Your First Career Exploration

Here is a list of the work you should have completed up until this point:

In your Journal/Blog

1. Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals [did you add them to E-Pearl?]
2. TOKW assignment
3. Entry on your Cover Letter and C.V.
4. Entry on Communication and Teamwork

E-Pearl Artifacts:

1. TOKW Assignment (did you attach the URL of your Blog?)
2. Cover Letter and C.V. (attach both of them as separate Word documents.)
3. Career Exploration #1
   

Career Exploration #1

For the rest of Term 2, we will be concentrating on your first career exploration. Your project will have FOUR parts...

1. Proposal (what's your top five career choices?)
   
2. Exploration (research!)
   
3. Presentation (ooooh....Scary!)
   
4. Follow-up and Works Cited (reflect!)
   

The complete project will be due JANUARY 9th 2009. However, your presentation will be due before that, so be prepared! CHECK WHEN YOU ARE PRESENTING! All you have to present is some of the main points of your exploration: Did you interview someone? What did you learn throughout this project? What are your thoughts on this career now that you have tried it out? Etc.

I have lots of tools for you to use, SO USE THEM! Here's just a small taste:

• DIIGO - cery cool internet researching tool, get into it!
• Toolkits - pick your career and we'll see if you can use one of the toolkits I have!
• ACADEMOS.QC.CA - great site for interviewing people about their careers.
• VODZONE - Wanna watch a movie? Check out Discovery education

*All usernames and passwords are on the Portal!*

Cover Letters & CV's

Now that TOKW is behind us, we can concentrate on some more basic job skills - HOW TO APPLY FOR A JOB? But before we start, let us create an artifact in E-Pearl under the Term 2 folder using the following information:

Title - Cover Letter and CV
Task - what are you being asked to do exactly and why?
Criteria - Skip this one for now!
Task Goal - What do you want to achieve during this assignment? (Is this a S.M.A.R.T. goal?)
Strategies - Name at least 3 different strategies you are going to use to achieve your goal.

The rest of the artifact can be filled in later, once your work is complete.

First, you need to find a job to apply for - Where are you going to local for local advertisements? If you look at The Montreal Gazette online, it has access to its "working section" where you can search for job advertisements here in Montreal. Keep it simple! Try to find a job that you could apply for TODAY with the qualifications you already have! COPY AND PASTE THE AD INTO A WORD DOCUMENT IN CASE YOU DO NOT FINISH THE LETTER THIS CLASS.

1 - Find an advertisement that seems interesting and then pull up your old John Example letter. It should be on the Portal, E-Pearl, or you USB. If it is not - Then you will have to re-type it!

2 - Change all the necessary information on your John Example letter so that it fits the job you are applying for. (Re-read it a few times to make sure it makes sense!)

3- Once you are finished, save your Cover Letter with a title and your name, then attach it to the artifact you created.

Second, open up a new WORD document and open the Résumé Wizard. Fill in all the necessary information and include the following sections (in this order):

Objective - what position are you applying for?
Languages - what languages do you speak and write?
Education - where do you go to school? Where have you gone to school?
Awards - have you received any awards at school?
Work experience - have you ever had a job?
Volunteer experience - have you given back to your community?
Interests and activities - what kind of sports or organizations are you a part of?
Hobbies - what do you do for fun on the weekends?
References - who can I contact to find out if you are a good worker? What is their first and last name, their position at work and their work phone number.

Try to fill in EVERY category! If you cannot, then do not include it in your CV.

Finished all that? (Nice.) Save your CV and attach it to your artifact.



PS: Still working on your TOKW entry? Wow. GET MOVING.

PPS: Still working on your GOALS? Too bad, you will have to finish it at home.

Post TOKW Day

November 5th 2008 was Take Our Kids to Work day. As a result, most of my Secondary III POP students diligently followed their parents to their respective places of work. Many had a great time and I am looking forward to hearing all of your individual stories but first we have some work to do:

1 - If your parent(s) are not self employed, you will have to write a Thank-You letter to their "boss" or manager, thanking them for the experience.

2 - You will then have to re-copy whatever notes you wrote down throughout the day into your Blog / Journal. (Refer to the assignment if need be!) PORTAL LOGIN

3 - Then you will have to create an Artifact using E-Pearl about your TOKW experience. E-PEARL LOGIN

Get to it!

PS: If you are still working on your "Personal Goals" - THEN YOU ARE BEHIND!