A career interest survey isn't just about matching students with potential careers. It's about helping them discover their passions, strengths, and long-term goals.
In this blog post, we’ll show you how to create the perfect career interest survey for high school students using Google Forms. First, we’ll go over a few essential things you should know and then give you the steps to designing a career interest survey that helps align students with their perfect careers.
What is a career interest survey?
A career interest survey is a tool used by schools to help high school students choose between various potential career paths. By answering a series of questions about their preferences, hobbies, and activities, students can gain insight into which careers might align with their interests, strengths, and values.
Elements of a high school career interest survey
A good high school career interest survey needs to find the overlap between students’ interests, skills, talents, and future goals to identify a successful career path. This is what helps students identify careers that are not only fulfilling but also align with their natural strengths.
This alignment increases job satisfaction and success, leading to a more rewarding and sustainable career path. This is why a high school career interest survey must contain the following elements:
- Personal interests: Questions about subjects, activities, and areas the student enjoys to identify areas of passion.
- Skills and strengths: Assessment of the student's skill set to match them with suitable careers that utilize their strengths.
- Values: Questions that explore the student's values or preferences, such as work-life balance and job stability, to align with career environments.
- Future goals: Questions exploring long-term goals, such as education level and lifestyle aspirations, to tailor career recommendations accordingly.
Benefits of a career interest survey for high school students
A career interest survey helps students better understand their strengths, interests, and values, which they can then use to make informed decisions about their future.
By systematically analyzing compatible careers, students can discover fields they might not have considered earlier, broadening their horizons beyond the obvious and popular choices.
Additionally, choosing a field for higher education can sometimes cause anxiety. A good career interest survey can help quell this anxiety by providing a structured approach to self-discovery and career planning.
How to create a career interest assessment for high school students
If you’re creating a career interest assessment for your high school student, there’s no better platform than Google Forms, as it’s easy, free, and accessible for all. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Create a new Google Form
Navigate to Google Forms and click the ‘Blank form’ button to start a new form.
Title your form and also provide a brief description offering helpful advice on how to approach the form best.
If you're in Google Classroom, you can initiate the form-creation process from there as well.
Simply click on the Classroom, to which you’d like to add the form in the left side panel.
Toggle to the ‘Classwork’ tab and click ‘Create’.
Click any of the top four options to add your form.
Click the ‘Create’ button and then select ‘Form’ to start creating your career interest survey, which will be attached to this classroom.
Step 2: Ask questions about their interests
Now, you can start adding questions to this form.
Edit the first untitled question to add your first question regarding your student’s interest. Offer relevant options after selecting the ‘Multiple choice’ format.
Click on the ‘+’ button in the floating menu to add new questions like:
- The type of environment I enjoy working in the most is:
- A collaborative team setting
- A quiet, independent workspace
- A fast-paced, dynamic environment
- I feel most excited when I’m:
- Learning something new and challenging
- Organizing and leading group activities
- Creating or designing something unique
- I’m most interested in careers that involve:
- Working with technology and computers
- Interacting with people and building relationships
- Researching and analyzing data to solve problems
Step 3: Ask them to rate their favorite subjects
Next, it’s time to carry out some assessment of skills, strengths, and preferences by including questions such as:
- On a scale from 1 to 5, how much do you enjoy studying science-related subjects like biology, chemistry, or physics?
- How would you rate your interest in math courses, such as algebra, geometry, or calculus, on a scale of 1 to 5?
- Rate your level of enjoyment from 1 to 5 for language or arts subjects, including English, literature, or writing.
So, add these questions and choose the linear scale question format. Learn how to use the linear scale in Google Forms.
Step 4: Ask them to describe their ideal career
A good survey should have a place where students can describe what they envision for their future. So it’s time to add one or a few open-ended questions like:
- What kind of work and environment would your ideal career involve?
- In your dream job, what impact would you want to make?
Step 5: Give them the chance to ask questions
Leaving space for students to ask questions with an open-ended question on a career interest assessment form is crucial because it helps them engage actively and ensures they feel supported throughout the process.
Further, it allows them to seek clarification, express concerns, or explore areas of interest more deeply, leading to more personalized and meaningful career guidance. So, add at least one space on your form to invite questions from students. Here are a few ways to frame the question:
- Are there any aspects of your career interests that you’d like to discuss further or get advice on?
- Is there anything else you'd like to know or explore further about your potential career interests?
Step 6: Download and share their responses for the future
With that, your career interest assessment form is complete. Now, all you need is a way to conveniently peruse it when you want and document it so that you can retrieve it whenever you want.
One way to do this is to manually download and convert form responses into a PDF. A smarter way is to automate the process using a Google Forms add-on called Form Publisher.
Surveys aren’t complete without Form Publisher
When you make a form on Google Forms, the form response stays on the Google Forms platform. When you use Form Publisher, it automatically converts the form response to a document and saves it to a file location of your preference on your Google Drive.
Now, you can access and retrieve it with ease whenever you want. You could also print it out easily and file it in every student’s file. Form Publisher simply makes it easier to deal with Forms. Check out Form Publisher!