how to give a career day presentation

How to Present Your Career Journey on PowerPoint

Want to present your career journey as an interesting story through a presentation? Find out how to do it using PowerPoint.

Talking about your career journey is a nerve-wracking exercise, whether in an interview or presenting to a large audience. You can make this process much more exciting by narrating your journey as a story.

A story that contains facts, figures, anecdotes, and more stories to illustrate your knowledge, experience, expertise, conflict resolution techniques, and insights. Here's how you can harness the power of PowerPoint to present your career journey as an interesting story:

1. Ask the Right Questions

Before you begin creating your presentation, you need to have a good idea about the content you will include in it. You can write down bullet points that act as the deck outline, or ask yourself pertinent questions. What kind of questions should you ask yourself? Here's a list to get you started:

• Who's my target audience; recruitment teams, college/school students, job fair attendees, or working professionals?
• What do I aim to achieve with this presentation?
• What professional events, stories, incidents, and insights should I include?
• What statistics, tips, and professional highlights should I mention?

Your presentation can go in widely different directions based on your answers.

2. Draw a Content Flow Chart

Now that you have a good idea about what to include, it's time to organize this information into a seamlessly flowing story. Draw a flowchart or a simple diagram to indicate what goes where. This is the storyboarding stage, where you'll order the content and fine-tune the details to the last fact and figure.

3. Choose Content Format and Media

Once you're done with the “what” and “where,” it's time to address the “how.” How do I present my career story as concisely as possible? Not every part of your journey needs a slide with elaborate textual content. You can use graphs and timelines to depict career trajectories and time spent in different roles. Use bolded numbers with labels or SmartArt and Charts to highlight critical statistics.

A short video can explain your work methodology with animations and voiceover. Concept images, tag clouds, and simple sketches can convey information more concisely than a slide full of text. Once you've decided how each part in the flowchart will take shape on the slides and have the media content ready, it's time to launch the PowerPoint app.

4. Pick the Right Template to Tell Your Story

Searching for story-based templates brings up lots of options on PowerPoint that have different slides to highlight stats, show graphs, depict growth, insert a video, etc.

You can insert your information in the appropriate slides, clone the ones that need repetition, delete the ones that don't fit in with your story, and insert slides from other presentation decks that cater to your requirements. Just make sure to edit the theme of this slide to match the main template.

Using a premade template to prepare a professional presentation . You'll not have to waste time deciding on fonts, colors, themes, and manually inserting diagrams and charts. You can also download or buy presentation templates from online resources like Crystal Graphics or SlideUpLift . These sites offer custom templates to showcase career journeys, with creative slides to present information concisely.

You can also use the Slide Master feature in PowerPoint to create a custom theme for your presentation.

5. Design Your PowerPoint Presentation

It's time to execute your vision. Use as many slides as you need without worrying about the length of the presentation. Here are a few quick PowerPoint tips to help you present your career journey in a stellar way:

• Use high-quality images, videos, and graphics.
• Use Animations and Transitions sparingly.
• Use Presented View mode to check how your slides look, keep an eye on your notes, and edit as needed.

6. Polish Your Stories

Your career journey would be incomplete without highlighting your professional growth and maturity, lessons learned, and insights gained. Use the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Results to avoid rambling and keep it short and straightforward.

When narrating stories, describe the situation or conflict you were facing, what needed to be done, what was done, what you learned from the experience, and how it has impacted your decision-making process. The STAR method touches upon all the crucial details of a learning incident, allowing you to tell more stories in fewer words.

7. Edit Your Slides

Now you need to step into the shoes of your target audience. Look at every slide critically. Think about the value each slide adds to the rest of the presentation, and decide whether it stays or goes.

Are all your stories helpful and needed? Are your statistics factually accurate? How long will it take for you to walk through the entire set? Use these and other relevant questions as markers to cut down the number of slides.

8. Deliver With Poise

Making a kick-ass presentation is just one part of depicting your career journey. The other part consists of being a good storyteller. Use the PowerPoint Speaker Coach to improve your presentation skills . Memorize your notes, pay attention to your hand gestures, make eye contact, and do not read from the slides. Practice with a timer until you can deliver it in the precise amount of time you've been allocated to present.

Present Your Career Journey With Aplomb

Look for Behavioral Interview related questions online and how to ace them before you sit down to create your career journey presentation.

It will help you channel your nervous energy into telling a good story accompanied by a presentation. Learn more about creating engaging presentations on PowerPoint to improve your story.

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Host a Career Day

Host a Career Day Ever heard a student whine, “How will I ever use this in the real world?” Let’s show them, by creating a “Career Day,” in which we help students understand the curriculum as it relates to specific, real-life job opportunities and a rewarding future.

Many schools host school-wide career fairs, which are major events and require careful planning. We salute those efforts, and this article includes tips and resources for taking on the challenge. However, even a small-scale, single-classroom career event can change the course of a student’s life, and renew their enthusiasm for education.

Never Too Early Don’t wait until high school! Children of all ages should be given the opportunity to start thinking about their future. A career day at any age will broaden your students’ perspectives and further motivate them to pursue productive careers.

