Decision tree - Main branch
The main branch has a series of four questions. You’ll start at the top and answer YES or NO to the first three. If you answer NO before getting to the fourth question, you’ll reach a “thumbs down.” A “thumbs down” means the occupation is probably not a good fit for your program. If you answer YES to the first three questions, you get the fourth.
These initial questions help you determine if an occupation is both in-demand and provides a living wage for participants. You can adjust these questions based on your mission or region. For example, the starting salary threshold of $35,000 included here aligns with the MIT Living Wage Calculator Links to an external site. for a single adult in Denver. Similarly, you can adjust the lifetime wage threshold (included further in the decision tree as $45,000) based on your region or program goals.
The fourth question asks you to categorize the occupation’s career progression as either static, lifetime, or springboard. Don’t worry if these terms are unfamiliar to you. Overall, they give a sense of the longer-term career potential for someone in a specific occupation. If you are interested, you can learn more about this framing, and the detailed definitions and uses of these terms, in When Is a Job Just a Job—and When Can It Launch a Career? Links to an external site.
Main Branch
Next, we’ll cover the terms static, lifetime, and springboard and also guide you through the remaining branches of the decision tree.