For teachers and counselors
Career Conversation Kit
A paper kit that helps students pick careers to investigate, ask a working person good questions, compare routes after high school and write one next step. For students 13 and up. There is no software, no account and nothing collected. Keep completed reflections in your own school systems. Use your browser's Print command to make copies.
What career exploration is
Choosing a career from a list is guessing. Exploring one means learning what the work is like, what it takes to get in and whether it fits, before committing years to it. This kit is the exploring part.
Teacher plan: 20 minutes, or expand
- 20-minute version: Sheet 1 (5 min), Sheet 2 in pairs by role-playing a worker (10 min), Sheet 4 (5 min).
- Expanded (45 to 60 minutes): add Sheet 3, the pathway comparison, and have students interview a staff member or a guest you have arranged.
- Supervision: students should not contact adults they do not know. The conversation is with a classmate playing a worker, a staff member, or a guest you arrange, with a school adult present.
- What this is not: an approved curriculum or a credit. A guest session does not meet any Ohio requirement by itself, and I make no claim of alignment to Ohio standards. Your school decides how it fits your career advising.
Sheet 1: Careers I want to investigate
- Two things I enjoy doing: ______________________________________
- Something people say I am good at: ______________________________________
- Three careers that might use those: ______________________________________
- The one I am most curious about, and why: ______________________________________
Sheet 2: Questions to ask someone who does the work
Circle three, or write your own.
- What do you actually do in a normal day?
- How did you get into this work?
- What did you have to learn or train for, and how long did it take?
- What do you wish you had known at my age?
- What is the hardest part of the job that people do not see?
- What would surprise me about your work?
- If I wanted to try a small version of this, what would you suggest?
Two things I did not expect to hear: ______________________________________
Sheet 3: Comparing routes (expanded version)
Pick the career from Sheet 1. For two routes into it, fill in what you find out.
| Route | How long | What it costs | What you need to get in | What the work is like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Routes to consider: Apprenticeship or trade school; Community college; University; Military service; Going straight to work; Starting a business. Write down where each fact came from.
Sheet 4: Reflection and next step
- What I learned that I did not know before: ______________________________________
- What changed, or did not change, about how I think of this career: ______________________________________
- One thing I will do in the next 30 days to find out more: ______________________________________
- Who could help me do it: ______________________________________
Keep sheets in the classroom. Please do not photograph or upload them.
Launch League, launchleague.us. Free to copy for classroom use. Back to the teachers page.