Career Connections:
Exploring Career Clusters and Skills Information

Let Me Try It!: Part B

Directions: Now that you have had an opportunity to match 16 jobs to 16 career clusters, you are ready to begin thinking about careers that you find interesting. You will want to know what kinds of computer skills are needed for those jobs as well as other information. Follow the steps below to develop a Job Fact Sheet.

What's a Job Fact Sheet?

A Job Fact Sheet offers important information about a job. You can develop Job Fact Sheets to help you begin researching jobs you may want to consider for your future career.

Step 1:

Make a list of five to ten jobs you think you may enjoy doing in your future working career.

Step 2:

From the list of jobs you made, research three of the jobs (or however many your teacher tells you to research). You will be looking for answers to the following six questions or prompts.

You may have to do research on the Internet; if so, use the job title as a keyword.

You may have to go to your school's media center or town library. Let the media specialists or librarians know that you are looking for information about specific careers.

You may have to ask your teacher, your family members, or people in your community for help. You may be able to call the local government agency that helps people find jobs. You may also look through your phone book for companies that do the kind of thing you want to do. You may also have to develop your own way of answering some of the questions for the Job Fact Sheet.

(a) What is a good description of the job you would like to do?

(b) Which of the 16 career clusters would the job best fit, and why would it fit into that cluster best?

(c) What computer and keyboarding skills would be needed for the job? If you do not think computer and keyboarding skills are necessary for the job, how may computer and keyboarding skills help someone doing that job?

(d) What education or training is needed for the job?

(e) What salary range does this job have? Where did you find that information?

(f) What are the local job prospects for this career? That is, can you do this job where you now live? Are there a lot of openings? Few? Where did you find that information?

Step 3:

Look at the sample Job Fact Sheet below and arrange your Job Fact Sheet to look the same.

Marine Architect

Job Description:

A marine architect designs and supervises the building of marine craft, such as boats and floating workstations.

Career Cluster:

A marine architect is part of the Marine Science career cluster because a person doing this job works to develop and improve how human and marine life interact.

Computer and Keyboarding Skills:

A marine architect uses computers to help plan the designs. He/she may use a computer-drawing program called a CAD (computer-aided drawing). Spreadsheets and databases help the marine architect organize information. He/she will use a word processor and email to communicate with customers. He/she may also have designs posted on a Web site.

Education:

Bachelor's degree or Master's degree

Salary:

Beginning salary in the high 20s (in thousands of dollars per year). Well-known marine architects make several hundred thousand dollars a year. (Information from personal interview with my uncle who works for Star Boat Designs in Long Beach, California.)

Local Job Prospects:

Because I live in Woodland Hills, California, I am 30 minutes from the Pacific Ocean. Most of the boat designers are in the Long Beach area, which is about 75 miles from my home. The boat manufacturing companies do hire new people each year, but you do not start out as a marine architect. You start out doing small design jobs (like the passenger seats on the stern) and work your way up to better jobs. (Information from personal interview with my uncle who works for Star Boat Designs in Long Beach, California.)

Step 4:

When you have completed your Job Fact Sheet, check your work against the How Did I Do?: Part B

Teach Me!
Let Me Try It!: Part A
How Did I Do?: Part A
How Did I Do? Part B