Have you thought about what you want to do when you enter the work force? Do you have any plans? You may be unsure about the future as far as work is concerned. You may know you want to be on your own, make your own decisions, earn your own money, and live as adults live. However, many people who are faced with making career decisions seldom know what they want to "be," and they're frequently confused and uncertain.

Some may say, "Oh, I'll get a job somewhere. I'll just take whatever comes along." And some people actually do find their dream job that way. However, most people are not that lucky. They find themselves in jobs they dislike, working for employers they don't like or don't respect. For those people who have made poor career choices, the most important thing is to learn from their mistakes and use the knowledge to make better choices in the future.

A person's life is full of things he or she cannot control. For example, you didn't choose when you were born, who your parents are, or whether or not it's going to rain today. You do, however, have a lot to say about how you spend your work life. You don't have to take whatever comes along. You can find work that suits you, that interests you, and that will provide you with the necessary financial rewards you want. Knowing who you are, what's important to you, what you like, and what you do well will help you identify careers which may interest you.

For the following activity, you will need to have completed the Assessment Booklet.

Go to the ASSESSMENT BOOKLET and complete the OCCUPATIONS assessments NOW.

This results of this activity will be used again at the end of this unit.

Look only at the Like column for each of the six sections and at the Total boxes in each section. Which of the six sections have the highest totals? The higher the total for a particular group, the higher your interest probably is for the jobs in that group.

Now go through all of the occupations you indicated in the Like column and select the five occupations that most interest you from the entire assessment. You may end up choosing all five from one group. If you're having difficulty selecting only five, think about how your values, interests, and skills would be used in that job. If they wouldn't be used or reflected, you may not want to select them.

After you've selected five, enter them in the blanks provided. You will revisit these occupations later in the unit. This is a required activity and is graded as complete/not complete.  Copy and paste this assignment onto a Word document before your complete it.  Remember to use the “Track Changes” tool.

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