Career Talk 2019

Richard K. Lazaro
 Career Talk 2019
Richard K. Lazaro

15 November 2018 2
WELCOME!

Thanks for joining us

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Outline

01 The Animal School 04 “Typical” vs. Better

Fable Resources

02 Career Decision 05 Academic and Career

Detemines... Planning Process

03 Planning Challenges 06 Final Thoughts

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SHS BACKGROUNDER

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 Success is achieved by
developing our strengths, not
by eliminating our weaknesses.
Marilyn vos Savant

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The Animal School Fable

•The animals organized a school to help their

children deal with the problems of the new
world.
•To make it easier to administer the
curriculum of running, climbing, swimming
and flying, they decided that all their children
would take all the subjects.
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The Animal School Fable

•The duck was excellent in swimming but

relatively poor in running, so he devoted
himself to improving his running
through extra practice.
•Eventually, his webbed feet got so badly
worn that he dropped to only average in
swimming.
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The Animal School Fable

•The rabbit had a nervous breakdown

because the other animals said she
looked like a rat when she jumped in the
water for swimming class and all her
hair got matted down.

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The Animal School Fable

•The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he

encountered constant frustration in flying
class because his teacher insisted that he
start from the ground up instead of from the
treetop down. He developed cramps from
overexertion, so he ended up with a C in
climbing and a D in running.
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The Animal School Fable

•In the climbing class, the eagle beat all

the others to the top of the tree, but
kept insisting on using his own method
of getting there.
•This was unacceptable, so the eagle was
severely disciplined.
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The Animal School Fable

•And then the fish came home from school

and said: “Mom, Dad, I hate school.
Swimming is great. Flying is fun if they let me
start in the water. But running and climbing?
I don’t have any legs; and I can’t breathe out
of the water.”

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The Animal School Fable

•The fish’s parents made an appointment

for her with the principal who took one
look at her progress reports and
decreed, “You are so far ahead of the
rest of the class in swimming that we’re
going to let you skip swimming classes
and give you private tutoring in running
and climbing.” 18
The Animal School Fable

•At the end of the year, the fish that

could swim exceeding well and also run,
climb, and fly a little had the highest
average and was valedictorian.

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The Animal School Fable
•The prairie dogs stayed out of school and
because the administration would not add
digging and burrowing to the curriculum.
• They apprenticed their children to a badger and
later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start
a successful private school.

What is the moral of the story?

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The Animal School Fable

The moral of this story is:

•Let the fish swim. Let the rabbits run. Let

the eagles fly.
•We don’t want a school of average ducks.
•or, Play to people’s strengths.
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The Animal School Fable

•Most of us are unbalanced.

•We are relatively stronger in one area than
another.
•There is a great temptation to fix ourselves or
others by investing time to improve the areas
that are relatively less strong.
-- But that’s not the way forward.
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The Animal School Fable

•The better approach is to invest time to

improve the areas that are already relatively
strong, and find ways to compensate for the
gaps.

Source: Lessons from The Animal School Fable in Leveraging Strengths by

George Bradt

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Ponder over

1. How many hours have you invested in school since

grade 1?
2. Why do you go to school?
3. Is it smart to select a HS extracurricular activity at
random? A career?
4. What is the best career in the world?
5. When are you required to decide on your career?
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Think about it

People Often Invest More Time Planning Their

Vacation Than Planning Their Career.

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CAREER DECISION
DETERMINES...

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Career Decision Determines

1. How you spend most of your "awake" hours for the

next 40 years
2. Your opportunities for personal satisfaction and
growth
3. Your ability to meet your family's needs (e.g. housing,
medical, college)
4. Your ability to eventually retire with the financial
resources to enjoy it 27
PLANNING CHALLENGES

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Planning Challenges

• Easy to procrastinate.
• Parents “fell into their jobs”.
• Too scary to think about.
• Too busy. (Family?, Responsibilities?)
• Don’t know where to begin.
• Don’t see the value.
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Result: Poor Choices, Waste and
Frustration
• “My son just graduated from college. He doesn’t have
a clue what he wants to do. Maybe forensics. Maybe
art.”
• “My daughter is a sophomore in college and she hates
her major (accounting). She is changing majors, but
doesn’t know what to choose. That means at least one
more year of college that we cannot afford.

