Career Research Project

Before you can write a career research report, you need to conduct research about the career you plan to pursue. Use the following sources for information: CareerCoach, and O*Net to complete this assignment. Answer the following questions to conduct complete and meaningful research on your career. Step 1: Complete the 60-question detailed assessment in Career Coach and review your career matches. Step 2: Use Career Coach assessment results to explore and answer the following questions using CareerCoach and O*Net for further exploration of your chosen career. Step 3: Use complete sentences to answer each question below. Each response should be at least a paragraph. Please include reference to your source(s) whenever possible. Step 4: Make sure that you: • Type your responses in a professional font and double space your work. • Include a heading on the top left side of the first pages with the following: your name, the course name, my name and the date. • Include a title (centered below the heading). Choosing the right career is a very important step in your life! Take this exercise seriously! Good research here may save you a lot of unhappy hours at a job you don’t like or in a college class that you don’t need in order to attain your career goals! 1. A) What is the title of the occupation you plan to enter? And why? B) What soft skills are necessary for success in the specific occupation (critical thinking, communication, empathy, etc)? 2. A) What education and training will you need to begin this occupation? B) How are you planning to pay for this education and/or training (loans, grants, scholarships, cash)? What steps do you need to take to secure any/all of them? C) Name a specific scholarship or grant for which you qualify (i.e. agency or organization offering the scholarship). D) What steps do you need to take to secure this scholarship or grant? 3. What are three related occupations? And how do they compare to your chosen field? What are the possible fields of specialization? 4. What tasks are performed for your chosen career? What equipment or tools are used? What does a typical day look like for a person in your chosen career? Using a current job posting for your chosen occupation, describe the necessary skill levels and responsibilities? 5. A) Where is your job/career performed (hospital, government agency, school, etc.) is the work usually performed? B) What are the working conditions? Are job tasks performed indoors or outdoors? Describe the daily and weekly time schedule as well as any health hazards, travel requirements, or stressful responsibilities.) In what region are workers in this career employed (geographical location, office vs. lab, etc.)? Describe the work environment of the occupation (travel, time, etc). 6. What are the projected earnings? What is the beginning and average expected income according to geographic location? What other, non-monetary rewards and satisfactions will (or won’t) this career provide? 7. What are some of the things you can/will need to do in order to increase your salary (ex. write grants, obtain more experience or education, side-work, etc.)? 8. What is the outlook for employment in this career? What trends are likely to affect employment growth or decline for this occupation during the next ten years? What is the projected number of annual openings? What future changes are expected in your career field? What are the opportunities for professional growth in your chosen career field? Use a current job posting for your chosen career field to determine what the possibilities for advancement are (not just raises but promotions and/or leadership opportunities) and will additional education be needed? What is the timeframe to complete any additional education? 9. What are the diversity issues among those currently working within your chosen career field? What group, if any, typically dominates this career field? What do the statistics show? 10. Create a long-term SMART Goal for your career of choice. What additional important information have you discovered in your research about your chosen occupation? Now that you’ve conducted your research on your chosen profession, what do you think you may have to consider in terms of your personal goals? Career Coach is a valuable online search tool that will give you the opportunity to explore hundreds of potential careers or job possibilities in Maryland and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Just enter a keyword of whatever career suits your interest and quickly learn about employment prospects in the field, job opportunities, income potential, job skills needed, and the education and training available at Prince George’s Community College, Maryland. Get started today on your road to a new future and give it a try. Career Coach is unique to our geographic area. The job listings and information provided are specific to Prince George’s County and the surrounding area. We offer it as a service to our students, future students and members of our community. Happy searching! How to get there: Go to www.pgcc.edu Click on the ‘Search’ tab (magnifying glass in the top right) Type in, ‘Career Coach’ Click on, ‘Career Coach – Prince George’s Community College’ Click, ‘Career Coach Site’ in the yellow box (middle of the page) Click, ‘Take Career Assessment’ in the green box to the left of the page Under ‘Select Your Assessment’, click ’60 questions’ in the green box to the right Click, ‘Continue’ Answer questions honestly. To explore Careers: Click, ‘Browse Careers’ to explore your career field What you can do: 1. Search by career field or degree programs at PGCC a. Obtain information on wages b. education level required c. related degrees d. demographics of current employees e. Obtain job descriptions 2. Search through local job postings via ‘indeed’ a. Look for jobs throughout the country (enter city, state, or zip code) b. Post your resume 3. Take a career assessment 4. Build a resume O*Net O*NET OnLine has detailed descriptions of the world of work for use by students and job seekers! The O*NET program is the nation’s primary source of occupational information. Central to the project is the O*NET database, containing information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors. The database, which is available to the public at no cost, is continually updated by surveying a broad range of workers from each occupation. Information from this database forms the heart of O*NET OnLine, an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations. The database also provides the basis for our Career Exploration Tools, a set of valuable assessment instruments for workers and students looking to find or change careers. The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is being developed under the sponsorship of the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. How to get there: www.onetonline.org 1. Search occupations/careers a. Explore i. tasks involved ii. technology used iii. knowledge, skills, and abilities required iv. work activities v. work context as reported by those currently working in the field (use of email, f2f interactions, telephone, etc) vi. education requirements 1. training 2. certifications 3. licenses vii. wages (locally and nationally) viii. employment trends (locally and nationally) ix. projected growth of jobs in that field If you are considering relocating, there are links to the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (for buying and renting a home), child care providers (via Child Care Aware of America), etc. *Attention Veterans: You can enter your military skills and experience to search civilian jobs whose qualifications you meet. Attention Ex-Offenders: You can search service providers that specialize in hiring people with criminal records. There are also links to training, job search, legal assistance, housing, food assistance, etc.