Making The Decision

Deciding on what kind of job you would like in the future is one of the most daunting tasks anybody can face.  How do you assess your skills and interests so that you make work into play and why are these decisions so important to you.  That is exactly what this post will reveal to you.  

There is a job out there for everybody and you just have to know how to find it.  Assessing your skills and interests is the first step to finding your dream job.  Firstly, think about what you were good at that other people often had trouble with.  Think of the thing that you enjoyed teaching people and loved learning.  That is a skill that you have and others may not.  This is a huge factor that will help you decide on a job.  For example if your best subjects in school were math and science then you may want to consider engineering.  Now to get into your interests, if you enjoy looking at the stars at night and imagining what that vast area may contain then you would be great at doing something that has to so with the universe.  Now combine the two and you come out with a job like an aerospace engineer.  Looking into these factors can make it really easy to think about jobs that you may enjoy.  If you have looked into your skills and interests but still can’t seem to make up your mind there are many websites that asses your skills and recommend jobs that fit your skills and interests.  One of the best of these site is www.careercruising.com here you can create an account and then take an assessment and it then creates a list of forty jobs that would be suitable for you. From there you can learn about the jobs and education required.  If you are having trouble determining your skills and aptitudes I recommend taking the “True Colors Test” at www.truecolorstest.com. Figuring out your skills and interests is the first steps to deciding what kind of job would be suitable for you.

Now, you’re probably thinking why it matters if the job is right for you, as long as you have a job and are making money then life’s good.  That where you’re wrong.  Having a job that suits you can make all the difference.  Let’s go back to the example I made earlier.  If you enjoy wondering what is out in the vast universe you will strive to design the best possible machines to help you realize that curiosity.  You will love designing new machines that will allow you to share your curiosities with the world.  When you have a passion for what you’re doing then it is no longer work.  You can excel and be the best at what you do and enjoy it.

I hope that this post has helped those struggling to decide what to do in their future.  Following your interests and skills will guide you along the long road to success and will be your greatest asset in the years to come.

Workplace Essential Skills

             Everybody has their own unique one-of-a-kind skills.  Some are very useful in the workforce while others are not.  This next post will talk about some essential skills for the workforce and how you can continue to develop theses skills throughout your life.

            There are many skills that are essential depending on what job you would like to do, but there are some that apply to almost every workplace all across the world.  The first and probably most important is reading text.  Now you probably thinking that not all jobs need this skill.  But if you can't read text then you can't make sure your pay cheque is right, you can't read e-mails, regarding your work and it makes it that much harder to even find a job because jobs are almost always advertised through written text.  The second essential skill for almost any job is your problem solving skill.  This skill is one everybody has but some are much better then others.  Your problem solving skill allows you to determine a problem and fix it.  The better this skill is the more efficiently you will be able to fix it and prevent the problem from happening again.  Therefore this skill is one of the most essential skills for any workplace because no matter what you do, or where you work problems will always arise.  The next essential skill is job task planning and organizing.  No boss wants to be telling all their workers what to do everyday and they defiantly don't want to make a plan for them.  This skill allows you to take initiative and plan and organize your work and allows you to always be ahead of the game.  The last and most self explanatory essential skill for any job is decision making.  No matter where you are, how old, or how young, you are always making decisions.  Right now you just made the decision to read this bog and then you'll make the decision if it was useful and it goes on and on.  This skill is used everywhere and the workplace is definitely not an acceptation.

            Now those aren’t the only essential skills.  The following skills are more often essential depending on what job you plan on doing in the future.  These include:

• Writing
• Document Use
• Computer Use
• Oral Communication
• Money Math
• Scheduling or budgeting and accounting
• Measurement and Calculation
• Data Analysis
• Numerical Estimation
• Job task planning and Organization
• Finding Information

Now your probably thinking "I don’t have all these" truth is everyone does have these skills some are stronger then others what you need to know is how to build them.  If you're reading this then your already building some.  You're building you reading skill, computer use and finding information skill all at once.  You may not think you are building them but almost everything you do contributes to this set of skills.  If you're still thinking that there is one that you can never develop then use your other skills to build on it.  If you're not good at data analysis but are a guru with computers try a data analysing program such as Microsoft Office Excel.  There is always a way to build a skill but sometimes we make ourselves believe it's impossible.  Once you realize it's possible then building these skills will be easier then ever before.

Now you know what skills you need to do to in order to be a worker every company, corporation, or small business needs and wants!

Where Do I look? - Information on Jobs

            Now you know what you need to do to find a well suited job for you.  You know what skills you must possess in order to excel at these jobs.  Now what you need to know is where to find information on these careers and what is important to look for.

           
            There is information on every job, company, business, etc all over the place you just have to know where the best places to look are.  The internet is a great place to do initial research on a job.  The only problem is with all the websites how do you know which one to choose.  Again www.careercruising.com is a site that can give you all the information you need.  Simply log on and search the job you are looking into.  It will come up with a list and select the one you would like to research.  From there it will take you to a page that gives you an overall view of the job and has links to more detailed information.  Once you get the basic idea of the job your next step would be to try and talk to someone in the position you are looking into.  They can give you an inside idea of what it's like as the job you're interested in.  If you can't get in touch with someone in the specific position try getting in touch with someone with a similar job.  Finding the information on the position is a great way to make sure the job is right for you.

