| Educational Service Unit Seven

Investigate the eleven topics outlined below for your top occupational prospect.

1. Nature of the work in the occupation

2. Education, training or experience needed for the occupation

College or school courses, or training required or helpful in preparation and location, education, training and work experience
Previous work experience needed to enter the occupation
Type of on-the-job training provided by employer
Length of time required to get the necessary education , training, and work experience

3. Personal qualifications, skills, and abilities required for the occupation

Abilities, skills, or aptitudes needed to enter the occupation
Physical strength and/or demands a person should have to do the job
Personal interest a person should have (like to work with things, people, data, ideas)
Licensing, certification, or other legal requirements for employment
Special requirements necessary or helpful (know a foreign language, type 60 word a minute)

4. Earnings, salary range, benefits form a job in the occupation (note regional differences)

Beginning income earned from work in the occupation
Average income earned form work in the occupation
Top earnings from work in the occupation
Fringe benefits typically offered (retirement pensions, medical insurance, vacations, sick leave, paid education, on-the-job training)

5. Working conditions in the occupation

Physical working conditions (office, factory, inside/outside, noise level) and hazards associated with the kind of work in the occupation
Work schedule (hours, time of day or night, overtime, seasonal work
Opportunities for initiative, creativity, self-management, recognition
Equipment, supplies, tools and materials to be furnished by the worker (car, datebook, reference books)
Professional association membership or union required or suggested as a condition of employment (listed with other sources of information in the Occupational Outlook Handbook)
Dress requirements or clothing preferences of employers. Why? (suit, lab coat)
Travel requirements made necessary by the type of work in the occupation
Possible discriminatory practices experienced by workers in the occupation or professional occupations in general. See Rating America's Corporate Conscience, CPC Salary Survey or other relevant sources)

6. Location of employment

Type of work organizations in which this occupation is found (type of companies, agencies, institutions, businesses, industries that employ people in this occupation; opportunities for self-employment)
Geographical areas where the occupation is predominantly found throughout the nation, or in certain regions or cities of the country

7. Employment and advancement outlook for the occupation

Normal methods of entry into the occupation
Employment trends for the occupation on the national level (note regional differences when available)
Advancement or promotion opportunities in the occupation. Concept of career ladder - where do you start and what can you move up to? Average time it takes to get a promotion or advance to a higher position
Stability of employment in the occupation

8. Related occupations

9. Sources of your occupation information

Sources of additional information about the occupation
Where to observe someone locally in this occupation
Where to get part-time, co-op, work/study, internship, or temporary experience leading to a job in the occupation

10. Personality characteristics of typical people working in the occupation

Personality traits of people who dominate the environment of the occupation or compose a significant population in the occupation (able to work under pressure, work with accuracy, logical thinking, MBTI and Holland Type)
Average age ranges found in the occupation
Percentage of male and female workers in the occupation (see The Statistical Abstracts of the United
States or other references with relevant information)
Numbers of ethnic minority workers (i.e., blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, So. Pacific Islanders, and Alaskan Natives) in the occupation (see The Statistical Abstracts of the United States or other references with relevant information)

11. Personal satisfaction from the work in the occupation

Values expressed in or by the occupation (high income, achievement, security, independence, creativity, time for leisure or family, variety, helping others, prestige, recognition) (see SIGI+Information section)
Status of the occupation as seen by society. What do members of society like about the occupation?
What do members of society dislike about the occupation? (use your perceptions of actual values)

Educational Service Unit 7