Career Research Project
Next year you will be in high school and beginning to plan for your future career is an
important area that you need to consider. We will be doing several assessment activities
to determine your skills, interests, and personality; as a result these activities will help
you choose a career that best fits you. Once you’ve narrowed down a possible list of
careers, you will research this career in more depth and prepare a formal research
paper. You will want to create a career folder under 8th grade and all the documents for
this project should be saved in this folder.
You will want to read through the requirements for your paper and I would suggest
taking notes or completing your paper as you complete the different stages.
1. Complete Match Maker assessment activity on http://www.careercruising.com/ Save your top 20 results to your EDP. (separate handout with instructions)
2. Play the Career Interest Game; download and complete the Who Am I chart.
http://www.21things4students.net/career-prep.html ‐ Make sure to read the
instructions about Dr. Holland’s theory that people and their work environments
fall into 6 different groups. Generally, people lean toward 2 or 3 of the
categories. After reading the descriptions, you will learn which areas most closely
match you and these descriptions will be helpful in completing your chart. (make
sure to remember which categories you fell into, as this information will be
included in your research paper.
3. Complete the Personality Plus Holland Code activity to determine your 3 letter
code. http://www.roguecc.edu/Counseling/HollandCodes/test.asp and take a jing
screen shot of your results. Make sure to save this jpeg image to your career
folder. The careers that best match your code will be shaded in yellow.
 Make sure to record the shaded careers, as this will be needed for your
research paper.
 Click some of the links and save these in a word document with the URL
link, so you can refer to this later in case you choose one of these careers.
Save the file as Holland Career Links.
4. Career Research – now that you’ve completed a few assessments to determine
careers that best fit your personality, skills and abilities, you are ready for the
research phase. (See handout for “Explore Careers” Chart) Some sites to assist
you with your research are shown below:
Lesson adapted and modified from 21Things for Students Career Prep Activity – by: Mary Ann Korson 
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21 Things Career Project - http://www.21things4students.net/careerprep.html
One Net-Online http://www.onetonline.org/find/career (this site will be
provide skills, employment trends, and other valuable information)
Career Ship http://dev.mappingyourfuture.org/planyourcareer/careership/match_caree
r.cfm?msg=You%20must%20select%20at%20least%20one%20interest%20
before%20continuing.
Bureau of Labor Statistics - http://www.bls.gov/oco/
Career Cruising - http://www.careercruising.com/
Career Videos http://www.careerinfonet.org/videos/COS_videos_by_cluster.asp?id=&nod
eid=28&cluster=5 or watch the videos on Career Cruising site.
Skills & Abilities videos http://www.careerinfonet.org/videos/COS_videos_by_ability.asp?id=27&n
odeid=31
5. Research Paper – This section will summarize the results of your project including
assessments, career research chart and reflection. Make sure you summarize the
various sections in your own words; remember not to plagiarize. The paper will be
written in MLA Format (see handout for example), including a title page and a
works cited document. Sections included in paper:
 Title Page – Your Name, 8th Grade Computers, Career Researched & Image
 Assessment Results – include results from Matchmaker activity, Holland
test results, and image of “Who Am I” chart. Compare and contrast results
from both programs, explain what the Holland test is and how working in
the right environment can affect your happiness and quality of life. Include
a few of the careers from both assessments, but don’t include an entire
list. Include a reflection on these careers and whether you think they
would be a good choice or not.
 Description of Career – This section should provide an example of what a
typical day in this job look like.
 Working Conditions – Days of work, hours, dress, indoor or outdoor
 Skills Needed – The type of skills a person in this career needs. Indicate
which of these skills you currently possess and if you don’t possess them,
what can you do to develop these skills.
 Education – Indicate whether higher education, trade school or other
training is needed for the job. Also, mention the path you should take in
high school if you’re interested in this career.
Lesson adapted and modified from 21Things for Students Career Prep Activity – by: Mary Ann Korson 
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Salary – Include information from career cruising and BLS.gov – compare
wages in Michigan and national wages. Provide entry level, mid-level and
upper level or management scales.
Career Outlook – Indicate what the job prospects are for the future. This
should include statistics and trends
Video Reflections – Include a brief summary of either one of the skills
videos and one of the videos explaining what this career is like. Reflect on
how these videos helped you for learning about the career and what you
learned as a result of watching them.
Personal Career Plan – This section will include a summary of this career
and how it fits into your life goals. What steps will you take to achieve this
goal? How has this project helped you plan for the future?
Works Cited – You will use an online citation tool to prepare your
bibliography. Citation Machine http://citationmachine.net/index2.php or
Easy Bib http://easybib.com/ are 2 good choices. Your citation list should
be alphabetized and formatted with hanging indent style (see handout).
Lesson adapted and modified from 21Things for Students Career Prep Activity – by: Mary Ann Korson