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Result: Poor Choices, Waste and
Frustration
• “Now that I have a college degree, I need to think
about a career. I majored in Marketing, but I’m not
sure that’s what I want to do.”
• “I hate my major, but switching involves two more
years of college. My parents would kill me. I’ll gut it
out. Maybe I’ll learn to like it.”
• “Now that I have a college degree, I need to think
about a career. I majored in Marketing, but I’m not
sure that’s what I want to do.”
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Result: Poor Choices, Waste and
Frustration
• “I hate my major, but switching involves two more
years of college. My parents would kill me. I’ll gut it
out. Maybe I’ll learn to like it.”
• “I wish I had known four years ago what I know now. I
would have taken career and college planning more
seriously. My major was easy and fun, but now I
cannot get a decent job.”
• Experience of former ABM students who are taking BS
Accountancy
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TYPICAL VS BETTER
RESOURCES
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“Typical” Resources Used to Pick a
Career
1. TV => There is a big difference between TV drama
and “real life”.
2. Friends => They’ll know what sounds “cool”, but
unless they have proactively used the career /college
tools available, they are probably not a knowledgeable
source of information.

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“Typical” Resources Used to Pick a
Career
3. Life’s Interactions => OK, you have used the
services of Dentists, Pharmacists, Teachers, etc.
but… Do you really know what it is like to do their
job?
4. Parent => A great source, if your parent’s career
happens to be “the right one” out of several hundred
possibilities for you.

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Better Resources to Pick a Career

“Free” on-line resources

1. To clarify your interest/fit with various careers
2. To compare your personal skills/strengths against
those required by various careers
3. To determine which careers offer the most opportunity
4. To develop your list of careers for consideration
5. To learn about the nature of work, education
requirements, job outlook, earnings, etc. 36
Better Resources to Pick a Career

Talk to People in Careers of Interest

1. Parent’s Friends
2. Friend’s Parents
3. Acquaintances from “Life’s Interactions” (e.g.
teachers, dentists, store managers)
4. Career Day Presenters
5. Volunteering, Internships, Job Shadowing
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Suggestions Before Starting

1. Don't select a career based solely on money. (MV, JM)

2. Do pick a career for which jobs are available with
income levels adequate to meet your family's financial
needs.
3. Don't expect a quick, easy answer. The career
planning process requires time and effort. Invest the
time to identify/evaluate careers that "fit" your needs,
interests and abilities.
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Suggestions Before Starting

4. Do use a variety of tools and talk to several people in

each career of interest. (RGC, RIASEC, etc.)
5. Don't get discouraged or discredit the process when
some “obviously” unacceptable careers appear on a
list generated by an interest assessment tool (they
will).
• Career planning is not a precise science.
• Reason and judgment must be applied.

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Suggestions Before Starting

6. Do think about the process as a way to significantly

improve your odds (with no guarantee) of selecting a
great career. The following table is my rough
estimate of how your odds for choosing a great
or "perfect" career improve by making an informed
decision.

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Suggestions Before Starting

Random Gut Informed

Decision Feel Decision
Perfect Career 1% 5% 20%
Great Career 4% 20% 50%
Acceptable Career 60% 50% 20%
Terrible Career 35% 25% 10%
For example, it's estimated that your probability of selecting a
"perfect career“ is about 1% if you make a random decision vs.
20% if you make an informed decision.

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ACADEMIC AND CAREER
PLANNING PROCESS

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Academic and Career Planning Process

•Failing to plan is planning to fail

•Talk to people!

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Academic and Career Planning Process

•Families are an integral part of the

process!
•Families are encouraged to review their
child’s plan and discuss all of the
component opportunities in order to help
them make thoughtful decisions that align
with their goals.

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Academic and Career Planning Process
• From both a financial and staff perspective, it will be
important to connect to other providers
outside of school to ensure access to
expertise and services that cannot be provided by the
school alone.
• From occupational expertise; teacher externship
opportunities; job-shadow, work-based learning, service
learning and volunteer experiences; dual credit articulations;
intensive social interventions; and career development
support from workforce development and economic
development groups

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Academic and Career Planning Process

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Final
Thoughts
Final Thoughts

• We each have our own strengths and need to be

working hard to maximise them, not handicap
our potential by becoming good at something
that isn’t natural for us.

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Final Thoughts

• If you build on your strengths enough, your

weaknesses become irrelevant.
• Focus on how your strengths can get you to
where you need to go.

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Final Thoughts

• Your strengths are needed somewhere. How can

you find it?
• Team up with people who are good at what you are
not good at and make that team stronger --
SYNERGY

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 Don't be statisfied with stories,
how things have gone with others.
Unfold YOUR OWN myth.
Rumi

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 RICHARD K. LAZARO

E D U C AT O R A N D

THANK YOU! ENTREPRENEUR

Laguna Senior High School

Provincial Capitol Compound, Pob. 1

Sta. Cruz, Laguna

+63917 377 7143

[email protected]

Do you have any questions?