Presenters Ideally your event will offer the authenticity of professionals from the local community. Parents are an obvious resource, but businesses and community leaders are often glad to participate, as well.  There may even be community resources to link you with presenters, such as the Connection Resource Bank in Rockville, Maryland.

The best presenters have deep job experience and passion for their work. Their objectives are to provide kids with a relatable link to the real world, hands-on expertise, and concrete examples of how academics relate to future educational and occupational opportunities.

Don’t hesitate to give presenters specific instructions. Ask them to explain how and why they chose their profession, what schooling or training was required, and what academic skills they use in their job. Give them ideas for making their presentation memorable and hands-on. Here are some ideas from Chron.com , as well as a few of our own:

• Law enforcement – arrive with lights flashing and sirens blaring
• Banking – bring a change counter or a stack of $100 bills
• Medicine – bring skeletons or surgical tools
• Radio – air a segment of the event live over the air
• Art/Design – make sketches of the kids or teachers
• Engineering – write computer code on the board; bring mechanical drawings of a project in the works, or a prototype of the product/building you’re designing

Chron also suggested getting a pilot (or airborne news crew) to land a helicopter in the school playground. Might be a challenge, but it would be awesome if you could pull it off!

Tip : Invite twice as many presenters as you need. Many professionals find it difficult to take time off from work.

If presenters are simply unavailable, scale down your event, but don’t abandon it! Find out which careers your students are most interested in, research them, and then prepare your own presentations. Use videos and movies (YouTube can be a great resource!), as well as any hands-on tools available.

General Planning Tips These guidelines can help you plan a successful career event, for any grade level:

• When scheduling, avoid holidays, test dates and high-stress times. 
• Gain participation from as many other teachers/administrators as possible (in addition to multiple presenters).
• Know your audience and target accordingly. Start with a survey to better understand students’ current interests. Help your presenters create presentations that are age-appropriate.
• Cover as many fields as possible. Many of your students don’t truly know what career path they want. Introduce them to new ideas, and think outside the box. Kids are always fascinated by unique jobs.
• Include jobs that may not require four-year degrees. Kids may feel encouraged to know that technical schools and training programs can also lead to rewarding careers.
• For careers requiring college degrees, include information about relevant course work and college majors.
• Stress the basic academic skills that are helpful in almost any career. For example, good grammar goes a long way in business, and is critical in advanced fields like law. Math and science skills are necessary for most of today’s fastest-growing fields, such as high-tech.
• Keep each presentation short – 15 minutes is good. Add in time for Q&A.
• Express a personal interest in the material. Your enthusiasm will be catching.

Want more specifics? Here’s a terrific step-by-step resource for planning your own successful Career Day.

Share your ideas in our comment section. If you have video of a career event at your school, or any supporting materials, we’d love to see those, too! You can submit multimedia of all kinds here .

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Selection Criteria

Ideas for structuring your career talk.

You’ve been invited to give a presentation at a conference about your career. You have been chosen because of your particular profession, area of specialisation, track record of achievement.

What are you going to say?

One temptation is to give a talk based on a chronology of events. This is an abridged autobiography that covers all the details you consider important.

The talk is comprehensive. It creates a detailed picture of having done a huge volume of interesting assignments.

But is this the only way to organise your story? And is it the best way?

If you have been walking the planet for a few decades this version of events can be overwhelming for an audience. They may well be impressed that you have accomplished so much, but will it have the desired impact?

And there is the nub of the issue. Have you figured out what your purpose is for this presentation?

Your purpose will be based on what you know about the context of your talk (why you have been asked to present and the theme of the meeting/conference) and what you know about the audience. Is the audience informed about your profession? Are they likely to be uninformed? Do they want a snapshot? Do they want to know about the highlights?

This information will then guide your purpose. Your purpose might be some combination of informing, persuading, entertaining, educating.

Being clear about your purpose will then guide your speech structure. A detailed chronology may not educate, persuade, entertain or even inform.

So how else could you structure your presentation? Here are 12 questions to guide your content selection:

• Why did I get into this career in the first place?
• What keeps me motivated?
• What have been the highlights of my career?
• Who has helped me along the way?
• What have I learnt along the way?
• Why should others enter this career?
• What are some of the myths or misperceptions about this career?
• What was awful at the time but I can laugh about it now?
• What are the range of pathways to enter this career?
• What are some of the challenges I have faced?
• How do you balance the various components of your life?
• What are my main contributions?

Thinking through these questions will help you come up with a structure that is more relevant, is purpose-built, and likely more engaging than a detailed chronology.

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Top 5 Career Presentation Templates with Samples and Examples

Shivam Kumar

Career advancement and professional growth are key aspirations of talented individuals seeking to thrive in their chosen fields. To translate those dreams into reality, a knowledge of career development plan and the standard roadmap to achieve goals is an absolute-must.

When you start out your career journey, a seemingly endless list of tasks awaits you and you must learn how to plan and set goals to get out of the chaos. Click here to access must-have goal planning templates to give your efforts a clear direction.

This collection of PowerPoint presentations from SlideTeam provides a valuable resource for those looking to strategize and plan their career trajectory.

