Career Planning Self Discovery Process
- Lesson Plan
Teachers, you may customize this lesson plan to suit your class.
Step 1: Explain the Process (Classroom)
Explain the overall "Career Planning Self Discovery Process" and the desired end result to your students.
You can watch this video to help you understand the career planning process.
The main point is to show each step of the process, to highlight the deliverables, and to describe what the end goal is.
The end goal of the Career Planning Self Discovery Process is to help students discover a few of their best career choices, so that when it comes time to make any big education or job decisions, they are well prepared to make the best choice.
If this process is used early enough (age 13) the goal is to uncover career options, not to make the final decision. However, for 17 year olds the goal may indeed be to pick their first career and the education that will be required.
About half of the students will not want to be tied down to a career choice, or even 3 choices, but this exercise will still be beneficial to them. These students prefer to keep their options open, but that can lead to procrastination, and aimless bouncing from one career to another.
The other half of the students will feel good about deciding on a career direction. These students prefer to have their decision made and their plans in place.
Step 2: Taking the Online Assessment
Have all of your students take the online Career Interest Test (CiT) by clicking on a link we provide you in the Test Admin's Control Panel.
- Students will need a working email address in order to log in
- Students can use any computer - at home, library etc
- The test takes 15 to 20 minutes
While the test can be taken on a smart phone, it will be inconvenient and is not recommended. iPad's are fine because the screen is large enough.
The best way to give the testing link to your students is via email, because that way they can just click on it.
You can also hand out a sheet of paper with the link on but the students could still type it incorrectly.
You can also write the link on the board, but students may type it in wrong
Also note that you have the option to password protect your testing link and change the password after your class has been tested. This will prevent others from using up your reports.
To see which students have completed the test, log in and go to the Test Admin's Control Panel. We can talk you through this if you like.
So give out the testing link and give your students a firm deadline for completing the assessment.
Step 3: Reviews Test Scores (Teacher only)
After your students have taken the assessment, we suggest you print out a copy of each student's report in advance of your next class.
You should look at the scores for each student to identify any student who has either all very high scores or all very low scores.
Our Career Interest Test is based on the work done by Dr John Holland. He came up with a system - the RIASEC system - in which there are 6 different types of work, each represented by a letter R-I-A-S-E-C.
Every career can be described by a combination of 2 or 3 of these letters. This is known as the Holland Code or the Career Type. Each report explains this in more detail.
Maximum score for each of the RIASEC letters is 50. A score of 50 means the student is extremely interested in that type of work. A score of 10 or less indicates very little interest in that type of work.
What you hope to see is a student with at least 1 or 2 career types (letter codes) where the scores are higher than the other types. This would point the way to the careers they are interested in.
If the scores are all low (< 20) then it means the student showed no interest in any career.
If the scores are all high (>40) then the student is interested in everything and anything.
Extreme high or low scores happens for a number of reasons, but most often the student has not bought into the career planning process and they are just playing along. In some cases the student may not be very self aware.
In either case the student should re-take the test.
If after re-taking the test, the scores are still not providing useful career suggestions, the most simple thing to do, is to have the student look at a list of ~ 1400 job titles and pick 3 to 5 that seem the most interesting.
In our Career Counseling practice we would also run the student through our personality test, which also provides a list of careers, but based on how the students brain is wired rather than their interests.
We don't recommend using personality type unless the teacher has some training in this field. The challenge with using Personality Type is that it is extremely complicated and it's possible for the personality test to give the test taker the wrong personality type. Thus is takes some level of expertise to interpret a personality based assessment. Teachers interested in this should look into training for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Step 3: Report Reading (Classroom)
By now all students should have taken the Career Interest Test, and they should have their printed report in hand.
Have them read their own reports, to themselves.
Step 4: Process of Elimination (Classroom / Homework)
After all students have read their reports, explain to them that in this step they will take the careers suggested in their report and narrow down that list to the top 10 careers that attract them the most.
This activity is based solely on interest level and attraction. We are not concerned with ability or capability. We are looking purely at what careers might excite the student enough to become passionate about it.
The report describes how to narrow down their choices. Basically the student will go through the list and quickly cross out any careers that are clearly not interesting or attractive. At the same time they should circle any careers that do seem interesting.
Ideally they would have ~ 10 careers that seem interesting.
They do need to reduce the list to 10 maximum.
Then, they should prioritize the top 10 careers they circled with #1 being the most interesting career and #10 being the least interesting career.
Please tell your students that if they have a career idea which is not on the list, they should write that down on their report and make it one of their top choices.
Some students (mostly Extraverts) will do this exercise better if they are allowed to talk to others while doing it so we would recommend allowing some discussion.
Other students(mostly Introverts) will want to sit quietly and concentrate on the task and do it by themselves.
The trick is to keep the noise level down so the Introverts can think.
The Extraverts will probably do their best thinking when they hear themselves talk.
This is a very important step because the students will soon start to invest time and energy in becoming familiar with their top career choices.
We suggest that you give the students the homework assignment to finish this task and to "sleep on the results."
Note: For a longer list of matching careers, and for job descriptions of those careers, please have the students use our free Job Description Search Tool.
http://www.careerplanner.com/JobDescSearchTool.cfm
If at this point a student says they don't like any of the careers in their list, we may need to move to a more advanced career tool which is our Personality Type Test.
This test, which is free, will help identify what the student's 4 letter Personality Type. Then we can run a report based on personality type.
