Summary
This resource serves as a guide for educators who are interested in facilitating a Career Talk for their students. The facilitator will begin by inviting a guest speaker and end by facilitating the Career Talk, Q&A, and discussion activities with students. During a Career Talk learning experience, students will investigate a career, listen to a guest speaker and then reflect on how what they learned may influence their future plans. Career Talks, which are similar to the K20 Center’s Career Cafe or Zoom Into Your Career events, enable students to make real-world connections between their interests, academic content, and professional career goals. These learning experiences also create opportunities for students to meet professionals in industries they may not otherwise have access to.
Essential Question
What steps can you take to determine your future career and educational goals?
Snapshot
Engage: Students activate prior knowledge about the guest speaker’s career and make predictions of similar careers.
Explore: Students investigate the career further through an online resource and then generate thoughtful questions in preparation for the guest speaker.
Explain: Students listen to the guest speaker, taking notes about the shared profession, and then engage in a question and answer session.
Extend: Students explore postsecondary opportunities for the highlighted career use an online resource.
Evaluate: Students reflect on their learning using the What? So What? Now What? strategy.
Materials List
Preparation Materials
Planning Guide document (attached)
Guest Speaker Guide document (attached)
Guest Speaker Slides (Blank) (attached)
Guest Speaker Slides (Sample) (attached)
Career Talk Materials
Activity Slides (attached)
Note Catcher handout (attached; one per student; print two-sided)
Connecting This Career handout (attached; one per student; print one-sided)
Reflection handout (attached; one half page per student; print one-sided)
Pens/Pencils
Student devices with internet access
Learning Goals
Connect required key skills and education to specific careers.
Recognize different career paths and industries.
Preparation
Inviting a guest speaker and preparing for a Career Talk will take time and planning, so it is best to start planning at least a month before facilitating the Career Talk. Use the attached Planning Guide document for step-by-step instructions and advice for a successful learning experience for your students. This guide also contains email templates to help you establish communication with your guest speaker.
Once you have found a guest speaker, share the following attached materials with them.
Guest Speaker Guide: This document is to help your guest speaker understand the expectations and goal of a Career Talk
Guest Speaker Slides (Blank): This is a slide deck template for your professional to complete and send back to you to use on the day of the Career Talk.
Guest Speaker Slides (Sample): This is an example of what the Guest Speaker Slides would look like if Benjamin Franklin were the guest speaker. This example may help your professional have a more clear idea of what their final slide deck may look like.
If your guest speaker is unable to present in-person, then you will need to determine which videoconferencing platform you plan to use to host your professional. If you are hosting a speaker via Zoom, it may be helpful to practice the zoom presentation with the presenters to ensure they are comfortable with the technology.
For more assistance with using Zoom, go to Zoom’s Learning Center.
Consider preparing 2–3 questions for the guest speaker that tie their career and experience to a specific academic content or club interest area, prior to the event. If students do not have questions for the speaker or are hesitant to ask questions, use these prepared questions to engage the speaker.
Engage
20 Minute(s)
Use the attached Activity Slides to guide the activity. Begin by using slides 2–4 to introduce the event, essential question, and learning objectives to the extent that you feel appropriate.
Display slide 5. Show to students the name and job title of the guest speaker they will be hearing from.
Pass out a copy of the attached Note Catcher handout to each student.
Move to slide 6 and provide a brief description of the speaker’s job title and industry. Have students copy down the speaker’s name, title, and organization on their handout.
Progress to slide 7 and refer students to their handouts. In the “What Do I Know”? section of the Note Catcher, prompt students to record what they know about the guest speaker’s job role and brainstorm 2–3 similar or related careers. Give students approximately three minutes to think about the speaker’s career and jot down notes.
After students have recorded their thoughts, have students share with the group what they wrote in the “What Do I Know?” section, including one or two of the similar or related careers they wrote down. As students share out, have them add new ideas from others in the same section.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Progress to slide 8 and explain to students that they will be using the O*NET online resource (onetonline.org) to learn more about the guest speaker’s career. Give students 10 minutes to answer the guiding questions in the “What Can I Find?” section of the handout.
After students have had time to complete the “What Can I Find?” section, progress to slide 9 and ask students to record at least two questions they would like to ask the career speaker in the “What I Still Wonder” section of their Note Catcher. Give students approximately five minutes to compile questions before sharing with the class. Again, have students record new information and ideas from others in the same section.
Explain
30 Minute(s)
When you are ready for the guest speaker to present, minimize the Activity Slides and open the guest speaker’s slides.
