Week 5

Part 1
Commit yourself to finding a career that's appropriate to your interests, personality, and values. The first step in career planning is self-assessment, which helps you examine who you are and what you know about yourself.According to John Holland's theory, most people in our culture are one of six personality types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. People of the same personality tend to flock together. For example, artistic people easily make friends with and work well with other artistic people. When people of the same personality type work together, they create an environment that fits their type. For example, when artistic persons are together on a job, they create a work environment that rewards creative thinking and behavior — an artistic environment. A. Click Career Key for a survey to determine your interests and to match them to the six personality types called Holland Codes. Begin by logging on to the gacollege411 website. If you do not have an account, you will need to create one before taking the survey. At the bottom of the Career Key page, select “Begin the Career Key”. Keep this website open so you can return to it later. B. Record your scores at the top of page 3 of the Holland's Six Personality Traits. Keep this document open so that you can continue adding to it.
Part 2
People who choose to work in an environment similar to their personality type are more likely to be successful and satisfied with their jobs: For example, artistic persons are more likely to be successful and satisfied if they choose a job that has an artistic environment, such as choosing to be a dance teacher in a dancing school, an environment dominated by artistic people where creative abilities and expression are highly valued. This combination creates a productive and satisfying environment. A. Now that you have completed the survey, read pages 1 and 2 of the Holland's Six Personality Traits to learn more about your personality type. B. The Student-Career Matching Assistant will use your Holland Codes to link careers to your interests and personality. On the gacollege 411 website, start the "Student-Career Matching Assistant". You will see your Holland codes and interests already populated. Select and "Industry Focus" and view the matching careers. Review the careers generated and see if they are truly of interest to you. Record your "Industry Focus" and top three career choices on page 3 of the Holland's Six Personality Traits. Repeat this process two more times. In the end you will have 9 possible career choices listed.
Part 3
Now that you have assessed yourself, it is time to explore your career options. A wide variety of information about industries and occupations is available. Exploring several industries and occupations will help you to discover the options that most interest you. A. Return to the gacollege411 website. From your list of nine possible careers, choose your top three. On the Career Key page, choose the "List of Careers" tab on the left. Select one of the careers you are interested in. You are now going to investigate the occupation descriptions, worker characteristics, entry-level education and training requirements, work environment, physical demands, and related occupations. B. Complete page 4 of the Holland's Six Personality Traits with your first career choice. C. Complete page 5 of the Holland's Six Personality Traits with your second career choice. D. Complete page 6 of the Holland's Six Personlity Traits with your third career choice.
E. Save your completed document into your My Documents by selecting "Save As". Name this "Week 5 - Career Explortaion". F. Notify your advisor when you have completed every part of this assignment.
Part 4
I. Write a two paragraph blog post that discusses your experiences thus far at your service learning placement. Be sure to write using complete sentences, proper capitalization, and proper grammar. You may want to include some of the following in your journal:
-Does your personality type you discovered today in the survey agree with the type of work you are doing in your internship/service learning?
-Knowing your personality, do you think you will have any challenges in the career you want to pursue?
-Discuss any positive experiences you've had in the last week.
-Discuss any negative experiences you've had in the last week.
-What do you look forward to in the coming weeks?
-A picture or visual that relates to your service learning.
II. Give your post an appropriate title.
III. Be sure to proof read your work before publishing your post.
IV. Notify your adviser when you have published your service learning weekly journal blog post.

