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Table of Contents

Content Page NumberIntro 2Front Page 3Career Matchmaker 4 - 7Career Profiles 8 – 20My Skills Assessment 8, 29Post-Secondary Profiles 21 - 24Getting back to Matchmaker List 24 - 25Look up Careers not on the Matchmaker List 26 – 28Saving to My Portfolio 29Attaching Links & Documents, Journaling 30Inviting Others to View My Portfolio 30Returning to My Matchmaker Results 31Viewing Items Saved to MyPortfolio 32Adding Activities, Awards, Work Experience, etc. to My Portfolio 32 – 36The Personal Learning Plan 33Printing My Portfolio 36 – 37Resume Builder 38 – 40My Portfolio Completion Status 41Other Ways to Search for Careers and Schools 42 – 57Financial Aid and Scholarship Information 58 – 62Administrative Site Features 63 – 77Working With a Only Specific Group of Students 65 – 68Printing Student Usernames and Passwords on Access Cards 68Reports 72, 74 – 75Sending Messages to Students 64 – 65, 70, 73 -

74Helpful Resources 77 – 78

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~ Welcome to sdmylife.com! ~Go to www.sdmylife.com. Enter your portfolio

username:________________ and password________________.

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The “articles” on the front page change weekly and give you a quick overview of several careers maybe not previously thought about.

The Career Quiz helps you learn various information about careers and education in a quick fun way.

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Most often, you’ll want to start the program with the “Matchmaker”.

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There are 39 foundational questions that you will answer. From there, you can answer further questions that get more specific to your interests.

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This page appears after the questions have been answered. Don’t stop here, though! It’s recommended that you choose this option and answer more questions. The first 39 lay the foundation. The next questions will be based on how you answered the foundation questions. It’s not necessary to answer ALL 116 questions.

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You can click on a career of interest in your list . . . .

. . . Or on one of your recommended career clusters.

To learn more about careers that might fit you . . .

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Compare the “Central”, “Secondary”, and “Other Aspects” of the career with “Your Responses”. Is it a good fit for you?

If you complete the “My Skills” assessment on your “Matchmaker Suggestions” page, you can also compare “Your Responses” with the skills required for the career.

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You can view a job description and working conditions for the career you’re researching . . .

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. . . As well as the earnings or salary.

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SD wages and outlook will appear automatically.

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You can click the down arrow to find wages for other states. At the very top of the list is an option to look at “National” wages.

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The Career Path tab gives a good realistic picture of how the career may progress from starting out to advancements.

You can also look at Related Jobs, and see Other Resources that will help you learn more about the career.

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PhotoFile is a good area for students who are visual learners, or for those who struggle with reading or are not native English speakers.

Interviews of a male and female in the profession help students see a realistic picture from someone actually doing the job.

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This section offers you a Q & A section, as well as likes, dislikes and advice offered by the professional being interviewed.

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“A Day in the Life” gives you an overview of a typical day. The “Breakdown of Activities” shows the amount of time typically spent on various activities, such as time spent indoors or time on the computer, etc.

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In almost every section, you have an option to get a printer friendly report that includes the main points of the section.

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Printer Friendly Reports summarize the section and allow you to have a hard copy of the information that interests you most.

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To see post-secondary options for your career of interest, first click on the education tab.

Then click on one of the majors underlined and printed in blue. It’s recommended that you look up each of these to see the various options available. Sometimes colleges and tech schools label their majors differently than you might think. It’s best to look up all of them.

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If a South Dakota school offers the major you’ve selected, those schools will appear at the top.

Or you can view schools by other states or by an entire region.

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Click on a school of interest.

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Select the tabs along the left to get specific information about this school.

You can also click on the hyperlink to visit the school’s own website.

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Once you’re finished with the “Education” area, click the “Back” arrow until you get back to your career profile.

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Then you can click to get back to your “Matchmaker Suggestions”.

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If the list doesn’t give you any options that seem to interest you, you can “See how other careers match up with your answers”.

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Then type in the name of the career you think might interest you and click “Go!” . . .

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. . . And see if it truly does interest you . . . . You might be surprised!

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Many times throughout the program you’ll have the option to “Save to My Portfolio”. This is like saving the information to a big folder so you can look back at it at a later time.