Refer students to their Note Catcher handout and revisit their responses from the previous activities. If needed, give students two minutes to brainstorm additional questions for the speaker.
Before transitioning to the guest speaker’s presentation, invite students to use the “Notes” section of the Note Catcher. Students should use this section to take note of useful or memorable information during the presentation as well as any answers to their questions.
Introduce the guest speaker. Allow 15–20 minutes for their presentation.
Following the speaker’s presentation, moderate a Q&A session where students can ask the speaker any of their questions.
Extend
20 Minute(s)
Re-open the Activity Slides, display slide 11, and pass out the a copy of the attached Connecting This Career handout to each student. Invite students to conduct research on where they might be able to complete a degree or training program that would allow them to pursue the same career as the speaker (or one of the similar careers they identified earlier).
Move to slide 12 and have students navigate to k20.ou.edu/cv. Referencing the slide, guide students through the site. Have students search for the guest speaker’s career or a related career and select the result that is the closest match. Once they have selected a career page, have students select “Find a School” on the right side of the page.
Move to slide 13. From the “Find a School Offering This Program” page, have students check all boxes under “Choose the type or length of program” and to select a state they would like to search for programs in.
Once students have found a postsecondary institution (PSI) with at least one program related to the guest speaker’s career, have them use the information to fill out the questions on the Connecting This Career handout. Allow 5–10 minutes to complete the research and answer the questions.
After students have answered the questions, ask for a few volunteers to share the PSI they found and their responses to the questions.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Proceed to slide 14. Pass out a copy of the half-page Reflection handout to each student. Introduce the What? So What? Now What? strategy. Invite students to reflect on how the information they found on O*NET and the PSI research, combined with what was shared by the guest speaker, can be useful for their future college and career plans. Have students answer each of the questions on their handout accordingly.
Give students five minutes to complete the reflection activity. If there is time, consider asking for volunteers to share answers from each section.
Research Rationale
Secondary school is essential in developing a student's life, interests, future career, and educational trajectory. Students often use their personalities and interests to help form career decision-making skills throughout their life, but it becomes more prominent in secondary education as they approach adulthood. Personality traits "influence career adaptation by facilitating, or deterring, behavioral performances" (Lent & Brown, 2013, p. 563). Holland's theory of vocational choice notes that "the individual career satisfaction is based on the fit or congruence between the career personality and the environment of the work" (Zainudin et al., 2020, p. 884). By connecting personality traits and interests, students begin to build self-efficacy in career decision-making as students are more confident in engaging in career exploration (Lent et al., 2016). This connection increases an individual's environmental fit and "level of congruence" within an organization (Zainudin et al., 2020, p. 884).
Recent research emphasizes the effectiveness of structured career guidance interventions in improving adolescents’ career decision-making skills. For example, Jemini Gashi et al. (2023) evaluated a career guidance workshop for high school students and found significant improvements in career self-efficacy and career goals after the intervention. Although outcome expectations showed only slight, non-significant changes, the study demonstrates that career guidance workshops can positively influence adolescents’ confidence and clarity in planning their future careers. These findings highlight the importance of providing interactive, structured career interventions during secondary education to support informed decision-making and goal setting.
Similarly, Covacevich et al. (2021) support this idea by stating that students who are engaged in guidance activities they felt were useful to them seemed to likely consciously gain value. Therefore, career interventions such as guest speakers play a significant role in shaping the career decision-making process of individuals. Career experts and professionals bring real-world experiences, insights, and knowledge insights to students during the critical career decision-making period.
Resources
Covacevich, C., et al. (2021). Indicators of teenage career readiness: An analysis of longitudinal data from eight countries. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 258, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Jemini Gashi, L., Bërxulli, D., Konjufca, J., & Cakolli, L. (2023). Effectiveness of career guidance workshops on the career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and career goals of adolescents: An intervention study. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 28(1), 2281421. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2023.2281421
K20 Center. (n.d.). What? So What? Now What? Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/95
Lent, R. & Brown, S. (2013). Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 557-568.
Lent et al., (2016). Applying the social cognitive model of career self-management to career exploration and decision-making. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 93(1), 47-57.
U.S. Department of Labor. (n.d.). O*NET online. O*NET OnLine. https://www.onetonline.org/
Zainudin et al., (2020). The relationship of holland theory in career decision making: A systematic review of literature. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(9), 884-892.
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (n.d.). “Show Me” Videos. Zoom Learning Center. https://learn-zoom.us/show-me
