CAREER EXPLORATION: JOB OUTLOOK, SALARY, & LIVING EXPENSES

A white cartoon person standing on red arrows.

Pathfinder Target Audience: NWHS juniors and seniors

Pathfinder Purpose: This pathfinder is intended to provide resources and help students learn about careers for which they are suited. Using these sources, students may take personality and career preference tests, look at job outlook, find out salary information, and simulate budgeting for monthly living expenses.

Need More Help?: Contact Media Coordinator, Mrs. Melissa Walker [email protected] or WCC Career Coach, Mrs. Natalie Tribble [email protected] if more help is needed.

GREAT ONLINE SOURCES

GET TO KNOW YOURSELF

Before you make any definite decisions about pursuing a career, it's a good idea to really think about what you like to do. This site has some great free resources to help you know your own personality and job skills. Explore the home page to see the various free tests the site offers: PersonalityTests.com

Use the Free Jung Personality Test to find out more about your personality type.
Use the free Holland Code (RIASEC) Career Test to find out about your career preferences.

FIND YOUR DREAM JOB

Browse these online sites for lots of useful information about salaries and take home pay after taxes.

*Sites Dealing With Money*	*Sites Dealing With Career Exploration*
*Voya Budget Calculator* The reality of paying bills and saving for your future can be a daunting task. This calculator helps you see just how far your paycheck will go to pay bills.	*Career One Stop* Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, this site is a great source for career exploration, training, and jobs. Salary information by job and region is available with a keyword search.
*Smartasset North Carolina Paycheck Calculator* Do you ever wonder what your weekly or monthly take home pay would be if you get the job you plan to pursue after high school? This easy calculator can help you figure out how much you will actually have to pay your bills.	*Occupational Outlook Handbook* If you're looking for a place to explore the salary and growth expectation of jobs you may be interested in pursuing, this is the place. This website is run by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and is considered to be the authority on future jobs needed in the U.S.
*Mortgage Calculator* Many students don't realize how much it costs to buy a house. This monthly payment calculator will show realistic monthly payments based on the price of the house you want to purchase.	*NCcareers.org Home Page* This site provides tools to help people decide on a path for the future. It helps users explore interests, select career goals, and plan a path to get there.

RUN THE NUMBERS

Figuring Salary Based on Hours, Weeks, Months

Typical work week = 40 hrs.
Number of work hours in a year (52 weeks; not considering holidays/vacation) = 2080 hrs.
To determine hourly pay, take yearly salary and divide by 2080. For example, If the annual salary is $38,000, the hourly pay would be approx. $18.27 per hour.
To determine yearly salary, take hourly pay times 2080. For example, the minimum wage in North Carolina is currently $7.25. That would equal a yearly salary of approx. $15,080 if you work 40 hours per week for all 52 weeks of the year.
To determine weekly salary or monthly salary, take the yearly salary and divide by either 52 for weeks or 12 for months.

Real Expenses from a Real Person

Here are some real numbers (most from Mrs. Walker's monthly budget). For utilities, a monthly average is given. Some months cost more (cold weather, hot weather, etc.)

Piedmont Federal mortgage (house payment) - $915
Duke Energy (power) - $150
Mulberry-Fairplains Water Association - $28
Carolina West (two phones) - $97
Charter Spectrum (internet & phone only) - $80
Wagoner's Garbage Service - $18
Erie Insurance (liability and collision on Ford F350 & BMW 128i) - $96
Gas for Ford F350 & BMW 128i - $145
Average used car payment (according to CBS News) - $563
Food Lion/IGA - $450-$500
Health Insurance - $435
Life Insurance for 2 people (at some point, you're going to want this) - $50

Whether you are married or have a family does factor into the estimate, but for someone like Mrs. Walker (married with no kids), one could expect to have monthly expenses of approximately $3,590 (with two used car payments).

A single person may estimate expenses to be lower. Using the numbers above and deducting to accommodate only one single person, monthly expenses would be approximately $2,321 (with one used car payment and government assistance on health insurance).

Want to play around with some numbers?

Try entering numbers for the life you think you will live (or the dream life you want) just to see how your monthly expenses will play out. This Google sheet allows you to play with the numbers of an estimated monthly budget. Open the sheet and save a copy for yourself. You will be able to change the numbers on the copy you save.

Real Monthly Expenses Spreadsheet

PRINT SOURCES IN OUR MEDIA CENTER

EXPLORE WHAT WE HAVE AVAILABLE

Do you want to browse through our printed books instead of the internet?

Here are some career-related books available for checkout from our media center. There are many more! Just do a simple search in Destiny (our online catalog) for "careers" and you will see we have lots of books. Many of them focus on particular career types.

*Find These in our Media Center*	*Find These in our Media Center*
Top Careers in Two Years: Computers and Information Technology by Claire Wyckoff Call #004.023 WYC Profiles computer and information technology careers that can be achieved with an associate's degree, including Webmaster, network administrator, cybersecurity expert, computer repair technician, and others, and provides guidance for career planning and success. Note: Search Destiny (our online catalog) for more books in the Top Careers in Two Years series.	Careers for High-Energy People & Other Go-Getters by Marjorie Eberts, Margaret Gisler, and Maria Olson Call #331.702 EBE Presents information on demanding careers in a variety of fields including sports, law enforcement, medicine, manufacturing, and the entertainment industry.
Careers for Courageous People & Other Adventurous Types by Jan Goldberg Call #331.702 GOL Provides information about a variety of adventurous occupations, discussing the requirements and training for each career, and features profiles of individuals engaged in many of these jobs, including a test pilot, a Peace Corps volunteer, an alligator farmer, and an FBI agent.	Careers for Financial Mavens & Other Money Movers by Marjorie Eberts and Margaret Gisler Call #332 EBE Describes career opportunities available for people who want to work with money, providing advice from auditors, stockbrokers, bankers, and other financial mavens; and includes lists of related professional organizations.
Careers in Focus: Medical Technicians and Technologists Call #610.28 CAR Contains an overview of medical technician and technologist careers and provides descriptions of twenty-one fast-growing jobs in the field, including information on each about requirements, work environment, earnings, and outlook. Note: Search Destiny (our online catalog) for more books in the Careers in Focus series.	Careers in the Building and Construction Trades by Melanie Ann Apel Call #624 APE This book presents information on careers in the building and construction trades, including carpenter, electrician, plumber, mason, and tiler.

Cover images and book summaries from Follett Destiny and Amazon used under Fair Use guidelines for educational use only.

VIDEOS & PODCASTS

Are you more of an audio/visual learner?
Instead of reading about your topic, would you rather watch or listen to find out more about tree identification and forest conservation?

PODCASTS

Smith Teaches 9 to 12 - High school teacher Lesa Smith creates lessons and content for high school curricula. She compiled this list of podcasts to help high school students with career exploration.
A Real Piece of Work: A Jobs Podcast for Young People - Matt and Melissa talk with folks from a wide variety of professions about what they do, how they got started, and how you might follow in their footsteps. Trying to figure out the right career for you? A Real Piece of Work is there to help.