For downloading and setting actionable steps for execution towards individual career plan templates, please click here.

Whether aiming for that coveted job promotion or seeking to outline your career roadmap, these slides offer a wealth of insights and practical guidance. They empower individuals to make informed decisions, set goals, and align their journey with their aspirations. Moreover, they cater to the needs of HR professionals and managers, facilitating employee career progression and development within organizations.

These templates are hands-on tools for career advancement, and are 100% editable and customizable, offering your both structure and a starting point. 

Let’s explore!

Template 1 Job Career Promotion PowerPoint Presentation Slides

If you’re striving for that next step in your career or aiming to leave a lasting impression on decision-makers, this PPT Template equips you with the tools to create a powerful and impactful presentation. Use this presentation template to craft a compelling narrative around your career journey, objectives, strengths, and aspirations. Propel your career path, engage your audience, and prime yourself for a future filled with achievement. Download this template from the link below. The slide on projects and achievements and the one slide on how I helped my current team add to the utility of the presentation template.

Download it now!

Template 2 : My career planning outline PowerPoint presentation with slides

To unlock your potential, we present a ready-made sample of a career planning process PowerPoint Presentation. To enhance and harmonize your career path planning, we’ve incorporated innovative design templates covering the evaluation process, work experience, project engagements, achievements, personal goals, key skills, current competencies, and much more. 

Enhance your self-assessment and articulate your career change ideas. With this resource, you can confidently shape your path to success.

Template 3 : Career Path Planning PowerPoint Presentation Slides

Navigate your career journey with precision using this PPT Template, a comprehensive complete deck of a toolkit in 30 slides. This presentation is  designed for professionals seeking to effectively chart their career progression. This PowerPoint theme expertly guides you through the entire process of succession, spanning across assessment, planning, development, training, and evaluation phases. Additionally, you can effectively demonstrate planning elements, objectives, and the essential tools required for career progression. Elevate your career with precision and confidence using this invaluable resource. Embark on your successful career journey today. Your path to professional growth begins.

Template 4 Employee Career Progression Planning PowerPoint Presentation Slides

The cornerstone of success lies in creating a clear structure for talent nurturing and career development. Recognizing and retaining skilled employees is not just important; it's imperative. Our comprehensive Employee Value Proposition (EVP) PowerPoint Deck is designed to help you pinpoint exceptional talents within your workforce and empower them to realize their full potential. This competency-based development slideshow covers components, categories, and frameworks, all adaptable to your unique organizational needs. It serves as a flexible career management visual, allowing ample customization to align with your goals. With this investment into your internal talent pool, you not only reduce external hiring costs but also foster professional growth, strengthen your employer branding, and facilitate career progression. Seize the opportunity to elevate your workforce and maximize their potential with this invaluable resource. It’s time to champion talent development and secure a brighter future.

Template 5 Career Development Roadmap PowerPoint Presentation Slides

Our PowerPoint Presentations are your gateway to showcasing career, project, and business advancements that captivate your audience. Use this complete PPT deck to outline your business plan's objectives or agenda effectively. The roadmap details steps like pedagogy, planning, content development, production, delivery, and evaluation. Highlight key features of your learning roadmap to elucidate procedures efficiently. Dive into the four learning roadmap phases: assessment, curriculum development, logistics, and certification.

Template 6 : Career Timeline PowerPoint Presentation Slides

These PPT templates spotlight your best work, leaving a remarkable impression on your interviewer. Present your short- and long-term goals with engaging visuals, and captivate your audience with achievements and milestones. Navigate through your work experience, highlighting accomplished tasks and discussing your future aspirations. This career path timeline PowerPoint Slideshow offers well-designed, clutter-free timelines, each tailored to enhance your narrative and create a presentation that reflects your unique journey.

UNLOCK YOUR CAREER GROWTH

These PowerPoint Presentation Templates provide keys to unlocking and accelerating your career growth. Whether you aspire to climb the corporate ladder, map out your career journey, or facilitate the progression of your employees, these resources offer invaluable guidance and insights. The templates help you structure your career aspirations and goals. Using these powerful presentation templates, you can simplify and accelerate your career growth, making your dreams of success a tangible reality. Elevate your career with ease, and seize the opportunities that lie ahead with these PowerPoint presentation templates.

If you’re interested in exploring career planning timeline templates, feel free to discover them Click here !

PS: Equip yourself with the essential tools for effective career portfolio highlighting by exploring our Templates in this blog, Click here !

FAQs on Career Presentation

What should be included in a career presentation.

A compelling career presentation begins with a captivating introduction, often a personal story or relevant industry example. It should provide insight into your unique career journey, highlighting milestones, challenges, and successes. Articulate your career goals and their alignment with your values and passions.

Share your core skills, competencies, and educational background, showcasing how your experiences have shaped your path. Delve into your work history, emphasizing key roles, projects, and lessons learned. Express your commitment to continuous learning and professional growth. 

Address challenges you've encountered, demonstrating resilience and problem-solving skills. Outline your vision for the future, describing the impact you aspire to make and the steps you plan to take.

