Career Research
Tanya Downing, Professor, Cuesta College, tdowning@cuesta.edu
Elisa Queenan, Associate Professor, Porterville College, elisa.queenan@portervillecollege.edu
The purpose of this project is to research and analyze a career of interest through use of the economic concepts of marginal analysis and opportunity cost. Additionally, this assignment will familiarize participants with educational resources provided by the Federal Reserve, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other sources of invaluable online data. Data will be collected in-class, analysis and report creation will be required as homework, following reading and discussion on the concepts of marginal analysis and opportunity cost.
The goals of this project are to show understanding, and ability to utilize, the economic concepts of marginal analysis and opportunity cost; to think critically about the impacts of changing economic conditions such as rising college costs, and technology, on careers of choice; and, to accurately and clearly present acquired and analyzed data.
Instructions:
Instructions given in this document are accurate as of this writing, but with updates to websites, etc., may not be accurate when you complete this exercise. They will, however, still serve as guidelines. If the websites have changed, use your critical thinking skills (and perhaps Google) to get the necessary information. Any sources of information used in your paper must be cited, including those outlined below. Be critical of internet sources (make sure they're legitimate – those given to you in this paper are accurate), and cite them within the section of the paper they address.
If you experience any difficulties with obtaining information required of this paper you are welcome to seek help from your instructor. However, you must be able to evidence the application of college-level critical thinking skills and effort to obtain the information prior to meeting with your instructor, or a point penalty will be applied to your score on this assignment.
Your paper should include
1) An introduction
2) Each section below as section headings
3) A conclusion.
Additionally, the paper must be typed and 12 font. There is no page limit to this assignment, but 5-8 pages (excluding title page) is the typical expectation.
Introduction
To begin, go to the link http://doescollegematter.org/and listen to the Season 2 podcast #35 interview with Mary Daly and the Does College Matter Team (recorded June 16, 2016.) Select two points about college from the podcast that resonate with you, and mention why they resonate, within your introduction. Also, briefly state what has led you to this college, what you hope to accomplish while you're here, and state your goals for this economics course. This section is your opportunity to share a little about yourself with your instructor.
(Note: listening to additional podcasts within Does College Matter seasons one and two earns bonus points! See instructions at the end of this paper.)
Next, you'll begin your marginal analysis of a career choice by focusing first on the "marginal benefit" side of a career – the expected income - by following instructions under the section heading following this sentence.
Section 1 Marginal Benefit Data: Job Information and Outlook
For this section, you will begin by reporting the education requirements, job outlook and earning expectations for your chosen career. More specifically, this section of your report should include the following information for a career in which you have an interest:
· Career
· Education requirements
· Median pay
· Job Outlook, including future employment expectations
· Similar Occupations – note if any look interesting and have a higher median pay
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides this detailed career outlook information. To get the information needed, take the following steps:
1. Go to www.bls.gov/ooh(ooh stands for Occupational Outlook Handbook, but you may indeed find yourself thinking "ooh! I'm so glad I have this data!")
2. On the left side of the page you'll see a broad list of Occupational Groups. Click on the one coming closest to your area of interest. (Click on "Architecture and Engineering" for example if you want to be a mechanical engineer.) OR; rather than click in the Occupational Group, you can scroll through the A-Z index on the page.
3. Click on the career which comes closest to your chosen field to obtain the required data.
Next compare what the BLS reports to that reported by colleges and universities in which you have an interest in obtaining your degree(s.) For this information go to https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
· Click on "Programs and Degrees"
◦ Under Choose a Degree, identify your goal of an associate's degree (2 year) or bachelor's degree (4 year)
◦ Under Choose a Program, select your area of interest
· Click on "Location", "Size", "Name" links until you are able to identify two (or more schools) you have an interest in attending.
· Click "Find Schools"
For your career area, and the two schools identified, report the expected "Salary After Attending." Make note of any confirmation or discrepancies between what the BLS reports and what the College Scorecard reports. (Note: keep this website data open as you'll be using it later when we look at the marginal cost of preparing for your career choices.)
Finally, for this section, investigate the average wage for your chosen career in the area you plan on living and working. To investigate:
1. Go to www.bls.gov/cew/data.htm(Be sure to allow pop-ups from bls.gov and have Java or data will not show on your browser.)
2. Click on the "One Screen Data Search" (icon is green with a magnifying glass.)
3. Fill out sections 1-5 to obtain career information for an area of your choice (Note: rather than scrolling through section #3, you may want to do a quick Google search of "NAICS code for ... [insert career]." For example, when I Googled "NAICS code for education", it came up with 61. I then entered 61 into the search box for section #3 and it took me directly to the education services area of the list.)
4. Select Average Annual Pay for section #6
5. Select "Add to your Selection" for section #7 before clicking on Get Data. (Note: sometimes the system will give you a Database Unavailable page. Close this page and notice that the requested data was reported to you on the next page that appears.)
Report this data in your paper and make note of any confirmation/discrepancies compared to the salary reported earlier in this section. Briefly analyze why, if area wages are different, and a potential economic impact of any difference.