           
             While you are looking for information there is some things you should pay special attention too.  Education required is a huge factor for you to pay attention to.  If you find that a certain job requires a university degree but you personally would rather go to college then it is more likely that the job you are looking into may not be right for you.  Another thing that is important to look for is working conditions.  If you enjoy being hands on and the working conditions are normally in an office for the majority of the day then, again you may not enjoy that specific job.  You’re also going to want to look at a sample career path.  This will give you an idea of advancement opportunities and how to get there.  The final and possibly most important information to look for when researching a job is none other than the pay.  This is very self-explanatory.  We all want to make money we ourselves set goals for how much we aim to make.  That is why the pay of a job is something that attracts or repels many people towards it.  These are the major things for you to keep an eye out for when researching the jobs that interest you.

            Now let’s recap.  You know what skills you have and how to use them in order to excel within the workplace.  You know about jobs that interest you and now you know where to find information on these jobs and what is important for you to look for.  You are just about ready to go out and apply!

Making It Happen

            The last step in the long process of a job search is applying.  Now often you need a few things before you can apply.  Out of everything that is needed in order to apply the resume is probably the most important.  This post will give you tips on how to write a resume and what to include in this incredibly important document.

            Creating a resume can be something that many people put off doing but there are easy ways to create professional looking resumes in a short period of time.  Many websites have resume builders.  Few build professional resumes for free.  After testing a few different free resume builders there were a few that stood out from the rest.  The first was the resume builder off of www.careercruising.com.  You simply signed in clicked on resume builder on the bottom left side of the screen and filled out the information.  It then turns the information into a printer friendly resume.  The other site that I found was called www.gotresumebuilder.com this one I found even more effective.  You simply sign up with your e-mail and create a password.  From there you can fill out some information and it creates a resume.  You can then choose from a variety of options that allows you to personalize your resume.  After, it can be saved as a word file, PDF or other type of document.  From there you can open the file and print at ease.  Those are a couple of sites that can help you build an effective resume in just minutes.

            There are a couple things that are important to add to your resume in order for it to stand out from the rest.  If you are looking into a certain type of job then it is a great idea to add past employments or experiences that may relate that type of job.  Also, many of the resume building sites including the ones I’ve recommended allow space for you to write descriptions, job goals etc.  Here is a perfect opportunity to display your knowledge in their company or field of work.  For example if you wanted to apply for Tim Hortons your resume may include an area where you describe volunteer work.  You may choose describe when you helped out with your brother hockey team.  You would then go on to describe that you enjoy working with kids and would love the opportunity to help out at one of Tim Hortons annual kids camp days.  This shows that you are truly interested in the opportunity and that you feel you could make a difference to the company in an indirect way.  Another way to show your specific interest in a company is to create a cover letter.  A cover letter is simply a letter you put on top of your resume describing why you would be fit for the opportunity and often requests for an interview.

            Now you are all set to apply for your dream job.  You know how to decide on future employment, you know the workplace essential skills, you know where to look and now you know how to make it all happen.         

Career Course Reflection

              Now after reading all about how to approach getting a job and why it`s important to find the right one for you you`re probably wondering who I am and what careers I’m interested in.  This post will tell you about what occupations interest me.  How has the knowledge I’ve gained about my self help me determine my future and educational career plans.  What I`ve learned that has surprised me.  And finally what I’ve done throughout the course that I’ve found useful and what have I done that I believe was useless.

                I personally hope to become an astrophysicist in the future.  The universe has fascinated me all my life and I think it would be amazing to uncover the many secrets that the universe holds.  I think that I fit the job perfectly because I am great at all types of sciences and at math.  I don`t think that there is any aspect of this job that doesn’t interest me from their field work to their lab work I find it all interesting and exciting.

                The knowledge I’ve gained about myself throughout this course has just reinforced my hope to become an astrophysicist.  It has allowed me to understand what skills I have and how they are important to becoming an astrophysicist and other related jobs.  This has really helped me feel more confident into going into this field of work in the future.  

                There were many things that I learned throughout this unit that has surprised me.  The majority of those have been to do with myself.  For example I learned that I am strong in certain essential skills that many other people are not.  I also learned that even if you look like you make a lot money there are so many deductions and sometimes you actually make just over half of your gross domestic pay.  I was also surprised of how much money skilled trades workers make.  I had always thought that they couldn`t make up to $100 000 per year because I always thought that you needed a university degree to make that much.  Those were just a couple of things that surprised me throughout this course.

                There are a couple activities that I enjoyed this unit such as the personal timeline and the Real Game presentations.  There were a couple of things that at first that I didn`t think that they would be useful going to be useful to me at all.  After going through the assignments I found that it was useful and gave me new knowledge about myself or about my possible future and career options.

                Overall this course really helped me realize some of the career options for my future, but it really helped me understand the significance of a good education in order to peruse my goals for the future.