Throughout, offer practical advice and insights based on your experiences. Use visuals, multimedia, and interactive elements to engage your audience. Summarize key takeaways, invite questions, and foster meaningful dialogue.

What is the purpose of the career presentation?

The purpose of a career presentation transcends the mere dissemination of information; it is a powerful opportunity to inspire, guide, and connect. At its core, a career presentation is a beacon illuminating the path ahead. A career presentation goes beyond the boundaries of a resume or LinkedIn profile. It’s a platform to share personal narratives, lessons learned, and the invaluable wisdom accrued over time. It encapsulates the spirit of mentorship, offering insights and advice that can shape the trajectory of others' careers. In essence, the purpose of a career presentation is to illuminate, motivate, and connect. It's an instrument of empowerment, a catalyst for growth, and a testament to the belief that each career is a unique and evolving narrative waiting to be written.

What is career life cycle?

The career life cycle is a dynamic and multifaceted journey that everyone embarks upon, characterized by distinct phases of growth, learning, and transformation. This unique trajectory defies a one-size-fits-all approach, as it is deeply influenced by personal aspirations, external opportunities, and the evolving professional landscape. It starts with the exploration phase. This is a period of self-discovery, where individuals identify their passions, strengths, and career preferences. It's a time of educational pursuits, skill acquisition, and the cultivation of foundational knowledge. As the journey progresses, the establishment phase unfolds. Here, individuals enter the workforce, building their reputation, and gaining practical experience.

The career life cycle then enters the expansion phase, characterized by the pursuit of new challenges and opportunities. Individuals may explore career paths, industries, or entrepreneurial ventures. It’s a phase, where innovation and adaptability emerge as the driving force. Finally, the culmination phase marks the twilight of one's active career.

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55 Career Day Ideas, Tips, and Activities for All Ages

Encourage kids to consider a wide variety of careers for the future.

School career days give kids a peek into their futures, with the opportunity to learn about all the job fields and opportunities available to them. These career day ideas include options for preschool, elementary, middle, and high school. We’ve also got tips for making your event truly meaningful for everyone involved!

General Career Day Tips

Preschool career activities, elementary school career day ideas, middle and high school career day ideas.

Keep activities age-appropriate

Younger students should be encouraged to explore through play, while tweens and teens are ready for a more detailed look at what various careers entail.

Invite families to participate

Chances are good that you can find someone working in just about any career you can imagine among the parents and families of your own students.

Engage with the community

People love the chance to share their careers with the next generation. Reach out to local businesses and organizations and offer them the opportunity to participate.

Include as many career fields as possible

Think big! You want to help students see that there are good jobs to fit any interest and skill set, including those that don’t necessarily require a four-year college education.

Vary your career day activities

Provide ways for all students to engage, whether they prefer to listen to others speak or actually try some hands-on experience. Keep students moving throughout the day by offering activities and speakers in multiple locations.

Start small and expand over time

If it’s your first career day, it’s OK to keep it simple. After a few years, you’ll build up a collection of regular speakers, activities, and more career day ideas.

Gauge interest

Let students request or suggest specific speakers, career field representatives, or activities they’d like to see, and accommodate them if you can.

Prepare participants

Work with speakers and other participants in advance to help them plan their presentations or activities. Make sure their plans are age-appropriate and meaningful.

Think beyond a day

As kids get older, the chance to explore a variety of careers becomes even more important. Consider dedicating one day each month to a career activity, setting up a speaker series , or trying independent career exploration projects.

Follow up afterward

Career days can help students make connections with people in careers that interest them. Encourage students to build on those connections after the official career day has ended. Younger students can help maintain community connections by writing thank-you notes to participants.

At this age, kids should be encouraged to learn through play as much as possible. Give them lots of opportunities to explore a wide array of different occupations with activities like these.

Little ones love to dress up! Provide them with lots of career-themed outfits and accessories, and encourage all kids to try on every kind of career for size.

Imaginative play

Whether they’re in costume or not, kids can pretend to be lots of different workers. Give them an array of career-themed toys and equipment, and provide every child a chance to try anything that interests them.

Career centers

Add career-themed play centers to your classroom, like kitchens, fire stations, post offices, hospitals, vet offices, science labs, and more. Keep the appropriate dress-up clothes and toys for these fields in each center for kids to experiment with.

Field trips

Pre-K is a great time to visit all sorts of workplaces. Ask parents and families if your class would be welcome for a tour, and work with community partners to find more career-themed field trip opportunities for students.

Career story time

Rather than just asking people to come talk to your class about their jobs, invite them to do read-alouds instead! Find a book related to their job in some way for story time, then let students ask questions afterward. If you do this virtually, people can participate from their workplaces and take kids on a virtual tour too.

Students can explore jobs a bit more in-depth at this age, as well as learning some basic career-readiness skills. Try these ideas for elementary school career day.

Dress-up day

This is a career day classic! Students dress up as what they think they might like to be when they grow up. (Tip: Have teachers dress up as what they imagined they might do for a living when they were young!)

Career parade

Once everyone is all dressed up, hold a grand parade around the school or playground. Offer prizes for the best costumes, presented by representatives of local companies or organizations.

