career research worksheet for students

Career Exploration for Students and Kids (19 Free Resources)

By: Author Amanda L. Grossman

Posted on Last updated: December 29, 2023

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Teach students and kids about careers with these 19 free worksheets and lesson plans. Career exploration for students to do.

One of the most important reasons behind a formal education – besides teaching your students how to think for themselves – is to get kids ready to take on an engaging and exciting career.

And a career? Well, that’s the foundation to any person being able financially provide for themselves – what we call, financial independence.

That’s why I take a real interest in helping kids, tweens, and teens get the best fun career exploration activities resources out there.

So that one day, they can find a fulfilling job and be able to earn enough money to not only survive, but thrive.

Career Exploration for Students

What all is involved in career exploration for students?

To be honest, there’s a lot to cover here.

You want to provide fun and engaging activities for topics like:

• Understanding Careers : The foundational blocks of understanding how a person earns money, having a job versus working on a career, how to develop your career, etc.
• Career Interest Assessments : Which careers intersect a child’s natural abilities and a child’s interests?
• Career Investigation : What does a day look like when holding down a job in one of those career fields that interests a student? What’s the salary like? This can include activities in the classroom, research, and also shadowing.
• Skill Identification and Development : What skills do they need to pursue a job that interests them? What level of education would they need?
• Understanding How to Get Hired : Things like interviews, creating a resume, job searches, etc. are critical for students to know how to do.
• Career Stepping Stones : What steps can the student take right now (and before they graduate high school) in order to set themselves just a few steps closer to getting into that career field (i.e. internships, volunteer activities, writing a first resume (here are free teen resume templates ), type of afterschool/weekend jobs)?
• Income and Paycheck Management : Discussing how to not only manage a paycheck from a real-job, but also how to manage your career so that your income more than matches current cost of living needs. Also, going over paycheck taxes, pay type (salary, hourly, commissions), insurance, workplace retirement contributions, and other deductions.

Whew – that list wasn’t meant to overwhelm you.

Rather, I wanted to inspire you with what an important and life-changing topic you’re covering with your students and kids.

Plus, to outline some of the areas you can cover with these fun career activities and resources I’ve found for you, below.

Career Exploration for Kids – Free Career Assessments

First up, let’s talk about how to get your kids and students actually interested in career exploration activities.

There’s no better way to pique a student’s interest than to find out what THEY are most interested in learning about.

One way to do this is to start off your unit of study with free career assessments.

1. Truity.com Career Assessment

I spoke with the people at Truity.com, and they said a good age minimum to take their free career assessment is 14/15 years of age.

The test is free to take, plus you get a basic report with results. You don’t even need to have a student register for them to do this!

However, if you want to be able to view each of your student’s results, you’d have to sign up for a Pro account.

2. CareerOneStop’s Career Assessment

This free, 30-question career quiz from the U.S. Department of Labor will help a student figure out some possible career choices.

3. O*NET Interest Profiler

Another career assessment test sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor is O*NET’s interest profiler. There are 60 questions in total.

Psst: want even more career websites for students? Here's 14 career websites for high school students .

4. CommonLit Career Day at Pixie Academy

Age: 4th Grade

Here's a reading passage that's centered around some great career and job terms. The theme of the story is Pixie finding a new job.

Assessment questions and a teacher's guide are included.

Career Exploration Worksheets for Students

While I don’t recommend you center your entire career unit around career exploration worksheets, the ones below can definitely add to students discovering jobs, industries, etc.

1. Find Your “Right Now” Job

Suggested Grades: 6-8

Scholastic has some fantastic worksheets and lesson plans to help with career exploration for students.

In the “ Find Your Right Now Job ” worksheet, students will research jobs and apprenticeships around their area of interests to find two jobs that they could apply to (when they're a bit older).

2. Career Research Worksheet

Here’s a simple, one-page worksheet you can get for free with a free account on Teachers Pay Teachers.

It will help focus your student’s career research.

3. Career Family Tree

This free worksheet of fun career activities has an idea that I love – for students to create a family career tree. They’ll need to ask family members and do the research, which of course is a great way for kids to understand their loved ones even better (plus to learn a thing or two).

4. Classroom Job Application

With a free Teachers Pay Teachers account, get this simple classroom job application your students can fill out to “apply” for classroom jobs.

5. Earning Income Career Earning Worksheet

BizWorld has this free, simple worksheet to help your students research a career and salary information.

6. Collection of Career Exploration Worksheets (9-12 grades)

Here’s a bunch of different career activities and worksheets for grades 9-12 .

