Assessment: Career Exploration Project

The Career Exploration Worksheet is worth 25 points.

Deciding on a major/career path involves understanding your interests, skills, and values, and what motivates you.  Please complete the assessment below (click on the links).

Step 1: COMPLETE THE WIZARD INTEREST ASSESSMENT

Instructions:

  • Visit www.vawizard.org  (or go to your NovaConnect [My Nova] account and click on “Virginia Education Wizard” there) & set up a User Account.
    • If you are a VA community college student, you are already registered on the site, and can use your school log in information.
    • If you are not a VA community college student, you will need Create an Account as your first step.
  • From the home page, Click on “Careers” and then “Interest Assessment.”
  • Read directions for “Interest Assessment”; Click on “Start Assessment” button and complete the assessment.
  • Once complete, your results will indicate a primary and secondary code from the following (R=Realistic I=Investigative A=Artistic S-Social E=Enterprising C=Conventional).
  • Review “Holland Code Career Models,” which explains what your letter results mean.

Print out your Career Interest Assessment Results, or Save the file on your Computer where you can access it again easily.  This information will assist you with completing the career exploration worksheet.

 

Step 2: Complete the Occupational Exploration Worksheet

(This can be downloaded as a Word doc by clicking here.)

OCCUPATIONAL EXPLORATION WORKSHEET

  1. View your FULL PROFILE of the VAWizard Assessment results. Look under Career Interest Assessments, and look at your Career Interests. There will be a Primary and Secondary Interest from the following list: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C).

What is your Primary Interest? _______________________

What is your Secondary Interest? _____________________

  1. Select your Primary Interest, and choose an occupation from the generated list that is closest to your long-term career goal. Save this occupation to your profile. (If none of these occupations interest you, review the Secondary Interest occupation list or choose another occupation under the Careers by Name section that interests you.) If none of the occupations interest you, choose your own to research.

What is your Occupational Choice? _____________________________

  1. Review The Wizard career information for your career choice of interest. Please use the following resources for your occupational research:
    1. Virginia View: http://www.vaview.vt.edu (For Virginia only. Click on “Career Search” or search using the search bar
    2. Occupational Outlook Handbook: http://www.bls.gov/oco (Type in the occupation title you are interested in researching in the search bar)
    3. America’s Career InfoNet: http://www.acinet.org/acinet/default.htm (Click on “Occupation Information”)
    4. O’NET: http://online.onetcenter.org (Click on “Find Occupations”)
  2.  After reviewing at least one website’s information, answer the following questions about the career. PLEASE CITE YOUR SOURCE(S):What Education, Training, and/or Certifications are needed to enter this occupation? (Associate Degree? Bachelor’s degree? Master’s Degree? Licensure?) What is the Salary Range (lowest to highest)? What is the Median or Average Salary?What is the Employment Outlook? (Average growth? Faster than Average? etc..)What is the Nature of Work?  Describe Specific Tasks Involved in this Occupation. (Is it people, data, things, or ideas related?)

    Describe the Working Conditions (e.g., responsibilities, sitting at desk/office, outdoors, public contact, etc…)

    What do you find appealing about this occupation? Any drawbacks? How does it relate to your key work values and skills?

  3. What college major or program will you need to pursue this occupation/career? What steps will you need to take in order to achieve your career goal(s)?
  4. After researching this occupation, do you think this career path is still an option as a long-term career goal? Why or why not?
  5. Please list a potential transfer institution, and a link to the requirements for your chosen degree at your transfer institution.