Parent/family job day

This is another longtime favorite: Parents and family members visit the classroom to share a little about what they do in their daily jobs.

If you’d like to expand your career day into more events, try theming them by field. For instance, you could have a day for STEM careers, one for skilled trades, one for business careers, etc.

Virtual field trips

You can visit many more locations and see a wider array of career fields when you do it virtually. Set up videoconference time with various people, and let them take you on a tour and introduce you to the people they work with every day. Allow some time at the end for Q&A.

Career stations

Set up different rooms or booths with information, activities, outfits, speakers, and more for individual careers or fields. Kids can circulate among them, with the opportunity to spend extra time at stations that interest them the most.

Career scavenger hunt

As kids explore career stations, provide a scavenger hunt to encourage them to engage more deeply with the activities. Examples: “List three tools a carpenter uses” or “How many years of college does it take to become a doctor?”

Career library

Set aside a selection of books about different careers, and let each student pick one they want to read and report back on. ( Get ideas for creative book reports here. )

Let STEM-related workers give demonstrations of what they do in their jobs, from coding demos and engineering challenges to lab experiments and animal interactions.

Career skits

Take imaginative career play to the next level by asking kids to write and perform simple skits set in different workplaces. They can play out a normal workday or show a worker tackling a special challenge or task.

Go-to-work day

This takes some coordination, but it’s a cool way to really immerse kids in careers. Think of it like “Take Your Child to Work Day,” but kids aren’t limited to only visiting their parents’ jobs. Instead, a group of kids signs up to visit various participating businesses, and each is partnered with an employee for an hour or two to tour the facility and learn more about what happens there.

Career crafts

Paper firefighter hats, DIY stethoscopes, worker finger puppets … there are lots of fun crafts kids can make and take home as they learn about different jobs and career fields.

Career day booklets

Give each student a blank booklet of eight pages or so. On each page, encourage them to illustrate and take notes about one career that really interests them. They’ll each go home with an individualized resource for talking to their families about possible jobs for the future.

Lunch with a …

When it’s time for lunch, set up a room or table for each career and let kids sign up to eat with people from that field. They can chat informally while they dine, sharing stories and asking questions in a naturally comfortable environment.

Career bulletin boards

Create bulletin boards themed by career or field throughout the building. Let each class work together to create their own, then take a tour to check out the whole collection.

Career posters

Let each student choose a career they’d like to learn more about, then have them create posters showing what they find out. Display the posters in school hallways, and let kids stand nearby to answer questions about the job on which they’ve become an expert.

My first resume

Introduce kids to the basic idea of what a resume is, then help them write their own. Of course, at this age they don’t have specific job experience. However, they can list their experiences doing chores at home or at school, plus any special skills they have. It can be fun to watch them create titles for themselves like “Dog Walker” or “Bedroom Cleaner”!

Equipment displays

Invite businesses to bring in equipment big and small, from fire trucks, construction equipment, and portable X-ray machines to medical supplies, building tools, and cooking implements. Kids will love getting a closer look at these tools of the trade.

Personal career collage

After kids have a chance to learn more about all the jobs available to them, have them assemble a collage that shows the occupations they’d most like to try someday. They can cut out pics from magazines, or work online to collect digital images or videos for a virtual version.

Career day pledge

At the end of the day, invite each student to sign a Career Day Pledge, in which they promise to stay in school and prepare themselves to succeed at any job their future holds.

Now’s the time to really get into the nitty-gritty of what careers entail and what it takes to work in specific fields. The more opportunities for career exploration you can offer teens, the better. These ideas and activities make the most of their time dedicated to learning about careers and employment in general.

Career fair

The classic career fair takes a bit of logistical planning, but it can actually be among the easier career day ideas. Most businesses and organizations already have materials ready to go for career and recruitment fairs, so offer them a place to set up their tables and booths and encourage them to tailor their overall presentation to students.

Sometimes a job sounds good in theory, but when we actually see what it entails on a day-to-day basis, it’s not quite what we had in mind. That’s why job shadowing is such a good idea. Today’s technology makes things easier than ever before too. If you can’t get kids to workplaces in person, they can connect via video chat to spend a few hours with employees instead.

Wheel of careers

This is a fun activity you can do during career day or as preparation for the event. Kids “spin the wheel” to learn more about a selection of careers from every kind of field. It’s a great way to encourage them to consider jobs they might not have thought about before. Find the Wheel of Careers activity here.

Career cluster rooms

Clustering various careers together in one space makes sense and helps give some structure to your activities. Students will have an easier time finding the jobs they want to investigate, and you’ll keep people spread out into more manageable groups too.

Career groups by interest

Another way to group careers is by the skills and interests they involve. Set up stations for sports-based careers, math-based jobs, jobs for those who love to write, occupations for people who like to use their hands, etc. Label them “If You Like ________, Try These Jobs!”

Career panel

Arrange for panels of speakers related to specific careers. Each can give a short introduction to their job, then they can talk about their work among themselves as well as taking questions from students. This gives kids an excellent chance to compare opportunities in related fields.

