Throughout this post I will show pictures of mind maps and how the idea for this project evolved. For those of you that want to see the final mind map click here.

The biggest project I’m working on is a career development website for students, graduates, or anybody still trying to answer this question:

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

As a student I struggled with this question. When asked this question I said I wanted to do what my dad did, or be a baseball player. The problem as I see it, is the lack of information about different career paths. The lack of information is the cause of college students changing majors every quarter and why people hate their jobs. They don’t know what job would fit their unique skill-set and inherent strengths.

The website will include:

1. Interviews and posts from people that are happy in their career. The hope is that readers and viewers will be able to use the methods and advice to better identify careers they want to pursue. The interviews and posts will cover how to find your passion in your career and the specifics of their actual day-to-day job.
2. Introduction to The Real World ebook.
3. Online resources from around the internet such as ebooks, blog posts, and websites.
4. Offline resources such as books.
5. A blog that will continuously provide valuable content.

I’m thinking about calling the website “The Real Career Center” or “Your Career Center.” The main point of all of this is to help people. There are so many benefits to having some idea of what kind of career you enjoy including: This is the final product

1. Having a reason to formulate and accomplish goals that will get you closer to your ideal career.
2. Motivating to stick out school and do well.
3. A reason to get experience: take on internships, volunteer, gain new skills, network

Here’s an example from Colin Wright of what having a mission and something to work toward can do for a student

Partway through my first semester, I was introduced to design and my goals changed drastically. Suddenly I found myself wanting to dream bigger dreams…I would be employable! Wonder of wonders! I put together a rough plan of where I wanted to be when I graduated, and made sure keep moving forward through this plan with each decision I made. The plan looked something like this:

Goal: run a design studio in a big city and make lots of money

• Step 1: take prerequisite classes for design program
• Step 2: get in to design program
• Step 3: establish self in design program with high-quality work and niche skills
• Step 4: get design jobs while still in school to build up resume and learn new skill sets
• Step 5: graduate with good grades, lots of design experience, and several job offers
• Step 6: work for other people until design studio model is understood
• Step 7: start own studio
• Step 8: flourish

This post from Chanelle Schneider shows why knowing yourself is so important for your future career and questions the benefits of a college degree:

I graduated with a 4.0 GPA and was expected to go on and do great things. Well, what I learned in college is that life isn’t just about great grades. You have to know how to interact with people and be a well-rounded person.

I didn’t have to ask anyone for permission or assume that I wouldn’t be allowed to do something. I could do whatever I wanted using my own judgment. The problem was that I didn’t have much previous life experience outside of studying to base my decisions on.

Had I paid more attention to the signs that I wanted to be a writer when I was younger, I could have saved myself a lot of time, stress, and major switching.

I am grateful to what I learned by going to college, but I’m beginning to wonder if the best option for the next generation isn’t just to skip college until they can afford it without getting a loan.

The point of all of this is to show that students need information. They need to hear from others how they connected the dots to the career they have. Information guides our actions. How are suppose to decide on a major if we haven’t really worked a day in our lives? How is someone suppose to know they want to be a teacher, engineer, lawyer, entrepreneur, salesperson, writer, actor, dancer, doctor or whatever without some knowledge of the day-to-day duties and the skills it takes to succeed in these careers? I hope to provide that information with this project.

This is the final product. Now the hard work begins