Draw a wanderings diagram

detail from Katharine Brooks, You Majored in What?

You've had many experiences already that will no doubt feed into your career choices throughout your lifetime.  But bringing order to these experiences -- and writing a compelling story about them -- can be difficult.  In this assignment you will use a visualization strategy to bring a narrative coherence to your "wanderings".

Read this first

• Katharine Brooks, You Majored in What? chapters 02 and 03, "The power of you," and "Mental wanderings."

Complete these steps

1. Draw it.  Following Brooks's example from the You Majored in What? textbook in chapters 02 and 03, create your own "wanderings diagram" on a blank sheet of paper.  While you can include any activities you have engaged in throughout your life, pay particular attention to UW-Madison activities you have already engaged in, or that you are planning to engage in over the next year.  
2. Expand it. Is your wanderings diagram detailed enough to provide good ideas and insight?  Effective wanderings diagrams usually contain anywhere from one to two dozen different items on them.  If you've only put a handful of items on your diagram, take time to think of a few more experiences, accomplishments, challenges, or ideas that have affected your life so far.  
3. Annotate it.  Make sure to not just include items in your wanderings diagram, but add some connections and themes to make sense of that diagram as best you can, as Brooks suggests.  (It can be effective to use highlighters or colored pens to do this.)
4. Review it.  Have someone who knows you fairly well take a look at your diagram and give you feedback -- do they suggest anything that you've left out?  Edit your diagram based on this feedback.
5. Turn it in. Scan or take a photo of your wanderings diagram, and upload the file to Canvas to get credit for this assignment.  Remember to bring a copy of your wanderings diagram to your next discussion section so that you can share and discuss it.  
   
   Special note: If there is anything on your wanderings map that, upon reflection, you’d prefer not to share with other students, feel free to instead bring an edited copy of your map containing only items that would be suitable for sharing.

Notes on this assignment

• Do you find it helpful to force yourself to organize your thoughts visually in this way, or is it more productive for you to use text?  
• Name one thing that surprised you about yourself or your career narrative so far as you started to fill out and then make links in your wanderings diagram.
• If you had to sum up your wanderings diagram in a single word, what would that word be?
• Looking at your wanderings diagram, what kind of personal strengths do you think your diagram reveals about you?  Try to name three.
• How does the definition of a liberal education connect to your wanderings diagram?
• Compare your wanderings diagram to your initial resume.  Can you find two things on your resume that are NOT represented on your wanderings diagram?  (Add them to the diagram.)  Can you find two things on your wanderings diagram that are NOT evident from your resume?  (How would you add them to the resume?)
• Your wanderings diagram is probably the most personal and unstructured reflection of all of these first few assignments. We want you to feel comfortable sharing that diagram with your discussion section. For example, we may ask you to swap wanderings diagrams with the student next to you, and take a few minutes to talk through the diagram to your classmate, seeing if you can describe them based on the drawing they made -- or to see if they can identify one or two personal strengths of yours that jump out from the wanderings diagram. It can be very instructive to see how someone else reads and interprets your diagram!

Examples

Katharine Brooks includes two example wanderings diagrams in chapter 02 of her book:

To learn more

• Taking Initiative Student Guide  Download Taking Initiative Student Guide 
  chapter 04, "Reflecting on your career story. Download Reflecting on your career story.
  "
• George Anders, "The explorers," in You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a "Useless" Liberal Arts Education (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2017). Download George Anders, "The explorers," in You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a "Useless" Liberal Arts Education (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2017).
• Steven M. Cahn, "The content of a liberal education," in Education and the Democratic Ideal (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979).  Download Steven M. Cahn, "The content of a liberal education," in Education and the Democratic Ideal (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979). 
  “The strength of a liberal education lies in its adaptability to each generation's problems, whether they be long-standing or of recent vintage.”
• Andy Chan and Phil Gardner, "An arts and science degree: Defining its value in the workplace," CERI Research Brief 5-2013 (2013). Download Andy Chan and Phil Gardner, "An arts and science degree: Defining its value in the workplace," CERI Research Brief 5-2013 (2013).
   From the head of the reenvisioned career services at Wake Forest University: “In our research, we sought input from a group of employers who actively seek A&S students for their talent pool. Through their input we have drawn a profile of successful A&S students who are either engaged in the recruiting process or who have started their careers. We also captured obstacles that employers believe A&S students face in the recruiting process.”
• Sheila J. Curran and Suzanne Greenwald, "Valuing a liberal arts education through the career lens," in Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2006). Download Sheila J. Curran and Suzanne Greenwald, "Valuing a liberal arts education through the career lens," in Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2006).
   A job-hunting how-to guide designed for students with liberal arts and sciences majors.
• Diana Gehlhaus, "What can I do with a liberal arts degree?" Occupational Outlook Quarterly (2008). Download Diana Gehlhaus, "What can I do with a liberal arts degree?" Occupational Outlook Quarterly (2008).
   “Surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) show that most hiring managers care more about a job candidate’s skills than they do about a college major. And the skills employers say they want most in a candidate, such as communication and critical thinking, are precisely those for which liberal arts students are known.”