Career Planning

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Lesson 1 Exercises

Please be sure to save this document to your computer. You will submit it for grading at the end of
the lesson. Exercises are graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. See online course for scoring criteria.

Exercise 1.1 Set Your Goals for the Course

For items 1–4, you will use your responses to the first three questions to identify three goals you wish
to accomplish by the end of this course (item 4).

1. Why are you taking this course?

2. What do you expect to gain from this course?

3. What are your current plans for after high school?

4. Now use your responses to the questions above to write two or three goals you wish to
accomplish by the end of this course. If you want to, you can write one thinking goal (I want to
know/learn…), one behaving goal (I want to do…), and one feeling goal (I want to feel…)

Goal A:

Goal B:

Goal C:
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Lesson 1 Exercises

Exercise 1.2 Take the Self-Directed Search (SDS)

I have taken the Self-Directed Search and saved my results.

Exercise 1.3 Explore Your SDS Results

For items 5-10, use the report you received from the Self-Directed Search you took online to answer
the questions.

5. Write your three-letter code.

6. In your own words, summarize the qualities that describe each letter of the code (RIASEC) and
explain how well each matches your abilities and interests.

R
I
A
S
E
C

7. From highest to lowest, write down each letter code and the corresponding number of items
you selected on the SDS related to that area. For example, if the highest number fell under S for
Social, your first row would have “S” followed by the number.

Code (Highest to Lowest) Number of Related Items Selected in SDS

8. How have your overall impressions of your results changed after completing this exercise?

For items 9–11, use the questions below to reflect on the patterns you see.

9. Are all your scores low numbers? If so, you might benefit from trying out new activities in order
to learn more about what truly interests you, what main skills you might have, and what your
deeper values are.
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Lesson 1 Exercises

10. Are all your scores high numbers, or are all your scores similar? If so, you might benefit from
trying to narrow your interests, skills, and abilities to two or three top areas. No one occupation
matches all six codes, so narrowing your interests can help you make good decisions about your
career options.

11. Is there a wide range from high to low? If your top scores are 8 or more points higher than your
bottom scores, this indicates that you have clearly defined areas of interests and abilities, and
your SDS results may reflect categories of jobs and values that will actually appeal to you.

Exercise 1.4 Brainstorming for Your Career Narrative

Complete both of the brainstorming activities for this lesson. At the end of the lesson, you’ll submit
this document and both of your brainstorming activities.

I completed Brainstorming Activity 1.

I completed Brainstorming Activity 2.

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Lesson 1 Exercises

Exercise 1.5 Write the First Draft of Your Career Narrative

12. Use the following space to type in your first draft of your narrative. The narrative should be
about 250–350 words and answer the question below.

Where do you hope to be, and what do you hope to be doing five years from now?
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Lesson 1 Exercises

Exercise 1.6 Identifying Your Career Themes

13. Write down three possible themes from your career narrative and examples taken from your
narrative that reflect this theme. Some parts of your story might have more than one theme.
Remember, this is an ongoing process. There are no right or wrong answers, and just as your
narrative will change over time, so will your themes. You might also share your story with
friends or family. Ask them what patterns, or themes, they see in the story you’ve told. You can
write these themes in the second column. Your course grader will also give you feedback on the
themes that he or she sees in your career story draft.

Theme 1: Theme identified by

family/friends

Examples from narrative:

Theme 2:

Examples from narrative:

Theme 3:

Examples from narrative:

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Lesson 1 Exercises