The only reason we don't do this for everyone is that technically, the teacher should be trained and certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) which is similar to our test. And the reason for this is simple. Personality Type Tests are typically 60 to 70% accurate and many things including the users frame of mind, can throw off the results.
Thus the teacher should be able to make sure we have the correct personality type for the student. But, I can do that through the teacher. So contact me if this occurs, and I will help.
Step 5: Sharing Initial Thoughts - (Classroom Round Robin)
By now all students should have identified and ranked their top 10 career choices.
For this exercise, have them work with the top 3.
It is OK if they include a career that does not appear in their report or on any list. The purpose of the report and the list is just to get the students thinking.
Do watch out for students on either extreme. Those that have too many choices (> 5) and those who have only one.
Students with too many choices are reluctant to make a decision at this time and are afraid they will be limiting their options. Explain to them that they do not have to decide on their first career until their senior year in high school when they have to apply for vocational school or college. Ask them to just pick 3 choices now so they can learn the process and they can make their big career decision later.
For students with a single career choice, they really need to pick 2 other careers for the purpose of this exercise. They need to think outside the box, just in case there is a better career for them than the one they have chosen.
The task is now to go around the room, and have each student stand up by their desk (not in front yet) and tell the class what their top career choices are and why?
You want them to express their gut feeling rather than report on research. That comes later.
Make notes on each of their test reports. Write down their top choices for your reference.
You may need to establish some rules for behavior. No laughing at other student's choices.
No criticism. This is like a brainstorming process where all ideas are to be considered without judgment.
Students should be encouraged to help each other if possible.
Step 6: Research One Choice (Homework)
Now it's time for the students to really dig into one of their career choices. They will research it and then report back. Later they will research the remaining choices.
Give students the homework assignment to research at least one of their top career choices. Then when they return to class, you will go around the room and have each student describe what they have found.
They should look into these things:
- What was their Holland Code, and how do they think that describes them?
- What interests them about the career?
- What made them pick this career?
- What does the future demand look like for this career?
- What education is required?
- What is the typical financial compensation - salary?
- Where would they do this work - city, state, country?
- Who would they work for - what companies, government organizations, non profits, sports teams, schools etc?
- What would a typical day at work look like?
- What skills would they be using?
Allow a 2-3 days for this research. Maybe even a full week.
The purpose here is to push the students to research one career choice, so that they can later research all of the top career choices. Hopefully they will get better at it as they see what others do.
For job descriptions including tasks and daily activities use:
http://www.careerplanner.com/JobDescSearchTool.cfm
To see the future demand for specific jobs use:
http://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Articles/IndexToCareerArticles.cfm
http://www.careerplanner.com/Job-Outlook-Index.cfm
Step 7: Share Initial Research - (Classroom Round Robin)
Bring the class together again and allow each student to report the 3 most important things they discovered when they investigated their top career choice.
Notice any useful sources of career information for future use.
Step 8: Research Remaining Choices (Homework)
Now that one career choice has been researched, assign the task of researching the remaining career choices.
Students should prepare a short oral presentation where they can discuss the pros and cons about each choice.
They should focus most of their time on their top choice and less time on their secondary choices.
They don't have to make any decisions at this point. The goal is to understand as much as possible about each career choice.
It is OK if the students delete a career choice and add another. That is a very good sign that they are comprehending this exercise.
You be the judge about how much time you want to allow for this research. I think two weeks is the maximum, because drawing it out longer does not have much value.
Step 9: Interview People In Those Careers (optional)
This step is optional, but very helpful. Students should do an informational interview with people in their career of choice who love that career.
So if a student is considering becoming an accountant, it would benefit them to have a conversation with someone who loves being an accountant.
You could require this step for the formal oral report and the paper.
Step 10: Shadowing People in Real Work Environment (optional)
Shadowing is one of the most powerful techniques for determining if a career would be a good fit or not.
In the case of the student who is considering a career in accounting, you would suggest they spend a day or two volunteering to help out in an accountants office.
Parents should be involved in setting up these shadowing events.
Shadowing works like this. If the career is not a good fit, the student should have a negative reaction to being in the work environment. They should not want to come back. In fact they should want to leave early.
If the career is a good fit, the student should enjoy it there and should want to come back.
Usually students know within a few hours, or sooner.
The downside to Shadowing is that if there is a much better career, Shadowing won't tell you or point you in the right direction.
If the students starts career planning early enough (age 13) they will have time during vacations and holidays to do Shadowing.
Step 11: Read Biography (optional)
Depending on your students, you could offer extra credit to anyone who reads a biography of a person who had similar careers.
This may be hard if the student is interested in taking up a trade. There might not be many biographies of carpenters or plumbers, yet those can be good careers.
Step 12: Formal Oral Report (Classroom)
A formal oral report in front of the classroom is a very good activity.
It will force the student to really know their material lest they embarrass themselves in front of the entire classroom.
Plus, public speaking is a great skill to have.
I would set a time limit for each speaker, depending on how much time you can afford.
Step 13: Write the "My Top Career Choices" Paper (Homework)
Just as useful as the oral report is the written report.
You can set the guidelines in terms of number of pages etc.
I would suggest letting the students know that the quality of the paper and the research inside and
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Myers-Briggs, MBTI, Step I, Step II, and the MBTI logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of the MBTI Trust, Inc.,
Strong Interest Inventory, is a registered trademarks of CPP, Inc.
The CPP logo and Strong logos are registered trademarks of CPP, Inc.
CiT is a registered trademark of CareerPlanner.com Inc.
There is no affiliation between the CiT and CPP. CiT is a product that is wholly owned by CareerPlanner.com Inc.