FULLY INVESTIGATE AND UNDERSTAND YOUR CAREER OPTIONS
Does a career match or clash with your interests, personality, and values?
Do you have the ability (or willingness/capability) to learn the skills and attitudes necessary for this career?
Will this career support or undermine the lifestyle you hope to have?
How available will job opportunities be in the part of the country where you want (or need) to live?

This handout is designed to help you dig in and learn the answers to these questions, using tools and resources that are available from any computer that is connected to the Internet and a printer. Please inform your teacher or counselor if:

A site is no longer working. Websites can change daily so a guide such as this can become outdated quickly.
A site is no longer available for free. Each site was chosen because it offered at least some information for free. (Additional information might be available for a fee but the information you were sent to find should be available at no cost.)
A site expects you to provide personal information or your email address in order to access the basic information you are seeking. Again, additional information may be available once you provide this, but the site was chosen because you could access helpful basic information without providing anything about your identity or contact information.

UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF AND YOUR NEEDS

1a. INTERESTS

There are a variety of career tests, usually known as interest inventories, that help you think more carefully about what you like and dislike doing. (One drawback is that you sometimes fail to realize that you would enjoy some activities if you had experienced greater exposure to them.)

THE CAREER INTEREST GAME

Go to http://career.missouri.edu and click on the “Quicklinks” box at the lower right-hand corner. Scroll down to “Career Interests Game.” Work through the instructions so you can answer the following questions. (Clicking on each of the six code titles will help you figure out which groups you’d be drawn to first, second, and third.)

List the three codes you chose: ____________________________

____________________________

What are three specific jobs that sound interesting to you, or that you want to know more about, from your #1 category?

______________________________
______________________________
______________________________

What are three jobs in your #2 category?

______________________________
______________________________
______________________________

You’ll notice that this site allows you to click on a career from each category’s list and it will take you right to that career in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. This is the best resource available for getting basic information about a career field. We’ll come back to it later. For now, write down the training you’ll need for 3 of the 6 jobs you listed above.

Job #1:

Job #2:

Job #3:

OPTIONAL:

In some cases students know what they would enjoy studying at college but don’t know how a college major translates to a future career. Check out “What To Do with Majors” at http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/majors/. Click on a major and it will link you to a list of possible careers.

1b. PERSONALITY TYPES

These tests give us a sense of how we interact best with the world, our strengths and weaknesses, and what environment makes us feel most understood and supported. The results can help us consider whether a career would match our strengths or constantly place us in stressful situations.

Go to http://www.humanmetrics.com. Click on “Jung Typology Test” and then click on “Take test” and work through the questions to arrive at your four-letter Myers-Briggs personality type.

Your Myers-Briggs type is _____________________

Read through the descriptions provided to find out more about your type.

What are the major qualities and characteristics of your type?

What motivates people with your type?

What kind of communication style would work best for your type?

Does your 4-letter Myers-Briggs type make you a Rational, Idealist, Artisan, or Guardian?

TEMPERAMENT: ___________________________

Name one famous person who shares this temperament with you:

SUMMARIZING YOUR TYPE

Now that you’ve contemplated your personality type, write a summary of your type’s strengths and weaknesses. Relate these to careers by analyzing why certain careers would fit your type and others would clash.

OPTIONAL:

Just for fun, you might like to know the community role that you would have most likely played in medieval times by going to www.cmi-lmi.com/kingdomality.html. You have to register to enter but it should be free.

Your role? ___________________________________________
1c. VALUES

What is important to you? What do you need from your work to make you feel satisfied? Read the following list. Circle the seven work values that matter to you most.

Creativity Being outdoors (or indoors) most of the time

Independence Prestige/respect

Power/responsibility Security/stability

Helping others Routine/predictability

Making a difference Variety/unpredictability

Leading/being in charge Following/Free of decision-making

Time off for family or leisure High income even if it means high demands

Physical movement/demands Freedom from physical demands

Now rank your top three values for their importance to you, with one being the most important and three being the least important.

