by a grant from the john h. delantoni charitable trust, supporting educational innovation. host: what would you do today if money or time were not a concern? what would you look forward to in the morning? what would keep you energized and excited throughout the day? and when you headed home at night, what would you be proud of having accomplished? this is your chance to discover what you really want in your career and in life and how to go about achieving that. this is your career advantage! ♪ ♪

host: hello, my name is rebecca haddock. and i'm your guide on this tour of discovering yourself. in this course you'll learn the best way to start your career search, which is to know yourself and what motivates you in life. you'll learn about the world of work, how it's organized, and what opportunities it offers you. and you'll learn the step by step process of achieving your career goals. it will be a wonderful journey and i'm happy you're going to take it with me.

we'll get to know some people who are doing what they enjoy or are making tracks to get there. they've been through a career planning process and continue to evaluate their decisions. we'll also hear from employers, economists, and career experts to give us updated information on the world of work. we'll do some exercises together that will help you get to know yourself a little more. and in each episode, patrick combs will give you a hot tip to get you out of your seat and on your way to finding a satisfying career. there are three main steps in this course: step 1: self knowledge & exploration; answering the question, what do i really want? step 2: career & educational exploration; or, what's out there for me? step 3: career planning & implementation; or, how do i get what i want? >> they did a study some years ago and they found out that

a huge percentage of people weren't in the job, whatever the job was, 30 days after they started the job - it was somewhere around 69%. so, people, if they're in a bad job, they leave it. the issue is, do you want to take the job? do you want to spend a week or two there or a month or two or even a year or two there finding out it isn't the job you want and then leave it with a tremendous loss of self-esteem. i mean you always feel lousy about yourself. why didn't i know it was going to be like this? or trying to figure out ahead of time what kind of work is fitting for what you have enthusiasms for, what your skills are, and so on. host: let's start with an exercise so you can begin thinking about who you are and what you want. are you ready? close your eyes for a moment and imagine your ideal day. where do you wake up? who lives with you?

what are you getting ready to do? what are you wearing and what are you eating for breakfast? what do you see and hear around you? and how are you feeling? now you're heading to work. where are you going? what do you do there? who works with you? how would you describe the mood and setting of this place? now open your eyes and jot down what comes to mind after the exercise we just did. you'll want to repeat this exercise on your own several times throughout the course. it will help you imagine the kind of career and work you want. if your ideal day comes to mind easily, then great, you've made the first step to discovering your ideal career. if not, don't worry. you're like most of us who don't always take the time to think about our ideal day. during this course you'll get the chance to develop your ideal day as a way of discovering your ideal career. let's meet some people describing their ideal days

and maybe you'll be reminded of what you really love to do. >> i can imagine the day when i would get up in the morning and i would be able to go off to work - to a real job. it just sounds so nice to have a real job that i can support myself - all on my own, that feels so good. since i want to teach, that would be to inspire, to spark imagination, to help others to explore the world around them. almost as though you see the world again, each and every day, through the eyes of somebody who's never seen it that way before, >> to guess whether it's man or machine. >> well, that's not thinking. that's not thinking. that's doing. >> carolyn? >> yes. >> hey, can you come over here and help me just for a minute? >> sure.

>> carolyn, i was going over some of these new things that we were ... >> today... kind of the day that excites me most is a day that, in terms of work, is probably somewhere in the 12 hour range, given the demands of a startup. because those days could easily be 16 hours or 18 hours. i guess down the road, i hope that life will change a little bit. i hope that my workday will be a little bit shorter. i'd love to see that day be more like a 10 hour day instead of a 12 hour day. if that day still included both kind of work in terms of building a company and expanding and being involved with other people and that kind of endeavor, but at the same time allowed me to be really involved in non-profit work, that would still be a great day. let's write out if you had to - what are the five best benefits of the job that you have today? so just count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - let's do that. >> i want to inspire people to really follow their dream, you know?

and i realize - like, you know, i've always been told i'm a dreamer and i live in this other world. oh, you'll never be able to do that or this or whatever it was. somehow i just felt like, no, you know, i'm going to make it happen. and so my dream has been to be an artist and to work as an artist and basically not to be boxed into one of the boxes that already exists, rather to create a new form of the way i want to live - so that's what i'm doing. >> there you go! check it out! ooh, yes. >> ideally, i think i would like to be a writer and work at home, actually have a home office. if i had the capability, which i don't, i would like to be able to provide a private tutor for my son. >> hey mom, look at this book that i found.

