Ask a student what they would like to be when they grow up and you often get a quizzical look along the lines of “How should I know since I have never had a job?” The interactive tools below help you circumvent this by having students identify their skill preferences in jobs which will lead to a list of jobs that match these preferences. A second step in this activity helps students identify jobs that require skills similar to the ones they selected in step one. Taking this skills-based approach to career choices will expand how students think about their options.

Great interactive (Tool #1) from The Upshot at New York Times that maps careers based on the skills emphasized. Here’s a static view of their skill mapping (note: When you go to the site and move your cursor over the jobs, you will be able to get additional info):

How to read this chart:

• Using Airline Pilot, which is on the lower left of the chart: Based on where it is listed on the graph, it is a role that requires a great emphasis on operating machines and processes (i.e., a Boeing 747) as well as communication and critical thinking (I want my pilot to be great on both of these dimensions!).

There is another interactive tool (Tool #2) in the same article that allows users to enter a specific job and get information about other jobs that require a similar skill set. This will provide students with a range of opportunities that they often wouldn’t come up with if they are focused on jobs rather than skills. For example, when I entered “Secondary School Teacher” into the tool, here was the output:

How to use with your class:

• Ask students to rate their preferences for the following criteria:
  • Are you more interested in clerical/service work or working with machines/processes?
  • Are you more interested in jobs that require physical work or ones that emphasize communication and critical thinking skills?
• Once they have made their selections, they can hone in one of the four quadrants in Interactive Tool #1 above:
  • For example, if they choose clerical/service work that requires communication and critical thinking skills, that would put them in the upper left quadrant.
  • They can then identify 2-3 jobs that they might be interested in that fall in that quadrant and scroll over the job to get information on:
    • Number of workers in that job
    • Median wage in 2016
• The next step would be to input those 2-3 jobs into the Interactive Tool #2 that displays the 10 jobs that are most similar to the one they entered.
  • Have students list 2-3 jobs from this list that they would like to do further research

Look for a more organized activity from us in the future using these tools.

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Want a creative exercise to help students realize that failure is part of the learning process? Try this NGPF Activity: Create A CV of Failure.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.