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Career guidance books/websites for middleschoolers?


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DS11 is looking for a list of jobs that pays decently with job security, is not a stuck to a chair 8hrs a day job, and does not incur huge student loans. He is not interested in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, direct sales anyway. He know engineers family friends being retrenched and unemployed for months to a year. He is not interested in military either and is a non-citizen

I have looked at the book What color is your parachute. Anything else out there? He just wants to start exploring and shortlisting.

ETA:
Some resources
Career Ready Lesson Plans for Grades 6–12 (WA) http://www.k12.wa.us/secondaryeducation/careercollegereadiness/CareerReady.aspx
Career exploration lessons For sixth and seventh grades
http://www.learningforlife.org/wp-content/documents/Career-Exploration-Lessons-for-Sixth-and-Seventh-Grades.pdf
Planning Guides for Students (Maryland) http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/planningguides/

Holland Code Quiz (3 letter code) http://www.roguecc.edu/Counseling/HollandCodes/test.asp

Crack your Holland Code pdf http://services.vsac.org/wps/wcm/connect/81946b80404d09e7a874fe5080bf804e/Crack_Your_Holland_Code.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Salisbury U career inventories http://www.salisbury.edu/careerservices/Students/CareerInventories/

Edited by Arcadia in CA
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Some high-need/stable jobs that pay pretty well: Welder; Plumber; Electrician; Machinist; "Green" Technologies / Environmental Technician jobs; Cartographer/Photogrammetrist; IT and Computer -- repair, installation, network systems administration, analyists, cyber security, etc.

 

You might also enjoy doing a job search on the US Bureau of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook website -- you can click on pre-made searches, or you can do individualized searches and input what levels of education, on-the-job training, projected # of new jobs, projected growth rate, and median pay you are interested in. :)

 

The CA Career Zone website is also fun to explore. There are groupings of jobs by "job families" -- all have short descriptions of the job, requirements for obtaining the job, etc., and some have short videos showing more about the job. You can also match up your work interests/preferences with specific jobs by taking the "self assessment" quiz and coming up with the 3-letter "code" that allows you to search for jobs that have your top 3 interest areas as their primary focus. You can also browse by pay level of jobs.

Edited by Lori D.
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Lori,

 

He is such a generalist that the three letter code quiz fails. The three letter code fails for me and DS10 too.

 

We have not tried US Bureau of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook website's search function. He'll probably have fun times exploring.

 

Thanks.

Edited by Arcadia
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...He is such a generalist that the three letter code quiz fails. The three letter code fails for me and DS10 too.

 

I think it is VERY hard for there to be ANY accuracy for most students that young -- most are interested in so many things, and have so little real-life experience it is hard to take those tests.

 

(And for an adult like yourself, you may have so MANY interests, it's hard to narrow it down with such a short quiz -- you might get better results with an extensive Interest Inventory that you have to pay to take, if you're really interested in finding out about yourself. I would NOT recommend doing one of those paid tests with anyone under age 18-21, though, because you really DO need some real-life work experience under your belt to be able to answer the questions to get a more accurate "reading".)

 

Even if the interest assessment part is a bust for DS, there are other parts of the Career Zone website that are very useful -- looking at the specifics of occupations listed there is fun, and might be exactly what your DS is interested in doing if he's just wanting to compile a list of possible jobs. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a little more structured that what you may be looking for but for  career exploration in middle school, we use Glencoe's Exploring Careers.  The text itself is pretty basic and not as useful as it could be.  But at the end of each chapter there is a career cluster that lists a lot of different jobs in one area.  We have ds13 choose one and research its salary, education requirements, working conditions etc.  It helped ds17 figure out what he may like or may not like to do when he did it.

 

An example of a career cluster and careers:Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources - Agricultural Scientist, Aquaculturist, Deckhand,Ecologist, Farmer, Forester, Game Warden, Geologist

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This is a little more structured that what you may be looking for but for  career exploration in middle school, we use Glencoe's Exploring Careers. 

 

He actually likes structured stuff and makes his own checklists.  He is thinking of a high adrenaline/stress job with chance of high pay as a side job while having a stable decent paying job as his regular job.  So something like engineer by day and stock trader by night to give an example. He leans applied non-academia and basically wants to know what is out there as possibilities at the same time as looking at what kind of college he might like.

 

ETA:

I found two books at the library.  I'll see if my kids find them useful

 

145 Things to be when you grow up

https://www.amazon.com/Things-When-Grow-Career-Guides/dp/0375763694

Now What? The young person's guide to choosing the perfect career

https://www.amazon.com/Now-What-Persons-Choosing-Perfect/dp/0743266307

Edited by Arcadia
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