Job Application Activities for High School Students

Introduction

Preparing high school students for the workforce is a critical task that goes beyond academics. It involves equipping them with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the job application process successfully. This article provides a comprehensive guide to job application activities for high school students, covering various aspects from self-assessment and career exploration to application completion and interview preparation.

Understanding the Importance of Job Application Skills

Career exploration and preparation are essential to preparing students for the real world, boosting confidence, fostering independence and bridging the gap between education and employment. School is often the foundation of students' lives, impacting their social well-being and workplace behavior long after their formal education.

Initial Activities: Self-Assessment and Career Exploration

Discovering Interests and Strengths

One of the first ways to help students in their career exploration journey is to help them find a profession that offers joy and fulfillment. Create career exploration lesson plans for high school students that encourage them to think about how their hobbies and interests may align with different careers. It’s imperative for students to see applying for jobs as a process, not a one-time action. Encourage your students to balance their interests with their unique strengths and needs.

To facilitate this, consider using resources like personality tests and career interest surveys. A variation of the Myers-Briggs Personality Test can help students answer some common questions and are given feedback on their personality type.

Exploring Career Options

Students will often turn to the internet for advice on career options after high school. Educators can help students by guiding them to reliable sources of information about various careers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a great place to start. Other reliable resources might include college and university career guides, which are often based on popular interests. Teach students how to assess the credibility of different online sources.

Read also: University of Florida Transfer

Several online platforms offer valuable insights into different careers:

"Day in the Life" Videos: Allow students to watch short videos where professionals show off their workplace.
Company-Sponsored Courses: Enable students to learn directly from companies by taking short courses.

Setting SMART Goals

Teach your students how to create SMART goals for career planning. SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. These types of objectives may help students set actionable plans that help them understand exactly what needs to be done to achieve their goals by a set date or time. Achievable: Teach your students to be realistic about how long it will take to achieve certain targets. Time-bound: Encourage students to stick to the time frame they set for themselves.

Developing Essential Skills and Habits

Building Character and Good Habits

Building character and good habits allows students to excel in their future careers. Educators understand the importance of teaching our students not only academic skills but also social skills that will help them navigate the world around them.

Understanding Workplace Trends

Educators need to provide more recent information about modern workplaces, considering that many companies incorporate virtual communication and remote work. According to a recent report, high-skill jobs are likely to see more job growth, while low- and middle-skill jobs may experience less expansion.

Completing Job Applications: A Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding the Purpose of an Application

Explain to students that one major purpose of an application is to give some basic information to a potential employer or school administrator. This saves time when selecting qualified applicants.

Following Directions

Explain to students that you are going to test their ability to follow directions. Tell them to look at item number 10. Ask a volunteer to read that direction-they are to ignore directions three through nine. Explain that when filling out applications for jobs or for college, it is important to follow directions. The best way to do that is to read the directions very carefully. Tell them that if they don’t understand a direction, they should ask for clarification.

Filling Out Sample Applications

Tell students to select one of the sample applications to work on. Instruct students to fill out as much of the application as they can and to circle any questions they can’t answer. For the Social Security number lines, tell students to try to recall their number but not to write it down.

Addressing Difficult Questions

When students have finished, ask them to share some of the questions that they could not answer. Ask students to identify ways to get the answers to those questions. List the solutions beside the questions. Explain that they can have a parent or family member supply Social Security numbers. The school principal or a school counselor can help with school records. Explain to them that they should keep this information on a card or sheet of paper to take with them when they apply for a job.

Importance of Accuracy

Ask students why it is important to fill out an application correctly. Ask them why this is a skill that they will use for the rest of their lives. Be prepared. Ask students, “How does this quote apply to looking for a job? Have students begin a class list of special instructions found on job applications, with descriptions of what’s expected. Have students write about the importance of accurately completing job applications. They should answer the following questions: How can an application represent you?

Mock Job Applications and Activities

Practice with Mock Applications

Teach special education, elementary, middle or high school students how to fill out job applications with their personal information, with an extensive 4 part lesson and matching MOCK applications! Students learn in detail about EACH PART of the job application, and then complete activities to check for understanding! Then, students can practice filling out MOCK applications, in both print and digital formats.

Real-Life Situations and Examples

Job application activities teach students about completing employment applications using real-life situations, do s and don'ts, and examples.

Classroom Jobs System

Looking for an engaging way to build responsibility, teamwork, and positive classroom culture in your middle or high school ELA classroom? This Classroom Jobs System makes it easy! This resource helps secondary students take ownership of your daily routines - while practicing real-life job skills like applying, reflecting, and rotating roles.

