Personal Interests and Career Traits
Sherryl Wolff Jennifer Hemmesch
Professional School Counselor MSUM Intern 2001-2002
Mankato West High School Mankato West High School
Mankato Minnesota Mankato Minnesota
Description of the Lesson:
Personal Interests and Career Traits is a series of two classroom guidance lessons that were developed by Harold Adams at William P. Lord High School in Woodburn, OR. The lessons are intended for high school students in grades 10 Ð 12. The lessons allow the students to get to know you and other students in the class, find common and different interests among their fellow classmates, and identify personal strengths and interests and match them to a career and its related skills.
Goals:
Students will develop an awareness of their personal interests and relate them to career traits. The students will match their traits to various jobs to help them see beyond their immediate future. Students will be better prepared to make career choices if they are aware of their personal interests and strengths. These exercises can build student self-esteem, identify strengths, and predict future skills. This unit provides an opportunity for you to introduce yourself and to get to know the students. If students have difficulty reading the materials, have them work with a partner. You should always draw on your own experiences to promote better understanding. Model the way the activities should be done before the students start.
Materials:
Activities and Procedures:
Discuss with the class the fact that this unit is designed to increase their personal skills awareness. Students need to realize that different skills are needed for various jobs. This exercise will introduce them to a variety of different jobs as they get to know the teacher and one another better.
STEP ONE:
Introduce yourself and have a student tape to your back one of the magazine pictures that you have collected. (Make sure that you collect pictures that will easily identify careers. Ask the students one by one to stand up and introduce themselves. As they do, tape a picture to each studentÕs back. Everyone needs to keep the pictures secret.
STEP TWO:
Explain to the students that they will try to guess the career pictured on their back by asking others yes/no questions such as:
- Do you need a college education?
- Does it require strong reading and or math skills?
- Do you work with other people?
- Do you need computer skills?
- Does the job require physical strength?
If further clues are needed, give them by stating what skills are necessary to the career, without naming it: For example:
- You would need to read to do this job.
- Typing skills are a must if you do this job.
Students remove the pictures as they correctly guess the career:
Explain to the students that one way people choose a career is based on their personal interests. The goal of this activity is to find out each otherÕs interests.
STEP ONE:
Have the students identify their personal interests by completing a Personal Interests Inventory. You can use any type of interest inventory. There are many on the internet that may be used and also many schools use them in other areas. Students will then circulate through the room getting signatures for their ÒFind Someone WhoÉÓ sheet. (See worksheet)
STEP TWO:
After the activity is finished, hold a discussion about their findings and point out common different group interests.
Personal Interests and Career Traits directly relates to Minnesota Graduation Standard Numbers 7 and 10 (Career Development and Decision-Making Skills). The Guess the Career activity allows the students to explore careers that they may not be familiar with. They can also find out what qualifications are needed for specific jobs. The students also can make decisions based on their interests and abilities.
The two activities in Personal Interests and Career Traits are reflective of the Educational and Career Developmental domains of the Minnesota School CounselorsÕ Model of Developmental Guidance and Counseling. The lessons attach themselves to the Educational domain through the students learning more about themselves to make future choices in planning. The students also learn to get know more about other students in their grade. The lessons relate to the Career development domain by allowing the students to learn about careers that they may be unfamiliar with and what qualifications may be needed for those careers.
Additionally, the activities can be related to the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee Standards for high school the development of Educational and Occupational Exploration and Career Planning. The activities allow the students to explore careers and learn if their interests and abilities are congruent with jobs they think they may enjoy.
References and Resources:
http://www.col-ed.org/cur/misc/misc72.txt
Find Someone WhoÉ
Circulate through the room and ask classmates if they have any of the interests listed below. When you find a match, have your classmate sign the blank next to the statement. Make sure all students in the class are represented, although not all blanks need to be filled. You can have more than one signature on a line, but the object of the activity is to discover the wide variety of interest among your classmates.
Speaks another language______________________________________________
Plays a musical instrument____________________________________________
Is good at sports____________________________________________________
Is interested in science_______________________________________________
Likes to tinker with anything mechanical_________________________________
Enjoys working with animals__________________________________________
Is interested in aviation_______________________________________________
Likes performing in public____________________________________________
Seems to be able to teach others________________________________________
Has artistic ability___________________________________________________
Enjoys helping others________________________________________________
Is interested in math_________________________________________________
Reads and writes well________________________________________________
Likes constructing or building things____________________________________
Likes or would like to travel___________________________________________
Likes to debate issues________________________________________________
Likes to sing_______________________________________________________
Enjoys working with money___________________________________________
Likes working with computers_________________________________________
Types well_________________________________________________________
Is good at growing plants_____________________________________________
Is a good salesperson________________________________________________
Likes talking to people_______________________________________________
Gets along well with others____________________________________________
Likes to organize things______________________________________________
Wants to go to college/trade school_____________________________________
Wants to join the military service_______________________________________
Would like to be on TV or radio________________________________________
Likes history_______________________________________________________
Prefers the out-of-doors______________________________________________
Enjoys working alone________________________________________________
Likes talking on the telephone_________________________________________
Enjoys personal grooming and clothing__________________________________
Is concerned about the environment_____________________________________