Final Assignment: Careers in Business

This is your final assignment for the class. Instead of a final exam, you will be writing a final paper. This paper covers all the areas of business we have studied this semester and will require that you review all the chapters in the text. 

In this assignment, you will be reviewing all areas, or functions, within a business (i.e., marketing, finance, human resources, supply chain, manufacturing, etc.) to complete the three (3) parts outlined below. Please make sure you have divided your paper into the sections listed below. 

Part 1 - Identify ONE area of business (see explanation above) in the textbook that interests you the most:

• What is the area?
• Why is it interesting to you?
• What traits do you possess that attract you to this area of business? 
• Why did you pick this function over other business areas? Explain by comparing your chosen area to the other areas of business.

Part 2 - Identify THREE (3) jobs within the area you identified in Part 1. Research, in detail, what those jobs are and what it takes to do those jobs. 

• What are the job titles for each of those jobs?
• What are the primary responsibilities and types of work done by each of those jobs?
• What are the skills, knowledge, abilities, and education needed to do those jobs?
• How does your personality and/or work ethic match the specifics needed for this job?

When thinking about careers and the jobs within them, the following five questions can help sort through job titles to see if you are a fit. The questions are for your reference and do not have to be specifically addressed in the paper unless they relate to the questions above. 

• • What types of activities do you enjoy?
  • What do you do best?
  • What kind of education will you need?
  • Where do you want to live?
  • Are you willing to work long hours?

Part 3 - Identify and research a real-world example of a professional currently working in the business area you wrote about in Part 1. It is important that this person has at least 3 years of experience in the business field. You can either use someone you know personally or someone you found online.

• Who is the professional?
• What company do they work for?
• Provide the job title and associated responsibilities.
• Why did you select this professional? How does their job title tie into your interests?
• In what way, if any, has researching someone doing a job of interest altered your thoughts on working in this area of business?
• NOTE: The use of AI is NOT allowed. In the past two semesters, I have had some students give as a real-world example a fake person, usually with the last name Johnson, who works for some XYZ Corporation. This is never a real person or organization, and immediately alerts me to cheating. Don’t do it. Use your experience from the LinkedIn assignment and find someone. I will be checking to make sure the person is real.

In order to do this assignment, you should review the text for the areas of business we covered in this course AND use outside research to find out the jobs available in each area and the ones you might find most interesting. Visit websites, such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh Links to an external site.), LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Vault, and others, to search for jobs, employment trends, and salary ranges. There are also numerous sites with other resources, like the following link to a blog providing a list of career exploration websites: https://www.markcperna.com/top-career-exploration-websites/ Links to an external site.. 

Again, this paper requires research. As such, you should be using the textbook and outside sources to get your information on what it takes to succeed in the business area you pick, the three jobs that are within that discipline, and a real-world example of someone working in this field.

For this college-level final, all resources should be properly cited or references. I do not care if you use APA, MLA, or provide links to the websites, as long as there are references/citations. There is no way to do this assignment without having one or more references. If you turn in a paper without any references (or references that cannot be verified), I will assume it was either made up or plagiarized. Either way, your grade may be severely affected. If you select someone you know personally for part 3, that is fine, but make sure the connection is clear in the paper.

This paper should clear, concise, correct formatting, language, and writing. This is a paper, not an outline. I do NOT want short responses to my prompts. However, I do want the paper broken into three parts. I grade directly from the rubric, so make sure to include all the elements before turning in the assignment. Watch the video and read the assignment carefully.

Samples of student papers from last semester: Student Sample 1 Download Student Sample 1, Student Sample 2,  Download Student Sample 2, Student Sample 3 Download Student Sample 3

NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.  PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS DUE ON December 15!

See the video below and refer to the rubric for paper expectations.