Take a moment and think back to your very first job. It might have been a Saturday job in a shop, helping on a family farm, an apprenticeship, or a first office role. It might also have been work that nobody paid you for: minding younger brothers and sisters, running a household, volunteering at a club.

What is one thing that work taught you about yourself, even if you did not notice it at the time? Hold that thought. In this lesson you will build a simple picture of your whole working life and decide where you would like to go next.

Before you map your own story, here are four terms we will use again and again in this lesson. Read them once, then move on. You can come back any time.

This is the main piece of work in the lesson. You will build your own career timeline in the platform, then add a short note for each major moment saying what you learnt about yourself.

Before you start, read through the four short example timelines on the screen. They are real situations you may recognise: a school-leaver, a mid-career changer, a returner after a long break, and someone made redundant in their late fifties. They are there to show you that there is no single 'right shape' for a career.

Then add your own moments, one at a time. Do not worry about getting it perfect. Five or six markers is plenty. The goal is honesty, not polish.

Now look back across the timeline you have just built. Read it as if it belonged to someone else. You are not judging it. You are looking for patterns.

Hold these two questions in mind. You do not need to type anything. If you are working with a library facilitator or in a group, this is a good moment to talk them through together. If you are on your own, give yourself a minute on each.

• When were you at your best? Which roles, conditions or people brought out the version of you that you are proud of? Was it the steady team, the variety, the boss who trusted you, the work that helped someone directly?
• When did things not suit you? Which conditions drained you? Was it the long commute, the late shifts, the office politics, the lack of training, the wrong fit with the work itself?

The patterns you spot now are clues for your next chapter. We will use them again in the lessons on CV writing, interview preparation and (if you choose that path) idea validation for a small business.

Well done. In one short lesson you have done real work on yourself. Here is a quick recap of what you covered:

• You built a simple career timeline of your work and life experience, including any career breaks.
• You added a short note to each marker naming what you learnt about yourself at that point.
• You looked back across the timeline to spot the conditions in which you have thrived and the ones that did not suit you.
• You drafted a one-sentence statement of where you are now and what you want next.

Your timeline is saved in the platform. You can return to it any time, and it will feed directly into the later modules on jobseeking (CV, cover letter, interview) and on starting a small business, whichever pathway you choose.