Thursday, March 1, 2012

Career Day

Yesterday I went back to my high school to be a speaker on their Career Day panel. I wasn’t entirely sure what I would say but we were asked to address some basic questions – where were work, what is our day-to-day, any advice we had for the students, etc. I followed that structure to the best of my ability.

What was interesting is that some of the other panelists came from different areas of the professional world. Two of the panelists were lawyers, one was a police detective, a nurse and a doctor were on the panel. I spoke on behalf of the business world. One of the panelists spoke about being a Compliance Auditor in the Department of Labor who investigates discrimination in the workplace. The last person spoke about being a translator. Not bad for a bunch of girls, I thought.
When I attended high school, we never had a career day. It would have been nice because I was naïve enough to think the only professions out there were doctors, lawyers, nurses and teachers. But things have evolved and we have to keep up with the times.

What almost every panelist stressed is the importance of reading and how you never stop reading after you leave school. In addition they also said that if you want to advance in your career, you need to keep learning. It was nice to see the other women speak to these topics because they were things I personally believed but never heard mentioned outside of my own field (and the education field).

We didn’t have enough time for a question and answer section (which I would have participated in! I wanted to ask the police officer a bunch of questions!). It would have been nice to see what thoughts were going through their heads as they processed all of our stories. I probably won’t do this again for a few years but it was a lot of fun to give some of my time to help younger folks figure out what there is out in the ‘real world.’ Little do they know, I’d rather be in their shoes, sitting in classes and doing homework, than in the world I inhabit.

1 comment:

M said...

Sounds like a great experience. I'm sure it was helpful for the students to hear your perspectives and get a sense of what types of jobs are out there. I'm with you--I'd rather be a student too!