We were asked to fill out the Compass Exercise, meant to give out a little information about ourselves, our past experiences and goals for this year. The content of this document is expected to change during the year as we progress in this great journey. Here’s mine:

Past Trajectory

American school in São Paulo: 6 yrs -> British School in Milan: 1 yr ->
British School in São Paulo: 5 yrs -> Industrial & Mgmt Eng. at RPI: 4 yrs ->
Software consultant at AMS, NYC: 2 yrs -> Sailboat Miami to Ilha Bela, Brazil: 1 yr ->
WAP project manager at Zip.Net / Telesp Celular in São Paulo: 2 yrs ->
VAS Coordinator at Oi, Rio de Janeiro: 2 yrs -> Video Editing in Rio de Janeiro: 1 yr ->
Ringtones.com Brazilian Director, São Paulo: 4 yrs -> Masters at ITP, NYU: 2 yrs ->
Founded Interactive Arts Institute, São Paulo: 6 yrs

Career Aspirations 

I am torn between pursuing something new here in the US and going back to Brasil to expand my school. I am tending strongly towards staying here and manage the school remotely. Hopefully I’d be able to apply what I learn here to grow and expand the business but I know that  if I do not get a business partner, it might be hard to take it to the next level.

I’ve always wanted to apply new educational methods, technologies and techniques to the courses we offer but the software development side of the business always stole all of my attention. I also never felt that I had enough understanding about teaching, learning and the available technologies for education to be able to implement something interesting. I did not want to simply publish videos online and sell them. I tried, but I found it hard to get the professors to cooperate in the creation of the content.

So my main aspiration is to understand what tools I could use to facilitate educational content publication. Not only making easier tools for teachers, but also coaching them throughout the process, prompting them for more content and making it easy for them to publish content that is both interesting and easily referred to later on, depending on the student’s preferred learning style. So I guess my ideal job would be at a company who develop CMSs, LMSs and other tools and mechanisms for the purpose of making it easier to share knowledge across the world.

Goals for 2015 – 2016

1. Learn the lay of the land – understand what technologies are available, what has been done, tested, failed or is succeeding, and what kind of jobs and opportunities exist in this field
2. Network: meet as many people as possible from all fields to find out what kind of jobs are out there, what people are doing and who could I potentially work with in the future
3. California lifestyle: get back in shape, stay healthy, eat well and get the most of what California has to offer.
4. Be a sponge: absorb the most information possible, learn about topics I have never heard of and listen… and listen… and learn.