Career Assessment Tool
The goal of this meeting is to help student start the path of identifying careers to study in college.
open up a new web window and go to the website Focus2Career.com. we’ll walk you through that.
And I don’t know if uh uh Jonah asked you if you had an idea of what you want to study in college.
Do you have Do you have an idea?
Um, I uh it’s I think it’s going to be law. Okay.
What intrigues you about law?
I’ve I I’ve always kind of I always considered it very uh like detailed oriented and I’ve always I’ve always thought I like having stuff uh like very specific and laid out to me.
Okay,
good. In the um upper right corner is a login button. Click on that and your login username is your email address. And your temporary password is all lowercase. And when you click uh submit or next,
Okay.
It’s going to prompt you to reset your password. And your new password has to be 12 or more characters. Has to have an uppercase and a lower case and a number.
That said the password was incorrect. So, he got his email in there correctly, too, just to double check.
Yeah. Okay, let’s try again. Let me make sure. Let me make sure I’ve got it.
Oh, okay. It popped up now. So, now do a Okay. Okay.
All right. So, reset your password. Okay.
Uh, what should a new one be? something you remember. Yes. Okay, hold on. It has to include a special character. Okay, not a problem.
Exclamation or question mark. Yes, that’s what I’m doing. Hold on. Let’s see.
What doesn’t match? You missed a zero. Oh, yes I did.
[Music]
No, that’s wrong. Okay. Update. I’m just going to have them save it. Yep. Save. Okay. And then then it’s going to ask you for two security questions.
Uh, yes, we’re doing that. What’s your dog’s favorite color? How many siblings do you have? Yes. What’s your middle name? Or something like that.
Isn’t that an Joker? Dogs like color blind? Exactly. Uh, they can see yellow and blue and So, does your dog have a favorite color?
Is it yellow or blue? Uh, I’m not I’m not sure. He hasn’t really he hasn’t really uh said anything.
It would be an interesting experiment to hold up two toys, one yellow and one blue, and see which one he likes.
Our fir my first pug would uh I could tell he had little stuffed animals and I would tell him, “Go get the monkey, go get the bear, go get the lion, and he
would go get that exact one.” He was very smart. Yeah. Awesome. Yes. This one This one’s cute. Yes. Not the brightest. Not not the brightest one.
Okay. Let me know when you’re at the welcome screen.
Um yes.
Yeah, we’re at the welcome screen. Okay. So, uh your homework is to do the academic strength section.
Okay.
And that’ll take you about a minute. I like reading. I I like math. I don’t like algebra. Whatever. answer those questions. Uh, scroll down.
Scroll down to the work interest assessment. Can you share your screen?
Uh,
uh, I got to figure that. I got to see that button. Is this one at the bottom? It’s like the third
button from the presentation starting. Um, share window. This one. Share. Yeah, perfect. You guys can see it, right?
Yes. Yep.
Yeah. So, work interest assessment. Click on begin. Okay. And it says there’s 36 questions. The first question, to what degree would you enjoy designing graphic arts, images, and illustration for advertising media?
You like that a lot or a little or somewhere in between? Go ahead and answer those questions. It won’t take you very long. Go.
Okay.
Um, are you sir? No. JD, I kind of get some engineering vibes from <student>. Do you get some of that or no?
Uh, maybe. We’ll we’ll see what happens when uh he finishes the assessment. All right. He scored highest in conventional, and second in investigative.
If you scroll down, it tells you what it People in the conventional category often prefer orderly, systematic work. Work tasks often include keeping records and organizing written and numerical material according to a plan. They like to see things run efficiently and smoothly, which means they will pay attention to administrative details. They generally enjoy keeping accurate records, organizing, working with numbers, and using a computer. Sound like you or mostly you?
uh a little bit of conventional and investigative.
And then investigative people in this category often have a strong desire to understand cause and effect and solve puzzles and problems. They often work in jobs that are scientific in nature. Their work involves the analysis of data using formula, graphs, and numbers. Investigative types typically prefer to work independently with minimal supervision. People in this category generally enjoy using computers, solving math problems, interpreting formulas, and thinking abstractly. Sound like partially you?
Yeah, a combination of conventional, investigative.
Okay. Scroll down to the bottom and click continue.
And here we have some occupations based on your answers. Uh, scroll scroll back up a little bit and click on table view just to kind of shrink it down. Yes.
So, here we have a variety of different occupations. As you’re looking at this list, if you don’t know what it is, don’t guess, but click on it. Read about
- Do you know what an actuary is?
No.
Click it.
So, actuary calculate insurance company premium rates and policy conditions. Uh, they look at statistical information and calculate probabilities.
