Career chats: Professionals learn and train for their careers in many ways
About this video
Three professionals describe the different routes they took into their careers. One taught herself Excel, took night classes and earned an accounting degree in her mid-thirties; a Navy veteran used the GI Bill and a VA counsellor to go to college; and another took many introductory community college classes, discovered policy and transferred to UCLA.
You'll be able to
- describe at least three different pathways people use to train for careers.
- explain how experiences like self-teaching, military service or part-time jobs can lead to a career.
- recognise that it is never too late to start learning for a career.
Key words
- financial statements
- Reports that show how much money a business makes, spends and owns.
- undergrad
- A first university degree, such as a bachelor's degree.
- GI Bill
- A US benefit that helps military veterans pay for education.
- community college
- A local US college offering two-year courses, often a step towards a four-year university.
- transfer
- To move from one college to another and continue your studies there.
Transcript
(upbeat music) - I did all these things in Excel and really taught myself how to use the program in the process. And so at that time, I didn't realize it, but I was actually building our company's financial statements and I was really just doing that out of common sense for the most part, so that we could keep track of what we were making and pay our bills and see what was really going on.
So, I took that as a sign that I wanted to explore that as a career. And I took some night classes at DBC and I loved it. Absolutely loved it. So we looked into some options as far as going to school, and we decided to move to Missouri, and I went to Missouri Southern State and got my undergrad there.
I was in my mid thirties when I was going to school, and so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, so I signed up as a public relations officer for the accounting club, that was huge. I was able to go to tons of events and meet tons of working professionals in the area.
- And when I started off, just high school like any other student, first generation, I didn't really have a path. I had my kids in high school and I joined the military to have a better life for my children. And I finished high school so they could follow my footsteps.
And when I got outta the military, I had the benefits, I joined the US Navy and they gave me my GI bill. And so I used my GI bill to go to Grossmont College, pulled in San Diego and I didn't really have a path yet, but one thing about the veterans benefits, you have to kinda speak with a counselor with the VA and they assist you in trying to figure out like, what do you like, what do you wanna do?
- So I left that, went to community college and decided to take every 101 class there was basically, and fell in love with policy. And so I transferred to UCLA as an undergrad, became a political science major. And my first, well actually, I'm skipping a step here because during my community college days, I was also a storage property manager in a part-time gig, and that was pretty informative actually.
Working in service is a very humbling experience. (upbeat music)
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