Career Fair

I was invited to the Career Fair put on by some students at the local school. It was interesting and quite different from the Career Days I went to in KW, years ago. Those would have about 200 employers, and lots of displays, all the shizz. And I knew that going in, for sure. I thought it was good of the students to try, though was disappointed with the invited career people that failed to show, or even respond. So there we were, all 5 tables of us. RCMP had their two constables (we also have a corporal - he was back at the office, doing paperwork), there was a rep from the Fire Department, a rep for the local mechanic, a welder, and me.

I was only expecting the high school students, but they brought in grade 6 and up, so I had some younger ones. It was an interesting day. The younger ones mostly had no idea what a social worker was, or what they did. They did however, know kids that didn't live with their parents because they had problems and couldn't parent their children, so they were being raised by aunties, or grandparents. I had one little grade six girl who took the information I had printed up for handouts, and told me she wanted to be a social worker. Awwwww....cute. I also had two high school students who were interested in becoming a social worker as well, and took the information. I had a three page color write up about the social work career, and a list of the universities in Canada that offered a Bachelor of Social Work program. I was suprised at how many did, and there were many universities I hadn't even heard of.

The high school students were somewhat more interested, and I did get quite a few questions. I had spoken with a former colleague and friend of mine back east last night and she helped me sort out what to cover with the youth. Thanks G! The way they ran this fair was they brought in a class at a time, and sent 3-4 kids to each "station" for 15 minutes, then rang a bell and everyone moved to the next station. Kind of like how they run card tournaments back east. So I found what worked best, was to get a quick read on how interested each little group was by chatting with them for a minute and that pretty much determined what I would cover, as there wasn't time in 15 minutes to do a whole lot. I talk to a lot of them about what they wanted to do when they graduated high school, and there were some interesting answers, but quite typical of many kids - NHL Hockey star, a lawyer, a welder, a counsellor, an anime artist, and so on. Some of the teachers sat in with a group and had the usual questions - what inspired you, what's your favorite part of the job, what's the hardest part, you know. Some asked me how much money I made, heh heh...so I didn't tell them, but I did tell them how much someone could make in the north doing my position (the range), since that can be looked up on any job posting and the government website.

I talked to the police after we were done for the day, and they didn't have any potential recruits...so there. Nah na na na na nah na...they took it well. I have to say, we have some good members here, easy to work with, great sense of humour, and dependable. If I call, they ALWAYS call me back, typically within minutes, even if they are not on shift. I couldn't ask for more, and that sure is nice to have, particularly since I am on my own here.

Lots of the kids were suprised to hear that I lived here, and did not know that I had been working here for over a month now. (GAWD it seems like I've been here longer than that!) I got to put in a little plug for the youth program I'm to be teaching next month, and several of the girls were quite interested, so that's encouraging. The classes are rather small, and I'll only be teaching to three different ones - grade 9's, grade 10/11 split, and grade 12. The largest class has only 15, and the others each have 10, so a nice number to work with. I'm looking forward to it, and we begin in early February if all goes as planned, once a week for 6 weeks.

I am liking this part of the job, that's for sure.