Sample through to career selection

You found your purpose (Link to post) and have made the decision on the career path to take. What’s next?

It may be wise to ‘sample’ or ‘experiment’ the profession you have chosen to embark on. This may save you time, money and unnecessary discomfort, especially if it takes you through the academic route.

Here are three ways to explore and experience the career you have chosen to take.

1. Take an internship or volunteer as an apprentice in a profession of your choice. Use the time to ask, explore, inquire and experience your selection.
2. Take a MOOC (Massive, Online, Open Courses). Register for one of the MOOC platforms with one or two courses in the field chosen, and start learning. This will give you an in-depth insight into the subject matter and motivation to pursue it further. (Should it convince you away from your selected path, you have saved time and money with registering with a full qualification. In addition, you acquired a skill or knowledge that may be useful in the future.)
   Check out the following MOOC platforms:
   https://www.coursera.org/
   https://www.udemy.com/
3. Join Social Media professional groups of your chosen profession and become a “fly on the wall” gaining insight through their experiences. In the process you may also extend your network and search for future mentors or even employers.

This sampling could be spent during your ‘gap year’ period and make this time a meaningful part of your career selection journey.

Image source: Edsurge

Trust your intuition when choosing a career path

By now, you have adopted a growth mindset (Link Post), know the importance of acquiring broad skills rather than a single skill (Link post) and you may ask yourself what now? I am still confused…

Many books have been written on the power of purpose, (Amazon lists more than 150K of them), the desire to make a difference and live a purposeful life. So why don’t we start the search for our career path combined with our search for purpose?

It is time for deep reflection and working within. The following questions can be asked to help you find your purpose (the WHY for your existence).

1. You are 10 years old. What did you spend most of your time doing? What did you love doing?
2. If you were a character in a Marvel movie. How would you save the world? What will you save the world from?
3. What do people come to you for advice for?
4. In what areas do you feel comfortable to take risks in?
5. What makes you cry? What makes you happy?

Finding the purpose is mostly about how we contribute to the better of other people.

If you find this exercise difficult and not ready for this in-depth questioning. Start with a simple question… What is that you see yourself doing for the rest of your life that will make you jump out of bed every single morning?

We tend to ask what jobs will bring us a good and secured income but forget to trust our intuition regarding our existence in this world.

Equip yourself to the future job market

If you knew that you could do whatever your mind is set to do, what would you be doing?

Include this question when pursuing your career choice. Reflect on it and use it in discussions with family and friends. Choose people who will listen to you in a non-judgmental way and with constructive feedback. (Check this post about the importance of mindset). 

When we finish school and are faced with a career decision, we are also under pressure to choose a certain path, from parents or our social circle. Usually, the advice is towards the familiar and conventional job career choices; becoming a lawyer, doctor, accountant…all to secure your future and financial stability.

The question is what future are we securing? Numerous articles and research discuss the unknown with the jobs of the future due to the magnitude of changes brought by technology. Automation and artificial intelligence is said to already replace 50% of the jobs force in the USA. So what will be the jobs of the future and what skills will we need to ensure we are equipped?

In the past, mastering one skill used to be the norm. Be good in one thing, master it and you will become successful. Unfortunately, today, mastering one skill is not enough. In his book, Adam Scott, ‘How to fail at almost everything but still win big’ the author claims that it’s better to develop a variety of abilities and sometimes fail than mastering a single skill. Having many skills, increases your market value and will help you adjust to the world’s constant changes as well as help you stand out from the competition.

How is this helping parents or the decision makers? It may help alleviate the pressure of acquiring one single skilled profession. It may change our perspective that failing in a specific job choice may just be a stepping stone towards another route. Acquiring a variety of skills, already from school is vital if we are to become ready for the jobs of the future. 

Start with your mindset when choosing career

In response to my first post in the series of career selections SEE LINK  , I received interesting feedback via comments , emails and discussions I had with people. It alerted me that people seem to put quite a lot of emphasis on the various assessments offered for career guidance but yet don’t seem to see it beneficial.

