Learning About Careers
By: Greg Barclay
Grade Level: 9-12
Introduction | Task | Sources | Process | Guidance | Conclusion
You are just graduating high school and it is time to find an occupation. You already have a resume that you created in high school. You were not really paying attention when the teacher discussed appropriate resume formats and how to find a job. You have thought about different types of jobs, but aren't really sure where to begin. You will be visiting several sites in this activity that will teach you how to be successful in a career choice. You will also complete a virtual interview. After completing this activity, you will have a better understanding of different careers and what to expect when trying to get a job.
Tennessee Department of Education Language Arts Curriculum Standard 3.0: The student will use, read, and view media/technology and analyze content and concepts accurately.
Tennessee Department of Education Language Arts Curriculum Standard 3.01: The student will access and demonstrate multiple technological reference sources.
In completing this Web Quest you will visit web sites that carry you through the process of deciding about possible careers, making a good resume, finding job openings, and preparing for a job interview.
Craig, A. (1999). The employment market. Retrieved March 29, 2004, from education.nmsu.edu/webquest/wq/employment/market.html
Jobweb. (2004). Resumes and interviews. Retrieved April 4, 2004, from www.jobweb.com/Resumes_Interviews/default.htm
Jones, L. K. (2004). The career key. Retrieved March 29, 2004, from www.careerkey.org/english
Tennessee Department of Education. (2004). Language arts programs: grades 9-12. Retrieved April 4, 2004, from www.state.tn.us/education/ci/cistandards2001/la/cilaprog912.htm
Western Career Services. (2004). The virtual interview. Retrieved March 29, 2004, from www.western.edu/career/Interview_virtual/Virtual_interview.htm
1. The first web site that you will visit is called the Career Key. In this site you will take a personality inventory that will direct you toward careers that match your personality. Once you have completed the inventory, you will be able to research the different careers that match your personality. When you have finished with the Career Key, print your personality results and come back to the start page for this Web Quest.
2. Next, you will visit a site that has information for creating a resume. Without a good resume, it will be difficult to get that job once you have chosen the career you want. Navigate through the different topics for resume writing. Use your personal information and the new knowledge gained from the web site to create a good resume. After completing your resume in Microsoft Word and printing a copy, return to the "Your Employment Future" Web Quest.
3. Finding job openings can be a difficult process. By viewing the next web site, you will find out about the places that contain this information. Hopefully, this will give you insight into looking for the job you want. Using Microsoft Word or a sheet of paper, make a list of each medium for job openings and where to find that medium.
4. After learning about possible careers, developing a resume, and how to find job openings, you will need to learn about interviews. The web site you will visit in this section has common interview questions with possible responses and critique about those responses. You will need to go through each question, provide a response, and read why that answer was right or wrong. If your response was wrong, find out the right answer and why that answer was correct. Write or word process each question with the correct answer under it.
Reflection
The purpose of this project is for students to find out about possible careers that may interest them, develop a resume, and learn about the process of finding out about job openings and going through an interview. It can be extremely useful for those students going directly into the work force because the process will be fresh in their minds when they apply for jobs after graduation. For those students who will be attending college, it will be good because they will have a resume on which they can build. Also, the career key will be very good for all of the students because it will allow them to find out about jobs that may interest them and fit their personalities.
This Web Quest would probably be the beginning of a lesson, but possible preceding events could be a short lesson on creating a resume. Also, the class may get out the classified sections of recent newspapers in order to see what job openings exist in the surrounding areas. After the lesson plan was complete, the students may be required to write a paper on one occupation that really interested them. In the paper, they would give facts about the job in order to show an understanding of what the job entailed, as well as what would be needed to obtain that job. Also, the class may have to go through mock job interviews in order to show that they have a grasp on what was learned in the interview section of the Web Quest. The teacher, or possibly another student, would act as the hiring employee conducting the interview.
This product would help improve learning because students would have to sift through material found on the internet in order to learn the required material. Thus, they would be learning about researching on the web at the same time they would be learning about the process of choosing and pursuing a career.
This activity could be improved if the teacher found some people in the occupations chosen by the students to come talk to the class. With this, the students would get a more "real world" perspective from someone who actually makes his or her living by the chosen career. It would take a long time for a large class or if the students picked a wide variety of occupations, but I believe that the benefits would be worth it. The paper as a follow-up would expand the project by making the student look further into the career of his or her choice.
In this Web Quest, students will learn about careers, making a resume, finding job openings, and answering interview questions. They will actually develop a resume that they can use for jobs. They can also save this resume and build on it in the future. The scoring for this project will be in the evidence they present for going through the process of the Web Quest. They will be required to turn in a printout of their results from the Career Key, a resume, a list of where to find job openings, and the job interview questions with the correct answers.
Scoring Guide
Career Key printout = 10 points
Resume = 70 points
Job Opening List = 10 points
Job Interview Questions = 10 points