FCST 1010 - (All Classes) (All Campuses) - Spring 2018: Module 2

Welcome to Module 2! During this module, we'll be talking about the main reason that most of you are here - starting or switching your career. Although college doesn't guarantee you a career, furthering your education definitely helps. In fact, according to the BLS (2014) people with an Associates Degree earn $6,500 more per year than people with a High School education. The news gets better as you look at more educated populations. Bachelor's degree holders earn $23,000 more per year than High School graduates, while Master's degree holders earn $33,000 more per year. In addition, people with more education are much less likely to be unemployed. 

Module Objectives:

• Identify possible career interests
• Research possible career interests in your local area
• Write a cover letter
• Participate in a mock interview

Due This Week:

• Journal Entry #2 - Due before Thursday/Sunday at midnight
• Challenge #2 - Due before Sunday at midnight
• Going Further #2 - Due before Sunday at midnight
• Content Quiz #2- Due by Wednesday (Instructor's Choice - Quiz or In-class Assignments)

Assessing Your Career Potential

Although you probably enrolled in college with the goal of starting a career, you may not know what you want to do yet. Luckily, there are a ton of great career assessments online to help you begin thinking about what you might like to do in the future. Today, we're going to explore one of these assessments and begin this discussion. To do this activity:

1. Take the personality assessment http://similarminds.com/jung.html (do NOT click on "select your age" at the top of the page...only enter your gender).
2. Take your time to answer each question  and when you reach the end of the survey click on submit (Don't rush)
3. Write down the 4 letters given to you after submission
4. Now visit http://www.personalitypage.com/html/careers.html and find your 4 letters.
5. Read the career information for your 4 letters and choose 2 careers from the list suggested for your letters and research the following: 
   • Wages
   • Amount of Education Needed
   • On the Job Tasks
   • Job Title Examples
6. When you finish, get into groups of 2 or 3 and discuss the following questions:
   • Overall, how did you feel about your personality assessment results?
   • Now think about the careers that you researched. Did anything surprise you about the information you noted?
   • Finally, think about the practical steps you would need to get a job like this? 

Interviewing for Success

Today, we're going to hold a mock interview in which the entire class will be participating. For this activity, 6 volunteers will be needed. Three will be the interviewers and (3) will be the interviewees. The rest of you will watch as observers. After the interviews are over, we'll decide 1) who should get the job and 2) what you thought about the activity. Here are the steps for this activity:

1. Interviewers come the front of the class and sit at the interview table. You will each receive 1 question to ask the interviewees.
2. Interviewees go into the hallway with a job announcement. Students will remain in the hallway until called in for the interview. 
3. As each interviewee comes in, a timer will be set at 7 minutes The interview will be over when this timer goes off.
4. Observers will take notes on the interview process. 
5. Interviewees will remain in the hall until the observers (rest of the class) decides who gets the job
6. Bring in the interviewees and congratulate the winner!

Question Time (conducted as a class after the job winner is named):

• Interviewees: How did you feel during your interview? What did you do well? What could you improve on in a real life interview?
• Interviewer: How did you feel in your role as the interviewer? Who would you hire for the job? Why?
• Observers: What did you observe during this exercise? Who would you hire for this job? Why?

Challenge 2: How Can You Get The Job Of Your Dreams? (40 pts)

Although college is a great time to learn, gain skills, and make life-long connections, you’re probably here for another reason as well - to get a job! Landing the job of your dreams is a long term process that takes persistence, planning, and patience. No matter what career you choose, you need to be able to effectively market yourself to potential employers with an appealing cover letter (for starters). 

To complete this challenge:

1. Visit the Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/) and research your dream job. You can do this by either searching for a job or browsing the Occupational Groups. When you find a job you’re interested in, pay special attention to the “How to Become One” tab. If you need help, visit a librarian or chat with them from “Ask a Librarian” on the GHC Library page.

2. Visit Indeed.com and find a job that matches closely with your dream job. Make note of the education, skills, and other qualities that the employer wants.

3. Helpful cover letter links: tips  and more tips!

Deliverables:

Write a  cover letter (minimum 500 word) for the job that you want using the research that you did above. Instead of writing about the education and skills that you have now for this job, envision yourself 5 or 10 years in the future and write your resume and cover letter from this perspective. If you need help with this part, visit the Tutorial Center.

• Your essay should include a title page that is formatted in accordance with MLA style.
• The files should be a
• MS Word document with 1" margins all around and a 12 point serif or sans serif font.
• Anytime information is used that is not your own thoughts it needs to be cited using proper MLA formatting.
• For assistance with MLA formatting visit the Purdue Owl Site.
• Here is a list of serif and sans serif fonts:
  • Arial
  • Book Antiqua
  • Calibri
  • Comic Sans MS
  • Courier New
  • Georgia
  • Helvetica
  • Tahoma
  • Times New Roman
  • Trebuchet MS
  • Verdana

History tells us that we can learn about our future by studying our past. Reading history texts can often be dry and difficult to grasp the context of events. However, timelines have been used over and over again to show where a group has been, where they are now and where they will go in the future.

Based off of Challenge Essay 1, create a timeline of your past, present and future. Include maximum 10 milestone events prior to today and maximum 10 milestone events after today.

Use Office TIMELINE tool. It is a plug-in that runs inside of MS PowerPoint. To download the plug-in go to https://www.officetimeline.com/download

And look under the Free Templates tab for free Timeline Template