1st ______________________________________________

2nd ______________________________________________

3rd ______________________________________________

1d. SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Go to http://online.onetcenter.org and click on “Skills Search.” From the lists provided, select as many skills as you have (or plan to acquire) to establish a list of careers that would fit. Five of the top careers listed were:

______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________

Did this list seem to differ in any way from the lists you’ve generated thus far? Hopefully this activity spurred you to think about skills you enjoy learning and those you avoid. You might have also realized that some skills would be impossible (or extremely difficult) for you. List three jobs that you believe you should avoid because skills are required that you are unable or unwilling to learn.

______________________________
______________________________
______________________________

2. SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT CAREERS

It’s equally important in the process of career planning to thoroughly investigate careers.

OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK at http://stats.bls.gov/oco

The Occupational Outlook Handbook is considered the starting point for all career research. It is updated regularly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and is available free of charge. Using this site, select a career and look up the following information.

Briefly summarize the significant points that were mentioned for this career.

Summarize the key points regarding the nature of the work for this career.

What are the working conditions to be considered for this career?

Who typically hires workers in this career field?

What training or education is necessary?

How does someone in this career field advance further?

What is the job outlook for this career field?

What are the average earnings for this career, based on national statistics?

List three related occupations.

10. List two sources of additional information regarding this career.

AMERICA’S CAREER INFONET at http://www.acinet.org/acinet/default.asp

Follow these steps:

Click on “Occupation Information”

Click on “Wages by Occupation and Local Area”

Select a state

Select a job family and click on Search

Select a specific occupation

Select a local area

Answer the following questions:

What was the median hourly pay for your career in that state? ____________

In the United States? _______________

What was the median annual pay for your career in that state? ____________

In the United States? _______________

Go back to the Occupation Information section of this site.

Is your career included in the list for Fastest-Growing Occupations?

Yes No

List two careers from this list.

____________________________
____________________________

Is your career included in the list for Occupations with the Most Openings?

Yes No

List two careers from this list.

____________________________
____________________________

Is your career included in the list for Occupations with Declining Employment?

Yes No

List two careers from this list.

____________________________
____________________________

Is your career included in the list of Highest-Paying Occupations?

Yes No

List two careers from this list.

____________________________
____________________________

IMPORTANT NEXT STEPS IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT CAREERS

You’ve gathered some helpful written information about a career, but that is only the beginning. You now need to talk with someone in that career to get a real feel for it.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT E-MANUAL

Go to www.cdm.uwaterloo.ca .

After clicking on “I am not a student,” go to “2. Research” and then “2.6 Information Interviews.”

This offers a wonderful guide for contacting a person in your career interest area. Read this section and note the Information Interview Form under link 2.6.1. This form could be used to guide an interview if you ever schedule one with someone in your career interest area.

Read Sections 2.7 Job Shadowing and 2.8 Gaining Experience.

What is job shadowing?

List five ways to experience a career field before making a commitment to pursuing it as a permanent career.

YOU CAN REPEAT THIS PROCESS WHEN RESEARCHING ANY CAREER:

Check out the written information in books and websites.

Talk with people in those careers through Information Interviews and Career Days.

Job shadow.

Gain experience in this actual career through volunteering, interning, etc.
HOW DOES IT ALL MATCH UP?

Now that you’ve gained a strong understanding of a career, it’s time to go back and check how it matches up with what you know about yourself.

Does this career match your Holland interest code? If it varies, what cautions does this suggest that you consider? (It could be especially important to shadow someone in this job to make sure that you have a clear understanding of the job environment and demands.)

How do the demands of this career match up to your personality type? Can you foresee areas that might cause stress? (Example: An introvert who must give frequent public presentations might experience a greater amount of stress over these duties.)

What are some steps you would have to take to get the amount of training and education required?

Explain how this career will allow you to meet the personal needs that you value most.

Identify one career you would like to consider in planning your educational goals.

CAREER ___________________ STUDENT NAME ________________________

If you have any questions, contact Ramira Alamilla, Judge's College and Career Counselor: 801/363-8895 ext. 140.