Section 2 Marginal Cost Data: Education and Opportunity Cost
In this section, you are going to estimate the cost of your chosen career. In order to do that you will need to summarize the following:
1. Reference the amount you have spent on your education so far. IMPORTANT: If you include room and board, it should only include any cost you have over and above what you would pay if you were working. For example, If you are currently paying $1000 in rent per month, but if you were working rather than going to school and living in a lower cost area where it costs $750 in rent per month – you would only count the $250 additional cost of rent, not the full $1000. The reason? You have to live somewhere whether you work or go to school, so rent is not a unique-to-education expense. To this amount add the amounts determined in the next steps.
2. Consider your future cost of school. To determine a school's costs, go to https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/and fill out the necessary information on the left side of the screen. This website is sensitive to spelling (even if you leave a dash out of a name it will report "no results") so it works best if you search by state or zip code and select school(s) from a list. Once you select the school(s) of choice, click on the Tuition, Fees, and Student Expenses link and get the most recent data.
3. If you will not be immediately attending university after taking this course, then note the cost determined in step #2 and go to www.finaid.org/calculators/costprojector.phtmlto determine how much a school will cost by the time you get there. It is necessary to consider and note the increase in cost of education the longer you wait to go to school in this section of your paper.
4. Go back to the College Scorecard website you accessed in the first section of this paper and compare your costs to the Average Annual Costs reported to the two institutions you selected earlier. Make note of any differences between your personal data and the average data. Also, make note between the different schools you researched and whether the data makes you reconsider the school of choice, or how quickly you plan to attend.
5. Don't forget about available Federal grants and loans you may be eligible to use! Estimate your federal aid and subtract the amount of any grants from your previously stated total (grants don't need to be paid back!) Go to https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cFormand fill out the requested information to acquire this data.
6. You'll also want to determine, after step #5, the total amount you'll need to finance through loans, how large the payment will be through several different terms (number of years) – standard (10 years) or "extended" (25 years), and report the data in this section. To do this go to: www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtmland fill out the required information. Report the amount of monthly payment, and calculate the annual payment for both the standing and extended term of loan.
After completing the data from steps 1-6 report the total direct cost of your education (upfront costs plus loan with interest.) Next, add your Opportunity Cost. This is your "next best alternative" to attending college and/or university, and represents the income you will have lost by making the choice for education. Go through the steps in the Marginal Benefit section of this paper to determine the annual salary of your next best career., or use data from your current employment. Then, multiply this amount by the number of years you plan to attend school. Add this opportunity cost to the total direct cost of your education - this equals the Economic Cost of your education.
Optional step: Want more information on this topic? Go to https://www.stlouisfed.org/education_resources/college101/index.htmlfor videos, more links to data, etc.
Section 3 : Marginal Analysis
In this section, you'll complete a simplified short-run and long-run analysis of your career and education choice(s). More specifically, complete the following:
Short-Run Analysis
In this section, compare the Marginal Cost data of education expenses to the Marginal Benefit data of salaries and wages to determine whether this career is a good choice for you. Report how many years of work in your chosen career before you will "break even" with your total educational costs.
For example: The cost to complete a bachelor's degree for Student Awesome totals $20,000, and then a master's degree costs an additional $20,000; part of this cost will be financed through loans. Total direct expenses therefore are $50,000 ($10,000 of this amount is interest on the loans.) Added to this amount is an additional opportunity cost of $18,000 per year for the number of hours Student Awesome could have worked at CostCo, but chose to go to school instead. It will take six years to complete the degrees. The total opportunity cost, therefore is $108,000. Total "economic cost" (economic costs include both explicit and opportunity costs) of education for Student Awesome therefore is $50,000 +
$108,000 = $158,000. With the master's degree in hand, Student Awesome gets a job earning $40,000 annually. Therefore it takes Student Awesome just under four years to break even. ($158,000 /
$40,000 = 3.95)
Long-Run Analysis
In this section, total your career income over 10 years of time If you're familiar with future value calculations, use these and include estimates of cost of living increases (2% annually is a good estimate) and raises (this part is up to you to estimate, but if you're taking an economics courses you're likely someone who will deserve raises! Maybe a percent or two per year?!) for ten years of time.
If you're not familiar with future value calculations, then use this simple method. Add approximately 3-5% to your salary calculation for each consecutive year by multiplying the prior year's salary by 1.03 (or if you think you'll get lots of raises use 1.05 or so...but that's not the trend these days.) Then, add each amount for ten years of calculations. For example: If your salary in year one = $40,000; then for year two multiply $40,000 x 1.03 = $42,000. For year three multiply the $42,000 from year two by
1.03 = $44,100. Do this for ten years of salary and add them together to get a total.
Next, do this same calculation for the salary you identified as your opportunity cost (your "next best career" without the additional education you're currently pursuing.) Report the difference in 10-year income of career choice vs. 10-year income of opportunity cost, and comment on the impact education will potentially make on earnings in the long run.
