Skip to main content

Career Project

Seniors:
The first thing you'll do this year is a research project based on your career goals. We will discuss your college and non-college options, conduct research on careers and degree programs, and write a series of papers related to the career you've selected. While this in no way locks you into a career path, it does give you a lot more information to go on, and it will set you on your way towards applying for the college of your choice.

Your first assignment:
  1. Write a 250-word report on your career goals
  2. Print out at least two career and/or degree descriptions from the sites discussed
  3. Take a "virtual tour" of the university or institution you'd like to attend and print out information from the college or degree plan
  4. Conduct an interview with a professional ASAP
The sites we discussed:
The typed report and printed sources are due on Friday, August 26th. Consider the following in your response: What do you want to do with your life? Where would you like to live? What kind of work environment would you prefer? What skills/talents will help you? What kind of training will you require? To visit the university of your choice, go to their webpage and look for your college-department-major. College Board has a convenient search engine just for this purpose.

As for your interview, start planning NOW. If you cannot think of anyone who does the job you'd like to do, then let me know, and I will help find someone for you to interview. If you have someone in mind, then contact that person NOW and set up an appointment or get permission to email a set of questions. The interview is an essential part of the process and may turn out to be your primary source for this research project.

Popular posts from this blog

O Brother, A Response Paper

Hello Freshmen... Your assignment for the weekend is to write a 250-word (one page) response paper on O Brother, Where Art Thou . Please type and format according to MLA. You may choose from the two topics below: (1) Respond to the lyrics of one song from the film. Using your lyric sheet (or the internet ), connect the lyrics of one song to the movie's characters/setting/events. In other words, explain how the lyrics are relevant to the film. (2) Choose one of the historically relevant elements of the movie and look up an article on Wikipedia . Print out the article; then, summarize it and connect it to the movie's characters/setting/events. Be careful not to plagiarize the article, which should be stapled to your reponse. Ideas discussed in class include The Great Depression, con artist, chain gang, Populism (George Wallace, Huey P. Long, W. Lee O'Daniel), Ku Klux Klan (William Joseph Simmons), and George "Babyface" Nelson.

ACT Prep

Good luck on the ACT tomorrow, those of you who are taking it. To help you prepare, and for future reference, here are some materials for you to work with at home: ACT Prep - from the official site - including sample tests Test Prep Review - has "self-assessment modules" in several subjects ACT Sparknotes ACT Test Questions

Career Search

A good place to start with your career search is a personality test. There are several online to choose from, and there are many career aptitude tests, as well. Generally speaking, my advice is to look for a career that combines your interests and your aptitudes (both in your personality and your skill set). Look through the following and see if any are helpful: 16 Personalities (based on the Meyers-Briggs ) Skills Profiler (from the U.S. Department of Labor) Princeton Review Career Quiz Free Career Aptitude Tests (a list from The Balance ) Later this week, we will try to match up your aptitudes and interests with a career by looking at College Board's BigFuture site. We will also look at the ACT in detail ( Planning Your Future e-book ). Finally, we will explore the Occupational Outlook Handbook to see more thorough descriptions and projections.