Week 2: Pathways to possible careers

Start date:
1.

This week

Discover and develop some strategies you can use to identify information about jobs and
areas of study. Learn from the experience of others and start to plan a pathway to future
you.

1.

2.1

This week article

2.

Opportunity awareness

Before you can make decisions its important to investigate all of your options. Find out
what job and study options might be available and how others have developed and
fulfilled their career goals.

1.

2.2

Opportunity awareness article

2.

2.3

Capitalising on opportunities video (02:53)

 3.

2.4

Pathways to myfuture article

4.

2.5

myfuture game article

5.

2.6

Reviewing your findings discussion

6.

2.7

Possible in the world, possible for me discussion

7.

2.8

Exploring LinkedIn article

8.

2.9

Interviewing for information article

3.

Making decisions
Decision-making can be especially difficult when it impacts your future. Using effective
decision-making strategies can streamline the process.

1.

2.10

Making decisions article

2.

2.11

Career decision-making exercise

3.

2.12

Was the career decision-making exercise helpful? article

4.

2.13

What to do if youre still stuck article

5.

2.14

Where are you now? discussion

6.

2.15

Next steps article

7.

2.16

Congratulations and thank you article

What is your mental picture of success? Its often only in hindsight that we notice we followed the
winding road to our goal.

Alain Lacroix

This week
In Week 1 we focused on you. In Week 2 we shift the focus to information about the world of
work and how you can use that information to help you to make decisions and create the future
you have envisioned.

Welcome to the second week of the course. The activities through this course are guiding you
through a process of planning and strategy that is used in both personal and business
development by some of the most successful individuals. Youve evaluated your internal
strengths and resources and identified areas for growth (your goals). Now were ready to step
back to look at the external factors that influence our goals and decisions and how we can
achieve them. One of the final activities this week will be a career decision-making exercise that
will enable you to bring together all of the information youve collected, confirm your area of
study and start to devise your strategy for your first year at university.

Goals are a destination, not a pathway

Career goals are unique because their achievement is not always completely within our own
control. Many factors external to us can influence our careers and circumstances can change
unexpectedly. This can make career planning seem messy and confusing. Throughout our lives
we will need to make choices over and over again: Do I want to study now or take a gap year?
What do I want to study? What major will I take? Do I want to keep working the same part-time
job Ive had since school or do I want to try something new? Career decisions are always being
made and remade. So, we need the knowledge and skills to make the best decision we can at the
time. Theres no such thing as a perfect decision or the one right pathway to future you.

Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder.

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook

Its important to remember that careers evolve, sometimes through surprising twists and turns,
which is why achieving our goals requires us to have both the self-awareness we explored last
week as well as the opportunity awareness we will focus on this week. Learning how to find and
use information that will help us to enhance and build our career gives us useful information
when it comes to making decisions.

Tip

Did you know that one third of first-year students change their course within their first year of
university study? Its normal and OK to do this, and often very straightforward. Most universities
have advisors who specialise in helping students reconsider or change their course. They might
be in the careers or jobs team of the university or within your faculty or department. If youre
feeling unsure whether your course is the right one once you start, or its not what you imagined,
go and find someone to chat with about it. The sooner the better, as often enrolment changes are
harder to make once the first part of the semester is over.

I used to worry about choosing the wrong course and limiting my opportunities. But Ive
realised theres no one right answer and almost no decision is irreversible. Sometimes you just
need to take action and then you can learn from feedback and reset if you need to.

I thought I needed a qualification to open doors. Now I realise my goals are about filling
gaps in the health industry that others havent seen so what I need are my ideas and the skills to
make them happen.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Opportunity awareness
Achieving our goals requires us to recognise and capitalise on opportunities that come our way.

How well do you know the world of work? Understanding the way the world of work operates
means:

understanding the relationships between different jobs within an industry

understanding the pathways between university or other tertiary education and the workforce
or professional roles

understanding how people progress within their careers whether that be within the same field
or between different fields over time

being aware of emerging trends in the workforce.