Worksheets include:

• Reality Check Worksheet
• Networking Bingo
• Speed Interviewing

Career Lesson Plans

Looking for more than just career preparedness worksheets?

Check out these enter career lesson plans, available for free.

Hint: many of them include both worksheets and videos.

1. National Retail Federation's Library

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has a program called RISE Up , a certifying program with curriculum that helps students and young adults get hired in the retail industry.

Check out the RISE Up classroom activities section to find lots of short videos from people actually in the retail industry, answering questions students might have and teaching students about their industry. It also includes a worksheet for each video.

2. PWC’s Earn Your Future Digital Classroom

Check out Level 3 (for Grades 9 – 12), Module Chart Your Course . It talks about:

• The relationship between education and careers
• The opportunity cost of pursuing additional education
• The importance of monetary and nonmonetary compensation when selecting a job

3. BizKid’s It’s a Job to Get a Job

Download an entire lesson plan for high schoolers that include topics like:

• Job search techniques
• Interviewing
• Adding value as an employee

4. NGPF's Career Unit

This is a full-year course, with the following units:

• Unit Plan & Assessments
• Career Basics
• Choosing a Career
• Workplace Skills
• Finding a Job
• Your LinkedIn Profile
• Resumes & Cover Letters
• Interviewing for a Job
• Outcomes of a Job Interview
• Starting a New Job
• Career Sucesss

5. Louisiana Department of Education's Virtual Workplace Experience

The state of Louisiana has come up with these free resources to help students explore careers in LA's highest-demand industries. These are project-based learning activities.

Honestly, there's a ton here.

They've broken it down into the following units:

• General Resources
• Portfolio Projects Resources
• Getting Started
• Healthcare and Pharmacy
• Automotive Service & Repair
• Construction Crafts/Skilled Trades
• Information Technology
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Transportation and Logistics
• Business Management and Finance
• Sales and Customer Service

Career Games for Kids

These career games for kids and teens create an engaging way to teach career awareness.

1. Career Charades

Age: 7-9 years

Students are asked to brainstorm lots of different careers (it's suggested that they can ask parents, grandparents, and others to come up with ideas ahead of time).

Each student writes these ideas onto a piece of paper, and everyone takes turns acting out a career while others try to guess what they're doing.

Great for better awareness about career options!

2. Claim Your Future

Students select different career paths, are given a typical salary, and then are given various spending choices. The amount of money they spend throughout the game is tracked so that they can see, and make any adjustments as needed.

3. The Payoff

Suggested Age Range: 14 years and older

Practical Money Skills has come up with another free online career game, and this time it's all about two teenagers trying to start up a business in a competitive atmosphere.

Students will have to evaluate business deals, learn how to grow their business, and how to overcome financial challenges in business and in life.

4. Auction Adventures – Auctioneer Career Game for Kids

Suggested Age Range: Grades 3-5

Being paid by commission is wayyyyy different than getting a salary (or, even, being paid hourly). You have to actually sell something to make any money!

This game has your students calculate their commission rates while, at the same time, learning about how auctioneers work in a variety of different places.

Here's a set of worksheets to go along with this game.

5. The Uber Game

Like it or not, the “gig economy” where people are not full employees of companies, but still accept gigs from them and earn a small or substantial amount of money on the side, seems to be here to stay.

So, kids should understand how this can fit into their career and money plans!

The Uber Game gives your teen a scenario, such as they have a $1,000 mortgage payment due in a week, and then asks them to try and earn enough money through accepting gigs in order to pay that bill.

Can they do it? Is it hard or easy? Can they sustain themselves on a gig job?

Psst: You’ll want to check out my 31 free personal finance homeschool curriculum , as some of the resources also have free career resources.

Career Research for Students

When students research a career, they need to look at it from several different angles before deciding if it’s possibly on their “Career Hitlist”.

Here are the different things to research for a career:

• Find Income information : Salary, or hourly pay? What’s the range? Do people have this as their only job, or do they need to supplement with a second job to “make ends meet” (i.e. pay all their bills plus save money each month)?
• Ask People and Watch Interviews : Your student will want to make sure a day in the life of a potential profession is something they’d actually be interested in. Interviewing current employees in a profession, or even watching videos where professionals are interviewed can be really helpful.
• Find Shadow Opportunities : Students can go shadow a job within your school district, or with a family/friend. Or, they can take part in a Take Your Child to Work day at their parent’s/aunt’s employer. 

Psst: Have you ever heard of CareerVillage ? Students can ask career-related questions and get them answered by professionals, for free! Students of all ages are accepted, and they’ll need to create an account (for free) to ask a question.

