The Flip Heard ’Round the Room

The cards were passed out career-side down. Thirty pairs of hands waited, silent and still. I gave the signal.

Flip.

In an instant, the quiet broke into a surge of sound leading to cheers, groans, laughter, and a chorus of “Yes!” and “No!” Students moved from their seats, waving cards in the air, and scanning the cards of their classmates. One held “Aerospace Engineer” like an award, grinning ear to ear. Across the room, another claimed “Medical Assistant” muttered, “Yeah… I’m trading this.”

Students are holding everything from Chemist to Chef, Civil Engineer to Event Planner that are just a few of the more than 50 unique jobs represented in the deck, spanning all six RIASEC themes.

That’s the Select and Trade activity in action and a moment where career exploration shifts from idea to action. It’s an example of the type of moments we work to create during the school year where a career conversation can happen naturally, regularly, and transform those soft spaces in the school day into a healthy habit of connecting classroom learning to future possibilities.

Sounds of students at Santiago Elementary

Where It All Started

Before I worked in education, I spent years in high-volume recruitment and staffing. I worked with salary guides to compare thousands of jobs across the organization from human factors engineers and accountants to mask layout designers and electricians. That’s where my fascination with job titles began, and where I realized how little most people know about the wide variety of careers within a single company.

When our team later began leading a student makerspace inside that same company, I saw the excitement students felt when they discovered these possibilities. The first version of our career cards were born more than 10 years ago, and they’ve been revised and field-tested in classrooms, nonprofits, and district programs ever since.

Students Naturally Join In For The Trading Frenzy

Once the initial reactions settle, the room transforms into a marketplace. Students walk around, holding cards out like collectibles, pitching their value to anyone who will listen.

“Yours has weekends off, I’ll trade you for mine!” “This one’s totally you, remember your RIASEC letters?” “Wait, what even is a GIS specialist?”

Some students make quick deals, swapping cards in seconds. Others hold out, scanning the crowd for the perfect fit. Adults in the room become sought-after “employers,” with extra job cards hidden like prized inventory. Students line up to make their case while explaining why they deserve a shot at that one job they’ve set their sights on.

With more than 50 careers in the mix, every trade is a chance to step into a different world, from hands-on, realistic roles to investigative problem-solving and research, from creative, artistic jobs to social, enterprising, and conventional jobs.

The room is alive with negotiation, curiosity, and discovery. This is a 15–20 minute activity that can be repeated over and over and students never seem to tire of it. They ask to play again, eager to see what new role they’ll draw and how they might navigate the trades differently the next time. In this example, it’s their very first experience with Select and Trade and the novelty adds to the excitement in the air.

From Chaos to Conversation

Eventually, the trades slow, and we call everyone back together. The energy doesn’t disappear it just shifts because now it’s time to process:

• Was the first job you flipped a good fit for you? Why or why not?

• If you traded, what made your new job a better fit?

• How does your final choice connect — or not connect — to your RIASEC letters?

Students share with partners, then with the whole group. Some speak with the pride of finding a perfect fit right from the start; others explain how trading helped them move closer to something that matched their interests, strengths, or values. A few even admit they took a risk on something new, just to see how it might feel.

When students show genuine excitement about a specific career, it opens the door for teachers to extend the learning. That spark can become a research project, a presentation, or even the focus of a problem-based learning challenge. These follow-up opportunities keep the momentum going, making career conversations more than a one-time event and tying them directly to academic skills and standards.

It’s in these human moments when the noise gives way to thoughtful explanation that you see the deeper learning click into place. These reflections aren’t just about the jobs themselves, they're about making career conversations a normal part of classroom life, where students build purpose around the content they’re learning and the #durableskills they’re developing.

What Teachers Notice

“The first thing we noticed was the excitement in every corner of the room. The kids came alive — they couldn’t wait to see if their first job was a good fit. Some locked onto it right away, while others were scanning the room for a better match. We loved watching them use their RIASEC self-identification to guide their choices — one ‘Conventional’ student went straight for a yellow card, while an ‘Investigative’ student hunted for blue. The variety of more than 50 jobs meant there was something for everyone.”  

What Surprises Teachers

“Some students focused on salary over interest, which gave us a perfect opening to talk about how money matters — but fit matters too. Others were drawn to new jobs they’d never heard of before. We had students asking, ‘What does a GIS specialist do?’ or ‘What about a solar photovoltaic technician?’ They were genuinely curious.”

What Teachers Would Change

“Maybe cover the salary at first so the trades are driven more by interest and fit. Some students needed reading support, so extra adults during the activity helped make sure everyone could participate fully.”

For upper grades, we intentionally include salary information on the cards. While we want students to focus on interest and fit, compensation is an important part of career readiness and deserves open, guided discussion. In fact, those conversations often lead to deeper thinking about cost of living, education pathways, and the relationship between work and lifestyle.

