The following activity is part of our 14-day #eDLProjectShare series. The activity is extracted from our Middle School Career Exploration 1: Charting Your Path course / Unit 1: Careers, Entrepreneurship, and the Economy.

Directions:

1. Complete the following activity. Use the rubric located below the activity to assess how you are completing each of the required components.
2. (Optional): Feel free to share your project progress or the final project with a short video or picture on Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #eDLProjectShare @eDynamicLearning. *If you are under 18, you must have your teacher or parent or guardian’s permission to post. 
3. (Optional): For teachers and parents looking to use as a graded activity, a rubric worth 15 points is located at the bottom of the activity.

Activity: What Career Suits You?

As you learn about different jobs you can choose for your career, you may wonder how you will ever decide which one is best for you! In this activity, you will be using the online O*Net Interest Profiler to help you find out what you are interested in and how your interests can point you to the best career for you.

The O*Net Interest Profiler has sixty questions about the kind of work people do on their jobs.

• Read each question carefully and decide how you would feel about each type of work.
• For this assignment, you do not need to think about whether you have the right training for the work mentioned or how much money it pays. You only need to focus on whether it sounds interesting to you.
• Since this isn’t a test, don’t stress out too much. Take your time and if you want to change your answer, feel free.
• When you have finished answering the questions, the O*Net Interest Profiler will break your interests into six different groups: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. These interest groups will match up the things you like to do with career paths just right for people with these qualities.
• Find the two that you scored the highest numbers in. Click on the links for each to learn about them.

Now move on to the Job Zone area.

• This part of the Profiler focuses on how much time you plan to put into preparing for your career. Many careers can satisfy the same interests, but some require more education or training than others.
• As you read through the different zones, don’t worry about your current experience level. We are focusing on your future. Think about how much time and effort you want to put into preparing for your career.
• Choose the different Job Zones until you find one career that you are a great fit for (as noted by the white puzzle piece by that career). Then find one that you are best fit for (as noted by the blue puzzle piece by that career).

Click on the first career (the great fit with the white puzzle piece).

• You will be taken to another page called My Next Move which features the skills, education, and all sorts of information about that career.
• Look down the page and find Job Outlook. This section will tell you what the future holds for those who choose this career path.
• Click on Check Out My State and Local Salary Info to find the availability and pay in your area for that career.
• Then go back to your O*Net Interest Profiler results and do the same for the second career (the best fit with the blue puzzle piece).

Now, using a word document program, create a Venn Diagram showing how the two careers are alike and different.

• Don’t forget to compare whether they focus on the same interest and whether they are in the same or different Job Zones.
• Also include information about whether the career was available in your area and how the different salaries would compare.
• Under your Venn Diagram, write a short paragraph about the two career paths. Do you agree with the O*Net Interest Profiler’s assessment? Are you interested in learning more about the two careers you found? What attracts you to the career? What worries do you have about the career? Were the two careers in high demand in your area? Which career would offer better chances of finding a higher paying position?

Rubric