CONDUCTING A JOB SEARCH

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Participants will conduct a job search using a professional search website. Explorers will examine how their professional interests factor into the skills and qualities associated with jobs they may wish to pursue.

Category

  • Life Skills
  • Job Search

Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

 

  • Understand how to do a job search using an online database.
  • Appreciate the importance of education and its relationship to jobs and salaries.
  • Appraise their personal qualities that correspond with jobs that interest them.

Supplies

  • Computers with Internet access or smartphones
  • Personal Dispositions and Professional Skills activity sheet

Advisor Note

Text in italics should be read aloud to participants. As you engage your post in activities each week, please include comments, discussions, and feedback to the group relating to Character, Leadership, and Ethics. These are important attributes that make a difference in the success of youth in the workplace and in life.

Activity 1

Pass out the Personal Dispositions and Professional Skills activity sheet:

Ask participants: What is important to you as you prepare to pursue a career? Responses may include a preference for working outside, with people, with computers, with numbers, or in an academic environment; using their hands; earning a high salary; having summers off; constructing buildings; writing reports; supervising people; conducting investigations; etc.

 

Ask them to identify one of the most important personal preferences and write it on the activity sheet next to “Personal Likes.”

 

Have Explorers access the following website: www.careerbuilder.com. Before they start their search, share the following information: To complete this activity, imagine that you are 25 years old and are seeking a job that will allow you to live independently.

 

Have them investigate two careers that interest them. They should start by entering a field that is of interest in the search box: nursing, engineering, child care, personal care, etc. The second screen will allow, through the use of a drop-down box, opportunities to select within a more specific career area. The results generated from this level of sorting will provide actual jobs.

 

Say: On the activity sheet, record the results for two of the jobs you identified. In the two columns, record personal qualities and job skills that are included in the job description. The qualities are your personal skills and attitudes such as timeliness, hard-working, punctual, and so on. The job skills are related to training, experience, previous experience, and so on.

 

After completing their findings for two jobs, carry out a discussion and reflection regarding what they learned.

Advisor Note

Some sample questions are below. They are designed to help the participants apply what they have learned to their own interests. You are welcome to use these questions or develop your own questions that relate to your post or specific focus area.

Reflection

Focusing Questions

  • What did you learn about using the job search database?

Analysis Questions

  • How often were your personal “likes” included in the job descriptions?
  • How did the personal dispositions listed in the job description match up with what you see as your personal qualities?
  • How did the professional skills line up with where you see yourself at age 25?

Generalization Questions

  • What is the most important thing you learned during this activity?
  • Why are the qualities listed in the job description important?
  • What can you do to prepare yourself, personally and professionally, with the requirements for jobs that you might like to do someday?
  • Why is this important?
PERSONAL DISPOSITIONS AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS ACTIVITY SHEET