Some of you are busy surfing the possibilities and feel you’re on the edge of a big discovery. Great! Go for it … stop back later when you feel like you’re ready for the next step.
The rest of you are frustrated. Either you feel overwhelmed with all the options, in which case combining the 2-3 letters of your code might help narrow down the playing field. Or you feel frustrated with the lack of fit between you and possibilities popping up on your screen.
I know what you mean. ”Nannies” is listed among one of the occupations for me to explore, regardless of how I arrange my letters. And let’s set the record straight: I am most definitely not nanny material. I do not like small children for more than a few minutes at a time — and definitely not after they’ve made a diaper deposit, spit up, or are wailing at the top of their lungs. I love my nieces and nephews and friends’ children because they’re almost all at ages where we can have rational — and abstract — conversations. I love teenagers! Most of them do not need a nanny, though. Although “nanny” has one of those yellow suns marking it with a bright outlook, I will not be exploring that option.
So, if this Interest Profiler tool is so useful, why did Nanny show up on all my result lists? The answer is quite simple, really: Interest Profiler matches responses of how much you think you’d enjoy various occupations with the interests of people who are actually working in those occupations. These are gender-matched results, so mine take into account that I’m female. Apparently, a lot of artistic and social females enjoy small children.
But wait … there’s more! If you answered a fair number of the Interest Profiler questions as “unsure” because you don’t really know yourself well, or if you happened to be in a bad mood and marked a high percentage of the items “dislike,” then your results may not be accurate. What’s the fix? In the first case, to get to know yourself better, you should get out in the world and have new experiences. Go build a cabinet or write a play or study weather to find out whether or not you like the activity.
If you were feeling depressed when taking the assessment, you probably want to talk to a counselor or clergyperson. Many mental health centers take clients on a sliding-fee scale matched to income and ability to pay. Members of the clergy have faith-related training and can direct you to useful resources. If you’re a DIY kind of guy or gal, then go run a mile. Or walk a mile. Or do some Downward Facing Dog. Release those endorphins, bust your stress, and get to a better (mental) place so you can really reflect on who you are, where you’re at, and what you want to do next.
One more secret about searching with your O*Net interest profiler code: You can take your top 2-3 categories and rearrange them in any order to see what occupations match. My original results were Artistic - Enterprising - Social, which is AES. However, I can expand the number of occupations to explore by also looking at SAE, ESA, EAS, and so forth. As with your last tour, make it quick. Get some impressions and then sit back to think about what you’ve seen.
Now that you know your code, I bet you’re ready to see where it can take you. From this linked page you can explore by category. I’d recommend looking through the lists in each of your top 2-3 categories. Think of this trip around O*Net as a guided trip with only a few brief moments at each stop. Take note of any occupations that sound particularly interesting to you, that you might like to come back to later. For the moment, though, don’t spend too much time in any one spot.
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If you haven’t already, take the interest profiler to see what your code will be. If you’re already finished, your code will be the top 2-3 areas of your results, represented by the first letter of each category.
For example, my code is AES. I’m artistic (my highest category), enterprising (2nd highest), and social (almost tied with enterprising). After that, my scores drop off quite a bit!
O*Net’s career profiles actually incorporate these codes into the “Interest” section of each profile. Check it out - explore a few occupations and see if you can spot the codes. You can also search by category to see what occupations fall into your areas of interest. If you scroll nearly to the bottom of any given occupational profile, you’ll find a set of links to related careers. Following the links is a great way to think out of the box about what might fit you. Have fun, and check in here later for more ideas.
Maybe you’ve decided to try a new avenue in your career. Whether you’re 20, 40, 60 or somewhere in between, knowing what you like to do and what you do well is the first step. O*Net is a set of career exploration tools, including Interest Profiler. Take the short assessment on pencil/paper or online and find your code. Stop back here later to find out how that code can unlock your options for the future!
Life is like lasagna - layer after layer of flavor to tantalize you. Sometimes traditional is the way to go because you know what you like. If you want a different flavor, adjust the recipe. Sour stomach? Change the sauce (small change). Need a healthier version? Add veggies (small change). Skip the meat (bigger change). Want a portion to eat and a portion to freeze for later? Change your pan (bigger change).
At some point - after you’ve made enough changes to the recipe - you’ll have a new dish. Same great layers, new flavor. What will you call it?
