From the time I was three years old I have loved math. Being home-schooled, I started adding in first grade at the age of three. I kept up with my sister until sixth grade when we entered public school and were placed different grades because of my age. I’ve always wanted to pursue a career that requires math skills. A couple of years ago, my parents told me that a good career choice that includes math would be an accounting. I enjoy working with computers and numbers. I like the idea of an indoor working environment. I chose to research this occupation because I plan to enter a career that resembles this very closely.

The work environment, as I said above, is mainly indoors. Accountants and auditors have a lot of contact with clients. In some cases, auditors may interact with clients more than accountants will. Both will work with them one on one about their financial position. These sorts of occupations are needed more in the urban areas where there are businesses, companies and wealthy citizens. This career may require more than fifty hours of work per week, especially from January through April due to tax preparation season.

To be successful I would need to develop many skills and abilities such as visual acuity, patience with clients, computer and communication skills. Auditors also need to be able to sit for long hours, to reason and solve problems using math and science. Perhaps the most important skills are the ability to manage tasks and people as well as to accurately visualize situations and solutions. Accountants and auditors may advance to positions with more responsibility or perhaps even open their own firm. About eleven percent of accountants and auditors are self-employed.

To work as an accountant or auditor, I will have to earn at least a bachelors degree majoring in accounting. Then to advance to a certified public accountant (CPA), I will have to complete a five-year, one hundred and fifty credit hour accounting program, have public accounting experience, and pass the uniform CPA examination. Depending on what kind of accounting is available, I will have to study for two to five years. Two-year programs are available at community colleges and private business schools to prepare me for becoming a bookkeeper or for entry-level accountant jobs. For professional accounting or auditing jobs I must obtain a bachelors degree in accounting which may take a four-year program at a college or a university.  In this four-year plan I will have to take one year of accounting courses, one year of general business courses, and two years of liberal arts courses. If I wish to become a CPA, I will need to complete an additional thirty hours of study in accounting. These extra courses will prepare me to take the Uniform CPA Exam and to work independently as a public accountant. To gain more experience before advancing I would take internship programs during college or in the summer. Generally, beginning public accountants will work under a licensed CPA for at least a year to gain even more experience required for the CPA license.

While in high school, I will want to take business classes, computer and information sciences classes, English language and literature classes, marketing classes, math classes, and social sciences and history classes. Business management and computer courses will be helpful if I hope to become self-employed.

I want to attend the University of Texas in Austin. The total cost for tuition, books, and on-campus room and board for me, being out of state, will be $29,340. Requirements for this school are a high school diploma, ACT or SAT test results, and other additional requirements may include a minimum high school GPA, letters of recommendation, a personal essay, high school courses, and additional tests. The application fee for this particular school is $60. I will also have to submit a writing sample and my transcript.

On average the yearly wage for Montana is $42,230. The average yearly wage for the U.S. is $52,210. Some areas are better than others. Urban areas will most likely provide more opportunities for success.

I think that this occupation is right up my alley. I believe that I will enjoy it very much and be successful as well. I learned that there are so many opportunities open to me and it’s all my choice of how I want to proceed through my future.

I am Su-san Perez-Tenas and I want to be an orthodontist when I get older. My interests are both social and business. I plan on going to school in Washington at WSU first and then I want to go to the University of Washington. Work will fit into the life that I want to create because I want a job that is high paying but I still leaves time to spend with my family. Eventually I will be my own boss by opening up my own place. I want to make sure that I have security and can take care of my family. My family will always be my first priority and then my job. The reason I chose this occupation is because it has always appealed to me. I don’t know why but it just has.

To be an orthodontist, I will almost always work as a part of a larger work group or team and I will have a high level of social contact. The future prospects for orthodontists are good. To prepare for this the courses I plan to take in high school are physiology, chemistry, computer applications, and vocational foods my junior year. My senior year, I plan on taking Chemistry II, physical science, stats, and accounting. The post-secondary training that I would need include at least two years of college. I would most likely need four years to complete dental school, and after I graduate from dental school, I plan on going to a postgraduate training program which will prepare me to be an orthodontist. This training could take anywhere from two to four years.

