Many students in high school are unsure of what career path they want to take, and as they approach the end of sophomore year and beginning of junior year in high school, the pressure intensifies as they start to look at colleges. For a student to begin thinking of a possible career while all of their focus is currently on high school is very intimidating and stressful. To help with this process, on Tuesday April 30th during PLC block, the sophomore class explored possible job opportunities by attending a Career Day.

Career Day is a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn about a job or field that they are interested in and hopefully help them to narrow down career options. Students are able to have their questions and concerns with the career answered by the reliable professionals. Students also gain a better understanding about the certain career so they can decide whether or not the career would suit them.

Within the past two weeks, sophomore students met during class with the guidance counselors to discuss possible career opportunities. Students answered a 150 questionnaire on Naviance and were then provided with a code and narrow list of search results that match their personality. The code could have any three letter combination for different job skills in order of relativity such as artistic, social, business etc.  From these search results, students filled out a sheet of questions and gathered information about one of the recommended careers. The Naviance site sufficiently informed students of the statistics in the specific career they chose. Students were able to find out the annual salary of the job, a percentage of open jobs in Massachusetts, and also necessities to qualify for the job.

From the code and statistics provided, students then chose two options  from a list of about twenty five jobs that they are interested in or want to learn more about. On Career Day the students were able to meet in a classroom with other students and a representative from that specific job, and listen to someone explain their experience in that particular field and how they were able to choose that career. Sophomore Leah Erwin said “it was nice that [the presenter] took time out of their day to come and inform [students] on their job.” The presenters helped explain the responsibilities of their jobs and also the degrees and experience that they needed to be able to apply for the specified job.

Some of the different career options available to students included a police officer, firefighter, small business owner, musician, sales and many more. There were many varieties open to all students and the guidance office made sure to have enough career options so that each student could find a career that interested them. Many students found the presentations to be very informative; Sophomore Emerald Walsh said “although [the presentation] was very interesting informative, some of the options open to students were not specific enough.” Even with the minimal drawbacks, most students agree that Career Day was a positive and a great idea for sophomores to attend during PLC.

Career Day is a useful way for students to learn more about specific careers that interest them and also helps students get started in researching different careers. The Career Day held last week at Walpole High School was a great way to introduce sophomores to the endless career opportunities and prepare them for the decisions they will have to make within the next few years. Although some students felt it was unnecessary and pointless, a majority of students can agree that Career Day was an interesting way to learn about the countless options available to them.