There are 3 full days left in 2012. Have you thought yet about where you want 2013 to take you?
If you want 2013 to turn out differently than 2012, then adjust your recipe!
Make a small change: Go to bed earlier. Wake up earlier. Try a new hairstyle. Make a new friend. Eat more veggies. Drink more water. Get more sleep. Start a blog.
Even small changes can yield big results. If you like to play it safe, start small. One step at a time will still get you to the finish line. Be patient and persistent.
Make a big change: Change jobs. Take a class. Move. Lose weight. Balance your budget. Start a business. Help your community.
Bigger changes take a leap of faith. You start them without knowing exactly what they’ll bring. That’s part of the adventure. Dream big, work hard, and keep your eyes on the prize.
Adjusting a recipe requires risk. You might end up with the perfect concoction, a blue ribbon winner. Or, the end result might not taste as great as you would hope. So you feed it to the dogs and go back to the mixing bowl, a little bit wiser and hungrier.
Here’s to a great tasting 2013 for all of us!
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Flash Crash
For the past 4-5 months now, technology has not been my friend. I have had problems with my MacBook battery swelling (thankfully, the Apple store gave me a replacement) and hard drive freezing (which, although not completely resolved, are at least better since I moved old files to an external hard drive and upgraded the OS), particular programs not functioning effectively - or even at all (especially SPSS, as installed on my MacBook), online accounts timing out or being out of operation, and within the past week, my flash drive backup (on which I have been keeping all my most current files) refusing to be recognized on any of the computers I use.
$100 question: If I can’t trust my flash drive, what can I trust? Part of the reason my MacBook hard drive got so cluttered in the first place is because I’m paranoid that technology will fail and have almost everything in multiples. That tends not to be that effective, though, because then I have to root through multiples of each file to find the one I’m looking for (not to mention, the most recent version of that file).
Rather than just ranting about my tech issues here, I want to attempt a constructive solution. It seems that online “cloud” storage may be the way to go, and here are some possibilities I’ve found (some of which I’ve been using for a while, just not to their greatest extent):
* SugarSync: https://www.sugarsync.com/ — free access, sync, and share capacities across multiple devices, including laptops, phones (Android and iOS), iPads, Blackberrys, etc.
* Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/ — free access, sync, and share of files across Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile platforms
* iDrive: http://idrive.com — free online storage across platforms
* Evernote: http://evernote.com/ — free online access across devices and platforms with the capacity to store files, notes, to-do lists, web clippings and share these with others
All of the above have free, as well as paid, services and are generally listed among the best options in the category of free online backup. Consumer Reports has a general review of computer backup options to consider, including both online options and other technologies, if you want to think about all the angles. If you want more choices in online storage, see this blog post for 15 options. If you want some side-by-side comparisons, this chart gives you the specs for 15 of the major players at the low-monthly fee of <$5.
There are various factors to keep in mind in deciding how to back up data:
- cost (how much are you willing to pay?)
- space (how much storage space do you need? fixed or changing?)
- access (which platforms will you use? when/where will you need access?)
- privacy (encryption? sensitivity of data?)
- sharing (do you want anyone else to be able to have access remotely?)
- versioning (will you — or anyone else — be updating the files and want to keep/mark older versions?)
Regardless of which option you may choose, check out LifeHacker’s #5 on the list of “Stupid Things You Do Online and How to Fix Them” — merely saving files online is not a sufficient fail-safe in keeping hold of data, whatever it may be. Plus, be sure to think out in advance of committing to online backup/storage whether you will actually have access to the web when you need to store/retrieve the data.
My decision, for the moment at least, is to use a new flash drive and back it up regularly to SugarSync (for teaching work), Dropbox (shared work), or Evernote (research and course work). Anything that’s truly sensitive, of course, will only be stored somewhere I can guarantee its safety (which is probably neither in a flash drive I’m likely to lose or an online repository, unless it’s adequately encrypted).
I am starting to understand the perspective of technophobes people who talk about how modern technologies have overrun everyday lives with complexities and induced new levels of stress. I’m keeping one of my research journals in a tangible notebook this semester, paper-pen style, and may consider doing more of this in the future.
This great infographic shows how learning and technology have changed over the years and provides a few ideas of how to use mobile learning in the classroom to reach today’s learners.
