Course Outline General Information Program Objectives Submitting Assignments Your Mentor

Career Exploration

Debriefing Your Job Shadow

By the time you begin this section, your job shadow should have been completed. This could have been your first experience in the world of work. By exploring possible careers at a young age, you are:

• relating your interests to the world of work.
• giving yourself time to do some reality testing around the occupations which interest you before making a commitment to a particular career path.

You started a reality test on one occupation when you participated in your job shadow. Now you will carry that test a bit further using the same occupation as that of your job shadow sponsor. Gather your observations and your interview notes from your job shadow and let's begin.

The first step in your evaluation of whether or not this job would be a good "fit" for you is to review the skills you need to do the job. Using your List of Transferable Skills, print out the list place a check mark beside those skills you observed your shadow sponsor using while on the job. Limit yourself to the top 15 skills which you observed.

Was your own skill level improved in anyway by what you observed? In what way?

How do you measure up?

Using the Transferable Skills Evaluation form, make a list of the top 15 skills from the above activity. In the boxes beside each of the skills, rate your own level of competency for the skill using the scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being "Needs a lot of Work" and 10 being "Already Competent."

Now estimate the amount of time it might require you to acquire the skills you think you need. If you are already competent, did it require a very short time to learn (1-3 months), or much longer?

Now would be a good time to update your Career Goals in your Student Learning Plan. What target skill is listed as a goal in your action plan? What progress are you making towards acquiring this skill(s)?

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