Sound interesting or not?
Um,
a little.
Okay. As you’re going through the list
of occupations, if you don’t know what
it is, please don’t guess, but click on
it and read about it. And if it sounds
like something that you are,
click the X and stay there for a second.
Oh, I’m sorry.
Don’t don’t go out of here yet. Click on
actuary again.
Um, if it sounds like something that you
are not interested in, let’s move on as
quick as we can. If it sounds like
something that you are interested in,
let’s go through the stuff that’s in
here. Scroll back up the top.
So, training tells you we’d have to do
to get into this industry. Job tasks
tells you specifically what you would be
doing in there. Scroll down to the
interest profile graph.
You’re the purple line. Don’t worry if
your purple lines don’t match. If you
were to go into this industry, they
would eventually grow to match. Uh work
conditions. Scroll down.
Scroll up a little bit. Work conditions.
There. Yeah.
So you can click on any one of those and
and expand it and read more about it and
go, yeah, I think I might be interested
in this or no, am I dealing directly
with people or am I working outside?
It’ll answer those types of questions.
And then scroll down to the education
requirements, education requires. If you
said JD, I want to be an actuary. Here
are the different majors that you can
save. And you can click on the plus to
expand any one of those and read about
- Go, yeah, that sounds interesting. I
think I want to do that or no, I don’t.
So, homework is two things. One is to
save some occupations, and the other is
to save some majors. And here’s where
you find some of the majors.
Keep scrolling. Uh, advancement and
professional associations. You can click
on those links to get some more
information about this industry. Scroll
back up to the top, almost to the top. I
want to talk about two uh scroll down.
We got a video and then we want to ask
two questions. The first question is
what’s the pay and it says people
established in their career can earn
between $74,000 and $140,000.
I like those numbers. If you want to
pick a number, $50,000 or above to
start.
And the reason why I picked $50,000
is because the average household income,
both a mom and a dad working across the
United States, is just a little bit
above 50. And if it’s just you making
50, you’re better than the average.
Okay.
Uh scroll down just a tiny bit.
A little more. Right there. Stop. So,
you want to ask two questions. What’s
the pay? And the pay is good. And the
next question is, can we get a job? And
we’ve got a positive growth of 20.8%.
That is amazing growth.
Average growth is 4%.
So 20%, yes, we can really get a job in
this industry. Uh, if it was a 1%
growth, positive growth, I’m okay with
that. We might have to work a little bit
harder to get into that industry. it was
negative growth uh or zero, then you
might want to rethink it. So, if we get
two nos, the pay is bad, the growth is
bad, cross it off your list. If you get
a maybe and a yes or a yes and a maybe,
then maybe keep that one on your list.
If you get two yeses, then consider
keeping it on your list. Okay. Scroll
back up the top and click on uh back to
occupation list.
And do you want to save it? Yes or no?
Back to occupation list. Do you want to
save it? Yes or no?
I guess.
Okay. And now you got the little heart
next to that one.
Um, let’s go to table view again
and uh let’s scroll through here. Is
there anything else that piques your
interest or your curiosity?
[Music]
Do you know what a geodesic surveyor
is?
Nope.
Click it.
Measure large areas of Earth surface.
So, we got a a positive growth of 0.9%.
I’m still okay with that.
And the reason why I’m okay with it is
because we’re not looking for a job
today or tomorrow. We’ll be looking for
a job five years from now. What’s this
industry going to do in the next five
years? Uh so, we’d have to do a little
bit more research to determine is this
industry going to uh grow over the
course of the next five years or go
stagnant or or decline.
All right. Uh go back top, click on back
to occupation list. Do you want to save
it?
And then in the upper uh right corner is
exit to dashboard.
Yes. And scroll down. Homework is to
finish the values, the personality, and
the skills section. Once you finish the
values, it’s going to give you a
different list of occupations.
And now granted there might be some that
are the same as the work interest. Same
thing with personality and skills. Once
you finish all four, scroll down just a
little bit please.
You combine
and it’s going to take the answers from
the four assessments and it’s going to
narrow it down and it may narrow it down
to one occupation.
I had a student who called me in a
panic. She said, “J, I clicked on
combine and it came up with one
occupation and it’s clergy. I don’t want
to be a priest or none. What do I do?”
I said, “No problem. Uncheck skills or
uncheck uh personality and mix and match
it.” I want to show you two more things.
Scroll down, please, to the next
section. Uh don’t click on uh um scroll
up a little bit. Explore the
possibilities right there. Don’t click
on anything yet, but I want to talk
about explore any occupation. If you
said, JD, I love plants. And botany
never popped up for whatever reason, you
can click on explore any occupation. You
can manually type in botany and save it
that way. The one right next to that,
what can I do if I majored in? Click on
that.
