Lawyers, entertainers, engineers, nurses, police officers and business workers, among others, on Wednesday gave Southwest Middle School eighth-graders an honest peek inside the ins and outs of their jobs during the school’s annual Career Day.

Starting out in the Southwest Little Theater, the students first listened as a panel of professionals introduced themselves and their careers, along with the advantages and disadvantages of their jobs. After this portion, the students divided into smaller breakout sessions, where they could hear more details about a career and ask questions.

There were 41 people from the community who came to speak to the students.

“Part of my goal is to expose the kids to as many careers as possible and to have them start thinking about what courses they should take in ninth grade and plan their future,” said Lynn Keenan, eighth-grade counselor, who helped organize the event.

Several of the speakers encouraged the students to remember how their actions even as eighth-graders can affect what they achieve in the future. Others talked of the importance of a college career.

Steve Bowron, dean of academic affairs at Riverland Community College, said education will be the key to future success. People will no longer be able to have simply a high school diploma and get a good-paying job, he said.

“You have probably the greatest generation of opportunity,” Bowron said.

He encouraged the students to start paying attention to different kinds of careers, to take career awareness opportunities, to think about careers they will enjoy doing and to start planning now for how to achieve those career goals.

Keenan said in a recent report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, it stated some careers with increased future outlook include health care, engineering, environmental-related occupations, and tech fields.

The top highest-earning college degrees all have one thing in common: math skills, she stated.

She added employers value workers who can think critically and solve problems, and they want employees with good analytic and interactive skills.

The basic skills of reading, writing and math are critical along with interacting, and computer skills are essential for job seekers.

Lawyer Stephanie Haedt with Peterson, Savelkoul & Benda, described her job for the students.

She said practicing law is not like what people see on TV. A lot of what lawyers do involves advising others.

The fun thing about law is that you can have any kind of background and be able to practice law, she noted. There’s business law, family law, farm-related law, among others.

Haedt said the disadvantages of being a lawyer are the schoolwork it requires, the loans that often have to be taken out and the high pressure it can sometimes give.

Petty Officer Matthew Requejo, 25, with the United States Navy said he joined the Navy because he felt like it was a calling for him. He talked about the different places in the world he’s been able to see and how he’s been able to get a four-year degree paid for by the Navy.

“College, it’s huge,” Requejo said. “It gets you into the career field you want to get into after high school.”

He encouraged the students to get involved with clubs and sports and to stay involved.

During the arts and communication break-out session, Glen Parsons, Beth Tostenson and Robert Tewes explained their professions and what it took to get into each.

Parsons talked about the theater industry.

He said someone who is thinking about going into theater must have a passion for it and recognize that the pay usually isn’t that high. Most actors have to have other jobs to supplement their pay.

Also, sometimes you don’t know if you’ll get cast in a production and there can be bad hours.

He encouraged the students who want to get into this field to take any kind of English or literature class they could to learn the stories behind the plays and to develop their writing skills. He also encouraged them to take any chance they can get to stand in front of a group and to take part in choir, band, orchestra and speech classes.

Tostenson, an artist, said she originally became interested in art in the sixth grade when her teacher took special concern to encourage her drawing and painting.

She said she got back into the art scene after her youngest child went off to college, and she took a watercolor class and got hooked on the medium.

She showed the students some of her paintings and explained that she often takes pictures and then goes home and paints from the pictures.

Like theater, she said, it is difficult to make a living as a studio artist, especially with all of the prints that are available to people.

But she’s found a niche in creating nostalgia prints.

“Find your passion and just spend some time and practice and take as many classes as you can,” Tostenson said.

Robert Tewes, owner of Crescendo Fine Dining, talked about his roles as a cook and as the music director at Grace Lutheran Church.

Cooks need verbal skills, need to understand what people are asking and be able to do math in their heads for measurements.

“The other thing is you have to have a passion about food,” Tewes said.

People can get that by eating at a lot of restaurants — especially independent restaurants that capture the essence of the area they are in.

He encouraged the students who would like to look into this career path to try recipes and see what they like to do.

There were also break-out sessions for business, management and marketing; engineering; health sciences; human services; and natural resources and agriculture.