This document provides information about planning a career, including defining key terms like career, occupation, and job. It outlines a 5-step process for career planning: 1) look at career trends and future job needs, 2) assess your interests and values, 3) explore career options, 4) create a career plan, and 5) get hired or volunteer. It also discusses factors that influence career trends like unemployment rates, demand for goods and services, recessions/depressions, and world events. Major employment trends highlighted include growth in service jobs and technology-impacted careers requiring more education.

1. PLANNING A CAREER
Occ Prep II

2. Career
 A career is a chosen field of work in which you
try to advance over time.

3. Occupation
 An occupation is another term for career

4. Job & Employment
 A job is any activity done in exchange for
money.
 Another word for job is employment
 A job application is a form that a worker fills
out

5. How to Plan a Career
Why do we need to plan a career?

6. Step 1
 Look at the big picture
 What jobs are the fastest growing?
 What kind of education and training will workers
need for these jobs?

7. Step 2
 Ask yourself questions about your talents and
the way you want to live.
 What are your talents and interests?

8. Step 3
 Explore different careers
 Why?
 To make sure you are finding
what you want to work
at day after day

9. Step 4
 Create a plan for your career

10. Step 5
 Get hired or volunteer

11. Looking at Career Trends
 A trend is a direction in which something is
going.
 What affects those trends?

12. Unemployment
 What is unemployment rate?
 The percentage, or fraction, of unemployed
people in the labor force looking for jobs.
 Labor force is all the people looking for jobs.
 If the rate is high, then the economy is not doing
well.

13. The Demand for Goods &
Services
 Goods are things you can see, touch, buy and
sell. Such as: clothing, food items
 Services are types of work that a person does for
others, usually for money. Such as: salespeople,
doctors, hair stylists
EXAMPLE: New products
that use the latest
technologies are very
popular today –
i.e. cell phones, plasma tvs

14. Recession vs. Depression
 A recession is a slowdown in the economy
where unemployment occurs lasting 6 months
or more
 A depression is a long, severe recession.

15. World Events
 World events can affect the production of
goods and unemployment rates in the U.S.

16. Major Employment Trends
 More demand to produce services than to
produce goods.
 Forexample: the greatest number of jobs will be
in service occupations such as:
 Dental Assistants
 Insurance salespeople
 Fast-food workers
 Gas, Electric & Water workers

17. Major Employment Trends
 Technology is continuing to change the
workplace
 Some of the fastest growing occupations today
are computer related. Usually called Information
Technology.
 Some examples:
 Emergency medical technicians
 Medical Records technicians

18. Workers need to be better
educated.
Lifetime Earnings by Education Level
Less than…
High School
Some College
College Degree
0 2000000 4000000
Earnings in Millions of dollars

19. Get Started on your career
search!