Informative Career Research Report To get the job you want, you need to have a plan. That’s the goal of this assignment: to help you develop strategies that will help you in your search for a job or internship, or to help you get accepted to graduate school. /0x4*
Audience: The academic advisor you have been assigned to in your department who has requested that you to inform him or her of your career plans in order to better advise you. If you don’t have a departmental academic advisor, address the report to the chairperson of your department.
There are four aspects of the assignment you will research:
• Trends—Employment trends and job growth projections for your field • Three different types of careers within your profession
• Networking
• Job search plan: the resources and strategies you will use to actually look for a job. If you already have a professional job and you want to stay in that field, approach this assignment from the perspective of where you want to be in five years.
Trends—Describe the projected employment trends in your prospective field and more specifically, which types of jobs are expected to have the most growth—five or even ten years from now. Research whether there are any burgeoning careers in your field. For instance, will there be new kinds of jobs/workers needed?
Types of Careers—There are many different types of jobs or academic pathways within a particular field. Research three that directly relate to your major and describe the responsibilities and qualifications needed to get each type of job or the background you need to follow particular academic pathways.
Also include the salary you can expect to earn in each field. This section is a description of the broad categories of careers/pathways you would follow in your field, not a specific job opening. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, O’Net.gov., UMBC’s Career Center, the student chapter of a professional organization, or a graduate school website are among the sources you can use. Networking—It’s a key part of any job search.
The goal of this section is to start building and expanding your network. Interview one professional—in-person, by phone or by email—who could help you get a job. Then make inquiries to two other people knowledgeable about the field. They could be actual hiring managers you met at a job fair or during an internship, or contacts who can help you get leads. Or it could be a person you would like to know. Use the information you get from your interviews/inquires the same way you would use research from an article or study. Incorporate the relevant pieces of it into your report. Don’t transcribe the entire interview and include it in the report. You would cite interviews and inquiries in the text and document them the same way you would any other source. (Some things you might ask: How did they land the job?, what are the demands of the job?, what kind of preparation will you need for it?, what is the salary?)
Go beyond the surface; ask them about the work culture. Job Search Plan— How will you go about looking for a job, in other words, your plan? Which resources or strategies will you concentrate on to look for a job? This will usually involve a combination of strategies, such as an internship with a federal agency, then applying to USA Jobs.gov., or attending career fairs and using UMBC Works. Or you might apply to an entry level corporate program and network through Linked In. Your job hunt should be focused, not random. .
To summarize, please describe: • Three types of positions or academic careers you are interested in and what they consist of. • The employment trends and growth of present and future jobs in your field. • What you learned about the field from current employees or others you interviewed. • The plan you will follow to look for a job, consisting of specific resources you will use to search for the job you want and why you think they will be effective. • Synthesize your research into a 6 to 6 ½-page, double-spaced, typewritten report