Often theres no direct pathway from a specific degree to a specific career, but there are
definitely relationships between areas of study and areas of professional expertise or work.

No matter what degree you have, becoming employed, or creating paid opportunities, requires
having what an employer is looking for in terms of:

skills and experience

personal qualities

knowledge and qualifications.

Connecting careers to courses

Selecting the best course for you is only one part of the edge that university can give you.

When you start studying for a university degree, selecting a course youre interested enough in to
do well is one of the most important considerations. Then as you progress through your course,
you can learn more about the specific fields and career opportunities along the way by talking to
people who are further into the degree, doing work experience and even gaining paid work in the
field.

If you have some ideas of what kind of work you might want to do in future (in other words, the
tasks, skills youd like to use, people youd like to work with), it can help to identify study
options and activities to get involved in while youre at university so you can build these all up at
the same time.

Graduating from university with a real edge in the market comes from having intentionally
developed a combination of technical and interpersonal skills while gaining experiences that
enable you to be effective and achieve results rapidly when you first start working in paid,
professional roles.

Remember neither a degree nor the experience are enough by themselves.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Capitalising on opportunities
Watch some of our QUT Creative Industries graduates talking about the twists and turns their
careers have taken. Listen for the way they spotted and took advantage of opportunities that
emerged.

Those who work in the creative arts have always built careers in the face of uncertainty.
Successful careers in creative industries demonstrate how we can grow our career through a
series of careful moves as opportunities emerge. We can all learn from their resilience and
adaptability.

As you watch the video, listen for the way each individual spotted and took advantage of
opportunities as they emerged, or went looking for the opportunities they wanted.

Tip

Talking to students who are further ahead in the degree youre studying or considering is a great
way to get insight into the realities of the course and the options for after graduation. Talk to
people in your department or faculty to find out if there is a peer mentoring program in your field
to connect students in later years with those just starting out.
 QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Pathways to myfuture
This activity provides a way to explore how jobs are related to each other and to your study
interests. You may then be able to more easily identify what study options might help you move
towards your preferred career choices.

There are many job guides available which provide career information. They are very handy if
you have ideas about what you want to do and know the titles of jobs that youre interested in,
but its easy to get confused or frustrated if youre not quite sure or dont know the name of a job
or profession. Thats why weve invented a game to help guide you. Our simple instructions are
on the next step.

The game will help you determine how interested you are in particular career options, so you can
clarify and start to narrow down what you might want to focus on at university and the kinds of
people you will want to build relationships with to help you understand the fields youre
specifically interested in. Once you have an idea of the field or area you want to know more
about, then you can explore the skills, attributes and capabilities that will be helpful for you to
gain in addition to your formal education at university.

Prepare to play the myfuture game

You will need two things to play the game:

1. Access to the myfuture online career information website. You will need to sign up and complete
your profile so you have access to the full site. Note: If you are an Australian in NSW or WA, you
will be asked to pay a subscription fee of $15. Before you do this, ask your school or university if
they have a subscription you can use.
2. A way of recording what you learn along the way. We recommend using a mind map because it
helps you organise the information. You could use pencil and paper or check out the online mind
mapping tools in the See also list.

Bens mind map (Enlarge image). Accessible version. QUT 2016

What if I search for a job that I know exists and it isnt on the myfuture
website?

The job titles in myfuture are based on the Australian and New Zealand occupation codes. These
are regularly updated, and there are thousands of them; however, the world of work is moving
much faster than statisticians can code. If you cant find a specific job title that youre searching,
it might be that theres a related job. For example, I want to buy and sell property to make
enough money to be able to finance social enterprise projects. Entrepreneur is not in myfuture,
and neither is social enterprise. However, if you go to the Occupations page and search for real
estate, youll find options like real estate salesperson or property manager. If you then search for
property, youll find a much longer list of possible jobs such as: property manager, property
economist, property developer. So, if youre struggling to find jobs that you are interested in
learning about, pause and brainstorm some categories you could search for.

