UC San Diego Extension, Career Night

by DJ Towne

On March 25th I had the opportunity to attend Career Night, which focused on futures in Science, Technology and Business.

I attended a workshop entitled Living Longer, Working Later:  Planning for Mid to Late Careers.  “It is a moment in time when most experienced workers need to step up, plan and carefully manage their mid-to-late life careers if they are to avoid outliving their money.”  Although the speaker was not affiliated with UCSD, I was inspired to continue with my course work towards a professional certificate program for Technical Communication.

I took away the following advice from the session to share with you:

• On a resume, you should list a recent course that you took that will help address the needs of that employer.
• Always keep learning in order to stay current.
• Talk to people, ask questions, and be curious about what is happening. You want people to see you as a learner.
• In the future you can expect change, chaos and confusion, and opportunity.
• Planning is better than hoping.
• Always find ways to further your career, whether it’s part-time, full-time, or volunteer work.
• Focus on sales methods instead of interviewing—remember that it’s about what they need, not what you have.
• Start planning now so that it is a continuous process, not an event. You can adjust the plan over time; be future focused.
• See your career as a portfolio of:
  • Existing talents
  • Targeted learning
  • Emerging opportunities
• The secret of networking: it’s not who you know, but who knows you. You can only do that by reaching out, not just social networking.
• Interning makes sense; work for free when you want experience in a new field.
• Upcoming opportunities :
• Teaching
• Tutoring
• Small businesses
• Volunteering
• Reposition for high need careers
• Anything that helps to keep baby-boomers in their hom es longer