Careers Project

Conclusion

Once I have finished my self analysis and my careers analysis I will then compare the two to find out which of the jobs that I have investigated in my careers analysis are suited to the information on myself, which I have put into my self analysis. It would be ideal if I could eliminate at least one or two of the four jobs, to find out which job I should be considering a path in the future.

Presentation Methods

I will use bar charts for the self analysis spreadsheet and have it represent my answers to the questions I will ask. It will help me to easily identify what my characteristics are, and therefore what jobs I will be suited to.

I will use tables to show my recent exam results and what subjects I am good at, which will give me an idea of what jobs I shouldn’t take, or what subjects I need to study harder for.

I will employ the use of flow diagrams, to graphically represent my route to getting a particular job.

Progress Checking

I am going to check my progress with the things I intend to do with for my project. I will propose dates that I plan to have it done for, as well as the actual date that it is done for. I will comment on the reasons if it is late, and how I felt about it.

 

Phase 2 Action

Self Analysis

I am going to complete a self analysis spreadsheet to find out what my strengths and weaknesses are which will help me investigate whether I am suited to the four jobs I have chosen. After completion I have been given three sets of data entitled The Real Me, What are my Abilities and what sort of person am I? I have been given the data in graph form as well as tabular form. The graphs can be viewed in my appendix.

Below are the results I that I got from the Real Me section of the self analysis spreadsheet.

    According to these results I am not very independent with a score of ten out of twenty-five which I feel is incorrect as I think of myself as being fairly independent.

   The result for my attention seeking is seven out of twenty five which I feel is quite accurate as I am fairly shy. I feel this is quite a good thing as I wouldn’t really want a high score for attention seeking.

   I feel that the score given for my organisational skill is slightly too low as I feel that I am quite an organised person.

   My mixing skill was given as begin fourteen out of twenty five which I feel is quite accurate as I feel I am quite good at mixing in with others, this is a good thing especially when it comes to work, as the ability to mix with others is quite important.

   I feel my needing skill; seventeen out of twenty five is quite inaccurate as I don’t depend on others that much. I do feel my Helping skill is correct however as I do try to be as helpful as I can to others.

Next is the table of results for what are My Abilities?

   I believe that the results above are quite accurate as they do reflect my abilities. I like to think of myself as quite an understanding person, and the result above is 53/80 which is quite high. My artistic result is 34/80 which is representative of my artistic abilities as I tend to not be very artistic unless I am quite focused on what I am doing. Also I feel I am quite shy which reflects in my social mark, which was 49/80. This is just over the halfway mark, suggesting I am quite social. However according to the spreadsheet my influencing score is 42/80 which means I am not very influential on others, which I do feel to be quite true. This could limit my job opportunities as jobs such as salesmen require to be quite influencing. My clerical score was 49/80 which suggests I would be quite suited to an office job; however I don’t think I would enjoy a job in this field. My manual score was 41/80 I feel is quite accurate as I don’t believe I would enjoy a job focused on manual labour.

The final set of data created by the spread sheet was “What sort of person am I”. The table below shows these results.

   These results were out of 19.5, and it is easy to see my strongest ability out of those above is my understanding ability which was 15/19.5. I do like to know how things work, which means I do enjoy subjects such as technology and physics. I do like to think this carries over to my people skills as well as I try to be as understanding of others as I can. My artistic and social skills were both 14/19.5 which is still quite high, which I feel is true as although I am shy I do think I get on well with others. Possibly my artistic skill should be lower as unless I enjoy what I am doing I do feel I am not that artistic. My clerical skill is also quite here as well, which I feel is inaccurate as I don’t believe I would enjoy working in this field. My influencing ability came lowest here which is quite true as I don’t often try to persuade people to do things.

Another piece of software I used was Pathfinder which after answering many optional questions, complied a list of jobs that I may be suited to. These were mainly related to engineering and I.T. The top five jobs I may be suited to were

A computer hardware engineer

A Network manager engineer

A manufacturing engineer

An electronic engineer

Fuel and Energy engineer.

I am quite interested in these fields of work and I am considering a career in one of these fields.

In my recent Christmas mocks m results from my subjects were the following:

I feel my results were quite strong as they would represent an A or a B grade. It is easy to see my strongest subjects are maths and physics which is mainly why I am considering a job in engineering. My weakest subjects were R.E., French and English which doesn’t surprise me as I am not too good at languages however I feel I can do better at my R.E. From my knowledge I believe that not having good grades in languages may cause some problems with getting into a university. If I could maintain these results for my actual GCSE’s then I would be quite happy as they should allow me to get into this school for A level which I would quite like to do. I hope to further study physics, technology, and geography.

Careers Analysis

Earlier in the project in my hypothesis I have four jobs that I am interested in. These were:

Engineer

Pilot

Computer/Software Programmer

Computer Networker

Since there are many types of engineer I have decided to look into detail at Electronic engineering.

In order to obtain a job in electronic engineering I will have to do the following:

        

In order to obtain a job as a helicopter pilot I will have to do the following:

        

In order to become a software developer I will have to do the following.

In order to become a computer network manager I will have to do the following.

        

Conclusions

   After researching the four jobs I originally proposed, I do not feel any closer to finding a career path to follow in the future. The only job out of the four that I can safely say I have eliminated from being a possibility is being a helicopter pilot since I think getting a job in that field would be difficult and the original debt from training is quite high.

. Electronic engineering is still a career path I would like to follow since I am interested in a job in the field of engineering. However I feel I may be suited to a different field of engineering, so I am going to have to do some research on the other possibilities.

   I do not feel a computer software development is a suitable career path for me, since it basically involves typing lines of code into a computer, which I feel would be tedious, so I am not going to consider this job.

   I feel computer network managing is still on the table for me since I am interested in the subject, but finding a job with the right company would be difficult, which means getting the high end wage would be difficult. I will consider this field of work, but I will have to do some further research.

   I have researched four jobs in detail, but firstly I am going to have to do well in my GCSE’s and A levels, since I have discovered from this research that the majority of well paid jobs require high qualifications to get into, so I am going to have to make sure I achieve as well as I can in my GCSE’s to enable me to get back into school to study A levels.

Phase 3: Evaluation

   I feel that this piece of coursework has helped me in some ways more than others. For instance I am still no closer into deciding on a career path which was sort of what this project was meant to enable me to do. However I do realise now the shear amount of jobs out their and the importance of getting qualifications is for my future.

   Via the computer software I discovered a list of jobs there is a good chance I am suited to; most of which are in engineering.

From the self analysis spreadsheet I discovered that my two highest virtues are my understanding ability and my social skills which I think are both very important skills for future careers since many jobs require the ability to work as a team as well as the ability to understand a lot of information in a short time.

I feel the project as a whole went quite well with major deadlines being met. The table you can see below:

 

I did spend some more time than I originally predicted on pathfinder since it took a large amount of time to answer all the questions. However I stuck to the deadlines for the other tasks I set myself.

 

When I originally started this project I hoped to end it with a good idea of what career I want to follow, however I am no closer to deciding on a job, mainly because there are too many different career paths to follow,  and this project only skimmed the surface. However I am more aware about the types of jobs I am interested in, as well as the path I will have to follow to get these jobs. The project itself has helped my research skills as well as my prioritisation and planning skills; from creating and keeping to the deadlines.