But perhaps, what you want to do really is something new and different that other people havent
done much of before. Thats absolutely OK. In the next section well explore the idea of
possible in the world, possible for me and look at how following other peoples career paths can
provide clues for creating our own from the very beginning.

Tip

Some universities offer career outcome listings on their websites, which help with getting ideas
for how degrees are related to the professional world. Take a look at your universitys description
of the degrees youre considering to see what they suggest. Then you can search for these terms
as well.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

myfuture game
The goal of the game is to understand more about the links between academic study, at school or
university, and some career options.

Follow our step-by-step instructions to explore your possible career pathways using the myfuture
online job guide.

1. Open the myfuture website in a new window so you can return to read the instructions.
2. Sign up and complete your profile.

3. Log in.

4. Select Career Bullseyes.

5. Select one of the headings that interests you. Your choice might be based on the subject you
enjoyed most at school or the activities and interests youd like to learn about for their own sake.

6. Take a look at the bullseye that comes up. At the centre is the field of study. Around it are
different job titles arranged in order from least formal to most formal qualifications required,
with those needing degree qualifications or higher in the outside ring.

7. Select a job title that you:

o dont know what it is

o think you might be interested in.

 Youll see a brief description of each job you select, an overview of the things a person in
that job might do (tasks), and if you select Pathways at the top youll see the skill level
required (and any qualifications) and some of the personal requirements or qualities of
people who are successful in these jobs.

8. Read through the information and ask yourself, Does this feel warmer or cooler in terms
of what Im looking for in my career?

How interesting is this job? QUT 2016

Is it cool?

This probably isnt what youre looking for. Note it on your mind map and use a symbol
(eg, cross , dead end) to represent that it wasnt the right option for you. Then go back
to the bullseye and try something different.

Is it warm, but not yet hot?

Make a note on your mind map using a symbol (eg, ~ for so-so) that it was a possibility.
Go to the Overview page for that job and look at the similar occupations listed on the
right. Select one that youd like to learn more about and keep exploring

Is it hot?

Fantastic. Make a note on your mind map using a symbol that it was a good option (eg, a
tick or an exclamation mark !). Go to the Pathways page and take a look at the study
requirements.

9. Take notes about the jobs that feel warm to hot that you want to be able to come back to later.
10. Keep exploring until youve found at least three that feel warm to hot. You might need to do this
exercise for more than one bullseye to find your three options.

Tip

If you know the names of the jobs youre interested in, you can go to Occupations instead of
Career Bullseyes. Here you can browse an alphabetical list or search for jobs by key word or
industry. Then you can complete the game.

When I thought of this as a game it helped me really analyse the different bits of each job I
liked and didnt like. Seems I want to work more with people more than I realised!

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Reviewing your findings
Be a super sleuth: examine the evidence and see what conclusions you can draw from your
investigation.

Take a look at the themes and relationships between the jobs that youve identified as being hot
or very interesting.

Think about it
1. What do these jobs have in common?
2. How are they related to each other?

3. Is there a common study area you could start with?

4. If theyre very different what aspects of each of them appeal to you?

5. Are you having trouble selecting an area to focus your study on because you cant choose
between two very different options? Take a look at all of the information you have collected
about that job and ask yourself, at this stage:

o are you willing to do as much study or work experience as is required to start working in
that field?

o do you have the personal qualities they describe? Or are you willing to develop them?

This should help you to narrow in on an industry, an area of study or a professional field. It may
not give you a specific career destination, but thats OK. Remember that the world of work is
changing so quickly that if you set a specific goal now, that career could no longer exist in the
future.

Tip

Check Will a robot take your job? to see if the jobs youre interested in might be at risk of
automation. If this is the case, talk with a careers expert at your school or university about how
you can still enjoy the field youre interested in and maximise your chances of gaining
employment as well.

