David's Story: Bringing
Goliath Down to Size
David: I'm surprised at how many of those skills I have. You know,
I was always a team player, not only at work but where ever I dealt
with people. I seem to be able to get them to work together even when
there are disagreements.
Based on his latest learning, David now had a list of generic skills
and examples of each one to add to his personal career-plan folder.
His list of occupational options was still too long. He needed to narrow
it down to the ones that best fit his motivation, personal work preferences
and natural strengths. At the next session he came in with his "short"
list: Industrial Engineering Technologist or Technician, Mechanical
Technologist or Technician, Occupational Health and Safety Co-ordinator.
Now it was time for some heavy duty work. Charlotte gave David a targeted
research sheet to guide the next steps of his research. It was set up
to record in an orderly fashion specific information about occupations
and then to dig down deeper to learn about jobs or work roles related
to the occupations and industries he had chosen. He started with his
own provincial Job Futures site http://www.workfutures.bc.ca
for province-specific information on career salary expectations, job
prospects for the next eight years, areas of employment and required
education and qualifications.
David found job-specific information in the newspapers, in job banks
on the Internet and by contacting people in the field through associations
or through his network. He sought information about growth in companies
and where their skills gaps are.
David's task at this point in his career planning is challenging and
it is easy to become mis-informed or overlook critical input. Depending
on the source of labour market information, accuracy and applicability
can vary greatly. Those who are not familiar with researching the market
can be frustrated by seemingly conflicting information. They can also
be at a loss as to where to get information and how to check it out.
Chapter 5 presents an overview of some reliable sources of labour market
information and a guide to gathering, interpreting and questioning whether
that information is valid for the researcher's purposes.
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