Career Day Activities

Pre- Career Day Activities

  1. Make a Resume: Identify your outside activities, volunteer work, jobs and awards that you've had so far in life. Create a resume (possible examples found here). Challenge yourself to keep your eyes open for future resume building opportunities.

  2. Career Survey: Go to the Get Connected tab and take one of the Career Interest surveys. Write down 3 careers that interest you and explore their requirements and any important information such as salary or job outlook.

  3. Grads You Know: Set up a bulletin board with staff and former student pictures attached to where they went to University/College. Option 2: Check out the staff name plates at each classroom door, send students on a scavenger hunt to find certain colleges and the staff members associated with them.

  4. Where will you be at 33?: Have students create a life profile of how they envision themselves in the future. Include college, career, geographical location, even family or hobby goals.

  5. Explore CareerOneStop Activities: Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, the GetMyFuture section of CareerOneStop is a valuable resource for all kinds of career-related questions.

  6. Career Cluster Bulletin Board: Choose a general career category, such as "Health Sciences" and challenge students to bring in pictures, articles and ideas about careers related to this general category. Change the category weekly.

  7. "Get a Job" Friday: Before anyone can start a career, they have to learn to nail an interview. Designate a Friday before Career Day where students dress professionally and role-play an interview. Students will learn what experiences to mention and the importance of social media content as well as what not to share.

  8. If I hadn't been a Teacher: Have teachers inform their classes about other jobs they considered besides being an educator and why. Share the journey to becoming an educator as well!

Career Day & Follow-Up Activities

  1. "Do This, Not That" Interview Skills: Set up a poster with "Do this, not that" interview tips such as what questions to ask or not ask, body language, etc. What have students learned from researching careers and role-playing interviews?

  2. Questions Grab Bag: If hosting a career Day presentation, discuss questions ahead of time to keep them appropriate and brief. Consider writing them down and placing in a bag for presenters to draw from or give them ahead of time.

  3. Career Scavenger Hunt: Have students play a "scavenger hunt" challenge. Create items like "find a female engineer" or "discover what it takes to become an EMT" and help students discover how to learn about each information.

  4. Career Report: Have students report on their career of choice; if they aren't sure what they want to do in the future, have them report on a career cluster option. Discover what the requirements are for the career, job outlook, salary, daily duties, and more.