Many of you are starting to consider what you would like your future, post high school, to look like. You may be pondering questions such as, what career am I interested in? What is the job outlook for that career? What are the educational requirements needed for a certain profession? What are the pros and cons of one career vs. another? In this uncertain time of social distancing, you may not be able to conduct a job shadow, but you can still examine potential career paths in-depth by completing the Virtual Career Exploration Capstone.
If you are interested in exploring possible career options, then this type of Capstone is for you! Like all Capstone projects, you will be required to complete a Proposal, Research Logs, Work Logs, a Reflection Paper and a Formal Presentation.
In the process of completing the Career Exploration Capstone, you will most likely need to reach out to your school counselor for an overview of how to use Naviance to determine which career clusters fit best with your personality, interests and strengths. Next, you would conduct research on those fields. You may choose to examine which higher education institutions would best prepare you for that career. You might look at the job growth and job outlook in those areas.
Along the way, you will want to conduct two interviews with individuals who are knowledgeable about and have first hand experience in the careers you are considering. The interviews do not need to be in person, they can be conducted over the phone or via email. You should pose a minimum of 5 questions that will help you to determine if this is the right career for you. It is important that you take notes as the interviewee answers your questions, or save the email with the interview correspondence. This will then become one of your research sources for your research log and it will be an artifact that you can use later in your presentation.
The ultimate goal of the Career Exploration Capstone is to aid you in planning for your future. You may think you already know what career is perfect for you and this Capstone can help to ensure that it really is a good fit! Or you may be undecided and unsure about your future plans. This Capstone can help you start to pinpoint which jobs and higher education opportunities best match your personality and interests.
Interview questions and answers
Proof of use of Naviance (screenshots)
Work on resume related to the field you are focusing on.
Obtain literature about career from colleges and universities.
Obtain literature from individuals that work within the field that you are focusing on.
Documentation
Complete the work logs explaining the tasks completed, what more you need to accomplish and number of hours that you devoted towards your virtual career exploration.