2: EXPLORING MY CAREER
lifelong LEARNING
‘Your career is a journey,
not a destination’.
This sounds great, but what does it actually mean?
Your career does not start and end when you get a
job. You have already started your career while you
have been doing activities at school, playing sport
on weekends, or working hours at your part-time or
volunteer job.
Your career will be a rich and rewarding experience
that will require you to make many key career-decisions
throughout your working life as you move from job to
job and successfully navigate the world of work.
So why won’t you just leave school and go straight
into a job that you’ll have for life? Lots of reasons! You
might find out you don’t suit this job, you want to earn
more money, you get fired, you move towns, you’re
offered the chance to do something with more of a
challenge, or, your job becomes obsolete.
That’s when you need to work through your career
decision-making process and review your career Action
Plan.
Case study:
Emma finished school confident that she wanted to
become a hairdresser. She completed her apprenticeship
and spent three years working in the industry. When
she was 23 her mother became very ill and spent a lot
of time in hospital. Through this personal experience
Emma became interested in nursing as a career. She
completed a Tertiary Preparation Program and then a
Bachelor of Nursing. Emma found that many of the
skills she had developed through her hairdressing career
(communication, time management, attention to detail,
and working under pressure) helped her hit the ground
running on her new career.
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