You can complete the “My Skills” assessment to see how your skills match your careers of interest. The colored letters beside the careers in your career list show how well they match. The “Legend” will show you what the letters mean.

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Your Portfolio has many features!

You can “Invite others to View Your Portfolio”, and then see “Guests” who have viewed it.

You can add web links.

You can add files up to 30 MB . . .

. . . And journal.

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You can see your assessment results, such as your “Career Matchmaker”

Be sure to “Go to Career Matchmaker” to see your full results page.

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You can see any careers or schools you’ve saved to your portfolio.

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Plot your career and educational goals in the Personal Learning Plan.

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Keep track of the various career-related experiences you’ve had.

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And keep track of any activities you’ve done. This makes completing scholarship and job applications and resumes much simpler.

You can even add in Awards and Certificates you’re received.

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Also keep track of your work and volunteer experience.

You can also print your portfolio.

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You can choose to print out a copy of your portfolio.

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You can also create a resume by clicking on the “Resume Builder”. This compiles all the information you’ve put into the program into a resume format.

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You can format it to the style you want, and then view and print it.

You can also export it into “Word” and tweek it however you want.

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The program automatically formats the information into a standard resume.

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You can tell at a quick glance how far along you are in completing the standards set for your grade.

Or you can click on “View Details” to get more information on what’s not complete.

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Other ways to search for careers

1. You can just type in a name of a career and click “Go!”

2. You can choose “Search by Index” and search the alphabet for the career that interests you.

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3. You can “Search by School Subject”.

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4. You can search by “Career Cluster”.

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5. You can search by “Military Careers”.

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6. . . . Or you can utilize the “Career Selector”.

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Click on as many of the criteria tabs as you’d like and choose the options you’d most like in a career. Don’t choose too many or you won’t have many (or any) options that match ALL criteria.

You can choose to “View Results” at any time.

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You can choose to search for schools in many ways, too.

If you select the first option . . .

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. . . You can just type in a name of a school and “Go!”

Or choose any state to see all schools in that state.

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You can also search based on the programs that interest you.

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Or complete the “School Selector”.

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In the Career Selector, your first step is to choose the level of education you’re seeking.

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Select whichever criteria you want to search by. Don’t choose too many or you won’t find any that match all of your criteria! View Results at any time.

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You can also view various Financial Aid options.

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Complete the scholarship search tool to see which scholarships or financial aid options you might be eligible for.

Or see the whole list of possible scholarships and financial aid options.

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Criteria you can complete for the scholarship search.

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Potential list of scholarships that meet your criteria

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Clicking on the specific scholarships will give you further information about the scholarship, as well as contact information to apply.

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You might have an administrative account set up in your school’s administrative site. Note that this is found at a completely different website to keep student information secure. The site is www.careercruising.com/sdschool. Another username and set of passwords are needed. Whoever in your school is in-charge of this program will be able to give you this access information.

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You can view ALL students.

Or assign students to you and view only those.

You can send messages to all students or specific groups of students.

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To assign students to you, click the down arrow in the advisor list and choose your name.

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You can choose an alphabetic range

. . . Or grade level

Do not do anything with the “Currently Assigned to” section.

Or you can view the entire list.

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Check the boxes beside the students you need in your list (i.e. your class roster).

Then choose “Save Assignments”.

And choose “Confirm”.

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1. Now you can view and manage just those students who appear in your list.

2. And export usernames and passwords for just those selected students.

3. Or click on “View Student List” in the “All Students” folder, and follow the instructions below to print out all students’ usernames and passwords.

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You can view many aspects of the students’ portfolios, including their usernames and passwords. You can also send them messages.

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If you export the cards into the Access Cards, you will get individual cards for ALL students with their username and password. Or export

into an Excel spreadsheet to have a complete listing.

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Click back to “Advisor Homepage” to get back to the main administrative page.

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You can see which clusters rank the highest in your school by interest level.

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You can send messages to groups of students by various criteria, including schools or careers of interest.

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Completion Reports will tell you how many students have completed various components of the program, as well as which students have or have not completed these items.

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Many other resources are available to help you:

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Many lesson plans have already been created for you to use with the program!