SDV 100 Course Playbook

Your capstone project is about career exploration.  Before you start, make sure to read the instructions carefully. If you have any questions about the project, please contact your instructor.

The resources below will help you find information for your project, and the careers activity will give you the opportunity to practice finding that information.

• From the library's home page, search under FIND BOOKS to find physical and electronic books about careers.  Click on the down arrow and select "subject," then format your search this way: (your term) AND vocational guidance.
  • Example: photography AND vocational guidance
• From the library's home page, find articles about your chosen career by searching under FIND ARTICLES. Type your search this way: (your term) AND vocational guidance
  • Example: architecture AND vocational guidance
• PrepSTEP for Community Colleges is packed with online tutorials, practice tests, quizzes, e-books, articles and flashcards to help you improve your core academic skills, explore careers, build workplace readiness and more.

Best site for researching career paths: Occupational Outlook Handbook

Other sites are listed below.

Your presentation will include a slide with a bibliography in MLA format. 

• Use the library's MLA citation playbook to learn how to cite your sources
• Avoid citation generators, even if they are part of databases; they frequently introduce errors, and if you don't know how to cite, you will not notice the errors
• Learn how to cite from scratch; in the long run, it saves time and increases your grade
• Contact the librarians if you need help learning how to cite. Come see us at the library, or email us at reference@pvcc.edu

The activities below will allow you to familiarize yourself with helpful career resources.

1. Go to the Occupational Outlook Handbook

• From the list of highest paying occupations, select 2 that you think are interesting.
• From the list of fastest growing occupations, select 2 that you think are interesting.

2. Go back to the Occupational Outlook Handbook

• Under Occupation Groups, select a group, then pick a career.
• Write down 3 facts about the career you selected.
• Answer this question: What's the job outlook for this career?
• Be prepared to share the 3 facts and the answer to the question with the class.

3. Go to the library's home page

• Under FIND BOOKS, search for books about one of the careers listed below (remember to format the search using occupation name AND vocational guidance -- for example: medicine AND vocational guidance)
  • photography
  • nursing
  • chef
  • police officer
  • social work
• Select 2 books from the results list
• Be prepared to share the title, author, and year of publication with the class

• For help finding resources, use the information in the library's playbooks. Librarians can help you understand the playbooks, but they cannot conduct research for you.
• For help with formatting citations, please consult the library's citation styles playbooks. Please note the librarians cannot help you with citation generators or with any citation guide other than the library's. 
• For help with composition issues (such as spelling, grammar, flow, etc.), please visit the Writing Center.
• If you have questions, please email the  librarians at reference@pvcc.edu, visit the library and speak with a librarian, or connect via chat. If your section has an embedded librarian, contact that specific librarian.