>> oh, where'd you get that from? >> so, he'd have his own little area where he's doing his tutoring. and i would, of course, have my pc and fax machine and everything all setup in my little home office and i'd go and plug away at my self improvement books for, you know, a couple of hours or so, take my break at, you know, my leisure. and then, i mean, you know, all the benefits that you have from working at home, taking a break when you need one, you know. being comfortable and - that would be my ideal thing to do, but i can't really see that being done i'd say for another ten years. because, you know, i am working at a corporation right now. >> my own path, i see myself going to a point where i'd have my own business,

say out here in california. and i'd like to be able to also venture that out into something else that would be more specific to my own, let's say, my own liking. so, i guess what i'm trying to elude to is the fact that there is this business that i see creating, but yet, at the same time, another side business that deals more with my personal aspects of life, maybe fulfilling that other side that the business side doesn't. art, art's really important to me or culinary is really important. i really like to eat. i like to cook. so, one of those, one of my future ideas has always been to have my own business, but yet at the same time say, own my own cafe or restaurant, just understanding the art and taste of culinary. and just having my friends over and people that i work with in my restaurant, in my cafe, just as a side business. that's always something i've always really, really wanted. >> good. excellent. good stuff.

host: these people have thought about their ideal day. and they've even started to make that dream a reality. although they may hold jobs, they're also creating their careers. so, what's the difference between a job and a career? >> i think the job is, as it's usually used, is employment. i lost my job. i lost my employment. i've got a new job. i'm newly employed. now, that's a real meaning. the trouble is that the word carries baggage from the past. and the baggage has to do with security. and i don't think today's job brings very much security. i think a lot of times, maybe my father's time or even ten years ago, whatever, it was a lot more, i'm going to give you something and i'm going to set out the exact career path for you and show you how to get there.

and now it's a little bit more, we do look for our employees to be a bit more entrepreneurial and recognize that it's up to them to manage their career. >> if you will indulge yourself by allowing yourself to do the things that you are crazy about, on some small scale at least, but in your daily or at least weekly life, if you will do that, you will be giving everything you are supposed to be giving to the world. you'll be brilliant at it, you won't have any trouble sticking to it, because you'll love it. and you will be giving what you are supposed to give. host: a career integrates your personality with your work. so if you love children and enjoy art, you might begin as a volunteer coordinator at a children's museum and become an art teacher at a school. let's take this idea of a career to another level. with your love of children and art, you may advance your career by directing an art school

or running a foundation that supports children and the arts. i've always been interested in education and after finishing graduate school a couple of years ago, went into business, but decided at some point that i really wanted to marry my interest in business and education and startup a for-profit educational services firm. at the same time, though, i had a long-term commitment to doing non-profit work, something i had been doing for about ten years plus. and decided to expand on this other non-profit program i'd been involved in. and i thought that hopefully i could do both, and so far i've been able to. >> for a startup, it's very different than if i was presidency of ibm or a medium sized company. but for a startup that means i take out the trash. you know, i decided the colors to paint on the wall. i went out and found this place to begin with, this office that we're sitting in. you know, simple things like that.

and then there's very high-level strategy things, like, what is the vision of the company? where are we going? who are we trying to emulate? what's the strategy from getting from a to b and then points in-between? host: in career advantage we want to help you identify and make career choices based on your interests, values, and skills. so in this course, we'll help you learn more about what motivates you and what you have to offer. we'll guide you in finding places that need you and finally in securing work. if you're clear about what you like doing and what you're good at, you have an advantage in developing your career. >> it always starts with homework on yourself, because, what you're essentially trying to do, i mean, intelligent job hunting always starts that way. unintelligent job hunting starts with asking what are the hot jobs? and what does the market want? the reason that's unintelligent is because if you don't have a passion for doing that work, the market can be paying a lot of money to get you can do it and you'll still be bored.