Entrepreneur showcase

Those who want to go into business for themselves will love getting to talk with local business owners, start-ups, and other entrepreneurs. They’ll get a clearer picture of the benefits and challenges of being a business owner, and they can present some of their ideas to those who can give them tips and advice.

Don’t forget to include your area’s career and technical education programs as you assemble your career day ideas! They’re among the best resources you have for presenting quality jobs to kids, especially those in the skilled trades, health care, service and hospitality industries, and other positions students can start preparing for while they’re still in high school.

Student-led interviews

Let students find out what they really want to know by putting them front and center with speakers. Help them compile a list of questions in advance, then interview career representatives to investigate their jobs. Consider recording these interviews so students can check out as many of them as they want to after career day is over.

Hands-on experiences

Trying something for yourself is a meaningful way to see it’s something you really like. Ask businesses and organizations to set up hands-on experiences. Maybe kids can try their hand at cutting hair on a model head, examining a “patient,” using construction tools to build something simple, etc. These encounters will be incredibly popular!

Community service

Volunteer at organizations like nursing homes, after-school education programs, food pantries, and other community services. It’s a good look at the nonprofit world and also lets kids try out some of the roles that need to be filled at these valuable workplaces.

Career-themed competitions

Have a cook-off or bake-off, host a debate, set an engineering challenge, hold an art or writing contest … kids probably already have a lot of the skills they’ll need to do the jobs that interest them most! Interactive career day ideas like this really help build interest and engagement.

Career interest inventory

There are many career interest inventory tests and worksheets teens can complete to find out what they’re best suited for. Use these as the kick-off to your day, or in the preparation and planning stages so students can decide what they want to investigate more thoroughly on the day itself.

Resume workshop

As juniors and seniors start looking for summer jobs and internships, they’ll value the chance to learn what a good resume looks like and how to build their own. Bring in professional experts to advise them, but be sure they’re up-to-date on the newest trends . Resumes have changed a lot in the last couple of decades.

Mock interviews

Interviewing for a job can be stressful, and many people don’t get any experience until they’re sitting in front of a hiring committee for the first time. Mock interviews with real hiring managers give students a low-stakes chance to see what the experience is really like and polish their interpersonal skills.

Professional skills workshops

One of the biggest complaints many people have about employees first entering the working world is that they don’t understand professional norms. Workplaces are very different from school, and we can’t expect kids to automatically know professional behavior. Instead, provide workshops where they can learn things like professional writing and communication, workplace attire and behavior, and their rights and responsibilities as future employees.

Where are they now?

Highlight graduates from your school by sharing what they do now. Be sure to include representatives from a variety of fields so kids can see that those who’ve walked the same halls are now working as everything from teachers and lawyers to welders, stockbrokers, and more!

Alumni networking

Even better, invite some of those alumni to visit or even become mentors to current students. As adults know, finding a good job is often very much about who you know, so help older teens start to establish their professional network now.

Post–career day follow-ups

Teach students the importance of following up with contacts by having them write thank-you notes to someone they met who made an impact on career day. Review these notes for professional language and help kids compose them, then send them off so members of the community know they really did make a difference.

Career resources guide

Put together a guide students can use as they explore their future options. Include websites, college and career prep tips, and more. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has some terrific resources to help you get started.

What are your school’s best career day ideas? Come share your tips and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, important life skills every teen should learn ..

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single-minded proposition

random thoughts on all things marketing and advertising

• How to Crush your Elementary School Career Day Presentation

  Posted on July 2, 2018 By Jeff Perkins

If you like this blog post, make sure to check out Jeff’s book, How Not to Suck at Marketing

I recently had the opportunity to speak at Career Day at the school where my kids go – Heards Ferry Elementary School in Sandy Springs, GA. I spoke to 100+ fourth graders about a career in marketing.

Heards Ferry Elementary School

Now, I’ve given presentations in front of some very large audiences in recent years.  But this was by far the most nerve wracking public speaking experience I’ve ever had.

When I’m speaking in front of a room of marketers or executives, I know the audience.  I know how to talk to them.  I know what kinds of jokes they’ll laugh at.  I know how to structure a presentation that will provide real value.

This was different.  I had to explain my job to 4 th graders.  And that’s not nearly as easy as it seems.  I once asked my kids the question: “What does Daddy do for a living?” You can see their answer in the video below.

As the presentation day got closer, I kept thinking about that scene in City Slickers where Billy Crystal is presenting at  career day at his son’s school and realizes his life basically has no meaning, which ultimately pushes him into a mid-life crisis. I really didn’t want that to happen to me.

So, I spent a few days outlining what I wanted to say about marketing. Then I built some simple slides to make my points. The presentation ended up going very well.  Actually, much better than I had thought it would.  In the end, the whole experience turned out to be really fun.

So if you get “volun-told” that you are presenting at you kid’s next Career Day, here are some tips that should help you survive.

1) Keep it Simple Stupid

Marketers can be pretty sophisticated in the way we think and talk. I mean, we are one of the few groups of professionals that can speak in complete sentences using only acronyms (SEO, SEM, PPC, CPM, ABM, SQL, MQL, CRM, etc.)! When you are presenting to kids, you have to strip all of that noise out. You can’t talk about the 3 C’s, 4 P’s or Porter’s Five Forces. You have to come up with the simplest possible definition of what you do.

