consistently find students need support exploring career options W r i t i n g

From our experience working with students in the College of Education, we consistently find students need support exploring career options. This assignment attempts to meet this need. It will also inform our end-of-quarter conversations on preparing for graduate school and careers. To successfully complete this assignment, there are two steps:

Step 1: Investigate Careers or Employers

• Two career paths/occupations (anything! Here are some examples: teaching; sports psychology; human resources; starting-your-own-business; management; professional development; advertising; health services; school counseling, etc.)

OR

• Two specific employers (Gates Foundation; Seattle Public Schools; UW; Boys and Girls Club; Amazon; HopeLink; Seattle Sounders; City of Renton, etc.) that interest you and that you are considering pursuing now or possibly in the future.

Review any or all of the following to get the information you need: company websites; occupational/career research websites; articles on blogs or on professional association websites (National Education Association, etc.); career path profiles (of UW alumni or other professionals); industry reviews; videos featuring employers or professionals in a setting you are considering; recruiting webpages; review job and internship descriptions, etc. When looking at company websites, look to their ‘about us’ or ‘careers’ or ‘employment’ or ‘jobs’ or ‘college’ or ‘undergraduate’ sections. Find employers who add career and job content into social media spaces you are familiar with.

Please see template for this assignment.

Suggested websites are below.

Step 2- Summarize Your Research:

Write a 5 page (approximately, double spaced) paper, addressing the following questions:

What 2 career paths/occupations or specific employers did you investigate? 


How does what you researched for this assignment, relate to your strengths, interests, values, goals? 


Describe what you especially found interesting/appealing in this (job, occupation, employer, career path). 


How has your research for this assignment affected your ideas for options? What is possible for you? Will you continue to consider this as a possibility? Why or why not? 


From what you’ve learned in your research, what are you lacking (if anything) (specific skills? certain experiences or coursework?) that you would need to gain/build, to be competitive for this, and what steps could you take now, before graduation, to work towards this? 


What information, if any, are you still needing/lacking? 


Requirements:

• You must answer each question for both careers/organizations
• We recommend you use headings in your paper to stay organized and guide the reader.
• Use citations to indicate the source of information, even when you don’t directly cite.
• 5 pages is a rough page estimate and there is no firm minimum or maximum; use your judgment to include sufficient information to answer each question.