What’s your Plan B?

Setting the Stage:

Not all students have a clear idea of what career path they intend to follow after they graduate. For those who do, they are determined to “be” something specific in the future. Sometimes they realize, after they have started a post-secondary program or started working in that area, that this career is not right for them.  

While it is very important for students to have a post-secondary plan in place, such plans should include a ‘Plan B’ to follow if their first choice does not work out for them. For example, a student, who wants to be a doctor but is not accepted to a medical school program, might want to consider other careers in health care. On the other hand, after working in an office setting, a person who really loves the outdoors and working with their hands might want to explore a career pathway that would lead to a career that satisfies these two preferences. 

Material & Preparation

• Arrange for computer and internet access for students working in pairs or groups.
• Download the What’s your plan B? Reproducible (1 per student) [Google Doc] [Word Doc] [PDF]

What to Do

To work on this activity, students should be divided into groups of three or four. Each of these groups will be assigned a profile to analyze using a set of questions. Alternatively, this could be completed as an individual activity where students find a career profile in an area of interest. Note: some of the individuals, profiled in the Let’s Talk Science careersresource, do not indicate what their “Plan B” was.

Teachers should direct students to the Let’s Talk Science caeerwebsite where they will access the profile assigned to their group. Provide each student with a copy of the What’s your Plan B? BLM to use as they collect the relevant information from the profile.

For teachers’ convenience, the following profiles have been selected as examples that lend themselves to this specific activity. 

• Kaylyn Roloson (completed a bachelor’s degree in Art; is now a skilled trades person)
• Fred Sheppard (started out as a teacher; now works with Parks Canada as a park interpreter)
• Dragan Lukic (started doing a physics degree; now works in the insurance business as an actuarial analyst)
• Chase Oliver (worked in the oil & gas industry; completed an RV Technician program and now is manager of an RV Sales and Service company)
• Patrick Leclair (graduated university with a major in Jazz Studies; is now a CADD technician)
• Stephanie Good (originally wanted to be a veterinarian; now works with the Marine Stewardship Council developing policies and programs to help wildlife)
• Jeffrey Cowen (graduated with a Bachelor of Arts; is now a firefighter)
• Ben Sit (wanted to be a pastry chef; now works as a dietician)
• Clarence Synard (wanted to be a social worker; became a carpenter and now runs a construction company)
• Scot Ryan (worked as an accountant but wanted to be his own boss; is now a financial advisor)
• Jackie Frampton (didn’t know what she wanted to do; became an electrician and now has her own business)
• Murray Clayton (started university studying Fine Arts and graduated with a degree in history; now works as a Forensic Anthropologist)
• Kelly White (started out studying history and fine arts at university planning to be a teacher; now a registered massage therapist)

A sample of the information students should collect from each profile is provided in the Sample Student Response section below.    

Once finished, each group should share their profile findings with the class and the lesson(s) that can be learned by studying this individual. Teachers could ask which individual demonstrated the greatest change between their Plan A and Plan B career choices. What skills, education, interests, etc. do students feel helped these individuals make good Plan B choices? If completed as an individual activity, students could join with a partner and share their findings and thoughts. 

As a concluding activity, students could create a journal entry in which they reflect on their own career plans and what they would do if they could not follow this plan. What do they need in order to create a good Plan B?