Here’s an example of what NOT to say to a room of 4 th graders:

“I spend my day optimizing digital ad campaigns to ensure we are hitting our KPIs and the company is generating a strong ROI on our marketing investments.”

Here’s what I said to the kids:

“I help people learn about cool new products so they want to buy them or they ask their Mom and Dad to buy it for them.”

When I said that, the kids immediately got it. One kid asked, “So you do the ads we see on TV?”  Exactly!

Below you can see the slides that I presented to the kids. They’re super simple and helped reinforce the key points I was making to the class.

  2) Make it Relevant to Their World

Rainbow Unicorn Slime

To explain how to do marketing, I used a product example that almost every kid in the class could relate to: SLIME! My kids are totally obsessed with slime, and it turns out they aren’t the only ones.  Just saying the word “slime” got every kid in the class excited.  So, I poised this question to the kids:

Imagine that you invented the best rainbow unicorn slime ever. How would you get people to buy it?

Then we talked about how you could create a marketing campaign for that slime.  I told them that they have to ask 4 simple questions:

• Who am I selling the slime to?
• What’s my message about the slime?
• Where can I reach them?
• How do I get them to remember?

The kids had some great answers to all of these questions, especially about the messaging. A few of the kids came up with their own jingles for this special rainbow unicorn slime right on the spot.  They were really getting the idea.

3) Get the Kids Involved

An interesting thing I noticed is that 4 th graders raise their hands, even if they have no clue what they want to say.  They just hold their hand up high and often use the other hand to reinforce it.  Multiple times in the class I called on a kid who’s hand was raised, only to have him or her give me a blank stare, and then mumble “I forgot.” But, that’s not a bad thing.  These kids wanted to participate.  They wanted to be part of the discussion.  And, they made some really great points.  Now, as the speaker, you have to control the room.  In a 4 th grade class, there’s a fine line between participation and pandemonium.  But, letting the kids talk ended up being a great thing for the presentation and kept everyone engaged.

4) Show Fun Examples of Work

I played the kids a bunch of TV ads to demonstrate ways you can sell your product, including some classics from the past:

• Life Cereal: “Mikey Likes It”
• Toys R Us: “I’m a Toys R Us Kid”
• Coca-Cola: “I’d Like to Give the World a Coke”
• Reeses Peanut Butter Cups: “You put your chocolate in my peanut butter”

I also showed them more current ads for Sour Patch Kids, Doritos and M&Ms.  We watched the ads and had a great discussion about what the key messages were. I asked the kids which ad they liked best, and the majority said the Doritos ad.  These kids just don’t appreciate the classics!

If you’re interested, you can watch the playlist below with all the ads I played for the class.

5) Gamify It

After the TV ads, we played a game I called “Name That Jingle”.  I played them the music from a well-known jingle and they had to tell me the brand.  This helped me make the point that that marketers want you to remember their product.  One way to do that is to come up with a catchy jingle that gets stuck in your head. I was impressed that these kids knew almost every jingle I played, including State Farm, Nationwide and Farmers. It does beg a question: why do insurance companies have the best jingles?

Listen to the jingles below and see if you can guess the brand.

6) Bring a lot of swag

Of course, you cannot show up at career day empty handed.  You have to bring some swag from your company.  I brought a ton of ParkMobile stuff – koozies, lanyards, cups, pens, notebooks, etc., and these kids cleared me out.   I also brought some “premium items”, hats and shirts that I gave to the kids who gave me the best answers.  But, the kids were just as excited to get a pen as they were to get a shirt.  So, just bring something for them. They’ll love whatever you give them.  It was pretty funny when my wife came home later that day after volunteering at the school and told me that virtually every kid was running around with ParkMobile swag. It’s like I created an army of mobile billboards!

So that’s my advice for people doing elementary school career day presentations. If you get tapped to do one, don’t be afraid. You’ll be surprised just how much these kids will love it. And you just might have some fun too.

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How to Make Career Day Interesting

• Career Advice
• Changing Careers
• ')" data-event="social share" data-info="Pinterest" aria-label="Share on Pinterest">
• ')" data-event="social share" data-info="Reddit" aria-label="Share on Reddit">
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Introducing Yourself at Work at an Entry Level

Career day questions for speakers, professionalism in appearance.

• Career Day Presentation Ideas for a Project Manager
• How to Dress for an Interview for a Visual Merchandiser Position

Participating in career day at a local school gives you an opportunity to simultaneously tout your line of work and promote your company while also educating young people about a profession you enjoy. Of course, it’s not always easy to make office work or sometimes mundane professions sound exciting to young people, so a bit of creativity is required to keep and hold attention.

Tailor Your Talk

The direction you take with your talk should vary based on the age of the kids you’re addressing. For example, if you're an ER nurse, middle schoolers will love to hear about the “weirdest things you’ve seen come through the emergency room,” while first graders will be more interested in hearing about how you help people who are sick or hurt get better. High schoolers, on the other hand, are more interested in hearing about what education or training you needed for your job and what kind of pay range they might be able to expect if they go into the same line of work.

