Students to explore future occupations at 2013 Career Day

Have you ever wanted to hear what it’s really like to be an FBI agent? Or dreamed about one day becoming a professional musician? The 2013 Career Day is the perfect opportunity to learn about a wide range different careers. 

On April 1st, students of all grade levels will participate in Career Day. College and Career coordinator Bonnie Sheikh organizes this event for students once every two years.

According to Sheikh, Career Day is a specially modified school day with three 40-minute speaker sessions built in to the regular Monday schedule. Over 75 different professionals are scheduled to speak, she said.

  Sheikh uses Naviance to survey students to find out which three sessions they would most like to attend.

“We make every effort to schedule every student into the three [careers] they want, and we are usually pretty successful,” Sheikh said. “Sometimes [there] are scheduling issues, but we try to put them in something related.”

Sheikh said placing students into Career Day classes is much like creating a class schedule for each student and added that she actually uses Aeries to sort out the schedules.

“Scheduling nearly 1,400 kids across 75 different classes is a bit of a challenge, but miraculously each year we’ve have been able to make it work,” Sheikh said.

Sheikh added that because Career Day is such a great opportunity to find out about different career choices, she hopes all students took the survey seriously. 

She said Career Day is mandatory for every student, including students in special education.

“It’s a regular school day.  [Students] have to be here,” Sheikh added. “They can’t skip it, because they will be marked with an unexcused absence.”

Sheikh said that to follow trends in the marketplace and to keep up with growing occupations, she updates the career list every two years.

“Some of the careers we’ve added this year are E-Commerce, economics, and food scientist,” Sheikh said.  “We’ve seen that [food scientists] is an up and coming major that’s being offered, which is why we’ve added it.”

Sheikh added that she drops sessions if fewer than 15 students sign up for them.

Although Career Day is perhaps most relevant for seniors who are thinking about career options more seriously, it is a great opportunity for all students, she said.

For junior Elise Mun, Career Day in her freshman year inspired her interest in civil engineering.

“The [speaker] was actually the designer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium,” Mun said. “I thought it was pretty cool because he actually showed us the plans that went into the [aquarium].”

Over the summer, Mun attended camps to get a feel for what it is like to be an engineer.

This year, Mun is looking forward to Career Day because she actually knows one of the speakers.

Sheikh is glad that Career Day helped Mun find a path that inspired her and hopes other students will have the same experience.

“At the very least it promises to be a non-traditional and fun school day,” Sheikh said.