Career Planning For You (page 1 of 2)	
Career Planning For You	
Courage
Creativity
Decide
Duty
Enjoyment
Experiment
Expert
Excitement
Fame
Fast Pace
Flexible
Friendship Freedom
Fun
Justice
Helpful
High Tech
Hobby
Humor
Independent
Intellectual
Imagine
Impact
Improve Independence
Influence
Inspire
Invent
Leadership
Learning
Location
Peaceful
Physical
Power
Precision
Professional Religious
Respected
Risk taking
Secure
Support
Spiritual
Teamwork
Travel
Variety
Win
Wisdom
Worthy	
Career planning is a process. You need to think about your personality, skills, explore jobs available, then 
decide which job is for you.  Career planning puts you in the driver’s seat for your career road.  Career 
planning will increase your work happiness and success.  Career planning
 starts with thinking!   There 
are no right or wrong answers to the following "think" questions.   Questions are about you: your 
skills, personality, and opinions.  Answering the questions will help find a job that will bring you success.
1.  Thinking About My Values
Write down 5 words from the list below that are important to you.  
Use notebook paper for your answer sheet.  For each  of the 5 words you 
selected, explain:  
a) What does the word mean to you?   b) Why is the word important to you. 
 
Advancement
Adventure 
Artistic
Balanced
Beauty
Belong
Build
Casual
Challenge
Coach
Community
Control
2.  Thinking About My Interests
Interests are activities that you like to spend time doing.  Interests i
nclude: solving problems, reading, 
sports, gardening, helping people, exercising, building and fixing things, working with 
machinery and tools; selling ideas or things, working with facts and figures, designing, 
traveling, visiting people, playing video games, talking to friends, and
 many others.   
  a)   On your answer sheet, list 5 activities that you like to do.  
  b)   Explain why you like to do each activity.
3.  Thinking About My Talents
Talents are skills that come natural to you.  Talents are often called "your gifts."  
What natural talents do you have?  Examples include: athletic, mechanica
l, gardening, good listener, 
good learner (subject area?), good writer, artistic, musical abilities (sing, play instrument, write music?), 
helpfulness, good at organizing, friendliness, calm under pressure, good with animals, quick th
inker, 
capable with hands, creative thinker, natural leader, organizer, team worker, and others.
  a)   On your answer sheet, write down 3 talents that you have.  
  
  b)   For each talent:  Give one example of how your talent can be used
    in a job or career.

4.  Thinking About My Traits
Traits describe your personality.  Read the list of personality trait words.
  a)   On your answer sheet, list 5 words that match your personality.  
	 b)		 Using	your 	opinion,	write	down	a	definition	for 	each	of	the	5	words.
Academic
Active
Adventurous
Accurate
Athletic
Businesslike
Calm
Capable
Careful
Caring
Charming
Cheerful	
Career Planning For You (page 2 of 2)	
Clever
Collector
Compassionate
Competitive
Cooperative
Courage
Counselor
Crafter
Creative
Curious
Designer
Dramatic Energy
Exciting
Fair
Faithful
Focused
Forgiving
Friendly
Generous
Genuine
Hard working
Helper
Honest High Tech
Humor
Idea Person
Imaginative
Independent
Kind
Leader
Logical
Loyal
Neat
Organized
Patient	
College & Career Publishing. Permission to use with usworkworld.com subscription.   
 
5.  Thinking About My Skills & Future Education
Skills are things you learned to do.  Skills include woodworking, peer c
ounseling, cooking, computer and 
technical skills, typing, writing, photography, public speaking, club leadership, writing, sports teamwork, 
sports leadership, inventing, fixing, building, crafting, and others.  On a piece of paper:
 
  a)   List the skills you now have.  Be complete!
  b)   List 3 skills you would enjoy to learn or to improve.
  c)   What level of education do you now have?
  d)  What level of education would you like to complete in the future?
    (No college?  One year college?  Two years college?  More?)
 
6.  Thinking About Jobs
  Look over your answers to this lesson.  Put on your thinking cap.  
  Think of the world around you and all the jobs the world has to offer.  
  a)   Use your opinion to list 5 jobs that may use your values,
    interests, talents, traits, skills, and future education goals.
7.  Researching Careers
To research careers:  1) TALK TO PEOPLE you see that are doing an interesting 
job.  2) ASK TEACHERS IN YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECTS about careers in that 
subject area.  3) Use Google or other internet search engine to find professional 
groups (such as American Nursing Association). EMAIL OR CALL A PROFESSIONAL GROUP to 
ask questions about the career area.  4) CALL COLLEGE COUNSELORS to ask for a list of careers 
related to a major that you like.  5) VISIT INTERNET SITES TO READ ABOUT JOBS -- 
  a) www.bls.gov/ooh -  b) www.mynextmove.org -  c) www.careeronestop.org 
 
  a)   List 5 ways that you can research careers during the next year.
  b)   List 3 internet sites you may visit today to research careers.	
Peaceful
Persuasive
Positive
Protective
Punctual
Quick
Quiet
Relaxed
Reliable
Responsible
Self-Starter
Sensitive Serious
Sharing
Skillful
Social
Strong
Supporting
Sympathetic
Technical
Thinker
Trusting
Wise
Witty