The careers covered in this unit rely on analytical skills. To help you improve your analytical skills, you’ll research an analytical career and create a career flowchart. Your career flowchart will show the path you can take to reach the career and what the career might include.
Step 1: Choose a Career
Pick a career that interests you from one of the five analytical career clusters:
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Information Technology
Architecture and Construction
Business Management and Administration
Finance
To help you choose a career to be the focus of your flowchart, you could review the lessons, brainstorm with a friend, or search for a term such as “engineering careers” or “construction industry career pathways” online.
Step 2: Research the Career
Research the career. If you know someone who has this career, you might want to ask them questions!
Find the answers to these questions and record them in a word processing document:
What kind of training is needed for this career: a high school diploma, an associate degree, a bachelor’s degree, or more?
Is there a certification, exam, or other test people must pass as they are starting out on this career path?
What career pathway is this career found in?
What is a typical entry-level job for this career?
What is a typical mid-level job?
What is a typical advanced-level job?
What working conditions, salary, and benefits often come with this career?
Step 3: Create Your Flowchart
Open a new word processing document or use art supplies to create a flowchart that displays your career research. You can use the flowchart in the lesson as a model, or you can search for terms such as “basic flowchart” online.
Use the questions in Step 2 as a guide to organize your career flowchart in chronological order. Begin with schooling, and then move through testing, the career pathway, an entry-level job, a mid-level job, and an advanced-level job, and be sure to include the working conditions, salary, and benefits of the career.
Step 4: Reflect on Your Work
Open a new word processing document and answer the following questions:
Are you interested in the career cluster you researched? Why or why not?
If so, what strengths or experience do you have that would help you work in this cluster?
What can you add to your career portfolio that demonstrates your strengths related to this cluster? If any.
Step 5: Submit Your Work
Submit your research document, flowchart, and reflection. If you made your flowchart on paper, take a photo or scan of it and submit that.