Two schools that I am thinking about going to would be WSU or the University of Washington. Entry requirements for both schools are a high school diploma or a GED, four years of English, three years of math, two years of science, two years of a foreign language, three years of a social science, one year of an art, and the ACT with writing test, or the SAT.  The tuition cost for WSU is $15,018 for out of state students, but since I’m a tribal member, I get to pay the in-state tuition which is $6,010. The tuition for the University of Washington is $21,286 for out of state students but since I’m an tribal member, I get to pay the in-state tuition which is $5,988. In Montana, the average pay per year is about $83,040 or about $40.00 an hour. But in the United States as a whole, the average pay is more than $145,000 a year or more than $70.00 an hour.

Doing this SAILS unit has helped me to learn more about being an orthodontist. Now I know that in order for me to be an orthodontist I will have to be really motivated and go to school for a long time. I also learned that I would need to be interested in math and science because I will be using that a lot in my career. I think that being an orthodontist will be a good career for me because I am good with people and with working as a team and I will be very committed. Now I am thinking that being an orthodontist isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I still would like to become one. 

Some of us don’t know what we want to be when we leave the protective nest that we call home. We spend a lot of time thinking we would be great at a job, only to find out that there were other jobs out there. That was the case for me. Every career test and job search that I’ve taken says that I would make a great teacher, or a awesome social worker. But those aren’t the kind of things I want to do with my life. Sure, I like to help people, the pay is good, and there are plenty of jobs open for those positions, but I don’t want to be them. I want to have some fun in my life, you know. I want to be creative and independent. That’s why, while looking for a job, I found the perfect one. I ‘m Sabrina Nystrom, and my future occupation is Animation and Multimedia.

I chose this job because it caught my interest immediately. With the age we are in, there’s a need for more animators. More movies are using 3-D graphics and characters. The job pays very well, but it’s a job where, if you imagine and animate something, you could create your own movie. My mom also said that it would be the perfect occupation for me, because it requires all of your creativity and imagination. When clients come to you, wanting a character that will catch attention, you have to dream up a character that will please them and the future audience. Doesn’t that seem like a cool job?

The working conditions of a multi-media animator’s occupation aren’t that demanding. You’re required to have a medium level of social interaction, communicate daily by telephone, e-mail, and in person. You’re required to work indoors, work near others, and make decisions that affect coworkers. You must also work with clients on a weekly basis, you must be very exact and accurate while working on a project, you have to meet strict deadlines, set some independent goals and tasks, and work a set schedule. The location of this occupation depends on who you work with you. The most popular companies to offer this type of work are Disney and Dreamworks. The benefits of being a animator are awesome. You get lots of social interaction, and you get to have fun and make your characters do whatever you want. If you want to add on to a character, you can do it without asking permission.

In the future, need for animators and multi-media artists will increase rapidly by 2014. The number of nationally working animators is 93,700, whilst in 2014 it will be 107,000. Quite a change huh. There are lots of opportunities now for animators and multi-media artists, since they can assist the art director and design director of a movie.

To prepare for this job, I’ll need to take all English courses, computers courses, fine and performing arts, business courses, journalism, and social studies/history classes. If I choose to be self-employed, then I’ll have to take accounting also. I will also need 4-8 years of college at schools like the University of Pennsylvania or D.A.V.E. School, which are the top schools for animation and multimedia art. The D.A.V.E. School, which stands for Digital Animation and Visual Effects, requires a high school diploma, and applicants must desire to become a serious computer animator. Applicants must also have common computer knowledge and Internet usage skills. University of Pennsylvania requires font that students who avail themselves to the rich cultural, social, and academic opportunities in the academic community. Students will be in a very diverse community and should pride themselves on their academic accomplishments.

If I go decide to go to the D.A.V.E. school, then I will be provided a apartment near Universal Studios, which is right behind the school. If I go to Penn, then I will be able to stay in a dorm. Penn, because it is a Ivy League school, will cost 34,580 dollars a year. The D.A.V.E. school will cost about 15,000 dollars a year.

When I start the job, I will be working with 15-20 people on one project. Each of us will have our own computer and job to do, and only the directors have cubicles or offices. We will not have to work with the public, and the work environment is not physically demanding. The average animator or multi-media artist is payed 33.13 dollars hourly, 5,741 dollars monthly, and 68,910 dollars yearly.

