CAREER READINESS & EXPLORATION
A career is all the productive work—paid and unpaid—performed throughout a person's lifetime. Career education provides students with opportunities to learn about their interests, to become aware and appreciate a range of careers, and to develop decision-making, job-seeking, and job-keeping skills. Explore the links below to help make informed career choices:
Naviance is used for college planning and career exploration. Tenth graders will do a Career Interest Profiler and Career Cluster Finder Survey with counseling staff in the spring. Eleventh graders will learn how to search for and research colleges online.
Service Year Maryland
Service Year Maryland is a new program recently signed into law by Maryland Governor Wes Moore. A service year is an opportunity to develop real-world skills through hands-on service. There are over 65,000 service year opportunities in a variety of issues all across the country.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW IT WORKS AND WHETHER A SERVICE YEAR IS RIGHT FOR YOU
2024-2025 Member Fact Sheet (1).pdfArmed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
REGISTER TO TAKE THE ASVAB AT MAGRUDER
The ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) is administered free to interested tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students with parental consent. The ASVAB is an excellent career exploration tool. It can help identify student interests and aptitude in the following areas: verbal, math, science and technical skills. When scores are interpreted, students will learn how their interests and skills relate to the demands of more than 400 occupations, helping them to identify suitable career options.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE ASVAB
ASVAB results are released only to students and not to the armed services. If students wish to use their results as part of an enlistment conversation with military recruiters, they can provide their scores to the recruiter. Taking the ASVAB in no way involves a commitment to the military. The ASVAB will be administered on January 16th, February 13th, March 11th, April 17th and May 15th. Testing will begin at 7:45 a.m.
CLICK HERE FOR FREE ONLINE STUDY GUIDES AND PRACTICE TESTS
ADDITIONAL STUDY GUIDES AVAILABLE AT www.march2success.com
ASVAB CEP Fact_Sheet.pdfSummer RISE
Summer RISE is an initiative led by the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Department of Partnerships in collaboration with businesses, government agencies, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations. The program is for rising MCPS juniors and seniors to participate in a career-based learning opportunity during the summer. Students will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning opportunities related to their field of interest.
Summer RISE 2024 will run for five weeks, from June 24th through July 26th, with a minimum of 50 hours of either in-person, virtual or a combination of the two experiences.
Trade-schools.net helps students find an academic or vocational program at a college or trade school that can prepare you for your desired career.
The Hispanic Heritage Foundation offers bilingual leadership, educational and workforce development programs for Latinx populations on many topics including investing, coding, health and wellness, game development, STEM, financial literacy, and much more.
Resources for Undocumented Students
It is challenging because many opportunities require citizenship. But there's a program called Future Link that helps students find work, but they have to at least have a work permit to be eligible. Worksource Montgomery also helps with job placement.
Career Interests, Aptitude Tests, Employment Topics, & Volunteer Opportunities
16 Personalities Test Discover how your personality relates to your future interests
Take the GapMatcher quiz to discover your gap year interests
ONET Online Occupational Information (U.S. Department of Labor)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook: Fact-finding agency
Youth.gov Federal Programs for Transitioning to Employment
Apprenticeship vs Internship: Understanding the Difference (Indeed career guide)
The Differences Between Unemployment and Underemployment (Indeed career guide)
Americorps Make a difference in communities across America
City Year Help students and yourself thrive
Job Corps Jump start your future career
Peace Corps Provide international development assistance
Student Conservation Organization Help support the environment
Worksource Montgomery Connecting employers and job seekers
Future Link Program (located in Rockville, MD) Are you interested in mentoring, paid internships, tutoring, scholarship support, career exploration, resume and interview preparation, guidance with classes, access to a professional network, and financial aid guide? APPLY HERE—make sure to review the eligibility requirements. Spots are limited.
Career Search Tools
Naviance can be used for career exploration and research under the "Careers" tab.
uwannadu.com lets you explore careers, watch videos of professionals in their field, and more.
www.onetonline.org is a comprehensive tool for career exploration and job analysis; great resource and lots of information.
www.thestemnet.com is for STEM Workplace Exposure and Career Exploration.
bigfuture.collegeboard.org lets you explore careers and see how others made their choices.
www.bls.gov/ooh offers an Occupational Outlook Handbook; great resource for in-depth career information.
montgomerycollege.emsicc.com is Montgomery College's Career Coach; great resource and free to use; explore careers, take an assessment, create a resume, and more.
Federal Jobs Network has information about jobs and scholarships in government.
eMedicalAssistants provides information about schools and scholarships for medical assistant careers.
RadiologySchools411 provides information about radiologic tech careers.
theepharmacytechnicians.com provides a state-by-state search for pharmacy technician careers.
Best Online Nursing Programs and Schools by Consumer Affairs details nursing programs online including types of degrees and reviews.
Public Administration Degrees: about, schools, scholarships.
Public Administration Masters Degrees: masters degree programs and information.
Discover Accounting: resources, accreditation information, and more.
Inside Career Info includes information about many aspects of careers from the real world.
Federal Jobs Network: jobs and scholarships in government.
monster.com is not only a great job finding resource but has a search function that allows you to find career fairs in your area.
futurelinkmd.org provides low-income, first-generation-to-college young adults with the tools, skills and resources to achieve lasting economic self-sufficiency.