Related Careers. Opening Doors!

 In my position as a Career Assistant, I have the opportunity to listen to many different student concerns regarding the stressful and sometimes complicated world of job searching. Some students come in to our center and are 100% set on a certain job, where others don't really have any specific options pinned down.  Those with specifics might like certain aspects of a certain career and have picked it based on those criteria. The problem arises however, when there may not be any current openings  in that specific job. I always say, "have you thought of related careers?" and most of the time students say  "no, I haven't".

Doing some research on related careers can be so beneficial to your job search. There are a whole world of opportunities out there if you are casting a wider net. For example, if we take a teacher candidate who wants to become a teacher but perhaps there are no openings right at this moment. Related careers for him/her could be  an academic advisor, training coordinator, life skills coach or a museum and gallery education programmer. All of these options are related careers and will make use of the many transferable skills that the student will have learned over the course of their degree. Many related careers ( if not all) will also satisfy the need to teach and inform. The career may be different, but the essential tasks being performed will be similar to teaching and may end up leaving the student feeling satisfied and happy in an alternative career.

Related career information can be found on the career options section of the Degree Exploration Guides, located in our centre or online at www.brocku.ca/career-services, OR my personal favourite, career cruising. Career cruising can be accessed with your brock ID and password and is free to brock students. You have the option to fill out career assessments and the system will provide you with a list of jobs that you can research, or you can type a job into the search bar and search more specifically that way. The related careers button can be found on the left side of the page.

If you have any questions feel free to come in and we would be glad to help you.


Becky White
3rd year
BA Tourism and Environment (Honors)