>> if you just go out as a job seeker and say, i'm looking for anything, from an employer's perspective, that's not very helpful. the employer wants somebody who is motivated, excited, knows why they're interested in that occupation, knows that it fits their interest and their values and their goals, and can say that to the employer. and from an employer's perspective, that's a more interesting candidate as well. host: in years past, you were a farmer or a teacher for your entire life. if you were employed by a large corporation, you worked your way up the corporate ladder for 30 years and then retired from that same company with a gold watch. not anymore! today we change jobs and careers more frequently, continuing to be true to what we like to do and what we're good at. >> i spent several years in my 20s really assessing, you know, what it was i wanted to do, going through those career assessment tests. you know, and so many pointed to being an artist.

which i didn't really want that to be the answer. it's like, no! that's too hard! i don't know how i'm going to make a living doing that. from my perspective, i sort of feel like, if you don't do that, then what chance do you have of really living an authentic life, really? it's like, if i'm not going to take the time to assess what i want and is really true to my own nature, then i'm going to constantly be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. host: you might have experienced unemployment, perhaps due to family or health reasons. you may feel bored in your work, wanting to make a career change. you may be leaving the military. perhaps you just moved to a new city or just graduated from school. whatever place you're starting from, it's okay. >> i think a lot of people think that you have to have an education and you have some money and you have to be able to have babysitters and go to classes.

and, you know, buy $100 worth of books and spend your afternoon drinking coffee at a bookstore. i always forget to talk to them, because, you see, i raised two kids alone. i was broke. i was on welfare. i didn't - i could never afford a babysitter. i mean by the time i could afford a babysitter, my kids were babysitting for other people. i just don't think that has anything to do with it. you still have to figure out what you love. career advantage will assist you with making the transitions from unemployment to employment, from military to civilian life, or from school to work, and help you make any future transitions more effectively. a lot of times people will look at a career and say, well, it's this steadily going up, up, up, up, up. and occasionally you need to take steps, you're going up, but maybe you take a parallel step. maybe even take a step that goes down a little bit because you can see further down the road that you'll ultimately get to where you want to be.

the ideas we'll present here are not science formulas or math equations. there are no right or wrong answers. rather, there are your answers. the ideas are personal. when i ask questions like, what do you want to do? or, where do you want to go? only you can come up with answers that are right for you. this course is your course. here is your chance to redesign and recreate your life to your advantage. your assignment is to fully involve yourself, which means that you commit to going through this process. before each episode, have pen and paper ready so you can take notes and participate in the exercises. now you might feel frustrated or confused at different times during this course, and that's alright. following the course will help you move through the frustration and confusion that you might experience. >> doing things that you know you can do and succeed, reinforce yourself for that.

kind of have a plan to increase your confidence in yourself. and along with that, i think, is this optimism about the future. there's so much in the literature and the research now about optimism being an important factor. even in medicine, i like to use the holistic health as a metaphor for our career development. and we know so much about a person's ability to heal themselves through their own attitude, optimism, confidence, same thing is true in career, i believe. host: trust that you will find success in your career along the way. believe in yourself. are you ready? >> this is the first day of school. and i'm ready - i think. my first day of school, i'm excited. i know i can do it. i know i can do it. but i'm still afraid, but that's okay - i'll take a class at a time.

host: during this course, we'll work together to help you understand yourself, explore your options and make the necessary connections to start your ideal career path. let's review the three main steps or sections to this course. each section will include several episodes on related topics. step 1 is self knowledge and exploration, answering the question, what do i really want? this step is important since you have to know who you are, what you want, and what you have to offer before you can find the work you really love. >> you know all that stuff about how you have to persist and you have to stick to things. it's so hard - it's not hard when you love what you're doing. that's like, to say it's hard is like saying i feel so bad i haven't eaten chocolate in a month - i have to remember to get back to it. you always remember to get back to it, because it's sweet as honey. so you've just got to do what you love. it's terrifically important. host: step 2 is career and educational exploration, answering the question, what's out there for me?

