Mrs. H.'s introduction to career planning:
When choosing a career path, there are three important factors that need to occur in you:
1) knowledge of "yourself, your aptitudes (skills or strengths), interests, ambitions, resources, limitations, and their causes" (Parsons, 1909, p. 5);
2) knowledge of a career, the education required, the steps to success, advantages and disadvantages, salary, opportunity, and future forecast;
3) and a balance between these two sets of facts
( Jones, 1994).
These steps were first taught by a man coined the "father of career counseling", named Frank Parsons.
He believed that a person should find a vocation for their life, not just a job, and that if a person chose a career that they were BOTH excited for and had the abilities for, then that person would have a happy life, but if they aren't interested in the career or capable at doing it well, then they would only live life "the fraction of the [person they] ought to be" (Brewer, 1942, p. 304) (Jones, 1994).
I LOVE this statement because it identifies the differences between just finding a job and choosing a career path, it insinutates that you must both enjoy the job and have the skills needed for the job in order to be happy, and because it conveys that happiness is the ultimate pursuit in life.
He also believed that you, only you, are in charge of your career path (Jones, 1994). This comes with the responsibilities of knowing yourself and relfecting on what would make you most happy when it comes to careers; learning about careers, their requirements, and reflecting on which ones suits you; and finding one that fits you, your goals, and leads you to happiness and fulfillment.
This sounds like alot, I know. Just remember to always consider yourself as you start your career path journey, and you'll start from a good place.
Keep these thoughts in mind as you scroll down to begin planning and exploring careers.
The importance of career planning in high school is that the choices you make right now can help, or hinder, your options in the future, so paying attention to your grades and classes, making short-term and long-term career goals, and preparing yourself to transition to a life and career after high school helps lead to a career path that also leads to happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment (Falco, L. D. & Steen, S., 2018).
Planning your Career
Education Planner webpage
http://www.educationplanner.org/students/career-planning/checklists/high-school.shtml
Mapping your Future webpage
http://mappingyourfuture.org/planyourcareer/careership/match_career.cfm
Career Onestop webpage
https://www.careeronestop.org/ExploreCareers/Plan/plan-your-career.aspx
Post Grad Enviorments template
https://postgradenvironments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/career-plan-template.pdf
Indeed webpage
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/career-mapping-examples
Identifying Possible Career Clusters
Career clusters are a great place to start if you have idea of what industry or area of work you may be interested in, even if you don't yet have specific careers in mind.
Career Tech webpage
https://careertech.org/career-clusters
Texas Career & Technical Education webpage
https://www.txcte.org/binder/career-cluster-pages
Wages, Salary, and Job Forecast Planning
The following sites provide information on average how much income careers provide in Texas and also whether a certain career is expected to trend up-ward, down-ward, or remain steady. This is important to consider when career planning because it may enlighten to the strength of a job to provide for your and remain availiable in the future.
Texas Reality Check
https://texasrealitycheck.com
Texas Wages
https://texaswages.com
Texas Labor Market Information
https://texaslmi.com
Texas Labor Analysis
https://texaslaboranalysis.com
Tedx Talks (2014) video: What they Don't Teach you About Career Fulfillment in School
PLEASE at least watch this one. Your happiness and fulfillment should be the backbone to the career development decisions you make, and this video explains why.
Edwards (n.d) powerpoint: Career Exploration for the College Student
Enhancing Post Graduate Environments (2017) template design: Basic Career Planning Template
" The purpose of career assessments is to CREATE not ELIMINATE" (Wood, C., 2009, p. 73). When you take a career assessment, you should see your results as possibilities that may reflect your interests, personality, skills, or values not as the only careers you are capable of being successful. See assessments as a starting point for career exploration, not as the ending point of careers you have to choose from.
Personality Assessments
Personality assessments assess your personality traits and sort them with careers of similar traits. These are often based from psychological theories of Carl Jung and the Myers-Briggs assessment in which you"ll be given a 4-letter type. (Mine is INFJ!)
Humanetrics webpage
https://www.humanmetrics.com/personality
16 Personalities webpage
https://www.16personalities.com
Open Pyschometrics "Big 5" webpage
https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM/
Values Assessments
Values assessments assess what you value in work enviorments to determine what careers have similiar enviormments to your preferences.
My Plan webpage
http://www.myplan.com/assess/values.php
123 Test webpage
https://www.123test.com/work-values-test/
Interest Inventories
Interest inventories, profilers, or assessments assess the types of careers may interest you most based on your preferences. Most interest-focused assessments are based on John Holland's occupational theory and you may be given a 3-letter code. (Mine is SCA!)
My Next Move webpage
https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip
Self-directed Search
http://self-directed-search.com/
Open Psychometrics
https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/RIASEC/
Truity webpage
https://www.truity.com/test/holland-code-career-test
Texas Genuine webpage
https://assessment.texasgenuine.org
Career Tech webpage
https://careertech.org/resource/career-clusters-student-interest-survey
Skills/Aptitude Assessments
Skills assessments match career that may share required skills that you indicated strength in.
Assessment.com
https://www.assessment.com
Education Planner webpage
http://www.educationplanner.org/students/career-planning/find-careers/careers.shtml
Career One Stop webpage
https://www.careeronestop.org/toolkit/Skills/skills-matcher.aspx
Miguel (2020) audio podcast episode: 3 Tools to Help You Dig Deeper in Discovering your Path:The Tools of Personality, Career, & Strenghts Assessment to Help you Gain Clarity in Life, Career, & Business
The following databases provide detials for specific careers, and include information regarding required training or level of education; main tasks, activities, and duties; salary or wages; and sometimes connections to career assessment results.
O*Net
http://www.onetonline.org/
Texas Genuine
https://texasgenuine.org/careers
Occupational Outlook Handbook
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/
Jobs y’all
https://jobsyall.com
Road-trip Nation
https://roadtripnation.com/edu/careerfinder
Career One Stop
https://www.careeronestop.org/ExploreCareers/explore-careers.aspx
LAS Career Development and Internships (2022) infographic: Career Exploration Plan
SRES Counseling (2021) video: 16 Career Clusters
“Being career ready means having skills that broadly prepare you to transition from being a… student to being an employee, manager, or entrepreneur” (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2018, p. 3). Career readiness skills are based on the knowledge needed for preparing to enter any career. The 8 most commonly referred career readiness skills are:
1) Career/Self Development
2) Communication
3) Critical Thinking
4) Equity and Inclusion
5) Leadership
6) Professionalism
7) Teamwork
8) Technology
(National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2022)
National Association of Colleges and Employers guide
https://www.naceweb.org/uploadedfiles/files/2021/resources/nace-career-readiness-competencies-revised-apr-2021.pdf
The Texas High Eucation Coordinating board and Texas Workforce Commission handbook
http://www.60x30tx.com/media/1409/thecb-career-readiness-handbook.pdf
Labor Market and Career Infomormation Department of the Texas WorkForce Commission handbook
https://lmci.state.tx.us/shared/PDFs/succeed_at_work.pdf
Kent State University checklist
https://www-s3-live.kent.edu/s3fs-root/s3fs-public/file/Career%20Readiness%20Checklist_0.pdf
Center For Career and Experiential Eduation (2020) video: Career Readiness Competencies
National Association for Colleges and Employers (2021) powerpoint: Career Readiness
Scroll Down on powerpoint to view.
Hire Fresno State (2021) video: Career Readiness Competencies