1. How to Research a “Day in the Life”

You want your students to feel what it’s like to be on the job in a career path they’re researching.

Help them to do this by:

• Career Biographies : There are a vast number of what I like to call career biographies that help a child understand what it’s actually like to pursue a certain career field. I’ve got an article on 22 career books for kids , broken down by age and profession type.
• Career Videos : These can be really helpful, particularly when funds don’t allow for school field trips. MyAmericanFarm.org has a great collection of 3 to 26-minute videos on all different types of agricultural careers . PathSource has an impressive collection of career interview videos. Kids Work! Has a nice collection of ca r eer videos for kids (Grades 3-8). You can also search YouTube for “Day in the Life of _______”.
• Career Shadowing : Career shadowing was quite cool when I was in high school. Students should be encouraged to shadow someone at their job, whether it’s a parent/family member, or even someone within the school district. Reach out to your principal, vice principal, administrative assistants, and anyone else working at your school district to see if you can set up some job shadowing to go along with your career unit.
• Career Interviewing : You could have your students brainstorm a list of interview questions for someone in a job they’re curious about, and then actually help them find a person to interview either by email or in person. Imagine what they could learn from the experience!
• Take Your Child to Work Day : My sister and I both took turns taking the train to Washington D.C. to my aunt’s, and then she would take us into her job at NBC for a “Take Your Child to Work Day”. It was SO neat! It’s really a perfect way to get a taste for what a day in a job looks like (not to mention, motivate a child to want to do better at school so they can get some of the cool positions they get to see). Here's how you can do take your child to work day activities .
• Career Videos : These can be really helpful, particularly when funds don’t allow for school field trips. MyAmericanFarm.org has a great collection of 3 to 26-minute videos on all different types of agricultural careers . PathSource has an impressive collection of career interview videos. Kids Work! Has a nice collection of ca r eer videos for kids (Grades 3-8).
• Career Articles : CommonLit has some Day in the Life career articles, such as A Day in the Life of an Astronaut . Also, ReadWorks has some of these articles.

2. How to Research Income Information

While it used to be difficult to figure out income averages for a career or job type, it’s quite simple nowadays thanks to some seriously great, free, resources provided by the Department of Labor.

Here’s a one-stop salary finder , where you enter the occupation and your location to get an idea of the average pay.

It also offers a listing of professions, so students can click around by career cluster (or category) and just explore.

Psst: another important thing to make students aware of through research? Are career projections. In other words, is an industry or job path they want to pursue growing, or are the jobs getting scarcer? Here’s a great resource from Workforce Solutions (for just the Houston-Galveston area, though it still drives the point home about the importance of this question) that shares percentages for various careers.

3. Lessons to Understand Paycheck Taxes and Deductions

EverFI has free financial literacy lessons for kids and students, and Lesson 3 is on income and taxes .

Students will be given different ideas about careers, as well as the pros and cons to each.

Career Projects for Middle School Students

Looking for a career project your middle school students will enjoy?

1. Middle School Exploratory Tasks

Kentucky's Department of Education has a really cool resource – a group of middle school career projects, broken down by 16 different career clusters (and 80 different career pathways within those clusters).

Not only that, but they have student work samples for each one!

There are projects and exploratory tasks for careers in:

• Agriculture
• Human Services
• … and ten others
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• Grades 6-12
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High School Teachers, Get Our Free Career Exploration Worksheets

Consider this a post-secondary survival kit.

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB ) Career Exploration Program (CEP) provides no-cost planning tools designed to help students in 10th grade and above make informed career decisions based on their skills and interests. The ASVAB is more than just a military test. It is an aptitude test that helps facilitate career exploration and predict future occupational success.  Bring it to your school!

Success looks different for every person. You can help your high schoolers figure out where to find career satisfaction by getting them the facts on the world of work, their post-secondary options, and their own skills and interests. It’s all about making informed decisions, but you need resources for that. Enter: these awesome career exploration worksheets.

What’s in the career exploration worksheets bundle?

• Career Exploration Note-Taking Sheet: Use a tool like the ASVAB CEP’s OCCU-Find to research different careers. Our worksheet includes space for students to take notes on three different careers. It includes spaces for how it fits their interests, how it aligns with their workplace preferences, average salary, and more.
• Comparing Post-Secondary Paths Tool: For this activity, students will research the cost of pursuing two different paths for a career, taking into consideration several different paths available to them. We recommend they select one of the careers they researched on the prior worksheet to outline two paths. (For example: If a student wants to be a medical assistant, they might go to training school or complete a one-year certificate at a community college.)
• Post-Secondary Planning Checklist: This list is divided by grade (9-12) and has important steps for students to take for whatever their post-secondary plans are. It covers academics, self-discovery, career exploration, and college/career planning.
• Résumé Tip Sheet: This isn’t your grandparents’ résumé. We’ve got up-to-date dos and don’ts for students to create a résumé that will really stand out.