we'll explore what's out there in the workplace. how do you know employers will hire you to plan children's birthday parties or test new computer games or dig up artifacts in the mountains, if you don't find out that these opportunities even exist? you need to know what's out there before you can get there. step 3 is career planning and implementation, or, how do i get what i want? when you get to the point that you say, i want to be a sports coach or a cake decorator or a technical writer? how do you acquire the education and experience to go forward? how do you find work opportunities and convince employers that your skills will positively impact their business. >> the main idea is that nobody is going to create the job situation for you. you're going to have to get to know enough about the situation

to find out where the work that needs doing is. in this course we'll help you discover what you really want, what's out there for you, and some ways to go about getting what you really want. >> i had a plan - that's the key. you know, when you start, you know, looking at career options, you have to remember that going to school is great, getting your degree is great, but having experience is even greater. >> oh, is this the facility number right here? >> yes. >> so that's the correct one it should go to? >> yes. >> i made sure that every organization that i went into, people knew that i was going to school, i was majoring in accounting, if they had an accounting office, i wanted to come and visit and see what they were doing. do you have anybody in the accounting department that can talk to me and tell me how they got there, and you know, what they did, what they're doing, where they went to school, you know, what type of experience they got, you know, that type of thing. so i was just out there - i was just out there making myself known.

host: and now, here's your first hot tip! hi. my name is patrick combs. i am a self-described career enthusiast. i love the age we're living in. you can be whatever you want to be. i'm an author, professional speaker, and i frequently appear on two hit tv shows. i grew up in a small town mobile home park. i graduated high school never having known anyone who had an unusual job. every single person i knew had an ordinary job. i decided i wanted to have an extraordinary career. i didn't know what i wanted to do, but i knew i wanted it to be extraordinary. i graduated college and one day while i was working as a video game tester, it hit me. i ran to tell my co-worker, steve. steve! steve! listen to this! extra effort is really what makes champions, right? right, he said. well, you know how i told you that i want to have an extraordinary life? yeah, he said. well, what word does extraordinary begin with?

extra, isn't that incredible. the key to success was right there the whole time. uh-huh, steve said. steve didn't quite show the same level of enthusiasm that i had from my linguistic discovery. but i was clear on a very important concept. a small, consistent amount of extra effort creates extraordinary results. i want you to have that extra effort edge. so, throughout this tele course, i'm going to break in to offer you some hot tips, practical, easy steps that you can take that will land you in the career you want. your first hot tip, take notes, do the exercises, follow the hot tips and most important of all, stick with it. until next time, be great! host: how do we discover and create that extraordinary life?

that's what the three sections of the course are about. section 1: what do i really want? section 2: what's out there for me? and section 3: how do i get what i want? now these steps won't necessarily happen in a linear way in your life. that's alright. you may spend more time on one step than another or than we do in this course, and that's okay too. realize that as you develop or change your career, which we all do, you'll use this process over and over again. >> and it's useful to do your homework when you're sort of fed up with using the skills that you've been using. particularly if you notice that it's in the category, i'm tired of using my people skills or i'm tired of using my things skills or my data skills. then it's really time to do the homework again. host: so, what's next? go ahead, ask that question. what's next? i mean, if you don't ask that question, then what?

we all know people who stay in jobs that are not right for them. maybe they're not using their true talents or they don't get paid enough or they don't agree with company policies or they're just not learning new things anymore. what's next? >> my goal is to get my bachelors in philosophy. and everybody goes, philosophy? but i love the subject - it's fascinating to me. and then after i get my bachelors, i want to go to graduate school and get at least my master's degree. i want to teach at community college level, because you have a lot of interaction with students as well as other faculty and i like that a lot. >> i think that ever since i was a kid i've always liked to cook, i've always watched a lot of the tv shows. and living in san francisco, obviously, exposes you to that type of art. and so i've seen the schools there and i've walked in and just kind of just looked around and just, it's something that is very fascinating to me and just really captivates my eyes.

>> i think that's the heartbeat of any successful career. if you like it, believe in it, think it's worthwhile, believe it's of value, you're excited about it, you're challenged by it, all those are wrapped up under the umbrella word like. if you like it, all things being equal, you're going to tend to do better, make more money, be more productive and be happier. host: if you're enrolled in college, separating from military service, returning to an office after raising children at home, or just ready to make a career change, you need to look at what your interests, values, and skills are now. which employers can use your qualifications and experience? and how do you learn about and go after those opportunities? we'll address these questions in upcoming episodes of career advantage. one of my favorite writers, barbara sher, says, "what you want is what you need. what you want is what you need." in career advantage, we're looking at what you want,

education, family, travel, health, or money - as what you need. i'll see you next time on career advantage. to learn more about this program, career advantage, visit us at pbs online at the internet address on your screen.

production of career advantage was made possible by a grant from the john h. delantoni charitable trust, supporting educational innovation.