Chapter 3
Researching Careers
What You’ll Learn
 You will learn how to research careers.
 You will look at career clusters and
kinds of activities people do in many
careers.
 You will find out where to get
information about careers that interest
you.
Lesson 3.1
Career Choices
Discover
 Which career
clusters, or groups of
related careers,
interest you.
 Career interest
areas, or kinds of
activities, that can
direct you toward
specific careers.
Why it’s important
By looking at career
clusters and career
activities, you’ll get
an idea of the kinds
of careers you might
enjoy. Exploring all
kinds of career
possibilities now will
help you make career
choices later.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!!!
You have to make all kinds
of decisions in life…
What flavor of ice cream?
What do you want to do for
a living?
How will you ever be
able to decide?
 There are more than 28,800 different
careers to choose from.
 The U.S. Department of Education
has organized careers into 16 career
clusters.
Career Clusters
 Career clusters are groups of similar
occupations and industries.
 Career clusters will help you discover
your interests and decide where you
want your future to take you.
U.S. Department of
Education Career Clusters
 Agriculture, Food, and Natural
Resources
 Architecture and Construction
 Arts, Audio/Video Technology, and
Communications
 Business, Management, and
Administration
 Education and Training
 Finance
 Government and Public
Administration
 Health Science
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Hospitality and Tourism
Human Services
Information Technology
Law, Public Safety, and
Security
Manufacturing
Marketing, Sales, and Service
Science, Technology,
Engineering, and
Mathematics
Transportation, Distribution,
and Logistics
Clusters are organized by
industry and occupation
 Industries, such as
finance and
manufacturing,
produce products or
services.
 An occupation, such
as a teacher,
requires workers to
have specific job
skills and knowledge.
Many careers may fall into two different career clusters.
For example, Medical transcriptions are part of both the
Business, Management, and Administration career cluster
and the Health Science career cluster (workers in this
career must use medical knowledge to provide
transcription service).
Every Cluster is divided
into career pathways
A career pathway is an area of
occupational interest within a career
cluster.
Each career pathway contains a group
of careers requiring similar academic
and technical skills, as well as similar
education, training, or certification. (In
your Pathfinders, these are referred to
a subgroups.)
Career Interest Areas
Career interest
areas are
general kinds of
activities
people do in
many different
careers.
The career interest
areas are:
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Creator
Investigator
Organizer
Influencer
Doer
Helper
Creator
 Likely to be a
creative thinker
 Often the
independent type
 May need to express
your ideas or feelings
through some form of
art
 May like making
things
Creators may be actors,
journalists, photographers,
songwriters, teachers,
advertising executives,
plastic surgeons, city
planners, robotics
engineers, Webmasters
are just a few careers that
you may find in this career
interest area.
Investigator
 Probably a logical
thinker
 May like testing
theories and doing
research
 May be interested in
discovering new
ways of doing things
 Interests may include
science, math, or
history
Investigators include
physicians, repair
technicians, librarians,
lawyers, weather
observers, and historians.
They may also design
solar energy systems, write
computer programs, or
conduct experiments in
laboratories.
Organizer
 Probably love
working with
information or
numbers
 May be neat and
orderly
 Find it easy to follow
rules and directions
 Thrive on routine
 Usually like working
as part of a team
Organizers may be
proofreaders, office
managers, reservation
agents, magazine editors,
laboratory technicians, food
specialists, financial
consultants, wordprocessing specialists, and
printing equipment
operators. They may also
keep a company’s financial
records or record research
data.
Influencer
 Likely to be out in
front and leading
others
 Probably good at
making a point
 Usually have no
problem persuading
others to agree with
you
 May be somewhat
competitive
Influencers include
politicians, company
presidents, marketing
managers, salespeople,
restaurant managers, TV
announcers, small
business owners, real
estate agents, film
producers, and building
contractors.
Doer
 Always seem to be
busy
 Appear to have
endless energy
 May like working with
your hands
 Probably enjoy using
tools and machinery
 May love the
outdoors
Doers may be electricians,
firefighters, farmers, dental
hygienists, forestry
workers, jewelers,
automotive mechanics, hair
stylists, and camera
operators. Doers may
spend their days outdoors
repairing power lines and
building roads and
highways or they may work
indoors operating special
machinery to build
airplanes or automobiles.
Helper
 Tend to think of others
before yourself
 Others may describe you
as friendly, fun, or
patient
 Always around to lend a
hand
 Probably work well in
groups
 Communicate well with
others
Nurses, teachers,
ministers, social
workers, wedding
coordinators, travel
agents,
environmental
engineers, career
counselors,
psychiatrists, and
child care workers.
What’s Your Match?
 You may actually have more than one interest
area that fits you. There’s a little bit of each
type in all of us.
 Focus on one or two areas that describe you
best. These areas help pinpoint your strongest
interests, values, skills, and aptitudes and will
point you to careers you might like.
 Once you have determined your career interest
areas, review the job examples for the Career
Clusters (listed in Figure 3.1 on page 44). What careers
match the career interest areas that describe
you? Do any of these careers appeal to you?
Lesson 3.2
Career Research
Discover
 Key questions to ask
about careers that
interest you
 Where to get
information about
careers
Why it’s important
By researching
careers you’ll get to
know as much as you
can about careers
that interest you. The
information you
gather will help you
decide which careers
are right for you.
