CTS is designed to help you explore your potential career paths while building a foundation of knowledge that might lead to any number of occupations and education experiences. Many resources are available to help you explore these potential career paths, but the most valuable asset you have is your curiosity and your desire to explore your own identity.
Instead of simply presenting you with career planning resources and promoting the benefits of CTS, in this introductory activity we are going to do an exercise to help you explore your own interests and build a Facebook avatar that represents who you might hope to be in twenty or thirty years. Rather than answering questions to describe the available resources, you will explore and apply them by including relevant information you find in your research on the Facebook page you create. Use the web to investigate what occupations you foresee yourself pursuing, to create a job history on your page. Find out what schools offer the education you want to pursue and what further upgrading you might need as you continue your career. Describe your ideal vacations, celebrations and interests and create photo albums with pictures that represent your ideal life. Don’t forget to include what you have already accomplished and what inspires you now, as a foundation for your simulated future.
This document will change throughout your CTS courses (a living document) and will help you make connections between what you dream of achieving and what skills and knowledge you choose to explore. Remember, you can be open and creative and don’t be afraid to take some “virtual” risks as you work your way through your potential career paths. Here is an example of a completed virtual Avatar. I created a virtual career as a woodcarving artist for myself as an exemplar for you to consider.
To begin, follow the process below. Leave this window open and return to it as you complete different aspects of your avatar. Remember, you don’t have to complete the tasks in a rigid order, and some tasks might not be directly relevant to you, if you have no interest in developing relevant hobbies or in international travel, you need not include an album, notes or information on those experiences. If you plan to attend a series of schools, then ongoing conferences in a specific field, list them under education, and make notes and photo albums that reflect your intentions. Enjoy the process, and make it your own.
Creating an avatar.
1. Click this link to create a (celebrity) avatar.
2. Fill in the required fields, selecting as follows
· Select – Artist, Band or Public Figure
· Name - use your first name, then create a last name beginning with the same first letter as your last name, to protect your information, but make you identifiable to your classmates.
3. Once you have created your page, add a photo, be creative, you can find something online, or photoshop an image you already have, whatever you would like, it can change as you progress through the process. Have fun with it.
4. Then open the info tab, select edit, and choose the detailed information tab. Start with today’s date, twenty years in the future, and enter what occupation you would like to be working in by that time. (If you want to reach further, begin thirty years in the future.) List the occupations you have held between today’s date and the future, giving a rough outline to frame your career. Think about what skills and experience you might need to develop to reach your final career goals. What you have outlined here is a rough sketch of your career path, you can change it as you wish, but it will help you visualize what choices you might make to attain your ultimate goals. Careers are not built of occupations alone. They are the sum total of all your learning, your work, your passions and pursuits and your personal experiences.
5. Once you have a rough outline of the occupations you might like to pursue, there are a number of options to choose from. Conduct web research, reading blogs, journals or magazines to get a sense of what the life experiences of a person in your field of interest lives like.
· You can research occupations to find out what education you need to pursue in order to attain them. Add these experiences under Education in the detailed information tab. Here are some resources that might help you define concrete needs. (Enter keywords to describe your field of interest, select the occupation you are interested in, and read to learn what education is required to accomplish your goals.)
· You can write notes to describe conferences, trips, or personal projects you’ve undertaken in the process of your career. Add links to real conferences and/or projects you find online, to illustrate your potential experiences.
Here and here are examples of websites that have good photos and information on specific conferences.
· You can create some photo albums to illustrate the experiences you might have, for example as a chemical engineer, or as a prop designer in the Vancouver movie industry. Again, pull images from the web, scan them from books, or use photos you’ve taken to fill out the project. Document an imaginary trip to Brazil to study the rain forest, or an archaeological dig in Israel. Write notes to describe the experience as you imagine it to be. Look at the exemplar to see examples of albums.
· Create a portfolio containing images of projects you admire that are relevant to your career goals. If you wish to be an artist, include pieces from movements that have influenced you. If you want to be an automotive engineer, include innovative designs that capture your imagination.
6. Finally, share your Avatar with a small group of classmates. Take a few minutes to explore their Avatar’s then get together and present your page to the group. As each person shares their reasons for choosing one or another path, discuss what you liked, what worked best, what challenges you might face, and what you look forward to most. If you have a personal Facebook page, link this page to it, and come back to it from time to time to update what you have done and what you would like to do as your goals and dreams develop.