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7 Career Exploration Activities For High School Students

High school students, at their age, have acquired a lot of knowledge. They still wonder what they are going to do with the knowledge attained or in which job they will ‘fit in’. If you are also going through the same fix, take a more cognitive approach to find where your future lies. 

We bring you here some of the career exploration activities that help you find your calling after completing high school or levels beyond that. You can do these activities along with your friends or may take the help of a teacher or placement cells in colleges wherever external support is required.

Interesting career exploration activities 

• Interview a successful CEO 

Interviewing is an art that can help you get the facts right from the horse’s mouth. The students can request CEOs or key executives of companies operating in your city to visit your high school as guests. It requires: 

• Make a list of companies or offices in your city
• Sending a formal invitation letter to the guest CEO
• Preparing a questionnaire with the help of friends
• Organizing a session for Q & As.

It is an activity that may require you to reach out to the school management or teacher to help you get the CEO for the session. 

A quick tip: Refer to the alumni list of your own school; the successful alumni will love to come down to help you and revisit their high school time. 

• Live a day in the shoes of…

How about knowing firsthand the job responsibilities, challenges, and rewards that come with any job profile? Organize a day visit to the companies and let the high schooler spend it in the company of the professional that he/she wants to become. 

High schoolers may be selected based on the interest they show and match with the profiles where their interests are utilized the best. 

Some of the job profiles that usually get the attention of high schoolers are:

• Physical Training Expert
• Veterinary Doctor
• Public Relations Officer
• Air Traffic Controller
• Marine Biologist

Try to include the job profiles which are not usually known. It may help high schoolers get an idea of the jobs that they may not hear about from family or friends.

• Take Surveys

Career exploration surveys are designed to explore the interests of the students. The main motive of these surveys is to prepare the profile of the students and match them with the opportunities available.

Students want to take up careers that are likely to fill them with monetary as well as emotional satisfaction. For that correct profiling of aptitude and the areas where that bend of mind is utilized the best, the surveys are designed. 

• Chalk out career pathways in different fields

What does reaching the dream career look like? Having an idea about it beforehand helps you know how to prepare for different phases and milestones. We all have readily available information sources – working parents, elder siblings, teachers – who can share their journey. 

Using their experiences, you can draw a flow chart that tells about the courses to join, the entry levels in various fields, the experience required to move to higher positions, etc. Thus, you get in front of you a visual presentation of the career graph in the desired field. For example, you can make a career path for becoming a surgeon . That will help you know classes to join, how to apply, entry-level jobs, etc.

This simple activity can help students stay focused on their path to reaching their career goals and make efforts in the correct direction.

• Brainstorming career ideas with friends

Tweak the career aspect in your ‘Know your friends’ activity and you will get an interesting career exploration activity to do with your friends. As you grow and reach the high school level, you get a vague idea of your areas of interest, aptitude, and life you want to live as an adult. 

With all this information stuffed inside, you can find an outlet in your friends with whom you can sit and brainstorm ideas. Brainstorming serves two ways. First, you get to know about various fields available for making a career. Second, you find friends who share your aspirations. Thus, you find the company that is likely to stay with you in life beyond high school.

• Career assessment charts

These are similar to surveys, but offer a peek into the level of liking the high school students have in different areas of work. The list of the jobs is added in the rightmost column and the degree of liking – least liked to most liked columns are to be ticked in front of every job. It helps the students discover their strengths, likes, and aptitudes for various job profiles.

These charts are available in the form of free interests profiler and personality profiler too. 

• Career exploration worksheets

These worksheets are designed keeping various purposes in mind. The students can fill these worksheets by doing research or using their literary skills. A few examples of free worksheets for career exploration are:

• Find your Right Job Worksheet: It is a research-oriented resource to help understand find the opportunities available after completing college. To fill out this worksheet, the students may go through the employment news, career portals, ‘Careers’ section of the business websites, etc., and shortlist the jobs that they find appealing. Also, they will fill out the details like qualifications required for the job, job responsibilities, and growth possibilities of the job. 
• Career research worksheet: It is a part of life skill activity too. The students can fill out the worksheet stating the scope of the job, how it serves the community, how it offers stability in life, and what factors of the job match their personal aspirations. 
• Income from career worksheet: It is again an exploratory activity where high schoolers note down the job profiles and find the salary packages and perks offered to the candidates. 