Page 1 - Holland's Six Personality Types According to John Holland's theory, most people are one of six personality types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. The characteristics of each of these are described below:
Realistic
Enjoys working with animals, tools, or machines
Generally avoids social activities such as teaching, healing, and informing others
Is skillful when working with tools, mechanical or electrical drawings, machines, or plants and animals
Values practical things you can see, touch, and use, such as plants and animals, tools, equipment, or machines
Sees self as practical, mechanical, and realistic
Investigative
Enjoys studying and solving math or science problems
Generally avoids leading, selling, or persuading people
Is good at understanding and solving science and math problems
Values science
Sees self as precise, scientific, and intellectual
Artistic
Enjoys creative activities such as art, drama, crafts, dance, music, or creative writing
Generally avoids highly ordered or repetitive activities
Has good artistic abilities in creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art
Values creative arts such as drama, music, art, or the works of creative writers
Sees self as expressive, original, and independent
Social
Enjoys doing things to help people such as teaching, nursing, giving first aid, or providing information
Generally avoids using machines, tools, or animals to achieve a goal
Is good at teaching, counseling, nursing, or giving information
Values helping people and solving social problems
Sees self as helpful, friendly, and trustworthy
Enterprising
Enjoys leading and persuading people, and selling products and ideas
Generally avoids activities that require careful observation and scientific, analytical thinking
Is good at leading people and selling things or ideas
Values success in politics, leadership, or business
Sees self as energetic, ambitious, and sociable
Conventional
Enjoys working with numbers, records, or machines in a set, orderly way
Generally avoids ambiguous, unstructured activities
Is good at working with written records and numbers in a systematic, orderly way
Values success in business
Sees self as orderly, and good at following a set plan


Page 2 - RIASEC Explanation Sheet

Personality Type
How it applies to people
How it applies to work
Realistic



Realistic personalities like work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They enjoy dealing with plants, animals and real-world materials like wood, tools and machinery. They enjoy outside work. Often they do not like occupations that mainly involve doing paperwork or working closely with others.
Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical hand-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
Investigative
Investigative personalities like work activities that have to do with ideas and thinking more than with physical activity. They like to search for facts and figure out problems mentally rather than to persuade or lead people.
Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
Artistic
Artistic personalities like work activities that deal with the artistic side of things, such as forms, designs and patterns. They like self-expression in their work. They prefer settings where work can be done without following a clear set of rules.
Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression, and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Social
Social personalities like work activities that assist others and promote learning and personal development. They prefer to communicate more than to work with objects, machines or data. They like to teach, to give advice, to help or otherwise to be of service to people.
Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
Enterprising
Enterprising personalities like work activities having to do with starting up and carrying out projects, especially business ventures, They like persuading and leading people and making decisions. They like taking risks for profit. These personalities prefer action rather than thought.
Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. They sometimes require risk taking and often deal with business.
Conventional
Conventional personalities like work activities that follow set procedures and routines. They prefer working with data and details rather than with ideas. They prefer work in which there are precise standards rather than work in which you have to judge things for yourself. These personalities like working where the lines of authority are clear.
Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.







Page 3

Career Assessment Inventory

Directions: Take the Career Key Interest Inventory on the gacollege411 website and record your scores for each type below.

Realistic __6__ Investigative __0__ Artistic __7__

Social __10__ Enterprising __1__ Conventional __2__


Review the industry focus groups that are associated with your three highest-scoring types above. List below the industry focus groups that are of interest to you. Also list the specific careers within each work group that are of interest.


Industry Focus: Careers:

_________________________ _______________________

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_________________________ _______________________

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_________________________ _______________________

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Page 4
Exploring Careers

Directions: On the lines at the top of each page, record a career that is of interest to you or that you believe you have the skills to do. Research the requested information for that career so that you can evaluate whether this is truly a career you would consider pursuing.
Video available for this career: _X__ Y ___ N
Career Choice 1: ________________________

Job description: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Education/training needed: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Skills needed: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pay: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Job growth/Number of jobs: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Related jobs: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where to find more information: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________










Video available for this career: __x_ Y ___ NPage 5

Career Choice 2: ________________________

Job description: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Education/training: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Skills needed: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pay: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Job growth/Number of jobs: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Related jobs: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where to find more information: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

















Page 6

Video available for this career: __X_ Y ___ NCareer Choice 3: ________________________

Job description: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Education/training: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Skills needed: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pay: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Job growth/Number of jobs: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Related jobs: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where to find more information: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Review the careers that you researched. Rank them below in order of preference, now that you have researched more information about them.

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