Upcoming Years: IB and Career Planning

We are going to go loose this time: Just simply express your thoughts on the guidance you have received in terms of your IB program and career planning. What have you learned from the process? Especially anything that has surprised you. What worries you about what you have learned? What excites you? What is your plan of attack? How are you going to use what you have learned?

I have heard about the IB since I attended my first international school in Japan, six and a half years ago. The past month we have received IB presentations from teachers. They explained what each course was going to be about, to give us an idea of how the course will flow and so we can make our decision on which courses to choose. This is the famous IB hexagon that you seem to see everywhere you go in IB schools.

I am excited about having the opportunity of choosing my courses, however I am slightly worried because you need to choose a course from the 6 categories and some courses, under the same group look very interesting. It will be a very important choice to choose my IB courses and I am looking forward to it, but I am also a bit nervous, because those courses that you choose will be the same ones for the last two years of high school, so I must make sure that I consider all possibilities before choosing my courses. 

I will apply to universities in Europe, Canada, and the United States. The United States and most universities in Canada allow you to enter the university being "undecided", and in most cases, do not specify which IB courses to take. However, in Europe like the United Kingdom requires specific courses. Therefore if I am interested in choosing psychology as my major, IB Biology High Level is a requirement. Therefore, I feel that my decision on choosing IB will vary on the courses that are offered at the school, and the courses the United Kingdom require depending on what I am interested in studying in the future. UCAS is a website to send applications to universities in the UK, and also offers requirements that universities have to be eligible to apply. 

We started a six-week program on career orientation with Ms. Vanessa Benaci (college counselor). The first exercise was to write down what we would do if we have five lives, and she said that we can try to merge all these interests into one career, and then find possible college majors. To give us more knowledge on what our personality was exactly we did a few exercises to find your Holland Code, and then some quizzes to find our Myers-Briggs Typology. My highest Holland Codes were Social (helper) and Enterprising (persuader), and I was pretty shocked at being a persuader because I never saw myself as being that strong of a persuader. My Myers-Briggs Typology was ESFJ, and for most letters I was able to understand my results. I have learned more about the kind of person I am and how I am most likely to react to situations, from my Myers-Briggs results. What career do I want to have? How to decide? Those are the questions I am dwelling on, at the same time as deciding on my IB courses.

My plan of attack is to organize and manage my time a bit better, and study ahead of time, as well as not wasting time, because from talking to some of the seniors, when you enter the IB, time is precious, and cannot be wasted! However, I do not want to turn myself into some sort of workaholic because I do not believe that is good for my health but neither is procrastinating all the time and wasting time. I will strive to find a balance between studying and enjoying life!

Useful Resources:
Everything about IB
IB Diploma Programme
Is IB worth it?
Plan Your Career
The Career Key

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