You've wandered round the stands and picked out the college, IT or training course to interest you. Now all you need to do is go along and listen to someone in the frontline talk about what the daily grind in their particular career area is like.
Careers talks have been an integral part of the Higher Options experience since the early days. Last year, in an exciting development for the new millennium, the Institute of Guidance Counsellors and The Irish Times teamed up with Careers 2000.
Karen Ward was one of the original members of the Careers 2000 series of talks which started in 1993 and aimed to inform school students directly about what different careers involved. This year again, Ward has overseen the planning of Careers talks at Higher Options.
Each year in planning meetings for the Higher Options Conference the career talks are carefully discussed. Obviously, with so many choices out there it would be impossible to present information on every single job. After consultation, a selection of career options is chosen for the talks. The choice is made considering elements like career areas where students have expressed repeated interest, the most popular career areas or careers where there are plenty of job opportunities available. Some new or different career areas are introduced each year, on a rotation basis to fit in popular careers or to accommodate jobs that have become popular due to changes in the economy.
The career talks are entitled "Working in..." and take place in the Industries Hall each day of the Conference. The talks are announced, but be prepared for those you think you may have a particular interest in and note the time, location and make sure you arrive punctually.
The range of talks covers areas such as "Working in Engineering", "Working in Information Technology", "Working in the Sports and Leisure Industry" and "Working in Art and Design".
Ward puts careful thought into selecting people who will relate their career area. "We want to present as open an idea as possible to the students," she says, "It is important that they don't think that just because a speaker is presenting their typical day in a particular career area that that is a cut and dried representation of what that career would be like."
So, for instance in a career area which is as broad as "Working in the Built Environment", Ward has asked two speakers to present their areas - Basil Conroy, a quantity surveyor, and Martin Murray, an architect. "This helps to give a broader perspective of the choices which could be available in a career in the built environment," explains Ward.
Other details to which Ward pays attention are things like gender stereotyping in jobs. It is obviously not such an issue nowadays, but for careers like social work, which has at times has been regarded as a female dominated profession Ward seeks out Kevin Webster, a community worker in Dublin.
As an example of covering all bases, Ward has invited two speakers to cover the very broad area of engineering and, in a male dominated profession, one of the speakers is female civil engineer Margie McCarthy, accompanied by a colleague, chemical engineer Patrick Reilly.
"When commissioning talks I ask people to work along the concept of, a day in the life," says Ward, "The idea is to represent a typical day, so that students can get a broad outline of what a particular job may be like - of course everybody says they never have a typical day."
Ward stresses that it is important that students keep an open mind about the experience of the career area presented in the talks: "Students who are particularly interested in fine art may come out of the Working in Art and Design talk about advertising and think it has had little relevance to them but you should think about asking questions afterwards and trying to find out where you should go for information on courses and career paths." In the particular case of Working in Art and Design, Marty Wright, creative director at Bell Employee Communications is more than helpful. "I welcome students to e-mail me or call to the office and I'll try and give them as much help and guidance as I can," he volunteers.
At each of the talks students are given a hand out prepared by the speaker, which does away with the necessity of taking notes. It outlines such things as a definition of the career area, skills used in the job, routes of entry and ever important, salary scales. If you happen to miss a talk or would just like some information on a particular area you can obtain copies of the handouts.
Remember, at talks, time permitting, the speaker will hold a question and answer session, to enable students to probe the areas which the speaker may not have covered. Think carefully beforehand about questions so that you can ask incisive questions and get the most out of the session.
At the end of the day students find the talks entertaining, informative and a real eye-opener as to what life in the workplace can be like. You can get a good impression of what working in different career areas are like and by thinking about the subjects you enjoy and what activities interest you, you can identify possible areas of career interest. "Pay attention to the 'skills used' section on the handout or listen to the traits required for the job," advises Ward. "If you're creative with artistic passion and good communication skills then a job in an artistic area may be for you - alternatively if you're practical, enjoy problem solving and the chance to work outdoors maybe quantity surveying or civil engineering is for you."
The most important thing is to take advantage of the opportunities on offer at Higher Options. Discover as much as you can, about as wide a range of careers as possible, so when making your important decisions this year and next you'll make well-informed, well-researched choices.