Time for research…
Once you identify interesting careers, it is time
for some research.
 When you do research, you investigate a
subject and gather information about it.
 It helps to know what kind of information you’re
looking for. (What do you want to know about
the career?)
 Be sure to keep your list of interests, values,
skills, and aptitudes handy also.
What to Research
The following 10 questions will help you gather basic
information about careers:
1. What skills and aptitudes should I have?
2. What education and training would I need?
3. What would my work environment, or surroundings, be
like?
4. What hours would I spend on the job?
5. What kinds of work would I do?
6. What responsibilities would I have?
7. Would I be able to move ahead?
8. What will this career be like when I’m ready to work?
9. What does this career pay?
10. What other rewards would this career provide?
Where Do You Find It?
You can gather career information in many
places and in many ways:
1. School or public library
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Reference books
Career Magazines
Career Videos
2. Search the Internet
3. Talk to People
Check Out the Library
A librarian can help you locate career
reference materials. The following
publications are especially useful:
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Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)
Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)
Guide for Occupational Exploration
Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature
Dictionary of Occupational
Titles (DOT)
A collection of 20,000
detailed job profiles
O*NET, the online version,
is a database of job profiles
Occupational Outlook
Handbook (OOH)
 A general source of information about
hundreds of careers
 Explains what workers in each career do
 Tells the education and training needed
for each career
 Makes predictions about the future of
each career
 Is available in print and online
Guide for Occupational
Exploration
 A guide to exploring 12,000
careers grouped according to 12
major interest areas and
subgroups within those areas
 Cross-references jobs by
interests, experience, skills, and
training
Occupational Outlook
Quarterly
Provides current information
on trends and outlooks
This update to the OOH
comes out four times a year
Available in print or online
Reader’s Guide to
Periodical Literature
Detailed Index of magazine
articles
Magazines and journals are referred to as
periodicals. The definition of a periodical is any
publication issued on a regular basis, for example,
magazines, journals, and newspapers.
Every year, thousands of articles are published in
periodicals in this country and abroad.
Search the Internet
 The World Wide Web offers a wide range of job
recruitment and career research Web sites.
 These Web sites are run by various organizations
and businesses.
 Many Web sites specialize in specific careers and
industries.
 You can use the Internet to find career
opportunities and information on a specific
company’s Web site.
 Most large companies now list their job openings
either on their own Web page or with an online job
listing service.
Know Your Sources
You can’t always trust what you find on the
Internet!
It’s important to check any information you gather.
Before you accept or act on any information you
find. Ask yourself these questions about the
information you find:
 Is it fact or one person’s opinion?
 Is it current or is out out-of-date?
 Is it the same as what I find in sources that I trust?
Is it Current and Correct?
Remember: If the information is
not current and correct, it will not
be useful information!
Make sure the information is something that has been
posted recently. Something posted several years ago
may not longer be accurate due to changes that take
place in careers over the years.
Talk to People
 One of the best ways to learn about a career is to
get an insider’s view of a particular career by
conducting an exploratory interview.
 An exploratory interview is a short, informal talk
with someone who works in a career that
interests you. That could include family, friends,
neighbors, teachers, etc.
 An exploratory interview can give you insight into
a career that you may not learn from a class or
book about that career. It gives you “first hand”
knowledge from a person that is doing the work.
Exploratory Interviews
 During an exploratory interview, ask questions
such as these:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How did you start in your career?
What education and training did it require?
What do you like about your job?
What do you do on a typical day at your job?
 Take detailed notes during your interview.
Afterwards, write your reflections on each
interview experience. Add this information to
your Career Resource file.
Work! How can I learn
about it right now?
Obviously the best way to learn about a career
from the inside is to work. But there are things
you can do now to explore work in a particular
career. For instance:
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Job Shadowing
Internship
Volunteering
Service Learning
Cooperative Program
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Attend a Career Fair
Read Books
Watch Videos
Search Internet
Interview people
Job Shadowing
Involves following someone for a
day on the job.
 You learn about a particular career by watching
and listening.
 You can see what a typical day on the job is like in
that career (what a person actually does on the job
each day).
 It can help you make an informed decision as to
whether or not you think you would like doing the
job every day.
Internship
A temporary paid or unpaid
position that involves direct work
experience in a career field.
 The value of an internship is the
experience and the contacts that you
make.
 Internships can sometimes lead to job
offers.
Volunteering
Working without pay.
 Volunteering is a great way to explore
careers.
 Senior citizen centers, hospitals,
museums, and libraries are always looking
for volunteers.
 You’ll get valuable experience, whether
you choose that career later or not.
Service Learning
A learning method in which students
learn and develop through thoughtfully
organized service to the community.
Examples of service learning:
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Picking up groceries for an elderly neighbor
Helping out at a local community recycling center
Reading to young children at the public library
Helping paint houses with a Habitat for Humanity
group
 Taking part in events such as walk-a-thons to raise
money for different causes
Cooperative Program
Combines school studies with paid work
experience.
 Allows you to gain first-hand experience
on a job
 Students use the skills they are learning
in class in a job related to their career
interests
 Students receive school credit and pay
 Students gain great insight into a
possible future career
Career Critiques
 Collect as much information as you can
about careers you of interested in pursuing.
Then write a critique of each career.
 A career critique is when you write what
you like and dislike about a career, and
includes information on the career outlook.
 Career critiques can help you make
informed decisions as you select your
career path.