Careers Essay

Section A- Key Terms Balanced Decision-Making: Making good choices based on a mixture of logic and intuition. This is useful in a number of situations, and when making a good decision, displays discipline and intelligence. For example, if you have work at 9 am the next morning, and you’ve been invited to go out with your friends the night before, your logic may tell you not to, but your intuition wants to. Making the balanced choice depends on which is a higher priority, work or socializing. Credentials: Experiences that make you more qualified for a job. Employers will see these as accomplishments. Credentials are useful as they show that you are able to apply yourself to a task and complete it, which is useful information for employers, as well. They look good on your resume and make for a good alternative if you don’t have any work experience. Transferable Skills: Abilities that you can apply from one situation to another. This is useful because it will make you a candidate for a wider variety of jobs, and once you have a job, you will be able to adjust to different situations, good and bad, that may happen on an average day at work. Network: Connections with other people. Networking is useful when looking and applying for a job. If you have a large network, then you can talk to them about your need for employment, and have a higher chance of getting an interview. When applying for a job it’s useful as you have a wider variety of references to choose from. Reference: A person on your application form who employers can contact if they want someone else’s opinion on you. They will vouch for your experience, credibility and record. References, when chosen well, can be extremely useful. These references may notice things about you that you wouldn’t be able to share or necessarily know while being interviewed. In other words, they have an outsider’s perspective. Section B- Short Answers 3) The best way to contribute to your community is through volunteer work. But, if you’re looking to further your career ambitions at the same time, then you should be mindful to where you volunteer. For example, if you wanted to be an English teacher, volunteer at the library. If you wanted to work in PR, volunteer at Free the Children. Volunteer work is always great on a resume no matter where it’s from, but it’s even better when employers see that you’ve gotten a little taste of what they have to offer. Another way to contribute to your community is to organize a fundraiser. This looks great on a resume as it shows that you have leadership and communication skills, as well as a good heart. If you wanted to work at a hospital, donate all the proceeds to Make a Wish. If you want to work in art, donate the proceeds to sketch. The last and most general way to contribute to your community is to organize a garbage pick-up. This also shows that you have leader ship and communication skills. But, as all jobs and businesses are looking for ways to go green, this shows that you’re in that mindset and can bring it to where ever you work. 4) There are many things you can do to find out what post-secondary option is best for you. The first way I’d acquire knowledge on this subject is talk to family members and older friends. Make sure to get a wide variety in such as university and college graduates, as well as people who only have a high school diploma. Ask them how they feel about their education and qualifications, as well as how they feel about their career or job. Ask them for advice on finding out what’s best for you, and how they found out what was best for them. Another way I’d educate myself is to do research. Look up the employment rates of university, college and high school graduates. Think of careers or jobs that you would like to have in the future and look up what you would need in order to get that profession. Lastly, I’d tour universities and colleges to get a feel of them. I’d ask myself if I enjoyed one more than the other, and if I could see myself being at one. 5) A couple steps you should take when looking for work are: One- update your resume. Two- network. Tell your family, friends and your friends’ family that you’re looking for work. Three- look around. There are many worthwhile and credible jobs that are advertised whether it is online, in the paper or at centres. Four- don’t waste time! Hand out resumes to all the options that you receive. Five- communicate. Call to the places that you handed in resumes. It shows that you’re eager and will give you attention. 6) My first piece of advice to a friend who had a job interview would be to print off extra resumes and to have a separate sheet with a list of references. Also make sure to have all certificates for your credentials in case they want proof. Second, I’d tell them to arrive on time! Or even better, be early. It’ll give you time to relax and think over what you’re going to say. It’s the first impression that they’ll have of you, and being early or on time shows them that you can keep that up if you were to work there. Lastly, I’d tell them to be confident. Smile and give them a good handshake, wear a nice outfit, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Section C- Essay Question 1 To be blunt, the Careers course is too simple. There isn’t much homework, it’s very easy to get by without studying for tests and a lot of it is really just common knowledge. If you really want to get the full experience, the course should be â€Å"beefed up.† People have mentioned adding a co-op element in the course, which is a great idea. It allows students to apply their knowledge from in-class into the workplace, without having the stress of pay cheques or getting fired. If this was added to the curriculum, it would be even better if the work you did could be added to your resume under experience. The only issue would be that a lot of students wouldn’t want to work without getting paid, and would be upset if it weren’t to count for volunteer hours. Many students are probably happy with getting by with the minimal curriculum we have now. Overall, the co-op idea would definitely be a good experience for them whether they liked it or not, and would definitely enrich this course. Although it is believed that the course should be enriched, it should not be bumped up to be taught in grade 12. This is another way people have said that Careers could be enriched, because they would be able to use more complex terms and advanced language. But, the point of the course is not to expand your vocabulary; it’s to get you educated about your future. Also, many schools offer the course in grade 11, so that’s a compromise between grade 10 and 12. Learning the course in grade 10 allows students time to process information, as well as have working experiences such as volunteer work and jobs, and also to consider what they might like to do for a career. If students were to learn the logistics in grade 12, they’ve missed out on valuable information that could have helped them apply and keep high school jobs. In conclusion, Careers is a simple but effective course. It gives you a lot of useful information that you can benefit from for the rest of your life, gets you thinking about your future and tests your common knowledge. There are definitely many adjustments that can be made, though. Co-op would be great so students could test the knowledge that they’ve learnt in class to see if they thoroughly understand. If co-op was added, Careers should become a full course so students can have half the time for learning and preparing, and the other half for experiencing.