Choose a career community

Due Jun 16, 2020 by 11:59pm
Points 1
Submitting a file upload
File Types pdf, docx, and doc

cartoon

At SuccessWorks, we've organized advising resources into a short list of "career communities" where you can connect with faculty, alumni, and fellow students who are knowledgable about the broad career area you might be most interested in -- regardless of your major.

Read this first

Angela Duckworth, "Graduating and looking for your passion? Just be patient," New York Times (June 4, 2016). Download Angela Duckworth, "Graduating and looking for your passion? Just be patient," New York Times (June 4, 2016).

Complete these steps

1. Review the SuccessWorks career communities. Read about the eight career communities Links to an external site.on the SuccessWorks web site (https://careers.ls.wisc.edu/what-are-career-communities/ Links to an external site.):

2. Pick two career communities to explore. For each of these two career communities, read in depth through the resources on their web sites. You may even want to speak with a SuccessWorks career community adviser to talk in more depth about your chosen career community; if so, make an appointment through this link (https://lscareer.wiscweb.wisc.edu/make-an-appointment/ Links to an external site.).

Then write up a two-page summary of these career communities. Answer the following questions for each (answers can be found on the SuccessWorks web site or through talking to your career community adviser):

What is this career community all about, and why does it interest you?
What is the name of the SuccessWorks adviser for this career community?
What are two L&S courses open to you that might help you further explore this career community?
What on-campus student organizations support this career community?
How do your prior experiences compare to those in the sample resume for your selected career community (available at the bottom of the SuccessWorks web page for that career community)?

3. Reflect on which career community might be right for you. Finally, pick which of the two career communities you explored might suit you best, and end your write-up with a paragraph explaining why.

4. Turn it in. Upload your essay to Canvas to get credit for this assignment.

Notes on this assignment

Remember that career communities aren't equivalent to majors. For example, you can be majoring in English but still be interested in the Technology, Data & Analytics career community. Or you can be majoring in Computer Science and be interested in the Government, Politics, Policy & Law career community. As you pick two career communities to explore, try looking into one that seems loosely connected to your major, but strongly connected to your other life interests.
Are there other students in your section who have chosen to explore the same career community that you did? What can you learn from asking them about their paths through UW?
If you are not an L&S student, you may choose to use a different example from your home school or college, instead of the L&S career community structure, as you explore specific campus resources. The point is to pick an organized area of similarity among different careers, and identify advisers, courses, student organizations, and particular experiences that will help you engage with this career path. You might contact or visit your school or college career advising office as your first step!

Examples

The scientific research and development career community is about assisting students in scientific fields with finding suitable careers that they would enjoy. The website contains specific resume templates and outlines that are specific to science related fields. This community interests me because I am personally studying biochemistry and it would be perfect for helping me find my path and figure out which job in the industry I would enjoy - something I currently have no idea about. I fully intend to utilize their resources. The successworks advisor for this community is Maureen Muldoon. Some L&S courses that could help me explore this community are chemistry 260: entering research part, and physics 107: the ideas of modern physics. Some student organizations that support this learning community are the Physics Club and the American Chemical Society. Two organizations where recent alumni have been hired are the American Institute of Physics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. My current resume has many differences from the sample resume in this community because I used my current resume to apply to lower level minimum wage type jobs, and it doesn’t contain any research experience or lab techniques. I will end up editing my resume to make it more like the sample because I will be applying to jobs more specific to the scientific industry.
After looking through both of these career communities I think that the Communication Arts and Entertainment community would suit me best because it relates so heavily to my major and the things I am already involved in. However the Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife community relates to my more specific interests and I think would go well with the Com Arts community. I think ideally I would like to find ways to be involved with both in the future because I think they balance each other well.