In conclusion, this occupation would be perfect for me. I love to work on art, and it seems like it would be very fun, and there would be many new people to meet. I learned a few new things, like where and when the animators and artists work, and how much work they do.

Being a Purchasing Manager would allow me to help people see things the way I do. It would allow me to buy things for the best prices I can get.  I love to hear business people talk because it is like another language to me. It is so much fun to sit and listen to people talking about a business. When they talk about their business plans and becoming an LLC, PPC or PC, or if they’re going to get stock holders to buy into their business, it excites me.  I work for Super One grocery store and when I purchased things for the produce department it gave me a sense of empowerment. I am able to talk to people easily.  In this position I might have angry customers who didn’t get their product on time, and would have to please them and my company, so I would need to be able to handle conflict.  I would need to have good communication skills and be able to speak clearly and be a good listener.  My dad has been a purchasing manager for 30 years and for a few companies. My dad loved what he did and he used to take me to his office all the time after school. He used to show me everything that he did. It always looked like so much fun. It also looked really hard but I believe that I can do this job. This is why I want to be a purchasing manager. I feel that I could make a good living while supporting myself/ future family and hobbies.

I think that this career would fit into my life because I can work during the day and have evenings off to do the things I love.  I really like to travel by plane, enjoy being outside riding my ATV, shooting, hunting, working on my truck, and being with family and friends.  I would be comfortable talking with people all day, and making decisions about how to spend other peoples’ money.

If I was going to be in this occupation I would need at least a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Administration. I would also need another two years of internship. I would need to go to a college that has a good Business program like the University of Montana.  They have a good reputation for a business graduates who are qualified to hire right out of college.  The University of Montana requires that I have three years of math but they would prefer four. To be accepted into the business department of the university I need to pass all the graduation requirements for the high school and then have one credit of world geography, one credit of math three, and a 2.5 GPA or rank in top half of class or ACT score of twenty two.

I would probably start at the buyer level and work my way up to Materials/Purchasing Manager.  When you work for a company who makes a certain product, different people are assigned different clients and they work with them directly after the sales team has started working with the client. I would buy goods or services for the company I work for, where some buyers purchase goods for resale.  My next step would be to negotiate the best price that I could buy the items for and award contracts.  Purchasing Managers usually handle the harder or higher dollar purchases.  A Purchasing manager would usually have a staff of buyers/agents that buy the less expensive or smaller dollar items.  When the buyer or purchasing manager completes the buying process and the pieces are in the warehouse, then production of the product is started.  Then the production line creates the product and it is shipped to the customer.

A Purchasing Manager needs to attend trade shows, meetings and visit suppliers to see if their products are the right quality for the product my company is making.  They need to have knowledge of contract law, negotiations, and inventory control practices. Their education is continuing and they need to stay up to date on new laws and practices.  There are a couple of good organizations that help Purchasing Managers stay educated.  One is NAPM (National Association of Purchasing Managers) and APICS (Association of Purchasing and Inventory Control Specialists).  These two groups’ help their members learn the new laws, provide continuing education credits and help you find jobs in this profession.

To prepare myself for this career in high school I would need to have completed classes in word processing, accounting, introduction to business, business management and banking and finance if they are available to be studied at high school.  English classes are very important for communication skills, such as; language arts, English composition, English grammar and public speaking.  Math classes should include pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, business math and computer math.  When I get to college, I would need psychology, consumer law, business law, ethics and economics.

I would always be able to find work in this field because purchasing is done in business management companies, federal, state and local government agencies, navigational and measuring equipment manufactures and grocery products wholesalers.  The national average yearly wage for a purchasing manager is $76,270.00 per year.  If I stay in Montana though, my average wage would be $56,520.00.  My Dad has actually found the wage average to be much lower, more in the range of $30,000.00 per year in Montana. 

I think I would like this profession because it would allow me to be with people everyday, to spend other peoples’ money, to get the most products for the least price, and be in charge of people.  I like the challenge of making people happy, making plenty of money, not doing a dangerous job, and working a normal work week.  This profession would be one where I could grow and learn and make more and more money if I apply myself in learning new skills, and being a reliable employee.