The Implementation of a Decision Tree for Career Guidance
Casey Barrett 2004-2005
Abstract
This research project will be an investigation into the design and implementation of various decision trees for career guidance. A decision tree takes into account some sort of situation outlined by a group of parameters and outputs a Boolean decision to the situation. This project will take into account many aspects associated with decision trees including database building, searching and sorting, and algorithms for accessing data.
My project utilizes numerous decision trees in an effort to serve as a tool for career guidance for young adults. A user will fill out a form of specified fields that will then be analyzed by the group of decision trees until a field of study/occupation is given to the user as the outcome. This group of decision trees will be built through database building techniques.

Background
A decision tree is a graphical representation of the decision analysis process. This type of tool consists of some sort of input, whether it is a situation or an object. This input is then sent through a set of parameters, or “rules”, and eventually the tree gives a
Boolean output. There are many different types of parameters that can be used. Or in other words, many different types of parameter cases can be used.
These cases can include numerical data, simple yes/no answers, or word answers, such as hair color (“black”, “brown”, or “blonde”). Each parameter will have a specified set of cases that correspond to the parameter.
As many high school students prepare for college and in some cases, life in the real world, many are directionless and confused. They do not know what
to study in college. College studies are important because generally, a student's career will be dictated by their studies. I propose a group of career guiding
decision trees to help students find their interests and hopefully steer them into focusing on these interests.