When I was 21 years old, after my army duty, my dad made it clear that I will have to study in a university. I had no idea what and where and was extremely muddled. It was decided that I will do an assessment with a professional guidance counselor. I remember the long and excruciating assessment. I had to fill in a long questionnaire followed by a cumbersome interview. After long hours in his office, I left with one message: “I can do anything I put my mind to”… I was still confused about the path to take.

Carol Dweck, a professor from Stanford University and the author of “Mindset” has dedicated years of research onto people’s belief in their abilities and talents and how it affects which paths they choose to take in life. She demonstrates that what matters most is our mindset. There are two types of mindsets: people with the fixed mindset where they believe that we were born with our abilities and talent and there is nothing that can be done to change it and people with growth mindset who believe in their ability to grow and learn from mistakes rather than seeing those mistakes as failures.

How are this types of mindsets linked to selecting your career path? I believe there is a strong connection between what you believe you can do to the path you choose. Adopting a growth mindset would help you with choosing a path that may be more difficult to pursue but at the end, more fulfilling. Having a mindset that failures are perceived as opportunities will ease your choice process towards your own development.

I wish I understood this when I did my own assessment. I would have understood the advice given to me better. Anyone at any time can adopt the growth mindset. We should start embedding this mindset into our schools from an early stage.

Image source: unknown

Do we still need schools?

ORT, one of the most respectable educational NGO’s in the world, held discussions questioning the role of schools and the need for change in order to keep up with trends and the needs of new generations. ORT, which started in 1880, is a global network of schools, academies and operations in nearly 40 countries. The question of the role of schools in light of technological and economic changes is relevant to the sustainability of this organisation more than ever.

Schools are more than mortar and bricks

When debated, the issue of the role of schools and if we still need them in their current form, opinions were mixed and some even emotional. Professor Sidney Strauss (80) recalled his junior teachers’ names and characters. Geoff, ORT Director in North America could list his teachers from grade 1 to grade 6. Teachers have the potential to leave eternal marks in our heart. I believe that technology will never be able to replace that.

When visiting an ORT school in Argentina and ORT University in Uruguay, I have observed that committed and passionate teachers and lecturers can create an incredible and nurturing environment of learning and growing for children.

Schools for developing minds not ‘stuffing minds’

An excellent curriculum combining project / problem -based learning will ensure that we equip learners with the skills and knowledge needed for future jobs. The curriculum delivery needs to embed current pedagogical approaches, such as deep learning and peer-learning and where possible, adjusts to society’s needs. For example, in ORT Argentina, Grade 10 learners select between 10 streams. The newest addition is the Humanities and Social Research stream where kids do actual market research, analyse the data and with the use of social media, present their findings. Understanding the needs of new generations, the requirements of future jobs and the market are crucial in designing a curriculum that is practical and relevant.

Partnerships are key in achieving success in education

The responsibility for educated and equipped future generations lies in the hands of different stakeholders. It cannot rely only on schools, teachers and parents. The efforts must be a combination of government, corporates, teachers and parents. In fact, having an umbrella body such as World ORT contributes tremendously to these efforts by being the catalyst, the match maker and sometimes the ‘glue’ that holds everything together.

It must be clear what the problem is that we want technology to solve

Miguel, who heads the agency for innovation in education in Uruguay, has provided some insight into embedding technologies together with changes in pedagogies. His advice is to first focus on the problem we need to solve, then use technology to solve it as an accelerator for better pedagogies. In short, Technologies are the accelerator of new pedagogies.

In conclusion, technology was, is and will always be, the tool or the device through which new pedagogies or approaches in education are implemented. The schools may not be brick and mortar, they may be virtual, online or in the cloud but should never lose the human interaction, the coaching, mentoring and facilitation provided by teachers and learners.

Below is a slide show from ORT Argentina, demonstrating the interaction and practical experience students gained during their studies: