What is My Guide?
My Guide is an online career exploration tool. It is personalised, interactive and free. Users can create an account and re-visit their information and activities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It enables users to develop a career profile, explore career ideas, make decisions about different pathways and create a career plan.
How does My Guide work out occupation and career fields suggestions?
My Guide uses the results from your My Profile activities, including Interests, Education, Skills and Knowledge selected as a basis for exploring. Your activity results are matched with occupation and career field requirements and characteristics. The suggested occupations and career fields are then displayed for you to explore in more detail.
Why doesn’t my dream job appear in suggested occupations?
The Dream Job activity asks you to write down your ideas about an occupation or job that you would like to do in the future. When in Explore Career Ideas the occupations and career suggestions are based on your activity results for Interests, Skills, Knowledge and Education.
If you have completed activities used to suggest career fields and occupations that are preferred or essential for your dream job it may be that it is an emerging occupation not yet available on myfuture’s occupational profile list.
Is my information from My Guide 1.0 still available?
The most recent activities you saved between 1 January 2007 and 22 January 2010 have been transferred to the new My Guide 2.0.
What happens if I don’t access my account for a long time?
As of 22 January 2010, you will be notified via email (if you have provided an email address) three years after the last record of you accessing your account that your account will be made inactive unless you log in within 28 days. A final reminder will be emailed 7 days prior to the date of inactivation.
Why have I got jobs that require being indoors if I said I wanted to be outdoors all the time?
The Work questionnaire is currently based on a five-point scale. In the near future the questionnaire will be changed to record specific answers for each, for example, never, maybe and always. These answers will then be matched to the most important requirements to undertake an occupation to ensure suitable suggestions. For example, someone wishing to work outdoors only receives suggestions for occupations where outdoors is most common.
Were users involved in the design of the new site?
myfuture and its tools such as My Guide 2.0 are developed using a range of feedback and expertise in web design and career development theory and practice. Ideas are collected and reviewed using the following people:
- individual users who contact us and/or answer our site surveys
- teachers and trainers who attend myfuture training sessions
- teachers and students involved in myfuture’s evaluation
- myfuture Champions who work in career and transition areas of all Australian departments of education and training
- career experts and career development practitioners
- researchers, both in Australia and internationally.
We welcome feedback from everyone. Please submit comments and suggestions via Contact Us.
Is My Guide accessible?
myfuture, including its career exploration tools, My Guide 2.0 developments are tested and implemented using accessibility guidelines to ensure site accessibility meets international and Australian web accessibility guidelines.
Why is My Guide 2.0 slow when I am using it in a classroom?
My Guide has been load tested to ensure multiple users using the same internet provider address can access the service and response times meet industry standards. It is able to accommodate at least 40 users from the same location at any one time.
A number of factors can slow your classroom use, including the school’s bandwidth capacity, security measures installed for your internet use, PC and laptop settings, and more.
We encourage you to visit Contact Us if you require further assistance.
Hints and Tips
- Check with your school’s technical advisers regarding server and/or Internet Explorer access on the day
- Stagger groups of students to login a minute or two apart.
Why won’t My Guide create an account for me?
Your username and password must contain at least five letters and/or numbers.
Make sure your username and password does not contain spaces or characters (e.g. * or @).
Your username has to be unique. So, if someone has used the same username in my Guide previously it cannot be used again.
Your user email must be a valid address.
The password and password confirmation entry needs to be identical.
Why can’t I edit the bookmark section in My Profile?
Bookmarks are created in the Explore Career Ideas section of My Guide and are saved in My Profile for your research activities. You can add and delete bookmarks in Explore Career Ideas and Help Me Decide.
Why does the order of my bookmarks in My Profile keep changing?
The order of your bookmarks changes when you Rank and Compare your career ideas in Help Me Decide. A record of your last saved ranking is always available for you to view in My Profile – Bookmarks.
How are enjoyed skills different from current skills?
You might have developed a range of skills that you use at school, work, volunteering and in other settings. However, you might enjoy using some more than others. If you can identify skills you enjoy using you might consider these when deciding about different career paths.
How do I make sure I don’t send personal details to others from My Guide?
Before you select Email, review your results and make sure you are comfortable to send the information to another trusted person, for example, a parent or teacher.
My Career Plan Summary allows you to (de)select (need to check) sections of your plan you do not wish to send to another person.
Visit the Cybersmart website [opens in new window] to find out more about using the internet safely.
How reliable is the Interest Activity?
The Interest Activity in My Guide uses the Career Interest Test 4.1, developed by Dr James Athanasou. It provides one way for people to learn about career options and can provide a practical starting point for thinking about jobs and careers. Results can be used to provide reassurance about choices, to narrow the range of options or to stimulate career explorations by indicating the types of work you might want to explore.
When using the Interest Activity and results, it is important to note that peoples’ interests will change and that they are only a part of helping you decide about occupations. The Interest activity should be undertaken regularly during career exploration. Abilities, opportunities and personal circumstances will also determine what you do.
The Career Interest Test has been reviewed on a regular basis since its release. Users can be assured it is reliable but the test should not be used in isolation of other career exploration activities or relied upon to make long-term predictions about career development.
Qualified career professionals seeking further details regarding the validity and reliability of the Career Interest Test should enquire through myfuture’s Contact Us page.