Unlike my esteemed colleagues who ride bicycles to support cancer causes
and otherwise use their annual volunteer day for noble and charitable causes, I
tend to randomly use volunteer hours in community-based activities.
Last Spring I received an
email from the elementary school indicating that the Grade 7 and 8 students
were having a career day and were interested in hearing about the following
careers:· Manicurist
· Fireman
· Engineer
· Doctor
· Etc.
This is a favourite old hobby-horse of mine (dating from my triumphant university graduation after which I had no career direction or prospects) which I willingly mounted again. I noted that whether young people are in the 4th grade, 8th grade or the 12th grade they typically know of only a handful of careers – those of their parents, those on their favourite television shows (vampire executioner) and those they learned of in Richard Scarry books ( e.g. the raccoon postman, the bear nurse).
With a conversation recently held with a new hire to our firm clearly in mind I proposed a session entitled “How Do You Prepare For The Career You Don’t Know Exists”. This young man had expressed, only a few weeks earlier, that he was so lucky to have a found a great job, and one related to his studies (Masters of Library and Information Science). He confided to me that things were different “today” and that almost none of his friends had found work in their chosen academic fields. Presumably he meant not like in “my day” where we all went off to school and were handed a job on a silver platter by virtue of having completed a degree program. You can be sure that I set him straight on that one. I pointed out the range of academic qualifications in our strategic consulting firm of 16 people which include, but are not limited to:
· journalism and quantum physics
· classics and humanities
· public administration
· documentary film making
· English literature
· history
· science
· aeronautical engineering
· mechanical engineering
· geography
· 5 Masters of Library and Information Science
· Master of Science
· Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in biology
· Master of Business Administration
I told him that almost no-one that I went to school with works in a career related to their qualifications. Similarly, I told the Career Day Co-ordinator that I wanted to talk to students about how to prepare for anything that might come, instead of preparing for a career that may not even exist by the time they are ready to embark upon it.
Shockingly she agreed to my presentation, with great enthusiasm in fact, and I decided that if this effort was to be useful for me and for Systemscope, that I would use the opportunity to learn the basics of a new online presentation tool I’d recently been shown called Prezi.com.
When the big day came, I entered a sweltering classroom of sullen and awkward teenagers who eventually loosened up and, I am told (by my spies), enjoyed the presentation. My favourite part was when the young girl in the front row, upon reading my list of high school jobs yelled out aghast “You were a stripper?” To which I had to respond “No darling, double p would be stripper, I worked in a hospital.”
To see the presentation please visit the following address:
http://prezi.com/fnrzgyuhmby5/copy-of-career-development-how-to-prepare-for-the-career-you-dont-know-exists/
Was it volunteer time well spent? I wasn’t really sure (of course, this certainly isn’t Kidney Research Fundraising) until I received a thank-you card from the school that read: “Thank you so much for taking time to volunteer today at Huntley Centennial. Our Intermediates’ have had a wonderful learning experience with you. The effort and time you have taken out of your schedule to help mould our students into career-minded young adults is invaluable to our future community.” Awwwww
No comments:
Post a Comment