Section 4: Future Impacts
Go to the website at http://sffed-education.org/annualreport2014/#college-essays/does-college-payand look at figures 1-4. Pay particular attention to figure 4. Briefly summarize what the article and figures say about the impact of education on future earnings according to statistics and state how the article data compares to your personal long-run data. Does your data confirm the article's information or vary from it?
Next, research the potential impacts of technology on employment and necessarily skills for your chosen career. To get you started in this research, read the article at the following link: http://singularityhub.com/2015/07/27/when-machines-can-do-most-jobs-passion-creativity-and- reinvention-rule/
Additional research should be done for this section (and works cited) and should supply you with at least two examples of how technology is impacting your career of choice. Points are earned by analyzing technology from two perspectives. First, give an example of a skill necessary to your career because of technology. Second, critically consider what impact technology will likely have on future employment in your career. (Ex: What is the statistical chance that robots will replace you?)
Conclusion
Use this section of the paper to prove your understanding of opportunity cost and marginal analysis through summarizing lessons learned from the data compiled in the previous sections. Additionally, state your opinion of the impacts of technology on your chosen career. Include any foresight into additional skills you need to acquire to prepare for the future.
This section of your paper should include but is not limited to:
· Summarize what you have learned from your research giving particular emphasis to the concepts of marginal analysis and opportunity cost.
· Do you think your chosen educational path and career is a good investment?
· What are your concerns and opportunities given the possible impact(s) of technology on your career of choice?
Grading Rubric
Total points possible = 100
Points are applied by section according to the following rubric:
Introduction = 10 points
90% of points earned based on Content, Focus, Organization and Details
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = analysis is clear and well supported by detailed and accurate information, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements
◦ 3 = analysis is clear, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements, but is not well supported by detailed information
◦ 2 = analysis is somewhat clear, and organized in a somewhat-logical order, but only covers some of the topic requirements
◦ 1 = main analysis is not clear, not organized in a logical order, and only covers some of the topic requirements
10% of points earned based on Mechanics and Grammar
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = No errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling.
◦ 3 = Few errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 2 = Several errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 1 = Numerous errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
Marginal Benefit Data = 20 points
90% of points earned based on Content, Focus, Organization and Details
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = analysis is clear and well supported by detailed and accurate information, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements
◦ 3 = analysis is clear, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements, but is not well supported by detailed information
◦ 2 = analysis is somewhat clear, and organized in a somewhat-logical order, but only covers some of the topic requirements
◦ 1 = main analysis is not clear, not organized in a logical order, and only covers some of the topic requirements
10% of points earned based on Mechanics and Grammar
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = No errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling.
◦ 3 = Few errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 2 = Several errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 1 = Numerous errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
Marginal Cost Data = 20 points
90% of points earned based on Content, Focus, Organization and Details
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = analysis is clear and well supported by detailed and accurate information, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements
◦ 3 = analysis is clear, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements, but is not well supported by detailed information
◦ 2 = analysis is somewhat clear, and organized in a somewhat-logical order, but only covers some of the topic requirements
◦ 1 = main analysis is not clear, not organized in a logical order, and only covers some of the topic requirements
10% of points earned based on Mechanics and Grammar
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = No errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling.
◦ 3 = Few errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 2 = Several errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 1 = Numerous errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
Marginal Analysis = 20 points
90% of points earned based on Content, Focus, Organization and Details
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = analysis is clear and well supported by detailed and accurate information, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements
◦ 3 = analysis is clear, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements, but is not well supported by detailed information
◦ 2 = analysis is somewhat clear, and organized in a somewhat-logical order, but only covers some of the topic requirements
◦ 1 = main analysis is not clear, not organized in a logical order, and only covers some of the topic requirements
10% of points earned based on Mechanics and Grammar
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = No errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling.
◦ 3 = Few errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 2 = Several errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 1 = Numerous errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
Future Impacts = 20 points
90% of points earned based on Content, Focus, Organization and Details
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = analysis is clear and well supported by detailed and accurate information, organized in a
logical order, and covers all topic requirements
◦ 3 = analysis is clear, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements, but is not well supported by detailed information
◦ 2 = analysis is somewhat clear, and organized in a somewhat-logical order, but only covers some of the topic requirements
◦ 1 = main analysis is not clear, not organized in a logical order, and only covers some of the topic requirements
10% of points earned based on Mechanics and Grammar
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = No errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling.
◦ 3 = Few errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 2 = Several errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 1 = Numerous errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
Summary = 10 points
90% of points earned based on Content, Focus, Organization and Details
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = analysis is clear and well supported by detailed and accurate information, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements
◦ 3 = analysis is clear, organized in a logical order, and covers all topic requirements, but is not well supported by detailed information
◦ 2 = analysis is somewhat clear, and organized in a somewhat-logical order, but only covers some of the topic requirements
◦ 1 = main analysis is not clear, not organized in a logical order, and only covers some of the topic requirements
10% of points earned based on Mechanics and Grammar
· Rating Scale
◦ 4 = No errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling.
◦ 3 = Few errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 2 = Several errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling
◦ 1 = Numerous errors in grammar, mechanics and/or spelling