Here is the scenario: the year is 2032, and you are now about 23-24 years old. You're coming back to High Tech to visit your old school and teachers. You have gone through college, and you are several years into your career. What will you be doing? What is your dream job? That is the task of this project. You will explore what it is like to be a grown-up like like your amazing, hard working and greatly appreciated teachers and families!
OBJECTIVE The objective of this adventure is to help you find all the answers you need to map out your life for the next 10 years, from finding a career to buying a house. Its main purpose is to allow you to have fun dreaming of the future, figuring out what you need to achieve those dreams, while realizing the financial impact these dreams may create.
DP REQUIREMENTS You'll need to create a project portfolio first. It'll go on your DP to impress college recruiters in high school!
Put your thoughts on paper: The first step is to write about your thoughts before you know what you're getting into. What do you think will happen over the next 11 years? What will you be doing? It's a free-write called: When I grow up. Be as detailed as you can. (This will be the first thing you'll need to put in your digital portfolio)
2. College Terminology
Define each of the terms in your own words. Put them on your dp right after your free write.
admissions (as related to college)
major (as related to college)
minor (as related to college)
Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Arts
graduate
undergraduate
Baccalaureate
Post Baccalaureate
masters (as related to college)
doctorate (as related to college)
California high school "A-G requirements"
semester vs. quarter
GPA
SAT
ACT
3. What career suits me best?
Let's start with your dream job. Maybe you already have an idea. But is it really right for you? Not to worry. We have some tools that will help you figure that out. So if you have no clue what you want to be, then these online questionnaires will serve you well.
A. Typology - After completing this quiz, record your Personality Type on your dp. Click on Description, then find your type description and click on that to find suitable careers. Copy and paste the list of careers to your dp.
B. Career Interests- After you complete this quiz, copy and paste the category with the highest percentage onto your dp.
C. Career Aptitude Test- In each of the 4 images, pick one you like and one you don't like. Copy and paste the list of careers to your dp.
The point of taking these tests is to broaden your horizons of different career possibilities that you may have never thought about before. From the list of careers you posted, CHOOSE 3 that you're most interested in. On your DP, you will list these 3 as your TOP CHOICES and give a brief description of each.
D. O-Net Online- This is a great site to get more information about a career you may be interested in. O*NET OnLine has detailed descriptions of the world of work for use by job seekers, workforce development and HR professionals, students, researchers, and more!
Still really don't know what you want to be? Here is a very detailed quiz that takes almost an hour to complete. If you really don't know what you want to do, and you really need some extra help....give it a shot. It's not required. But it's very detailed. F. Fun Education Quiz
Even more help....if you still have no clue. G. My Future
4. Career 101
It is time to get the lowdown on the area that you have chosen for a possible career path. Follow the directions below when doing this activity. Be sure to label each topic. Step 1 Brief Synopsis of your Career Area – (examples: medicine, law, fashion design, etc.) Give a brief (3-4 sentences) description of your area.
Step 2 Possible Jobs List the jobs that are involved in the area you have chosen. Stretch yourself to come up with all the possibilities that are involved if you choose this career path. Ex. (medicine: surgeon, dermatologist, nurse, physical therapist, occupational therapist, etc.)
Step 3 Job Choice Choose one career in your career area and research the areas below. Type up your findings in bullet format. -Job duties - work schedule & vacations -Necessary skills - potential for growth -Required education - work setting -Areas you would live - benefits (medical, stock options, etc) -Starting Salary and Salary Range - opportunity to travel
So how much money do you make? Not so fast! You will be given the AVERAGE entry level salary for your profession. Life just isn't that easy.
Once you've completed all the above items, you will go to the teacher to get your salary. YOU MAY NOT PICK YOUR OWN SALARY. THE TEACHER MUST GIVE IT TO YOU.
5. College Search Step 1: Copy this worksheet to your DP College Search Worksheet Fill it out after completing steps 2-4 in this section.
Step 2: You must determine the REQUIRED MAJOR for your career of choice.
Use the "Supermatch College Search" to find a college to attend
Use the tabs under "Find Your Best Fit" section on the left to narrow down the colleges that fit your needs
Step 4: How much will it cost?
Go to the website for the college you would like to attend (Here is the website for all state schools in California http://www.calstate.edu
Find out how much tuition costs over a four year period (or length of time you will attend college)
Calculate room and board over a four year period (or length of time you will attend college)
Get the calculations for a loan because you will be paying for college yourself, mom and dad can't help for this project. Click here for the loan costs FinAid
Post your loan results on your DP under the college search worksheet
6. College Application-Fierce Wonderings-DO NOT FILL OUT THE APPLICATION
Write 2 observations you noticed while looking through the application in your DP.
Write 2 questions or wonderings you have about the college application in your DP
7. College Essay
Complete the college essay required for your school. If your school doesn't require an essay, choose from the other essays available. Post the essay with a creative title to your DP.
As you begin this part of the Dream Job project, pretend you have graduated from college, obtained your bachelor's degree and you are now setting out to obtain a job in your field.
On your resume, you must include the following (not necessarily in this order):
1. Objective (My goal is to obtain a job in __________.) 2. Accomplishments/special awards 3. Education 4. Work Experience
On a resume, you don't have to write sentences as you normally would. A good resume must include ACTION VERBS.
FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT. FORMATTING is really important when writing a resume. Your can use one of the templates for Google Docs, which will be pre-formatted for you!
You must conduct an interview with someone who already works in the field. Interviews can be
done in person
over the phone
or through email
All questions and responses must be typed up and included on your DP. You should have 8-10 interview questions. Also include your interviewee's contact information.
