Career History Genograms

Parent link

Part 1 -- We are working on our Career/Work History Genograms in class. The Genogram is a family tree that explores the various careers that are in your family. Remember, you are going to need to include your extended family in your Genogram: Mom, Dad, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmother, Grandfathers, Step-parents, etc.

You need to include: the name of the person, their relationship to you, what type of work they did. It's not good enough to say, "my dad works at General Motors, or Lockheed Martin" You need to find out what they do for their job.

If there was more than one job, list the main ones in chronological order.

You may need to call up a family member to find out the information.

Here are some questions you might ask:

Ask them about their job; what kind of work did they do? (ask for a job title)

What were their hobbies? Did their hobby influence their career decision?

Part 2: You need to find out about the educational background of at least half of the people on your genogram. How much education did they complete?

Part 3: You will need to interview three of the people on your genogram and find out more about their career choices: What were some of the reasons for choosing the career path they chose? Find out” why” this family member chose their educational and career paths, “what” factors influenced their decisions, “who” influenced their decisions, and “when” they made those decisions.

Try to learn something about other factors that influenced their career decisions? Did the economy have an impact? Was there a war? Was there a parent expectation? etc.

As you put together your Genogram, think about what factors will influence your career decisions.

You decide how you how you want it to look, what shapes, patterns, colors etc

The only stipulation for Part 1 is that it has to include people in your family back to your grandparents. You have to include their name, their job/career (s) and their relationship to you. More info on Part 2 will be posted soon.

Here are sample genograms: