RECOGNISE YOUR OPPORTUNITIES Workbook for students Riitta Aikkola © 2011

CONTENTS 1. To the user of the workbook ............................................................2 2. My goals..................................................................................................3 3. Know yourself .......................................................................................6 3.1 Your skills .........................................................................................6 3.2 Your values.......................................................................................7 3.3 Your personality ..............................................................................9 3.4 Your external factors .................................................................. 11 4. Identify the hazards ........................................................................... 15 4.1 In your studies .............................................................................. 15 4.2 In your time management........................................................... 17 4.3 In your decisions .......................................................................... 18 5. Know your potential ......................................................................... 22 5.1 Your personal qualities ............................................................... 22 5.2 Your experiences of joy and success ....................................... 24 5.3 Your hopes regarding working life ........................................... 25 5.4 Your education and training....................................................... 26 5.5 Your dream job ............................................................................ 29 6. From failure to success .................................................................... 33 7. For information.................................................................................. 34

1. To the user of the workbook This workbook is meant for students who hope to be able to clarify their potential when planning their prospective career and seeking work. The workbook will lead you to actively look at your choices, future and career. Your whole life and personality will affect your future and career. The book is a good tool for finding your own strengths and motivation.

The exercises will help you analyse your own actions and give you tips on how to advance your career. Some students have a clear view on what they aspire to and what they want, but for others, the future may seem like a blur. Hopefully this book will help you gain a clearer view of your future and career.

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2. My goals Your degree is important when seeking a job, but it is not the only thing that interests an employer. Employers also expect other competence and strengths from a job hunter. Every one of us is unique: we all have different kinds of strengths, experiences and interests. We are the experts of our own lives.

In addition to completing your degree, list three personal goals that you wish to achieve.

1.

2.

3

3.

When you have set goals for yourself, worked to achieve them and finally reached them, your self-respect and satisfaction with life will increase.

Your choice of field of study was once a specific goal for you. Think back to the factors that affected your choice. List at least three factors.

1.

2.

4

3.

You can make use of these when seeking work and contemplating your future career.

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3. Know yourself In order to move forward in life, you must first know yourself. You must stop and think what your values, interests, skills and knowledge are, and what your personality is like.

3.1 Your skills

You can find potential for learning new skills everywhere. Skills are not something you only learn in school. Various skills can be learned anywhere. The most important thing is to use the skills in your life that are important to you. All skills can be developed, but it always requires commitment, self-discipline and effort. You can learn any skill if you are determined to do so.

What are your skills?

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Which of your skills would you like to use in your prospective work? How can you further develop your skill?



You can visit the Careers guidance and self-assessment service for higher

education students

(http://www.uraohjaus.net/

DefaultUK.aspx) and complete Taitoura tasks that will help you analyse the characteristics of your personality as well as your skills and knowledge.

3.2 Your values

Perceiving your own skills is often easier than answering a question on what your values are. Values can be individual but also communal. Understanding your own values will help you see what motivates you in your studies, life and work. Ask yourself: what 7

do I really value, what motivates me in my life and why is this important to me?

Write down your three most important values. 1.

2.

3.



The

exercises

on

the

Windmills

website

(www.windmillsonline.co.uk/interactive) will help you get a sense of the things that you really appreciate in your life (on the main page, select the ”Main Section” blue box on the right,

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then select ”Section 1, Where am I” in the upper green box and the fourth exercise ”The things I really value”).

3.3 Your personality

Your personality shows in, for example, the way you behave with other people and in different surroundings and how you present yourself. The better you know yourself, the easier it will be for you to examine your personality.

Think of the most apt, interesting and surprising statements that someone has made about your personality.

The most apt?

The most interesting?

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The most surprising?

How do you perceive your own personality?



For

more

information,

visit

the

Kiersey

(www.keirsey.com/sorter/instruments2.aspx?partid=0)

website where

you can find your own personality type by taking the Keirsey Temperament Sorter test, containing 70 questions.

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3.4 Your external factors

Our future, decisions and career are also affected by external factors, including family, friends, hobbies, the media, online contacts, financial situation, work and life experience, the labour market situation and various events.

Which external factors have affected your choice of study subject? Why and how?

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Which external factors do you expect to affect your prospective career? Why and how?

How do you plan to develop your relationship network with regard to your prospective career?

12

You can use the life line exercise to outline your personal life history and development.

Draw your own life line on a large piece of paper and mark down your studies, hobbies, work experience, positions of trust, voluntary work, maternity/paternity leaves, military service period, special occasions and features of your life, moving houses, etc. Think back on everything that you have been involved in and that has had significance in your own life. Next, assess and reflect upon the following issues with regard to your life line:

What have you learned? What skills and qualities did a specific period teach you?

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What are the things that inspired and interested you? What has been especially important to you? Why? How have your personal characteristics developed?

In what kinds of surroundings are you at your best?

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4. Identify the hazards 4.1 In your studies

In various surveys and queries, the following have come up among the causes of a lost grip on studies:

 difficulty with finishing tasks that require initiative  too little planning of studies  absence  paid work at the same time  excessive use of alcohol  negative attitude towards oneself  too little exercise  lack of peer support  laziness (Note! Creative laziness, by contrast, can be beneficial.)  human relationships  lack of motivation and skills for studying  mental well-being.

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Once you become aware of the causes of your loss of grip on your studies, stop and think of ways to prevent it.

In the

following, a couple of ways are listed for seeking help for the advancement of studies:

 When you need support in the planning and advancement of your studies, do not hesitate to contact the student counsellor of your educational institution.



You can test your own learning style at the Lingua@net website

(http://www.linguanet-worldwide.org/lnetww/en/ways

/styles.jsp > In English)



The University of Åbo Academi study instructions web page (www.abo.fi > In English > Studies & Research > Student advise > Study techniques) provides in English study instruction on learning.

All learning is based on personal relevance: what do I want, what am I aiming at and what am I pursuing? A common argument is that everyone, people of all ages, are able to learn basically anything – often even 5–20 times faster than normal and 10–100 times more efficiently than commonly believed. 16

The essential factor is how to learn. One must aim to use all senses when learning. Stress impedes learning, so try to avoid it.



Read more in G. Dryden & J. Vos. (1996) The New Learning Revolution.

4.2 In your time management

Is it difficult for you to plan your studies and manage time? Do you have time for your hobbies, friends and family? Can you find the time to do everything that you want to? Your time management is in your own hands – you make your own choices on what to use your time on – either something useful or useless. You must find the time to study if you wish to graduate.

Find out what your time is spent on. Monitor your use of time every day for a week. Write down what your time is used on for each half an hour. How much time do you spend on sleeping, cooking and eating, housework, morning and evening activities, studying at home and at school and leisure activities? If you are not satisfied with your time management based on such 17

monitoring, think of ways to improve it. Prepare a plan for your use of time in the upcoming months. Set concrete goals!

If laziness prevents you from advancing, make a decision to start by studying for 10-15 minutes at a time. If this does not work, take a moment to rest and try again.

4.3 In your decisions

Sometimes it is difficult to make decisions. It is hard to take the next step when you are not sure where it will lead. You are either unable to make a decision or lack the courage to do so. This can be interpreted as laziness, but sometimes pure laziness may also prevent you from making decisions.

It is usually easier for you to make decisions when you understand the kinds of trouble that you may get into.

Everyone can change their way of acting as long as they are determined to change their way of thinking. Choices and decisions always arise from thoughts and thoughts induce actions. Your 18

way of thinking is decisive in whether you will be able to move forward or get stuck. Make yourself think that you can succeed and hold on to this attitude. Never give up – overcome yourself and move forward!

