There is a great commercial on TV right now, where a candidate for a position goes in for an interview to become an engineer, and as the interviewer is asking him “what makes you qualified for this position?”, which then follows him sitting down and breaking the chair. The person applying then comments about the design of the chair and how it is not made to hold someone with “all that weight”. Obviously, the interview is over immediately after that, with the point of the commercial being that it is not enough to just “have the skills” to do the job, but there are so many other skills for any position. You can understand all of the elements of being a “great teacher”, but knowledge is not only important, but also the skills to do the job, and the ability to even obtain a position in the first place.
So how are schools helping students create opportunities for themselves both during their time in school, and after as well? In my time in school, I remember going over how to make a resume, and looking at how to create a paper portfolio. Both were relevant to me at the time, but not necessarily helpful to our students today. Mashable has an interesting article on “The 10 Reasons Why I Ignored Your Resume”, and a lot of the tips deal directly with a person’s digital footprint and networking:
Job hunting is hard, so don’t make it harder that it has to be. Do yourself a favor and don’t give a company a reason not to hire you before you even get to the interview. Marketing has changed, adapt your job search strategy accordingly!
Although this article is geared towards marketing, there are many elements that would be applicable to a wide range of careers.
I recently saw educator Joti Jando share an article about her business students taking part in a “Dragon’s Den” activity, which went way beyond “creating something” and becoming engaged in the classroom, but giving them real world skills and understanding of the opportunities that exist:
Students presented their business ideas – including a breakdown on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, competition, management and operations, related government regulations and financial analysis – for assessment by the panelists.
This type of real-world exercise raises the level of student engagement, Jando has found.
Textbook and theoretical lessons don’t generate the same kind of enthusiasm or practical experience, she (Jando) suggested. Furthermore, an opportunity to meet and network with successful business people and entrepreneurs may hold as much value as this project-based learning.
So although the examples I have shared seem to be specific to “business”, there are a lot of takeaways for all of our students in helping them to not only learns content and skills in school, but actually helping them to create opportunities for themselves in our world.
Here are three things that I would like to see all students have by the time they graduate from our schools to help create opportunities for themselves.
1. Students should be connected through a social network with other people in their field of choice.
Teachers love Twitter, and although there is great learning that happens there, many educators have created opportunities for themselves simply being connected and networking with other people. I know several teachers that have obtained positions in new schools because they had someone interested in their work that they shared through Twitter. There are a lot of possibilities for anyone. For our students though, Twitter may or may not be the place. YouTube, Instagram, Vine, LinkedIn, Google Plus, or probably ones that I don’t even know about, have a plethora of communities in any given profession. Students should not only be able to learn from people in the field, but also network and create connections with others. I am sure we have all heard the saying, “it is not what you know, but who you know.” The adage hasn’t changed, but the opportunities and ease of access to one another has. We need to help students connect.
2. Students should have a digital portfolio.
There have been a lot of articles shared that the “resume is dead“, and that our social networks are more crucial than ever. Although a resume has a place in many institutions, a digital portfolio definitely can be seen as giving someone an advantage as it gives a deeper look into someone’s skill sets, and is accessible 24/7. Recently having my own wedding, if you were a photographer that did not have a digital portfolio of your work, we were not even going to consider hiring them. They didn’t even exist in our considerations. Being able to find someone online is one thing, but having the opportunity to look deeper into their actual work is crucial. Whatever the format, or the medium (written, images, video, podcasts, and so on), it is necessary for an employer to go beyond the resume. A resume can be a part of this, but it only tells a small part of the story.
3. Students should have an “about.me” page.
About.me is a great way to share a “digital business card”, and I have likened it to your Internet cover letter. It is not overwhelming with information, but it has links to much more. (Here is an example of a student’s page that was actually featured on the about.me homepage!) Having your about.me link as your email signature is a great way to not overwhelm future employees with some LONG quote at the end of each email, but also gives them the opportunity to connect with more information if they are interested. The other reason I really like the thought of students creating their own about.me pages is that it actually links to their other social networks, which if they are thoughtful about it, probably be a lot more appropriate if they know potential employers or post-secondary institutions are looking at what they are sharing. In a recent article from US Today, Marymount University coach Brandon Chambers was quoted as saying, “Never let a 140 character tweet cost you a $140,000 scholarship.” Having an about.me page is sending a different message. It is saying, “here are my social networks and I encourage you to look at them.” What impact would this have on student’s not only on their future, but their digital footprint today? I think having the ability to bring everything together could be very powerful for our students.
Of course, there are no absolutes in what a student should walk away with, but if schools focused on these three areas as part of what a student would leave a school with, would it not also help tremendously with many of the “digital footprint” issues that we are seemingly having in schools? By placing an emphasis on using these tools that are at our students’ fingertips, we hopefully can not only help them share their abilities, but help them make the connections to utilize those same abilities to their fullest.
