Career Path Memo

Activity 15.5 | Choosing a Career Path

Many people know amazingly little about the work done in various occupations and the training requirements. The website maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), can be an excellent career exploration tool. One resource is their online Occupational Outlook Handbook, which can help you learn all about the occupations you find interesting. You can read about the nature of the work, education and training requirements, advancement opportunities, employment, salary, and ten-year job outlook for hundreds of occupations.

The Handbook also lists related occupations and sources of additional information.

For this assignment, you will use the online Occupational Outlook Handbook to learn more about an occupation, research salary information, and present your findings in an Informational Memo Report to me (your instructor).

1. You need to get your information from the online Occupational Outlook Handbook accessible from the following web address: http://www.bls.gov/OCO

2. Read about occupations you find interesting.

3. Find the description of a position for which you could apply either now or at sometime within the next 2-4 years.

4. Use any word processing or text editing software to compose a brief summary of your research of your chosen occupation.

5. Format your summary as an informational Memo Report to me. Your Memo Report must include the following topics:

a. Job description

b. Typical duties

c. Typical work environment (work setting, schedule, etc.)

d. Entry-level qualifications (education, certification, skills, etc.)

e. 2015 median annual wages

f. Job outlook (expected growth or decline). INCLUDE at least TWO of the FACTORS affecting the employment change.

g. Other recommended resources (name, description, and web address of at least two other sources of information)

6. Visit the CareerOnestop.com website at http://www.careeronestop.org/ and use their Salary Finder to find the salary for the same chosen occupation/position.

 Use your current geographic area or the location where you would like to work after graduation.

7. Repeat the process using the Salary.com website at http://www.salary.com

8. Add a section for Current Reported Salary to your informational Memo Report and compose a brief summary of the information you learned in steps 6 and 7.

9. Your Memo Report must demonstrate the following:

a. Correct margins and document structure for a Memo Report, as described in the text.

b. Correct headings for a Memo Report, as described in the text

c. Appropriate strategy and organizational plan for an informational report, as described in the text.

d. Contain information on each of the 8 topics listed in steps 5 and 8.

10.Review and proof your summary; check your spelling and grammar.