Resume and Cover Letter Writing

Equip your students with essential job application skills with this resume writing and cover letter lesson! Perfect for teaching career readiness, this resource walks students through creating a professional resume and cover letter, preparing them for future job opportunities. With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, editable templates, and examples, students will learn how to craft standout documents that showcase their skills and experiences.

Interview Preparation

Essential Skills for Interview Time

This lesson presentation teaches students best practices for job applications. It includes information on how to find a local job, self assessments, filling out applications, interview time, and more!

Practice Interviewing

Are you working on teaching your students how to complete a job application or get ready for a job interview? Then this unit is for you. This unit explores the job application, job interview, and what we need to do once we get hired. Students will learn how to complete a job application, what you should wear to a job interview, practice a job interview, and learn how to complete a W-4 and I-9.

Interview Activities

Below are 15 games and other activities that are fun enough that you can practise the same skills over and over until they really feel ready whilst also giving the students who aren’t going to apply for a job in the near future lots of interesting and useful speaking and other skills practice.

Find the problem roleplay: Students are given a roleplay card with one thing that would make them unsuitable for most but not all jobs, e.g. “you have never used a computer”, “you can’t read and write”, or “you never get up before midday”. Their partner must choose a job and ask them questions to see if they can find out what is wrong with their partner and therefore whether they should give them the job or not.
CV (resume) gaps pairwork: Give a copy of a CV (curriculum vitae or resume) with different information taken out of the Student A and Student B versions. Students ask each other questions to find out the missing information.
CV (resume) spot the difference pairwork: In this more challenging variation of CV Gaps Pairwork, the information is changed in the Student A and Student B versions rather than taken out, and students have to ask and answer questions to find out how many differences there are.
Guess my jobs by questions: In each pair of students the interviewer is given the name of a job they should interview the other person for. Without telling their partner what job they are being interviewed for, they should ask suitable questions for that job.
Guess your job by questions: This is an easier variation on Guess My Jobs By Questions where the interviewer has to guess the present job on the roleplay card that the interviewee has by asking only the questions given by the teacher.
Interview answers pyramid ranking debate: Brainstorm or give students a list of 6 to 10 possible answers to a single interview question, e.g. “Because I hate my boss” and “Because I need a new challenge” for “Why do you want to leave your present job?”.
Interview questions pyramid ranking debate: In this variation on Interview Answers Pyramid Ranking Debate, students decide on a ranking of questions by difficulty, unacceptability, how generally they can be used, or how likely they are to come up in an interview.
Interview body language mimes: Students try to mime personality types like “shy”, “confident”, “stubborn” etc.
Guess the job by CV (resume): Students try to match the CV to the next job that person got.
Guess the famous person by CV (resume): In this more amusing variation of Guess The Job By CV, students try to identify CVs the teacher has written for famous people.
Interview questions and answers pellmanism/ pairs/ memory game: Matching pairs of interview questions and answers on separate cards are spread around the table face down and students take turns try to match them up.
Interview questions or answers pellmanism/ pairs/ memory game: In this variation of the game above, students try to match two questions that have the same meaning or two answers to the same question.

Addressing Common Issues and Objections

No matter how important we all know this topic is, there will always be students with objections. Or issues that you feel you should identify to help them out. This can definitely be a touchy subject. You’ve got a student who is failing most of their classes and wants to be a doctor. Or the basketball player who didn’t make the high school team but swears they’ll play in the NBA. On the one hand, you probably want to support the student to follow their dreams. On the other hand, really? The truth, in the end, lies somewhere in the middle. This is where your relationship with the student will impact how you handle the situation.

Use the situation to point out the essential skills for their dream job. Their future success in that career needs to be looked at with a little critical thinking. Here’s an example I often use in class. It’s pretty common for me to have a future professional athlete in my class. Rather than spending a whole class period arguing about the odds of them making it pro, we discuss things such as what could happen if they were to get injured. Or the skills they’ll need to take care of their money so they aren’t taken advantage of (have them watch the ESPN 30 for 30 episode Broke). Or what they’ll do even if they have a full career, since they’ll probably retire in their upper 30’s if they are highly successful.

The Importance of Financial Literacy

Inevitably, many of your students’ job searches will revolve around making money. They’ll take the approach that if they make enough, they can do anything as a job. There can be a lot of reasons for this question. A good way to get your reluctant students thinking about careers is to discuss the kind of lifestyle they want to have. In order to live like that, they’ll need to reach a certain income level that may not be covered by local career options. Have them look at job postings to see what kind of salary they can expect.

Additional Tips and Resources

College Visits and Campus Tours: High schools can arrange college visits and campus tours to encourage early engagement with higher education institutions.
Inform Students About Education Requirements: Educators and school counselors should research education requirements for the different career paths and keep students informed.
Teach about Higher Education Institutions: Teach students about the different types of higher education institutions and what to consider depending on their career objectives.

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