Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker…What will my career be?

Introduction

People who enter today’s workforce will work for more than five different companies and will have more than ten different jobs before retiring. Most people discover their talents and interests during the first ten years of their working lives, and, sadly, many of them find they are in the wrong job.

It is time for you to discover your interests and begin thinking about your career. If you are going to have more than one career in your lifetime, let's find out how to select a career that suits your personality and interests.

Step 1. Choose a career to investigate

Using the discoveries from your completion of the COPS Interest Inventory, select one career to investigate.

Step 2. Investigate the career

Use the links listed to find information on your chosen career.

http://www.bls.gov

The United States Department of Labor has several very important sources which can be used in this project: The 2002-2003 Occupational Outlook Handbook, News Items from the U S Department of Labor, or a Keyword Search of Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Pages. Look especially at the sections in the right and left margins—“Wages, Earnings, Benefits”, “Occupations”, and “Publications & Research Papers”.

http://vaview.vt.edu

This site contains information in three categories:

Occupations-- Match your interests and skills with 600 occupations. This search is a great way to begin planning for your future career.

Colleges-- Match your interests and skills with 600 occupations. This search is a great way to begin planning for your future career

Activity Center-- Dream it. Plan it. Do it! Dream about a job that may be in your future. Start planning for high school and beyond. As you begin planning your future, have fun trying the Career Start, Career Step and Cross Roads activities!

http://collegeboard.com

This site provides information on colleges and majors that are available at various colleges. You will have to create a user name and password. When the site asks for a school code, use 471805.

In addition to these sources you will find career information at some of the following sites:

· Career choices found at JobWeb at http://jobweb.com

· America's Career InfoNet at http://www.acinet.org/acinet

Step 3. Collect information to prepare a written report

Your report should include information on the following topics:

· a description of the career

· training, education, qualifications required for the career

· colleges that provide majors that will lead to this career

· prospects for the future in this career in the geographical area of your choice

· expected salary range

· unexpected positive or negative aspects of the career

· related jobs

Your report requires the use of a visual aid (an attractively prepared poster). While you are collecting information about the career you chose, make sure you collect images which can be used on your poster.

Conclusion

This activity was designed to give you the feel of how to use the Internet to research a career. Few people will work for the same employer their entire working career, and almost no one will work the same job until retirement. For that reason, the skills you started to develop in this exercise will be vitally important to you as you select a college and plan a career--no matter whether it is your first career or your tenth.