Bonus freakin Points: You will receive extra creditif you invite your interviewee to come to our Exhibition/POL.
We will have a Career Day on may 30th. If you want this extra credit, see if your interviewee can come on that day. Time is TBD.
10. TAXES You think you know how much money you make. But that's not how much you really get. There are State Taxes to pay, FICA, and Federal Income Tax as well. They take up a good portion of your dough, and you need to know exactly how much so you can budget your life appropriately.
Print out and complete Income Tax Bracket 2019. It details the horrifying truth about taxes. You will be required to turn in this sheet. You'll need the practice.
You will also turn in a piece of paper that shows all of the work you did to figure out your tax amount. On that paper you'll have your State Tax calculations, your federal tax calculations and your FICA calculations. Here is the format you MUST use to show your final taxes in your portfolio. FORMAT TAX SHEET FOR YOUR DP
ONCE YOUR TAXES ARE DONE, YOU CAN SPIN THE WHEEL OF LIFE!!!
11. BUDGET TEMPLATE
Time to spin the wheel of life!!!!!!
You can't figure out your budget until you know if you're married, single, have kids or even twins! You'll spin the wheel of life in class to determine your status. If you're married, your spouse makes $50,000 a year and you include that in your budget. But you'll have to do your spouse's taxes. If you are single with a child, you get $500 in child support for each child.
The next step is to set up your budget. So you'll need to know how much you spend on things like electricity, cable, phones, etc. Some good resources for this are your parents, and especially the person in the field that you'll be interviewing. Make sure to ask them what they spend on various items.
This budget template will give you an idea of all the things you need to pay for. (the completed budget will go in your portfolio)
Once you've completed your budget, the Google spreadsheet automatically makes a pie chart for you. Copy and paste the entire spreadsheet, with the pie chart onto your DP page.
12. MEAL PLANNER
One of the most misunderstood items in your budget involves food. So you will shop yourself! You need to figure out what meals you're going to eat for a week, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It needs to be healthy. You're not eating candy bars for every meal. We will go to Vons as a class and you will make your own personal daily food plan for one week. You'll need to total up the prices for each item. Once you figure out what you'll eat for a week, multiply that by 4 and you've got the amount of money you'll spend on groceries per month. Put this meal plannerlist on your dp.
13. HOUSE AND HOME INSURANCE Now that you know what you want to do, and you have your salary, you need to figure out where you're going to live and work. This will determine how much everything will cost in your life because a house in California is a lot more expensive than a house in Nebraska. You need to find your dream home! Depending on where your job is, use the links below to find a house. Remember that it needs to be where you're going to work. So you need to find where you're going to work. That means if you're a lawyer and you're working in San Diego, you need to find a law firm in San Diego that you will work at. Then find an actual house that is nearby because you'll need to drive to work. Once you've found your work address and home address go to maps.google.com After you do so, make sure to note where the house is located, and what the selling price is. Also make sure to note the URL that you used. (put a picture of it in your portfolio)
You can figure out your monthly mortgage payment using the Real Estate Calculator Assume that you will have no down payment, with a 30 year fixed loan, at a rate of 4%. (You will include this in your portfolio, including the total amount of money you will spend on the house after 30 years)
To find homeowner's insurance click on this: homeowner's insurance Find the state you live in to see the monthly costs.
14. TRANSPORTATION Did you find a house that was close enough to work that you could walk? Maybe not. If you didn't, you need a way to get to work. So that means either using a bus, subway, bike, car etc. Most people also have ideas on what type of car they would like to own. Use the links below to find your dream car. Make sure to note the price of the car. Also make sure to note the URL that you used because you'll need to put the ad on your dp.
You can find your monthly car payment using the Online Car Loan Calculator. Use an interest rate of 5.5%, The Loan Term is 5 years, sales tax is 6%. Leave everything else blank (Put this in the portfolio)
Once you find your car, you'll need to get insurance. Go here: www.carinsurance.com Scroll over the state that you live in and write down the average amount you pay for car insurance in that state per year. Remember to divide that by 12 before you put it in your budget.
You'll need to figure out how much gas you'll need to budget for by using maps.google.com to find out how far it is from your job to your home. Then you can figure out your mileage per day. The easy way to do this is to go to www.fueleconomy.gov. Click on Find a Car in the upper left corner and fill out the info about your car. It'll then tell you how much gas you'll pay per year based on driving 15,000 miles. If you drive less based on where you work, you can personalize it. There's a box on the right that says Personalize. You click on Use your gas prices and Annual miles. Then set your own mileage and you've got yourself your gas prices. Copy the final page on your dp.
15. STOCK INTRO You've probably figured out that there's not a lot of money to go around for everything you'd like to do. So we're giving you an extra $10,000. The only catch is, you have to invest it first. For that, you'll need to learn the basics of the stock market. Whatever money you make over the course of the project, you can add to your budget. So you'll need to invest wisely and learn everything you can.
To help you with this process, here are some things you need to read about. For instance, what are stocks? How did the stock market begin? Browse through the links below to help you write a brief one page intro (typed, double spaced) about stocks to put in your portfolio. In your own words, give a general explanation of what the stock market is, focusing on these three topics:
1. What are stocks?
2. The history of the stock market. How did it begin?
16. STOCK TERMS They speak a strange language in the world of investing, and you'll need to know what they're talking about. Find out what each of the terms mean on this sheet. Use your own words to describe them. You'll be quizzed on the words later so it wouldn't be wise to just copy and paste from a site or from your friend. Use the sites below to read up about them. You can type right onto the sheet, and then print it out when you're finished. It will be included in your portfolio so you don't want it hand written.