1. Understand your interests, abilities, values, and personality.
- What do you enjoy doing and do well? What are your hobbies? Your favorite school subjects?
- What features do you like and dislike in your work, household chores, and volunteer work?
Need help in understanding yourself in relation to career preferences? See your high school counselor or CFCC career counselor.
2. Explore different careers.
- What occupations sound exciting to you?
- Can you find someone in the community with a similar occupation and talk with them?
- Ask yourself, “Would you like to be doing this job all day?”
- Why not explore careers by working at temporary services, internships and co-ops? Need more information about careers? Search for books, videos, information on a computer, and visit school career centers.
3. Learn about education and training for occupations of interest.
- How much school is required for these careers? One, two, or four years?
- Where are these schools and how much will this training cost?
Need to examine your options? Talk to your high school counselor or CFCC counselor.
People? Data? Things? Ideas?
Occupations are classified into categories– people, data, things, and ideas. Do you see yourself working with people? With data? With things? With ideas? Or a combination of these categories?
People-Related Occupations
Do you enjoy working with and for other people–educating, counseling, and informing? Are you friendly and like to help others? Examples of people-related occupations are daycare workers, teachers, sales representatives, police officers, social workers, psychologists, recreation workers, and counselors.
Data-Related Occupations
Do you like to explore ideas and analyze data? Do you have abilities in math and science? Are you curious and often like to work independently? Examples of data-related occupations are accounting/office clerks, paralegals, engineers, medical transcriptionists, and lab techs.
Things or “Hands-On” Related Occupations
Do you like working with your hands to build or produce things? Are you mechanically inclined and enjoy working outside and on machinery? “Hands-on ” occupations are machinists, electricians, truck drivers, chefs, builders, auto mechanics, and welders.
Idea-Related Occupations
Are you creative? Do you enjoy the performing and visual arts? Are you always thinking of new ideas and innovations?
Idea-related occupations include interior designers, artists, musicians, computer programmers, architects, and chemists.
You can have occupations that combine categories such as people/data (radiologic technologists, pharmacy technicians, dental assistants, and nurses) or data/”hands-on” (marine science technicians, drafter, engineering and computer systems technicians).
*North Carolina State Occupational Informational Coordinating Committee. “Career Choices in North Carolina,” No. 13, 1996-1997.