So it turns out that business was the right area for me, but just not accounting. Its not as
safe as my dad thought it was and when I looked at the details I was much more drawn to jobs
that involve working with others, advising them and making decisions. Management,
importing/exporting or even helping people with their own finances all seem much more
attractive than doing figures for other peoples businesses. This fits with my strengths of fairness
and judgement too!
Talk about it

Share at least one thing youve learned about career options from playing the myfuture game.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Possible in the world, possible for me

Another way to develop an understanding of careers is to understand the pathways that different
people have taken to their current roles.

Learning about the multiple different ways in which people in the same industry, or profession,
have got there can help us to plan our own strategy for university and our first steps beyond
university. Here are four examples of the way peoples careers develop when we look back at
them over time:

Entrepreneur someone who has created their own employment opportunities through
business ventures.
Career changer someone whose career is made up of a number of different jobs that may not,
on the surface, seem related to each other or whose current job bears no obvious relation to
what they studied initially.

Portfolio career a career pathway that is made up of a number of different paid, part-time, jobs
or responsibilities that together create the combination of tasks, challenges and income the
individual prefers.

Upward career one that has a clear development of skill and expertise in a single field, from
entry level to technical skill and ultimately leadership roles. This is what people often consider a
good career.

In the coming steps well take a tour through some of the real-life journeys people have taken in
their careers, read their resumes and hear their stories.

Talk about it

Before you get started, think of someone whose career you admire. It can be someone famous,
someone you know personally or someone from history.

Share with us some information about this person and what it is about that career that attracts
you the most.

I really admire Richard Branson because when he finds something he doesnt like, or thinks
could be done better or differently, he starts his own. Virgin Air, Virgin Records its all super
cool. When I read his biography, this really inspired me to talk with people about my frustrations
in the fitness and health industry, and I discovered lots of PTs just like me were frustrated with
the same things. Now Im working with a team of students in the game design degree at my uni
to develop an app that we can use with clients to track their training and progress towards fitness
goals.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Exploring LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a tool many people have heard of as the business version of Facebook. But did you
know that you can also use it as a career research tool?

People use LinkedIn as a resource to network with each other, share ideas and resources and
publish ideas and learning to like-minded members of their professional community. The tools
on the site support and encourage identification of skills and experience, making it easy for
people to then search for people with the experience theyre looking for.

One really useful side benefit of this is that many people upload their resumes and their complete
career story becomes available for us to view. When were researching possible career options or
pathways, this is a gold mine of information.

Well begin by browsing the profiles of four people who mentor students at QUT: all of them
have created interesting careers in their own right and represent different industries, different
types of careers and different career journeys.

QUT 2016

Join LinkedIn

Now is a good time to join and start your profile. You can make it private until youre ready to
share it. Joining will give you greater access to profiles and make it possible to connect with
others around the world. Use our Checklist: How to build a professional student LinkedIn profile
to guide you. You should check out our advice even if you already have a profile to see what you
can do to enhance it and find out how best to use it.

Lets research the LinkedIn way

1. Go to LinkedIn and log in.
2. Select one of the people who have invited us to view their profile:

o Entrepreneur: Nadine Zrinzo

o Career changer: Bernie Althofer

o Portfolio career: Garry Smith

o Upward career: Angelika Schuck.

 3. Look at their profile and identify:

o what they studied (if anything)

o what jobs theyve had along the way, and how the job titles can differ, even when the
skills are similar.

o what skills they identify themselves as having

o how many different kinds of organisations theyve worked for; for example, private
companies, not-for-profit organisations, charities, government organisations

4. What do you notice about their career? Can you identify:

o the industries they work in?

o how theyve built their skills and expertise in one job to move to the next?

5. If youre interested in the industry or type of job this person works in, then stay on their profile.
If not, conduct an internet search to find someone whose career might more closely align with
the kind of work youre considering. A useful way to search is to type the name of the profession
youre interested in, the country you live in and the term linkedin into the search engine.

