Career Conversations @ AJW
Our Career Conversations event for 5th graders is an opportunity for small groups of students to get engaging, realistic knowledge about a career from an expert--YOU! We invite you to join us in February for a virtual 25-minute conversation with 3 or 4 students to share the ins and outs of working in your field. We need people with all kinds of jobs!
DATES/TIMES FOR 2024 CAREER CONVERSATIONS:
Wednesday, February 7, 9:25 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. EST
Wednesday, February 7, 11:00 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. EST
Friday, February 9, 11:00 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. EST
WHAT WILL I BE DOING?
On your scheduled day/time, you will join a Google Meet and be placed in a breakout room with your students. You will have 20-25 minutes to 1) introduce your job to the students (5-10 minutes) and 2) be interviewed by them about the job (15-20 minutes). During your introduction, consider sharing the following:
Day to day tasks
Working conditions, such as where you work, work independently vs. in teams, work for yourself vs. have an employer, work with people/computers/machines, nights or weekends, etc.
What kinds of skills and personality traits are helpful for your job
How you became interested in this job.
Most of the time in the meet will be spent with the students interviewing you about your job. Be prepared to answer the following questions:
What kind of education or training do you need to work in this job?
What career cluster is this job found in? (This website is helpful: https://www.onetonline.org/find/career?c=0&g=Go. Click the dropdown list for a list of clusters.)
How easy is it to find a job in this field?
How much can someone who is brand new to this job expect to earn in wages?
What are the best and worst things about your job?
One more question that the students will come up with on their own.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
We will use Google Meet for our conversations. Volunteers MUST BE SIGNED IN TO A GOOGLE ACCOUNT TO ACCESS THE MEET.
GUIDELINES FOR YOUR CONVERSATION:
Most people who settle on a career have some sense of purpose or benefit they derive from their jobs. Let this show so students understand work isn’t always just a chore.
Some of my students will go to college and some will not. All jobs require some level of training, so please share whatever training/experience you needed, whether or not you needed a college degree.
Be realistic! It’s important for students to know what challenges and obstacles they must overcome to be successful in any given career.
If you have props or a hands-on demonstration you can show, so much the better! Pictures, videos, equipment you use, uniforms, all of that is great.