Exploring Career Options
Your decision to pursue a creative diploma likely started out with dreams for your future.
Your power to choose your direction of your life allows you to reinvent yourself, to change your future, and to powerfully influence the rest of your life.
Stephen R. Covey
As you approach graduation, it can be very confusing and overwhelming to figure out what kind of jobs or industries to target. Yet without a specific target, it can be incredibly challenging to develop a resume, build your network, write a 30-second summary, or engage in many tasks critical to your success.
There are strategies and tools to help you explore the myriad of opportunities that are available to you, as a college graduate. A thorough approach involves two aspects: knowing yourself and understanding the labour market.
First, it is all about knowing yourself, exploring things like your personal style, motivated skills, interests, and core values. It is understanding who you are, how you’ve changed over time, and where you see yourself in the future.
Second, is to understand the labour market, exploring what opportunities exist within your community and beyond. It is understanding industry trends, including what jobs may be in demand, or in decline, and how industries are evolving.
At its most basic, a good career fit comes from knowing who you are then finding a job, employer, or industry that values those same qualities. This “match” will allow you to bring your best self to work and to feel motivated and satisfied.
This section of the Toronto Film School Career Portal offers resources and strategies, and outlines the services we provide to help students engage in a career exploration process.
Understanding and Exploring the Labour Market
In the labour market, the employees, or job seekers, are considered the supply and the employers are on the demand side.
Exploring Career Options Using the Wheel
The first step in any career exploration process is to know yourself and recognize what/who might influence your decisions.
Informational Interviews
Informative and productive conversations that help you learn more about the field you are exploring and to build your network.
Connecting with Employers
In connecting with employers, you are actively creating opportunities to create the job, and career, you have always dreamed of.
Webinars
You have chosen your program of study, so you may think you have completed your career exploration. Nothing could be further from the truth! There may still be career paths to explore and decisions to be made about your future. The first step in any career exploration process is to know yourself. Amundson and Poehnell’s Career Wheel provides a backdrop for exploring 8 dimensions that both influence and are influenced by your career decisions. At the centre, “Career Alternatives” are all the careers that you might be considering. This webinar covers part 1 of “The Wheel”, an examination of internal factors, including Skills, Interests, Values, and Personal Style. It is recommended to complete both parts 1 and 2.
You have chosen your program of study, so you may think you have completed your career exploration. Nothing could be further from the truth! There may still be career paths to explore and decisions to be made about your future. The first step in any career exploration process is to know yourself. Amundson and Poehnell’s Career Wheel provides a backdrop for exploring 8 dimensions that both influence and are influenced by your career decisions. At the centre, “Career Alternatives” are all the careers that you might be considering. This webinar covers part 2 of “The Wheel”, an examination of external factors, including Career Opportunities, Work/Life Experiences, Learning Experiences, and Significant Others.