Monday 21 October 2013

Getting it from the horse’s mouth…or the lawyer’s mouth…or the policy analyst’s mouth..or the entrepreneur’s mouth…

Are you at a point in your life where you’re considering one or more careers but need more information about what working in those careers would be like? Perhaps you’ve read some stuff on-line or picked up a book or two about the career fields you’re considering. (Note: We have lots of such material available at our centres in SUB, HUB and CCIS. As a matter of fact, you can search our on-line catalogue to see what career resources we have.)

The information you can get on-line or from books about particular careers can be useful (given that it’s not out-of-date, of course) and is something I recommend to students, particularly for a broad overview. Talking to people who are actually working in the careers you’re considering is also something I highly recommend. Whether it’s done formally through career information interviews, job shadows and the like or informally at social gatherings, talking to people about what they do day-to-day on the job, what they like and dislike about their work, what lead them to the current job, etc. can give you a much richer and more vibrant picture of a career than you can get from simply reading about it. And certainly a much more realistic picture that what gets portrayed in television shows and movies!

If you’re interested in self-employment and want to talk to people who have started their own venture (small business, social enterprise, etc.), check out StartUp U, which runs from November 4th to 8th. In addition to hosting a number of panels featuring local entrepreneurs, CAPS is running a Human Library on Wednesday and Thursday. We have several ‘living books’ that you can check out for up to 20 minutes. A small sample of our current titles include Dee’s dirty thoughts: Writing for the real world, From farmlands of Alberta to hills of Uganda: A life’s journey and From the non-profit sector to the world of tech startups: Proof that anyone can be an entrepreneur. Additional titles will be added up to the week of November 4th so check back regularly.

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