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Career Research Projects for High School Students

Immersive projects are a great teaching tool to get students excited about a potential career path.

As a teacher or homeschooler of high school students, you know the importance of in-depth, hands-on instruction. The more your students see how to apply their career planning and exploration skills, the better. Check out these career research projects for high school students that you can use in your classroom immediately! You can head to our careers curriculum center for lesson plans and more materials you can use as well.

Career Research Projects – Essays and Written Products

Sometimes, the best approach is the simplest. These projects require students to research and type up essays or written reports.

• Career Research and Readiness Project: In this project , students take a personality assessment to see what kinds of careers they may enjoy. They research the job application and interview process, narrow their search to a few career choices, and then set SMART goals to help them achieve their dreams. 
• Career Research Project Paper: Students will like this project’s   simple, straightforward instructions and layout. The components are broken into manageable chunks, letting your high schoolers tackle the project in parts. By the end, they will produce a well-researched essay highlighting their career. 
• 3-Career Research Report: In this project , students choose three careers to focus on and create a written report. They learn MLA documentation, write business letters to organizations, take notes, and go through the formal writing process. This project has everything your students need to develop their career research reports with a rubric, parent letter, works cited page instructions, and more.
• STEM Careers Research Poster and Brochure: Students conduct comprehensive research in this project , using what they learn to create several items showing their knowledge. They research and learn about a specific career and make a posterboard presentation. Then they can create a brochure, present their findings to the class, and answer any questions that classmates and others may ask.
• Job Research Project: In this project , students first do research on any career they want. They must look up the various requirements, necessary skills, salary, and other details about the profession. They end with a thorough essay about their career, hopefully armed with the knowledge to help them in the future. The project is customizable to adapt to multiple grades, so your high school students will all benefit from the project. 

Career Research Projects – Digital Presentations

Fusing technology and research, these projects allow kids to show their knowledge through technology. Students create digital presentations and share them with the class using PowerPoint, Google Slides, and other formats.

• Career Research Project: This project works with many grades, and teachers can customize it to fit their students’ levels. They use PowerPoint to make a comprehensive slide show to demonstrate their knowledge. It breaks down career research into ten slides (you can add more as needed), and students will have a solid understanding of their future career path by the end of the assignment. 
• Career Presentation Project: In this project , high schoolers need to research career clusters, narrow their choices down to only one profession, and find many details about it. They look up median salary, entry-level pay, education requirements, required skills, and any additional benefits or perks that would attract potential applicants. They put all this information into a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.
• Career and College Exploration Project: This project is broken down into clear and detailed descriptions for each slide of the presentation. It differs from other projects on the list because it weaves college research into the assignment, showing students the connection between education and careers. With 22 slides to complete, students will have an in-depth understanding of their chosen careers and how to navigate school and plan for future success.
• Career Exploration Project: This project is unique as it takes a realistic approach to career exploration, requiring students to find the pros and cons of three potential careers. They see that every job has perks and drawbacks, and part of pursuing a specific one comes down to their personal preference. The project includes a detailed outline, so students know precisely what to research and have on each slide of their digital presentation. Presenting their findings is a significant part of their grade, which helps strengthen their accountability, quality of work, and public speaking skills.
• Life Skills Career Research Project: This project is an excellent blend of hands-on production and digital skill-building, letting students show their findings in multiple formats. They research a career, finding things like education/training requirements, job responsibilities, drawbacks, benefits, opportunities for advancement, specific places of employment, and salaries. Students need to create a functional resume and attach it to the project. They use Google Drive to design poster components and can submit the project digitally or on a poster board.

About the Author

Peter brown.

Peter Brown is a National Board Certified teacher with over two decades of experience in the classroom. He loves working with students of all ages in many subjects, but particularly in practical areas like money education, to help kids achieve their goals. When he is not teaching or writing about financial literacy, you can find him surfing, hiking, skiing, or traveling to new places.

Last updated on: October 19, 2022

Create a Career Research Project using Google Slides

Titl e: Use Google Slides to Create a Slideshow Presentation

Overview :  Students will use Google Slides to create and present a slideshow based on the topic of “My Future Career”. Students will research content and the use of Google Slides will be facilitated by the Computer/Digital Literacy Teacher.

Content/Context : The content will be based on the student’s chosen future career and will include elements such as motivation, education and training, job description, salary and job growth. This lesson is aimed at students preparing for college and careers, in an advanced writing class.

Length of lesson: 8 hours

Digital Literacy Standards  addressed: PowerPoint 1 - 15

College and Career Readiness Standards   (CCRS) and/or Transitions Integration Framework   (TIF) Standards addressed: TBC

Lesson Objective(s): At the end of this lesson, students will be able to: create and present a slideshow in Google Slides.

Assessing Mastery of the Objective(s):   By the end of this lesson, students will have created a coherent slideshow, based on their chosen career subject, that is ready to present. The slideshow will contain relevant information about their chosen career (based on the questions asked in the questionnaire); include pictures to enhance the information provided; include slide transitions; show changes to individual slide layout (if applicable); show the selection of a theme for the slideshow and cite/quote information sources.(based on the Google Slides rubric in the Questionnaire document)

Prerequisites: Students require an active GMAIL account to be able to access the Google suite of programs, including Google Slides.

Materials/links: A questionnaire will be provided to students to help them gather the information they required for their slideshow content. (a copy is included in the materials).  The questions asked on the questionnaire are to be used as slide headings and/or determine content. A rubric is also included detailing what each slide should contain. 

Lesson Outline:

Introduction: An introduction to the topic of the slideshow to be made by the class teacher outlining the goals and standards required of the final product. This is to be followed up by an introduction to Google Slides.

Explanation/Modeling: The functions of Google Slides   are to be modeled and explained by the Computer/Digital Literacy Instructor.  These would include adding/duplicating slides, changing slide layout, adding slide title (best practice), selecting a theme, inserting pictures (from files on the computer/network or from online), manipulating images, inserting text boxes, formatting text, including animations.

An example slideshow could be used to give students some guidelines as to how their final slideshow should look and what the content should be.

Guided Practice: Students will follow the Instructor’s lead in creating their initial slides, theme, slide titles, slide layout(s), inserting and working with pictures, inserting and working with text boxes, formatting text as appropriate.

Independent Practice: Students will create new or duplicate slides as appropriate; students will add relevant content; students may change the slideshow theme; students will add and format text as appropriate (to the chosen theme); students will insert and work with pictures; students will insert and work with text boxes; students will cite sources of information as appropriate and as outlined by their Class teacher.

Student Reflection on Learning, Closure, Connection:  Students will present to their fellow students, if time allows, in the Computer Class.  Otherwise, students will carry out presentations and reflections with their class teacher.

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iRubric: Career Research Project rubric