paper portfolio into an electronic portfolio.
- eSkills: He must be capable of easily navigating the Internet. It would be ideal if he has an interest in blogs and knows some simple html coding.
- Age: I would prefer to start with a junior or senior but, if none are available, a sophomore would be acceptable. I think a freshman has too much else to think about.
- School counselor: If the school has a career counselor, I invite her/him to join in the discussions we (student, parent, teacher) have.
- Patience: LWPS is new and still growing. It is important that the student be capable of adjusting to changing requirements.
[1] Career cybermentoring is a new term I have coined. Since I only have a BA degree in psychology, and no credentials like career development facilitator (CDF) or career coach or career counselor, I limit my services to mentoring - over the Internet via this LWP platform. When I feel that I am not serving the student, I will say so and will suggest alternative services.
- Is the WOIS eportfolio (described here) portable? A student can COPY from their WOIS eportfolio into their version of this "My LifeWork Planning (e)Portfolio" Google Site.
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