What Career Connected Coaches See

“It’s fascinating to watch elementary students interact with the career cards. Their initial reactions are instant and honest — ‘Yes, I can totally see myself doing this job!’, ‘Nope, not for me!’, or the ever-curious, ‘What does this job do?’ But the energy ramps up when trading time begins. Suddenly, the room is alive with negotiations, excitement, and a bit of chaos. In one class, I had to step in and mediate when two students ended up in a tug-of-war over a coveted job card, nearly tearing it in half in their enthusiasm. When prompted, it was encouraging to see kids genuinely interested in exploring future career possibilities and deciding what might be the right fit for them.”

Things Principals Principals Say

Whenever we work principals on this activity I love it when they affirm a student they know really well. It becomes a natural response. What if every student felt such a response from the adults around them? I do love Principal Bree’s reaction regarding a student at Canyon Rim Elementary. “Yes, this is 100% Ariana because I know her themes!”

Principal Bree Reacts

What Students Say

When students can map self and map world with a common language, these conversations are so much easier. We’re building a muscle that makes career conversations normal. I could have spoken to every student in this classroom about their cards and why. Not every student finds a job that fits and that’s an important conversation as well. But in this case, Abigail found her fit. 

Abigail Shares

Principals, school leaders, teachers, and coaches get to see students exploring, testing for fit, and discovering jobs they didn’t know existed. Not once have I had this activity fail from working in 1:1 settings to working with large groups. Students always show up and are ready to tell you their why. What if every student had the chance to do the same? 

Why It Works

Across OECD countries, on average, 50% of girls and 44% of boys expect to work in just one of ten jobs — a pattern that’s barely changed since the year 2000. When students’ aspirations are this narrow, they risk missing out on the thousands of other possibilities available to them.

Activities like Select and Trade widen that lens. In a single 15–20 minute session, students explore jobs spanning all six RIASEC themes — going beyond the “top ten” jobs to imagine futures they may have never considered.

Research also backs up the approach. Vocational card sorts — a career counselling method in use since the early 1960s — are widely recognized as powerful tools for exploring career interests, values, and skills (Straby, 2024; Osborn et al., 2015). Traditionally used one-on-one with a counsellor, card sorts help individuals physically interact with career options, reflect on their preferences, and have conversations that lead to deeper self-discovery.

Back in the classroom, Select and Trade takes that same proven method and amplifies it, by replacing a quiet one-on-one setting with the purposeful buzz of 30 students negotiating, discovering, and rethinking their career “fit” in real time. That energy is full of productive noise where students are practicing communication, collaboration, and critical thinking, all while building the durable skills they’ll carry into future learning and work.

From my years in high-volume recruitment, I know this isn’t just a fun classroom activity but rather a 100% real-world skill builder. In fact, even in 2025, recruiters and hiring managers often share that the most common reason for rejection isn’t failing the technical round of interviews, it’s failing the behavioral round. Candidates lose opportunities because they don’t explain their thought process, demonstrate curiosity, or communicate well with others.

This activity gives students an entry point on developing those very skills that are becoming widely referred to as #DurableSkills by America Succeeds . As they network around the room, make their case for a career “fit,” and respond to others’ ideas, they’re practicing the same behaviors that hiring managers value: articulating their thinking, showing interest, asking questions, adapting, and building trust. They’re learning that it’s not just about having the ability to do the work — it’s about being able to communicate why they’re the right fit, and why the role is a fit for them.

In these examples, it’s not career advisors or coaches leading the activity, but teachers, finding soft spaces in their school day to engage students in career conversations. Sometimes each teacher has their own set of cards; other times, a grade level shares a set across classrooms. The tool is built to help teachers normalize on-going career conversations within the instructional core — seamlessly connecting them to whatever content or skills are already being taught.

These “soft spaces” can be anything from a morning meeting, a fun Friday activity, or a reward for good work, to a moment when a recent lesson naturally links to a specific career. A history unit on architecture might lead to a discussion of structural engineers; a science lab on solar power might bring in renewable energy technicians.

At Connect The Work, we love working in the early grades so we're also in the R&D phase of creating cards specifically for our youngest learners, a request that’s come from early grade teachers who don’t want their students left out of the conversations. These “littles” cards will be age-appropriate, with no salary information, more pictorial images, and child-friendly language to make them accessible. We’ve already developed versions for English language learners, and those design principles, that include more visuals, simplified text, and relevant examples will guide the elementary sets as well. We know from experience: kids will love them.

The point is: career conversations become part of the fabric of everyday learning. Over time, these short, integrated activities help students form a healthy habit of exploring what “fit” means for them, linking classroom learning with their growing sense of purpose and the durable skills they’ll carry into the world of work.

How could this activity show up in your classroom or school? Could it be a Friday wrap-up, a cross-grade activity, a content-linked exploration, or part of your advisory time? What would happen if career conversations became a normal, healthy habit for your students all year long?

If you’d like to explore how this could look in your school or district, or want support in creating a more human, integrated approach to career-related learning, we’d love to connect and support your vision for helping every child explore their place in the world. Visit our website or message me to learn more: https://connectthework.com