6. Once youve found a profile of someone whos working in a field that youre interested in, repeat
tasks 3 and 4.

7. Now look at their network. How many people are they connected to? How far spread is their
network in terms of industry, geography and profession?

8. Review the profiles of several people in the work fields or professions youre interested in. Your
goal is to see how many pathways to the same kind of job you can identify. There are multiple
ways of achieving career goals, and no one right pathway.

Tip

Work experience placements or internships are one of the ways that students gain experience in a
field and build their understanding of the industry as well as their networks. Look around your
university of choice it might be within the careers team or it might be within your department
for opportunities such as work experience placements, work integrated learning, internships, or
volunteering programs. They will put you in contact with industry and give you the opportunity
to find out more, learn what you need to develop further and build your experience profile.

Wow! When I looked at Garrys profile it finally clicked that in the arts people do multiple
jobs at once. Hes done so many things and branched off in lots of different ways. Searching for
film makers in Australia found top profiles of people working in the industry and helped me find
collectives and projects that are happening right now! I need to meet some of these people.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Interviewing for information
Talking to someone in real life can help clarify how particular professions work.

Our idea of what a career, profession or role involves can often be different to what it is like in
reality. Our views can be influenced by things such as TV, peers or family. Its a good idea to try
to talk to people who work in a role to get a better idea of what it might be really like to work in
an area.

Who do you know in your family or friendship circle? Many of us have friends or family
members who know people who do jobs were interested in finding out more about. Most people
are quite open to being approached to talk about their career and how they got to where they are
now. Known as information interviewing, it can be an invaluable way to learn more about the
realities and day-to-day experiences of different job options. If you dont know someone
personally, who do you know who could introduce you to a person who does a job that youre
interested in?

Its also OK to reach out to people you dont know, even if it feels daunting. If your personal
network cant connect you to the people you want to be introduced to, you can use a network like
LinkedIn. You can email them via LinkedIn or use their direct email if theyve included it in their
profile. After you make contact you can email your questions or request a meeting.

Do your homework

Be sure to prepare for your interview so you can make best use of the time you have with your
interviewee. You can find out a great deal about your chosen field before the interview through
your own online research. This will help you compose questions that will get you the most
relevant information. Use our Information interviewing guide to start thinking about the kinds of
questions you might ask and your interview technique.

Tip

Whenever you meet with someone who works in a field youd like to know more about, you
should let them know that youre studying and exploring career options. Its normal in many
cultures to ask people, even people youve just met, more about their work, what they do and
what their day-to-day experience of their job is like. People are often very open to talking more
about their careers or their goals. Then when you go on a placement or internship, youll be
highly practiced and able to quickly build relationships with people you meet.

I wanted to know more about what the day to day work of an environmental scientist
actually involves. My dad works at the local council though so when I found some people on
LinkedIn who work in Environmental Science at the council I asked him if he could help me
meet them. It was pretty nerve wracking but they were so nice and said they were impressed that
I was asking such good questions! I had never considered working in science could be outside of
a laboratory.

Making decisions
Decision-making can be especially difficult when it impacts your future. Using effective
decision-making strategies can streamline the process.

Understanding how to make effective decisions can help you choose between options. Some
people have already decided what they want to study and are using this course to confirm their
decision and get some tips on getting ahead. Great. Thats good news.

Others may still be weighing up course options, or even if theyre ready to invest in university at
all. If thats the case, this step provides a process for making decisions that will draw in all the
information weve explored up to now.

Decision-making style

When it comes to making decisions, most people have a preference for the degree to which they
focus on rational, or objective, information versus irrational, or values-based, information.

In career decision-making, rational information might include how long you would need to
study; the predicted need for a particular profession; how much money people in that profession
get paid; your skills and abilities to study in that area; whether or not you meet the course
prerequisites.

Irrational information might include how comfortable you feel at one university campus versus
another; the university or course your friends are planning to attend; whether or not you can
imagine yourself doing that kind of work in the future; whether the work and/or the study of that
field aligns with your values.

