You Can't Eat Your Degree Workbook

By Tricia Berry and Danielle Forget Shield

You can't eat your degree — but it can sustain you, satisfy you, rejuvenate you, replenish you and fulfill you. How you use your degree to make a difference in our world can provide you the sustenance you need. Your degree, or more importantly your future career path, can fulfill you in ways you perhaps never considered.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“Tell me about yourself.”
“What are your five-year goals?”

You Can’t Eat Your Degree gives you the perfect answer to these tough questions. You’ll learn how to use the experiences you collect through college and the information you already know about yourself to communicate the career path that best fits the genuine you. The descriptions and dialogue you create to script your career story can be used to:

— Identify your dream job
— Demonstrate clear direction and confidence
— Ask the right questions
— Tell your career story

Use your degree and experiences to guide your career story to a fulfilling future designed by you especially for you. When you combine your passion and philosophies identified during your college experiences in a coordinated and strategic view, you begin to create the story of your future – one that gives you more than your degree; one that provides the resources to eat!

825 Basics, LLC provides knowledge and tools that you can immediately apply to enhance your workplace and career success. Find workplace empowerment and career freedom through workshops, books and consulting. Learn more at 825basics.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fideli Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781604145106

Tricia Berry and Danielle Forget Shield

Tricia Berry, MBA, has more than 18 years of experience defining her passions and taking control of her career. She has managed her own strategic communications and positively influenced her career path throughout her experiences in engineering and college recruiting at The Dow Chemical Company, academic advising and student programs at The University of Texas at Austin and volunteer work with not-for-profit organizations. With her company, 825 Basics, Tricia has mentored and coached students, new-hires and experienced professionals on the techniques and processes shared throughout You Can’t Eat Your Degree. She earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Houston - Clear Lake. Danielle Forget Shield, P.E., MBA, has more than 17 years of experience implementing the techniques outlined in You Can’t Eat Your Degree. She began her career wondering if she’d gotten the right degree, but quickly realized that she could accomplish anything she wanted by defining and creating her own career story. Using this strategy, she has built a career as an entrepreneur, author and professional speaker after 15 years in corporate roles, holding senior-level positions in engineering, environmental compliance and project development. Danielle prides herself on applying engineering processes to career success and has become a career trend analysis expert. She uses this skill daily as President of 825 Basics. Danielle has a BS in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA in Finance from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, and is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.).

Book preview

You Can’t Eat Your Degree Workbook

Combine Your Passion and Philosophies to Create the Story of Your Future

by Tricia Berry & Danielle Forget Shield

Smashwords ebook edition published by Fideli Publishing Inc.

Copyright 2011 © by 825 Basics, LLC

No part of this eBook may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Fideli Publishing.

Smashwords License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Book artwork by Rick Marron

ISBN: 978-1-60414-510-6

FIRST EDITION

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Authentic, Genuine, Real You

Pay Attention to Compliments

Consider Comments

Know Your Career Image

Understand Role Models

Identify Mentors and BCFs

Looking Inside

Introduce Yourself

Recognize Your Mindsets

Envision Your Dream Job

Identify Likes and Dislikes

Acknowledge Strengths and Weaknesses

Your Trends

Take a High-level View

Focus on a Detailed Perspective

Your Career Story

Career History

Resume

Define Your Script

What Would You Like to Know?

Tell Me About Yourself

What Are Your Five-Year Goals?

Communicate Strategically

Identifying Your Target Audience

Your Action Plan

Take the First Steps

Revisit Your Plan

Start Your Fulfilling Career

Words to Spark Thoughts

About the Authors

About You Can’t Eat Your Degree

Introduction

College is a time for exploration, learning and personal growth. It’s also a time to consider your career aspirations and investigate possible career paths. In college, you pull from the past and engage in new experiences that help you envision your future. Your vision should include a script of your career story that will help guide your steps along your chosen career path. – You Can’t Eat Your Degree

This workbook is a companion to the book You Can’t Eat Your Degree. It provides a space for you to capture your thoughts, ideas, observations and experiences. The workbook follows the same flow as the book with the same chapter titles and headings.

The Authentic, Genuine, Real You

Who are you? You may know who you are, but how do you put it into words? How do you communicate it simply and easily to the thousands of people who will ask, Who are you?