Talk About What You Enjoy

One sure way to make career day interesting is to talk about the things you truly love about your job. This will help students see how all kinds of jobs have a fulfilling component. Examples:

I’m a cashier at a baby goods retailer. The best part of my job is seeing expectant parents come and happily shop for their first crib or parents with newborns being excited about dressing their babies in Halloween costumes or holiday dresses for the first time.

I’m a package delivery driver. I get to spend all day driving around our beautiful city, listening to my favorite music and meeting all kinds of interesting people from every walk of life.

I’m a landscaper. I get to be outside most of the day, and a big part of my job is to help people pick out beautiful plants and flowers they love.

Every job or place of business has something genuinely unusual about it that may pique the interest of young people. Maybe there’s a well-known celebrity or sports figure who has used your product or service, or maybe you have what kids would consider an enviable career, like working in a theme park or a bakery. Whatever sets you or your job apart is likely to be an interesting draw for kids.

Use Visual Aids

If you can deliver a presentation with colorful slides and graphs, or even better, show a video, you’re more likely to catch and keep attention. Think about the unknown elements of your line of work, along the lines of the "Hows it’s Made" series. For example, if you’re in food service, what does the food look like before it’s cooked? If you’re a reporter, who's the most interesting person you’ve interviewed? If you’re a flight attendant, what’s the coolest place you've ever visited? As the saying goes, a picture often speaks louder than words.

Give a shout-out to the importance of education during your presentation to encourage school-aged kids to maintain or advance their interest in academics.

Bring Giveaways

Kids love free trinkets and goodies. Whether it’s t-shirts, logo key chains, product samples, pens or mouse pads, giveaways always get attention. Even if you don’t have anything unique or branded to hand out, bring individually wrapped snack items or drinks. You can even do some self-branding by attaching a sticker to candies with your company’s info.

Always leave time for Q&A in your career day presentation. Kids will let you know what they’re interested in, and you can take their cues to help you flesh out the rest of your talk.

• OCNJ Daily: Career Day at Primary School Showcases Occupations to 3rd Graders
• Help those volunteers who don’t have flashy jobs by asking them to bring in multimedia presentations or prepare stories the students can relate to. You’ll have better luck recruiting volunteers for your next career day if they leave feeling as if the audience appreciated their input.
• Even the most exciting profession can sound dull and uninteresting if your speaker cannot effectively communicate her passion for her work. If possible, get referrals for speakers so that you can bring in well-spoken, animated and interesting personalities to talk about a variety of careers.

Lisa McQuerrey has been an award-winning writer and author for more than 25 years. She specializes in business, finance, workplace/career and education. Publications she’s written for include Southwest Exchange and InBusiness Las Vegas.

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Computer Science graduates ‘talk shop,’ give career advice to students

Joe Piacente and Ted Wojcik (both at far right) meet with Computer Science students following their informal presentation about careers in computer

SUNY Fredonia Computer/Information Science graduates who collectively have over 60 years of experience in the field met informally with current Computer Science students on May 3 to talk about their experiences at SUNY Fredonia, explore possible job and internship opportunities and offer career advice.

“This is a great opportunity for our students,” said Department of Computer and Information Sciences Professor Ziya Arnavut. 

The alumni, all based in Western New York and graduates of 1999 or 2000, with their current positions, were: Joe Piacente, a leader in Customer Delivery at Cisco; Dave Aubertine, director of Cybersecurity and Information Technology at Erie County (NY) Water Authority; and Ted Wojcik, a software engineer at Paychex.

The trio were generous with career advice, describing the role internships can play to gain valuable experience in the computer and information technology fields and encouraging students to continually  update their computer skills and program knowledge.

Benefits of having a mentor in a new job were also extolled and interviewing tips offered.

So were the takeaways from their education at SUNY Fredonia. Each alumnus also made their contact information available to the students. Mr. Wojcik has come to the realization that school size and reputation don’t always matter.

“I've interviewed several students from Fredonia and worked with a group of them on an independent study project last year and they have been just as technically competent as students from larger schools,” Wojcik said.

This is a great opportunity for our students."- Dr. Ziya Arnavut. 

“They also seem to bring a level of 'scrappiness' which you don't always see when talking with students from larger schools.” he remarked.

Wojcik remembers “some excellent professors that instilled great technical fundamentals and problem-solving skills which have carried me to this day.”

“Some of my best memories are from my time at school there and I made some excellent friends whom I still keep in close contact with. I still have a huge soft spot for the university and the village!” Wojcik added.

• Computer Science
• Computer Information Systems
• Department of Computer and Information Sciences

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Tech Theme for Career Day

Tech theme for career day presentation, premium google slides theme and powerpoint template.

What do you want to be when you grow up? "A doctor!" "A teacher!" "A race driver!" "A computer!" Ummm... a computer engineer, you meant to say, right? Career Day provides a great chance to kids to decide what kind of studies they'll pursue when going to college. If you're in charge of talking about tech careers, use this template! It's completely safe to use, because... it has blue and purple tones! (Those who know about color theory will understand.) It also comes with wavy shapes, a couple of illustrations and very clear layouts.

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