It is important to realise that decisions can be made in different ways in different situations. Below you can see one suggestion for identifying four different ways of making decisions.

1 Rational The decision is made by using a logical and structured approach. As an aid, you can utilise the SWOT analysis, for example, where a four-field table is used to chart strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (see the table on the next page).

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

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2 Intuitive The decision is made based on emotions and intuition. It is made according to what feels right and not based on what would be rational.

3 Evasive Decision-making is avoided or delayed, as there is no feel of certainty about whether the decision is right or not. Delaying may either be a negative or positive decision for you. Sometimes it is wise to wait for a decision.

4 Spontaneous A decision made on impulse may be a good one, especially when not related to plans for the future.

The following questions will help you assess your own way of making decisions.

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What is the latest major decision you have made?

How did you reach it?

Whatever your way of decision-making may be, do not neglect your inner voice when having to make important decisions. If your decision brings you peace of mind, you are likely to feel content when proceeding with it. Sometimes peace of mind is also attained by waiting.

21

5. Know your potential 5.1 Your personal qualities

Consider your options and what your hopes for the future and career are. When planning your career, answer the following questions:

What are your positive sides and characteristics?

22

How have they been evident in your studies and work?

Which of your qualities would you hope to develop and which would you prefer to give up altogether? Why?

23

5.2 Your experiences of joy and success

What kinds of experiences of joy and success have you had in your studies and work?

What have you learned through your hobbies or life in general? Can they be utilised in your prospective work?

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5.3 Your hopes regarding working life

What do you hope for from your work? What kinds of issues are important to you in your work?

What kinds of jobs do you plan to apply for after graduation?

25

What kind of competence have you accumulated in your earlier work experiences?

5.4 Your education and training

What kind of education and training have you acquired so far?

26

What kind of competence have you gained from them?

Which issues do you feel you could use additional training in?

27

Are you planning to seek further education? If so, where would you like to apply to?

If your work and education-related plans do not materialise right away, what are your alternative plans?

28

5.5 Your dream job

Picture your dream job. Then write a story with the title ”A day in my dream job.”

Once you have finished the story, answer the following questions:

What inspires and motivates you in your dream job?

29

Which tasks are most important?

Which skills do you especially wish to use? (organisational skills, decision-making skills, human relations skills, written expression, performance skills, friendliness, initiative, deliberation skills, analytical skills, etc.)

30

How does your acquired competence support you getting your dream job?

What is your desired working environment like?

31

How do the results of your work manifest themselves?

What is satisfying about the work?

32

6. From failure to success Failure must be turned into an opportunity. Learn to appreciate it: a failure could take you to success. Consider a setback as something that will take you closer to the final goal. If you are unable to learn to fail, you may not get new opportunities. A failure is not an encouragement to feeling ashamed or guilty, but to learning. You can often learn more from unexpected outcomes than the ones that go according to plan.

In order to be a winner, you must try again and again, even if you failed last time, and even the time before that. For each new attempt, you will have gathered more experience, more knowledge and more determination.

Each failure adds to your potential to succeed. It would be a shame for you to stop trying and to quit just when you are starting to approach the finishing line. Each day, you will learn through each attempt and simultaneously gain more skills. The reward may be closer than you think. Try and believe it: you are about to become a winner.

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7. For information The Valtti career workbook was developed by Study Counsellor Riitta Aikkola in the „Valtti -Completed Degree as an Asset in Working Life‟ project. The material and exercises in the book are based on the contents and objectives of the Valtti group that Aikkola runs at the Vaasa University of Applied Sciences. The group activities took place in the winter of 2009 and early in 2010.

The ‟Valtti ‒ Completed Degree as an Asset in Working Life‟ project is a national development programme for 2008–2011 partially funded by The European Social Fund (ESR) and The North

Ostrobothnia

Centre

for

Economic

Development,

Transport and the Environment.

“Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance.” Proverbs 1:5

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