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The perfect career for you depends on your personality, interests and what you want. What do you need to do to help achieve your goals and the goals of the global community? In what direction do you want to go? You are never too young to start thinking about your future, even though you may change your opinion sometimes during your childhood and adulthood. You should be able to integrate values, interests and personality traits to make a rewarding decision.

People come in different sizes, colors and have different tastes too. Sometimes we hear comments of people saying "a girl cannot be this" or "a boy cannot be that". Your gender should not dictate what you can do. Girls or boys can be teachers, fly airplanes, build bridges, bake delicious cakes and pastries, clean houses and make a good work of raising their kids. They both can be doctors and nurses.

It is wonderful to find your dream and it is up to you to make it come true. It can be helpful to talk to someone if you are still having trouble making a decision. Every decision must be made under conditions of uncertainty; there are no guarantees in life. Every decision is a risk and with practice, decision-making does get easier. Explore your natural talents and learn what you do well, analyze what activities give you satisfaction and pleasure, and identify the kind of future lifestyle you want.

Only you can decide what dream is right for you, even though it might need hard work to make it come true!

Discussion Questions

1. What is your favorite subject at school, (besides recreation time!)? Are you good in math, science, languages, and sports? Can you think of careers that need a lot of math? Science? What career would you recommend to someone who is very good in languages and literature?
2. What about sports? You have to be awfully good in a sport to become a professional player. Hard work and practice are also necessary to succeed. Can this be applied to any other career? Does this apply to an astronaut? To a doctor?
3. Some people are Realistic (the doers), Conventional (the organizers), Investigative (the thinkers), Social (the helpers), Enterprising (the persuaders), Artistic (the creators).
   Do you know which of these types fits your personality or that of your classmates? Are there any other types beside the ones mentioned here?
   Can you mention some famous people that can be classified under Realistic? Conventional? Investigative? Social? Enterprising? Artistic?
4. In many places people have to travel a long way to go to school. Sometimes weather is very rough for many days and even months. How could this have an influence on the education of a community? What can be done to help with this situation?
5. Children try to imitate their parents. If their parents read a lot, there's a strong probability that the children read a lot too. Sometimes you can find a whole family of farmers, a family of health workers and a family where almost everyone is a baker. Even in the careers they pursue, children try to be like their parents. What is the favorite occupation in your family? Is there more than one person in that career? Do you know of another family that has more than one member working in the same field? Do you think parents can influence a child in pursuing a given career? How? Do you think a parent can influence a child in not pursuing a given career?
6. Some of us are good team workers; some of us work better alone. The team workers are 'members of the pack'; they work in cooperation with the others until the task is completed. They are the facilitators. At the other extreme is the 'lone wolf'. This person prefers to do the job alone. He will develop solutions by deductive reasoning and attempt to achieve objectives with a minimum of help from others. Which of these types will work beautifully doing a research, analysis, or audits? Find among your friends a 'lone wolf' and a 'member of the pack'.

Activities

1. Let's find out your class career preferences! Write on a piece of paper 3 careers that are attractive to you. Tabulate the results to see the most popular careers in your class. This will be called TABLE A. What is the favorite career among your classmates? If everybody in your area wants just these professions - what professions would not get any employees? Are there some kids in your class that would have problems in finding a job because these jobs are so popular? Ask your online classmates about the career preferences in their classroom. Share with them your results. Are the career preferences similar among your online friends? Try to explain your findings.
2. When you are in the real world trying to get a job, you have to compete with other people wanting the same position. Simulate a real world situation: Every class will publish online different job positions available in their imaginary companies. State the requirements for the position. Everyone in your classroom and in your online classroom can send their applications stating why they are the best candidates. Choose a person to be the interviewer for each job position. This person will decide which applicant is the most suitable for the job and will recommend him or her.
3. Invite persons with different occupations to visit your school and talk about their work online. Send invitations to the other classes participating with you in this module. Every class will prepare a list with questions they will like to ask that person. Do some research on what the person does.
4. Separate in small groups. Each group chooses a country from the wall world map. Search in the Kidlink's public member database to find more about the career preferences of children from the chosen country. What is the favorite career in that country? Tabulate your results in TABLE B.
5. Tabulate the results found by both your classroom and your online classmates in TABLE C. Name the careers that were chosen by both girls and boys. What influence has culture, traditions and where you live in choosing your career?
6. Make a list of famous people. Read about their lives and achievements. What type of personality can be applied to each of the famous people? Explain how do you think your chosen famous people accomplished their fame. Make drawings to illustrate your work and share with other classes participating online. Publish your work on Kidlink's publishing place: Kidspace.