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Careers as constellations

Careers as constellations

This challenge and competition is the initiative of Linda Liukas author, illustrator and entrepreneur in connection with the Code4Europe partnership´s Girls in Digital Campaign 2025 #Webinar 1 livestreamed on Youtube: How Code, Creativity and Curiosity form a Career?

Activity type

  1. Open online activity

Name of organisation

  1. Linda Liukas

Language

  1. English

Type of organisation

  1. Private business

Audience

  1. Secondary school
  2. Higher education
  3. Teachers

Main Themes

  1. Motivation and awareness raising
  2. Promoting diversity

Careers as constellations

Description

This interactive activity helps students map their personal interests and hobbies to potential careers in technology. By visualizing their skills and passions as constellations, students discover how careers are formed by connecting seemingly unrelated dots. No prior coding experience is required, and the activity fosters creative thinking about the future of work in technology.

Start date

  1. 27.2.2025 - 27.2.2026

Age group

  1. 12+ (adaptable for middle school, high school, or even university students)

Time required

  1. 45–60 minutes

Group size

  1. Can be done individually or in small groups

Required materials

  1. Printed Careers as Constellations worksheet (A3 recommended)
  2. Paper & markers/pens for additional notes
  3. Optional: Digital version (students can create constellations using Miro, Canva, or Google Jamboard)

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This activity helps students map their personal interests and hobbies to potential careers in technology. By visualizing their skills and passions as constellations, students discover how careers are formed by connecting seemingly unrelated dots—just like in the night sky. No prior coding experience is required, and the activity fosters creative thinking about the future of work in technology. Share your class’s constellations! Use #CodeWeek and tag us—we’d love to see how your students connect their dots!

Step by step instructions

Warm-up Discussion: What Are Your Dots? (5 min)

Start by challenging traditional career ideas with a question:

Do you think careers should follow a straight path?

Introduce the idea that successful careers are often built from unexpected connections.

Watch together the talk by Linda Liukas where she shares her own career path in technology

Mapping Constellations: Connecting Interests to Tech (20 min)

Each student fills out the Careers as Constellations worksheet, adding:

  1. Personal interests (hobbies, skills, favorite activities)
  2. Tech-related topics (AI, robotics, game design, digital art, sustainability tech, etc.)
  3. Drawing lines to show connections between their interests and technology

Example Connections

  1. Loves music? → Interested in AI? → AI-generated music tools!
  2. Loves drawing? → Interested in game design? → 2D/3D animation & coding
  3. Passionate about climate change? → Interested in data? → Environmental tech

Reflection & Sharing: What Patterns Did You Find? (15 min)

  1. Invite students to share surprising connections they discovered.
  2. Ask: Which dots felt unrelated at first? How did they connect?

Discussion Prompts:

  1. What surprised you about your constellation?
  2. Did you discover any career paths you hadnt considered before?
  3. How could technology shape your future in unexpected ways?

Extending the Activity

  1. Digital Challenge: Have students create a digital version of their constellation using Miro, Canva, or Google Jamboard and present their findings.
  2. Research Task: Students research a person in tech whose career followed a surprising path, map their constellation and share their story.
Download the Template for the activity