Assignment 1A
What work or professional community do you envision yourself joining in the future? In this essay, you will have the opportunity to research your area of interest (possible major, targeted job, or potential career) and write a persuasive essay about it.
Assignment: Research a career and argue why it is, or is not, a good match for you.
- Why do you think it will be a good/bad job for you?
- Why do you think you will or will not be good at it?
- Are you interested in it?
- Do you have relevant experience or have you taken relevant classes?
- Are you interested in studying this field?
- Consider what the field requires and what experiences you have that can help explain your point.
Note: This is an unofficial summary of your assignment. Please refer to full assignment from your instructor.
Research strategy
This is a quick outline for your research. Review it.
- Then click the link for Stage 1, and follow those directions.
- Continue with Stages 2-5. (These all link to boxes below).
Stage 1: What are YOUR requirements for a career?
Stage 2: Identify a possible career/occupation to research
Stage 3: Your career--its requirements, and what it offers you
Stage 4: How well do things match up?
Stage 5: Find specialized information to support your thesis.
Stage 1: What are YOUR requirements for a career?
- Career Match TableOpen this PDF document.
Print it out. Use the Print icon in Adobe Reader for this PDF. Printing from your browser's print function may not work.
Use it to record information about your career
By the end of this stage, you will have filled out the right side of a Career Match worksheet.
Before you begin...scroll to the bottom of this Stage 1 box. Open the PDF document called Career Match Table, and print it out.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
When a company is hiring, it list its requirements in a job advertisement. The requirements are what the employer needs from the employee. This will include relevant skill & abilities, desirable attitudes, and willingness to work prescribed hours in specific working conditions.
In exchange, the employer offers a compensation package, often including wages/salary and other benefits.
As a worker, you have requirements for kind of job you are willing to take. This probably includes good wages/salary and working conditions. If the career can't offer the compensation that you require, then there is no deal. Likewise, if you can't offer the skills, abilities, etc. that the employer wants, then no deal can be made.
The central question: What does each side require and what can each site offer?
The worksheet helps you gather this information for your paper.
Ok. What do you require of your future career? And what will you have to offer?
Follow the directions below to take some self-assessments on your interests and goals.
These assessments are like tests, but they are only for your own information. Gather information from them, because they will be good evidence for your persuasive paper.
You will use the following library database: AZCIS: Arizona Career Information Service
- Note: Before you use this database, you must have a librarian set up an account for you.
- Contact us at LibChat. See the right side of the page.
- After getting your username and password, login to AZCIS.
- After logging in try at least two of the following free assessments. Click a link to begin.
- Take notes on the results. You can use them in your paper.
When you finish the assessments, go to Stage 2.
Stage 2: Identify a possible career/occupation to research
At the end of this stage, you will identify a career to research for this paper.
- Ideally, you will research a career you are interested in. Factor-in what you learned from the assessments.
- Make sure to find out the following facts:
- How is the career or occupation formally named? Are there different names for the same career?
- How does it differ from related occupations. Example: In nursing, there are RNs and LPNs. What is the difference?
You will use the following library database: AZCIS: Arizona Career Information Service
- Note: Before you use this database, you must have a librarian set up an account for you.
- Contact us at LibChat. See the right side of the page.
- After getting your username and password, login to AZCIS.
- Then you can use the following links.
You have already used AZCIS in Stage 1, but now you have a different focus.
In this stage, use it to explore different possible careers. Browse through the listings, and compare at least two options.
Click here: Career Clusters
- Click on any cluster link. Example: Education & Training
- Click for on one of the occupations. Example: Coaches & Scouts
- Explore the sections. See the image below. Make sure to at least check out the links highlighted in yellow.
Finally, choose a career for your paper, and take some notes.
Make sure you can get back to the AZCIS web page for this career.
When you are finished, go to Stage 3.
Stage 3: Your career--its requirements, and what it offers you
Ok, it is time to nail down the facts about this career.
You already reviewed some of this material in Stage 2. But now, look a little closer at the information on your career.
- Return to AZCIS: Arizona Career Information Service
- Find the page for your career. How?
- Click on Occupations, then on Career Clusters.
- Or...use the Search box (upper right corner).
- Can fill out the the "Career" column of table shown in Stage 1?
- Can you brainstorm other requirements of your career?
- Does it have other benefits to offer?
- Take good notes! This will be your framework to build on. In stage 5, you will research requirements and benefits using more specialized sources.
When you are finished, got to Stage 4.
Stage 4: How well do things match up?
At the end of this stage, you will have assessed your career match, based on the information you have so far. You will also identify what kinds of additional information your need to support your thesis.
Remember: Depending upon how well things match up, your thesis may be that this career is not a good match for you.
Look at the paper Career Match Table that you filled out.
Start with the Career's requirements. Match these with what You can offer.
- How many of these do you meet now?
- After you get your college degree, how many of them can you meet?
- Are there requirements that you still won't meet? Can you do anything to meet them?
- Based on this assessment, does this look like a good career match for you?
Next, look at your requirments for a career. Match these with what the career can offer you.
- How well does the career's benefits meet your requirements?
- Based on this assessment, does this look like a good career match for you?
So far, your assessment is only based upon information from AZCIS and from own knowledge. What additional information do you need for your paper?
- Do you need more information about college degrees, costs, and timelines?
- Do you need information on your career for the part of the country where you want to live?
- Do you need to "get a reality check" on some information given in AZCIS
- ?What else can you think of?
Developing a thesis and sketching out your argument
- What is your provisional thesis? Is this career a good one for you, or not?
- Why is that your conclusion? What are the strongest arguments?
Go to Stage 5 below.
Stage 5: Find specialized information to support your thesis.
By the end of the stage, you will have found sources to support specific points in your argument.
Click here for a hidden tab for MegaSearch.
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