Applying for a job/Choosing a Career
Choosing careers can be hard if you have no idea what you want to do. Many will tell you to "follow your passion" or "do what you love," but as a young person you often still have to find out what you really want.
- Watch the video and answer the following questions:
- Write down the five top tipps the video gives you.
- Now write down on a piece of paper
- What kind of person you are.
- What your interests are.
- Your abilities - What are you really good at?
- Do the interactive exercises at the end of the page.
Choosing a Career
We all want to choose a career that will make us happy, but how can we know what that will be? In fairness, how are you supposed to know if you will be happy as a bank clerk, a police officer or an artist, if you haven't actually done any of these things yet?
Self Assessment
Find out information about yourself. Learn about your:
- Interests: What do you really enjoy doing?
- Personality Type: Your social traits, motivations, strengths and weaknesses, and attitudes
- Are you an extrovert who likes to work with people or are you an introvert who prefers to work in his office for himself?
- Do you like to work manually and create something or would you rather work with people?
- Where would you like to work? The type of workplaces you prefer, for example, indoors or outdoors, office or factory, and noisy or quiet
- Skills and Abiltities
- Do you have a natural talent?
- In which areas have you learned something special through training and education?
- Physical restrictions:
- Are you strong enough to be a construction worker?
- Can you get used to poisonous chemicals in the lab, the workshop, etc.
You will identify careers that might be a good fit for you during the self assessment, but you will need more information before you can make a final decision.
Career Exploration
Career exploration focuses on learning about the occupations that seem to be a good fit based on the results of your self assessment and any other professions that interest you.
Use online and print resources to get a job description; learn about specific job duties; and collect labor market information including average salaries and job outlooks.
After completing this preliminary research, you can start eliminating professions that don't appeal to you and get more details about those that do. This is an ideal time to conduct informational interviews and arrange job shadowing opportunities like internships. During an informational interview, you will ask people who work in an occupation that interests you questions about their jobs. Job shadowing involves following someone around at work in order to learn more about what they do.
Match
Finally it's time to make a match! During Step 3, you will decide which occupation is the best fit for you based on what you learned during Steps 1 and 2—self assessment and career exploration.
- Identify the occupation in which you are most interested and one or two alternatives on which to fall back if, for any reason, you can't pursue your first choice.
- Give serious thought to how you will prepare to enter your chosen career, the costs associated with education and training, and whether you will face any barriers, which are the realities discussed during the step 1.
- Go back to Step 2 if you find you need to explore your options further before making a decision.
Once you have chosen a career, you can go on to Step 4, which will lead you toward your first job in your new career.
Action
During this step, you will write a career action plan. It will serve as a guide to reaching your ultimate goal of getting a job in the career you deemed to be a good match during Step 3.
Identify what long-term and short-term goals you will have to reach to get to the ultimate one. Start investigating appropriate education and training programs, for example, colleges, graduate schools, or apprenticeship programs. Then start preparing for required entrance examinations or applying for admission.
If you are ready to seek employment, develop a job search strategy. Identify and learn about potential employers.
Write your resume and cover letters. Begin to prepare for job interviews.
Interactive exercises
Where do they work?
| nurse | hospital |
| mechanic | garage |
| sales assistant | supermarket |
| clerk | office |
| medical assistant | doctor's office |
| chef | kitchen |
What do they do?
Who are these people? Match the professions with their corresponding definitions.
| architect | 1 somebody who designs and builds bridges, machines etc. | |
| nurse | 2 someone who looks after people who are ill or injured | |
| secretary | 3 somebody who types letters and answers the telephone | |
| actor | 4 someone who plays a character in a film or play | |
| sales attendant | 5 someone who serves customers in a store | |
| photographer | 6 somebody who takes pictures with a camera | |
| careers officer | 7 someone who advises you which job would be best for you |
Some questions the careers officer asked
Tim had a talk with Mrs Miller, the careers officer at his school, and these are some of the questions she asked him.
Report what she said.
1. Do you like learning new things?
Mrs Miller asked me whether I liked() learning new things.
2. Have you ever had a part-time job at all?
She also asked me if I() ever had had() a part-time job.
3. Have you discussed possible careers with your parents?
Then she wanted to know if I had discussed() possible careers with my()parents.
4. Which subjects are you especially interested in?
She asked which subjects I was () especially interested in.
5. How old will you be when you leave school?
She inquired how old I would be() when I leave/left school.
6. How do you think you can work best - alone or in a group?
She asked how I thought I could () work best - alone or in a group.
7. Are you looking forward to having a job and earning your own money?
Finally she asked me if I was() looking forward to having a job.
Mrs Miller asked me whether I liked() learning new things.
2. Have you ever had a part-time job at all?
She also asked me if I() ever had had() a part-time job.
3. Have you discussed possible careers with your parents?
Then she wanted to know if I had discussed() possible careers with my() parents.
4. Which subjects are you especially interested in?
She asked which subjects I was () especially interested in.
5. How old will you be when you leave school?
She inquired how old I would be() when I leave/left school.
6. How do you think you can work best - alone or in a group?
She asked how I thought I could () work best - alone or in a group.
7. Are you looking forward to having a job and earning your own money?
Lucky you! (Mixed Grammar)
Put in the correct forms of the words in brackets. Sometimes you may have to add a word.
We may think young people in Germany have enough difficulties(difficult) in the job market, but in many ways the situation in the USA is even worse(bad).
The number of unemployed German teenagers has risen extremely quickly( extreme / quick).
Even graduates with good qualifications often have problems getting a job.
Good jobs are hard to find (be / hard / find) and high school students start applying for them at (???) least a year before leaving school.
'I was one of (???) the lucky ones who had been invited (invite) to an interview after my third letter of application (apply), said Tom Jones.
We may think young people in Germany have enough difficulties(difficult) in the job market, but in many ways the situation in the USA is even worse(bad).
The number of unemployed German teenagers has risen extremely quickly( extreme / quick).
Even graduates with good qualifications often have problems getting a job.
Good jobs are hard to find (be / hard / find) and high school students start applying for them at (???) least a year before leaving school.
'I was one of (???) the lucky ones who had been invited (invite) to an interview after my third letter of application (apply), said Tom Jones.
