Lesson 20 — Activity 1: Why Do Career Research?
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Lesson 20 — Activity 1:
Why Do Career Research?
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You will probably spend many years of your life working. The more
you know about the different opportunities and possibilities that exist
for employment, the better you can prepare yourself. It is likely that
you will work at a variety of jobs during the course of your life.
Therefore, the process for planning a career must be flexible and
ongoing.
When searching for a career (also known as an occupation), you must be aware that different
employers look for different skills. However, certain skills that you
learn at one job site can be useful when applying for another job. These
skills are called transferable skills.
Here are two examples of transferable skills:
- You are working at a restaurant as a hostess. One of your duties involves collecting money from the diners and making change. You then take on a part-time job at Walmart as a cashier. The skills involved in making change at the restaurant are transferable to the duties that Walmart will require.
- You are working at Artistic Iron Works, welding rods to make stair rails. Over the summer, Custom Welding offers you a job welding pipe. The welding skills you have learned at Artistic Iron are transferable and will help you to weld pipe at Custom Welding.
Good career decisions require detailed research information about the
employment opportunities you would prefer in the world of work.
Information about the world of work is everywhere and at times it can be
overwhelming.
When beginning career research, one place to start is the Alberta Learning Information Service (ALIS). ALIS is a great place to gain information about careers and career planning. The ALIS website has some very useful information that you can examine to learn more about the value of career research.
For more information on career research, click here to access the ALIS website.
Here are the main steps in the career planning process, according to ALIS:
-
Self-Assessment
—
Self-assessment is the first step and
includes thinking about your wants, needs, skills, interests, and
abilities. You will make better career decisions when you have a better
understanding of who you want to be in your life and in the world of work.
Some questions to help assess your abilities are as follows:
- What are your talents and skills?
- What do you value?
- What are your interests?
- What experiences have helped you achieve skills for the world of work?
-
Click here to go to the ALIS website and take a short quiz to determine what career path(s) work best for you!
- Research
—
In this step, you will find out more about the career areas that are of interest to you. This includes such ideas as:
- Do you have an understanding of the duties and responsibilities of the job you have chosen?
- Looking at ways of doing the job — is the job full-time, part-time, or casual?
- Asking whether or not these jobs will open doors for other jobs.
- Decision-making
—
In this step, you take
the information gathered through your research and weigh the advantages
and disadvantages of each career choice. Once you have sorted out the
number of work possibilities, the questions to ask yourself are as
follows:
- Do you have the skills, education, and experience for the career choices?
- Will you need more training? If so, can you afford it?
- What applications will you need to fill out to obtain your goal?
- Action Planning
—
After you make a
decision, figure out how you are going to accomplish your goals. For
most people, reaching their goals requires a method of taking small
steps. Here are some questions to help you achieve your goals:
- Do you have support to try this career choice?
- If you need more training where do you go to get it?
Identifying these steps and working through them will help you achieve satisfaction and success in your career goals.