Making Your Career Choice

Unit one - Careers

Why do people work?

To pay for their wants and needs

To be around others

Why people work

To make a contribution to society

For self-fulfillment/enjoyment

Your career choice impacts the following how???????

Lifelong earning potential –The more education that you have typically the more money that you will earn in your lifetime

More education = increased $$

Education Pays… But with more than just cash!The numbers speak for themselves. Just take a look:

Your career choice impacts the following:

Career opportunities – You need to choose a career that has a lot of job opportunities

Choose a career where the job outlook is good and jobs in this field are growing

Fastest-Growing Occupations - Occupation Information - America's Career InfoNet

Career choice impacts?

Job satisfaction – you need to choose a career that you will be happy doing everyday

Informal Research (To help you find your perfect career)

Job informational interview – Interview people in jobs that you are interested in

TV Shows– such as CSI, Law and Order, ER may be your interests

Informal research

Magazines – see people in jobs in Home and Garden, cooking, sports magazines, etc.

Video games – Playing games in fields of interests (war – military/police)

Formal Research

Libraries – reference books, CD’s, DVD, and other media sources

Formal career research

Occupational Outlook Handbook – describes the work, training and education required and future outlook for the chosen career

Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition

Guide for Occupational Exploration – groups careers in to categories such as careers in food and gives occupations in this category

Formal Research

Business Week, Occupational Outlook Quarterly – these are magazines with updates in fields such as business and up and coming occupations

Learning from Experience

Temporary work – short-term employment to see if you like the job

Cooperative program – you work while in high school your senior year and get credit for it

Learning from Experience (continued)

Internship – short-term job or work project that required formal commitment (don’t get paid for work)

Service Learning – combine academic work with community service such as PSI, Health Explorers, etc.

Mentors

You can be a mentor for:Freshman Focus – develop lesson plans

and lead lessons on Fridays for lessons.

Peer Tutoring – help students in Mrs. White’s class

Ways to develop your career goals

Career interest inventory – assessment to help you determine your career interests

Learning styles – assessment to determine the best way that you learn (by listening, seeing, touching, etc.)

Ways to develop career goals

Career aptitude assessment – helps you learn things that you are naturally good at (math, writing, science, etc.)

Job shadowing – spending time observing someone in a job that you are interested in.

Other ways to develop career goalsAcademic experiences/grades – Determine your

career based on classes that you like and make good grades in

Extra curricular activities – base career goals on what you enjoy doing outside of school and work

Jobs vary HOW at the local level?

Local – opportunities are based on what businesses/industries are available in area (basic jobs are easy to find – banker, doctor, nurse, teacher, retail worker, etc.)

Smaller cities sometimes smaller pay but lower cost of living

Jobs Limited to what is available

How do jobs vary at state level?

State – typically more opportunities based on location of job in state, environment may be different

Example: Horse trainer at Keeneland, Jockey, etc.

College Basketball coach Larger cities – higher pay but also higher

cost of living, less land per person

National Level

Many more opportunities, but still may vary based on location, also cost of living more in parts of countryZoologist (live where a zoo is located)Marine biologist (live near ocean or lake)Astronaut (live in Texas or Florida where

space centers are located. A basic house in California is $600,000+

Career Clusters

Grouping careers into clusters based on how they are related

Business & Management Careers: Accounting, Finance, Management, Banker

Marketing, Sales and Service: Marketing Director, Salesperson, Buyer

What is the difference???

Job – is the work that you do for payOccupation – the type of work that you

do – I am a teacherCareer – series of related jobs or

occupations (I am in the education career field as a teacher – I could also become a guidance counselor, principal, assistant principal, etc.)

Employment Trends

Dual-family income (both husband and wife work)

Telecommuting – where people work out of their homes by use of fax, Internet, cell phones, etc.

Employees will be constantly learning new things throughout the years in their jobs (lifelong learning)

Technology tools

Satellites – make homes more efficient by ability to get signals for TV, phone, etc.

Work more efficient – by ability to get information for faxes, phones, computers, etc. to help make work more productive

Schools – able to have Internet service, TV service, off-site classroom capability etc. for learning ability.

More Technology Trends

Automated phone systems – where companies don’t have to have as many employees to answer phone makes jobs and schools more productive

On-line classes – Can take classes without physically going to the college (computer) also allows you to be able to save gas and time (productivity)

Technology (cont)

Computer aided drafting (CAD) – makes work more productive because computer does a lot of technical work for you also aides learning process in school

Spreadsheets – Makes home more productive because you can use them to keep track of financial records School – utilize it for graphs, charts, research Business – helps make information easier to

analyze when it is in charts/graphs

Technology Trends/Scientific Advancements

On-line banking – People can do banking from home, work, or school which saves time and gas plus can do it 24 hours.

Telecommuting – people work from home or other location beside company offices (fax, Internet, cell phones, computers)

Outsourcing – hiring other companies to produce goods and services (cell phones, fax, Internet, etc.)

Other Technology

Data bases – computers have space to store information which saves time, paper, etc. for schools, homes, and work

Internet – schools, homes, and work have access to tons of information to help with research and other information needed

Skills for Global Economy

Basic skills – communication, reading, writing, math

Thinking skills – creative thinker, critical thinker, decision-making

Personal Qualities – Social and civic responsibilities, self direction, self-management, self esteem, adaptability, integrity

Workplace trends

Teams – more employers expect workers to be able to work together

Diversity – have to be able to work with people of different cultures, backgrounds

Lifelong learning – need to be willing to learn continuously (changing world)

Career portfolio/ILP

Business letters, application letter, recommendations, follow-up letters

Assessment data – aptitude, interest, ability tests

Resume Certificates, awards (honors) Samples of work (projects, papers) Records of work experience (good

evaluations) Transcripts (grades from high school

semesters)