Here we have majors that are grouped by
categories. Let’s click on area and
ethnic and gender studies.
Yeah. So, I’m looking for a green icon
on the right hand side. Scroll through
real quick. None. None. None. None.
None. None. That tells me you should
probably avoid this industry.
Let’s go to architecture.
Yeah, we’ve got a couple uh suggested
green icons there. So maybe something in
architecture.
What does that mean? What are the green
suggestions? You may want to consider
this
based upon based upon the market or
based upon the answers he gave. If you
based upon the answers that he gave.
Oh, okay. Now, even though actual uh
architectural history doesn’t have a
green check mark, if you said JD, I love
architectural history and you want to do
that, fine. Click it and save it.
The green check marks are simply
suggestions.
Okay.
Uh on the left hand side, scroll down to
law
or legal
a couple. So maybe something with
law.
Let’s click on um Jonah suggested
engineering. Let’s click on engineering.
Uh engineering or just
engineering.
Okay.
Agricultural
bioengineering and medical engineering.
Ceram ceramic
is that okay? Chemical civil
ceramic engineering is
developing ceramic parts for computers.
Computers construction electrical
just regular engineering.
Yeah.
Um physics,
science,
health, forest, geological,
geotechnical, industrial,
manufacturing. A lot a lot of
engineering.
Yeah. So maybe something engineering.
Uh
that really that really stuck out to me
just based off of what we talked about
today. I think you’d be a great fit
there, but obviously there’s a lot of
careers you can look at.
Ultimately, it’s your choice.
Uh your um rain garden project was
definitely an engineering type of a
project.
Yes.
Um
is civil engineering. Does that have a
green check mark? I think it does.
Yes.
That’s what That’s what our neighbor
did, Nick.
Yeah, right. I don’t
I don’t know. Uh he had to That’s that
was more than a bachelor’s, though.
Um
so, as a as a civil engineering major,
these are the different occupations you
could potentially go into. You could
become a civil engineer. You can go into
biofuels.
Um, you can go into transportation
water wastewater.
Yeah,
I uh that’s I’m pretty sure that’s
that’s what he was. That’s what Nick is.
No, he’s a civil engineer and he
worked on a waste water
like a surge pump for the city of
Elizabeth, New Jersey for years.
So, so with that, there’s two icons.
There’s the green leaf icon and then
there’s the uh sunshine icon. Uh the
green leaf just means
just means that it is um they look at
uh sustainability
and the bright outlook means there’s
good growth in that industry. Click on
civil engineer
and let’s scroll down a little bit a
little more at 89,000 6.9%. That’s
better than average. Average is 4%. Um,
scroll back up the top. It says uh a
bachelor’s degree is required to become
a civil engineer. Now, if he’s like the
civil engineering manager, then you
might have a master’s degree.
Yeah, he’s got a master’s, he’s got
certifications, licenses, everything.
Um,
yeah,
I don’t I don’t know how much I don’t
know how much he makes. Um, but
I have I have a friend um here in
Arizona. He lives in a small town uh
and he’s he’s the uh chief civil
engineer and I can tell you he makes
over 150,000.
I don’t know what the income would be in
in Florida or, but I
would guess it would probably be
similar.
Scroll back up and click on um back to
occupation list
and then back to majors again. So now
we’re in that categories section. Scroll
all the way to the top and click on
suggested majors.
Yeah, that one.
Look at the slider. It’s really small.
You’re on A. based on a going through
this list is going to drive you
completely bonkers. Instead of doing
that, go to the sub list and go what’s
what’s in architecture, what’s in
business, what’s in communications. I
think I might be interested in that. And
then you can look at the uh the
different subcategories there.
Um let’s look at bio uh biological
biomedical sciences
like almost everything.
Yeah. So maybe engineering, maybe
something biology related.
So homework,
did you like biology?
It was fun. It was fun.
Okay.
So homework is to go through this this
section and uh save a handful of
occupations, save a handful of majors.
Okay.
Um
can I add one more thing onto that
homework list if that’s all right?
Quite a lot. No. Well, you’re still on
summer break. So, the last thing is just
short uh just a quick email reaching
back out to those teachers and your
guidance counselor from your other
school. And I would include that resume,
too, if uh just so they can remember who
you are for the letters of wreck, too.
That’d be great.
Right.
Yeah.
So, um I want to give you a little bit of time to finish up the focus two stuff and schedule a follow-up meeting.