As you can see both are equally important, but the rational information is much easier to weigh
up, so often people talk themselves into logical career decisions when they simply didnt have a
tool for weighting the irrational data. The career decision matrix provides us with that tool.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Career decision-making
Theres no one right career decision: your LinkedIn research showed how many career pathways
there are. The best we can do is make a decision with the information we have at hand and then
review and refine our progress along the way.

Usually, our preferences become clearer once we lay out our options and the information that
goes with each one. The career decision matrix is a visual way of doing this, which will help you
evaluate your preferences. Its OK if your decisions at the end of this exercise are still of a
probably rather than a definitely level of certainty: careers are often iterative and messy.

The career decision exercise makes it possible to map out each of the options youre considering
in detail, so you can step back and look at it as a whole to make an objective decision. Take a
look at Bens career decision matrix results to see how the matrix helped him identify general
manager as his preferred option.

Using the career decision exercise

This simple exercise will guide you through the complicated process of comparing jobs. Before
you start you will need the information youve gathered about the jobs youre researched and
some quite time to work through the four steps. At the end of the exercise you will receive your
results and a matrix like Bens.

You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to do this exercise.

Please note, by launching the exercise you will be taken to a page containing content provided by
a third party website.

Exercise

Career decision-making

Launch

Was the career decision-making exercise helpful?

Remember to keep in mind what you know about your decision making style when you are
interpreting the results of the exercise.

The option ranked number one at the end of the exercise is most likely the best choice, for now,
given all of the information you have available. Are you happy to set goals to work towards that
career option at this point?

Yes? Great move on to the next step.

Not quite? Keep reading.

Of course, were still human, not computers. Sometimes once you identify the best option in the
step above, you immediately experience disappointment, dissatisfaction or a general sense of
thats not right. This is pretty common. Its in flipping the coin that we discover which of the
two options we really care about.
If this happens for you, then just go back to the option you are now most interested in or excited
by and check that the criteria work. If youre struggling, go to the next step What to do if youre
still stuck? for more tips.

Think about it

Pause and consider how confident you are with this decision.

What have you decided?

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is very unsure and 10 is very confident, how confident are you that
this is the right decision, for now?
If you have rated your confidence in this decision as less than 7, its time to review your decision
further. If you rated it at 7 or higher, then this will be a good starting point its time to start
planning.

My decision is to study a business degree and for now my major will be management and
my second major will be international business. Im confident at eight that this is right but I will
want to double check what you have to do to become a financial planner, because I might want to
keep that option open in future. But Im still pretty nervous about talking to my folks about it.
They think accounting is the safe bet and would be much happier if I went and did medicine or
engineering!

Im going to major in environmental science. This is confident at a nine because I love it.
Im also going to look into work experience at the council to see if I like working in that
environment in reality.

Im sticking with film, but Ive decided I need to enter film competitions and get involved
in a collective even while Im a student. Knowing I can do these things makes me even more
confident of my decision.

Even though I was starting to question if uni was for me, Ive realised that theres so many
people to meet and programs to do. I think Ill just stay and finish my degree in exercise science
and focus on networks and business pitching competitions so I can get both the skills and people
to make ideas happen and credibility in the health field from having a recognised degree.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

What to do if youre still stuck

Decision-making can be difficult, and careers can be messy. Chat to as many people as you can
to help you with your decision-making.
Talking through your thinking and decision-making process with a person you trust can be a
great way to clarify what you need to make your decision. The questions that they ask really help
to check assumptions or highlight areas where information is missing.

Here are a few suggestions for people to talk to for further clarification:

Take your matrix and share it with a trusted family member or friend. Get their views or insight
into what youve learned.
Connect to a careers or guidance officer at school or a careers counsellor in your community.

The tertiary admissions centres or universities in your area may have tools and resources to help
people considering study to make decisions and understand the process.

Tip

Most universities provide detailed outlines of each course of study that they offer. You can
usually see information on their websites about each subject (or unit) that you will do and what is
involved in the assessment. Take the time to read the details of what you will be learning as this
level of detail can often help in making decisions where youre tied between two good options.