Free sites where you can find these career exploration activities

Wondering where you can get the ready-to-use support for carrying out career exploration activities? Worry no further! Listed here are some of the best sites that provide you the free resources to help you with career exploration.

• Career Research Handout at Teachers Pay Teachers
• Interest profiler at My Next Move
• Career Assessment Questionnaire at Truity
• Career Exploration Worksheets and Activities at Workforce Solutions
• Career Planning Resource by Biz world

Summing up,

To become successful in life, planning from an early stage helps a lot. Career planning and exploration as a part of the high school curriculum make complete sense as it helps students understand their skill set and go for jobs where they are happy and actively contributing.

By taking cognizance of the courses required to do and jobs that offer good salaries, experience required for growth, etc., the students can be clear in their minds about the future. It will help them have an action plan that yields positive results. 

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

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Career Guides, Handouts, and Worksheets

In this section:, career services handouts, career services worksheets, cla career readiness guide.

The CLA Career Readiness Guide covers, in-depth, all of the career-related topics you’ll need to consider as a liberal arts student. Access the guide online!

CLA Career Readiness Internship Guide

For a comprehensive guide to making your internship the best experience it can be, see the CLA Career Readiness Internship Guide: Making the Most of Your Internship. Access the guide online!

These handouts are specialized content for tailored career interests.

• Explore Pre-Health
• Federal Employment Search Tips
• Navigating the Benefits Package of a Job Offer
• Resumes: Project Sections

The worksheets below correspond with the CLA Career Readiness Guide so that you can reflect, make progress, and take action steps now on any or all of these career topics. They are configured to be fillable PDFs, meaning you can type in the fields provided directly on your computer! 

You will find the link to the fillable PDF worksheet for that topic in the first column in the table below. In the second column, you will find the link to the corresponding section of the CLA Career Readiness Guide that you can use to complete that worksheet. There are links to sections of the CLA Career Readiness Guide that are also mentioned within the worksheets.

Download Instructions 

• Do not "Open with GoogleDocs."
• Save the downloaded worksheet to your “Desktop” or whatever folder you prefer.
• Open and fill in the PDF. Or you can always print it out and fill it out if you prefer.

If you are having trouble filling out the fillable PDF, download Adobe Reader for free! 

For Teachers

Teaching by topic: career prep.

You can find the materials you need to teach student career prep, regardless of your students’ levels. Here are budgeting lessons, worksheets, activities and games, and some essential tips –  by grade. We also include student career learning objectives for each grade, which are pulled straight from the National Standards for Personal Finance Education.

National Standards for Personal Finance Education

Download our free teachers' cheat sheet, tips for teaching career prep to pre-k students, kindergarten, learning objectives, kindergarten career prep lesson plans, kindergarten career prep worksheets, kindergarten career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to kindergarten students, 1st grade career prep lesson plans, 1st grade career prep worksheets, 1st grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 1st graders.

2nd-grade students see more extensive careers and learn how to earn income. They should be able to:

2nd Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

2nd grade career prep worksheets, 2nd grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 2nd graders, 3rd grade career prep lesson plans, 3rd grade career prep worksheets, 3rd grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 3rd graders.

4th-graders break down income earning and which careers pay in certain formats. They should be able to:

4th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

4th grade career prep worksheets, 4th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 4th graders.

5th-graders learn about personal habits and interests and how they relate to career choices. They should be able to:

5th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

5th grade career prep worksheets, 5th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 5th graders.

6th-grade students see how to find the specifics of different careers. They should be able to:

6th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

6th grade career prep worksheets, 6th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 6th graders.

7th-grade students focus on learning life skills related to career prep. They should be able to:

7th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

7th grade career prep worksheets, 7th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 7th graders.

8th-grade students start to hone in on careers, looking into the specific requirements of each. They should be able to:

8th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

8th grade career prep worksheets, 8th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 8th graders, 9th grade career prep lesson plans, 9th grade career prep worksheets, 9th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 9th graders.

10th-graders learn how to align values with career options, such as working outside, working with their hands, solving puzzles, and more. They should be able to:

10th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

10th grade career prep worksheets, 10th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 10th graders.

In 11th grade, students look inward to see the best fit for their future, not only for income but also to find something they will enjoy doing. They should be able to:

11th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

11th grade career prep worksheets, 11th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 11th graders.

12th-graders are in full preparation mode for their future lives, researching daily and creating reports to gather and clarify information. They should be able to:

12th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

12th grade career prep worksheets, 12th grade career prep games and activities, tips for teaching career prep to 12th graders.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 12th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

More Resources

About the author, peter brown.