Remember, no matter how much research youve done, you will sometimes still discover that the
reality of a course is different from anything you could have found out about on the outside. So,
make a note somewhere you can find it easily, who are the people at your university you can talk
to if you are unsure about your course choice, and as soon as you are in any doubt, go and seek
help. Often the easy option of staying in a course you dont like, rather than changing, is not the
most sensible decision.

I realised that I was worrying more about talking to my dad about my study plans than I was
about what I wanted to do. I went to see the careers people at my university and they helped me
talk through my decision and practice what I want to say to my dad. It was really helpful and
now I have a good case to make to him.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Where are you now?

Take a moment to consider if, or how, your thinking about your career has changed.

Now is the perfect time to think back to where you were when you started the course and to
reflect on how far youve come. The activities were designed to help you:

create your vision of your future

build your sense of who you are and how that affects your career choices

build your understanding of career pathways and outcomes

 make decisions and plan.

This process may have confirmed the direction you were heading in; resulted in some new ideas
that youve now incorporated into your study plans or even suggested an entirely different way
of moving forward in your career. Take a moment to reflect on what youve learned and share
your key insights below.

Talk about it

Share with us:

What surprised you?

How has that influenced your thinking and decisions about your career?

Are you planning to study for the same degree as you had originally intended? If so, why? If not,
why not?

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Next steps
Taking action is the difference between dreaming and achieving your goals.

Well done. Youve explored and increased your knowledge of:

your vision of your future and what you want to build in your life
yourself and what resources and skills you have now, where you want to go

the world of work and the opportunities that exist in your industry or field.

What are you going to do with that information?

Throughout this course youll have noticed a number of tips and suggestions for taking the ideas
we were working with and connecting them to the reality of your university experience. Take
some time now to turn this into a personalised action plan for your first semester of university.
Here are some general suggestions for things to do in the first few weeks.

Getting enrolled

The first step is to get your classes sorted. Look for information from your university about how
to enrol, and where help is available if you need it.

Connecting with peers

Make plans to attend orientation week or day at your university campus. Most universities have
sessions available for new students to help with:

finding and accessing services

understanding their department and the key contacts for help

connecting with other students, clubs and activities

managing timetables.

Plan to join at least one social or interest group to help with meeting like-minded students, many
of whom arent new students and can be the start of your network.

Connecting with services

What resources and services do you need to locate on your campus in the first two to three weeks
so you can find them when you need them?

Now, whats your personal action plan?

Think of your action plan as your plan of attack. It will help you stay focused on your goals and
help you towards becoming future you. Take a look at Gabbis action plan. Shes planning to
start her second year at university differently after making some mistakes in first year.

You might like to use the same action plan template as Gabbi or create your own to record what
you want your first week, month, semester or year of university (or other courses or pathways) to
be like. Be sure to choose a time frame you are comfortable with.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J

Congratulations and thank you

Youre on your way to becoming future you.

Thank you for enriching the learning experience by contributing comments and joining the
discussions. Your input has been invaluable. Be sure to continue to explore different careers. I
hope youll revisit the activities youve done in the course whenever you hear about something
interesting you want to explore, or when you think something has changed for you.
Congratulations on your achievements so far and all the best for the future.

You can help us.

Your feedback will help us make this free course great for future learners. Tell us what you think
in the post-course survey.
Want to celebrate completing the course?

You might be eligible to purchase a record of your study if you marked the steps complete as you
progressed through the course. To receive a Certificate of Achievement you must have completed
at least 90% of the steps. The certificate lists the topics you have covered. To receive a Statement
of Participation you must have completed at least 50%. As well as your printed certificate or
statement, you will receive a digital copy which is perfect for adding to your LinkedIn profile.

Looking for more QUT courses?

You can take your learning further with Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Check out
our university and study options, including our other free open online learning courses.

QUT 2017. All rights reserved. CRICOS No. 00213J