Pick a particular job, like Tax Accountant, and ask students to think of the first word that comes to mind when they think of what it would be like to do that job.
Using a software program such as Top Hat (https://tophat.com/) you can have students enter a one-word answer to contribute to a word cloud. Discuss the responses and how job changes in job characteristics might change their perceptions. As a twist on this discussion, you could invite a professional who has that job to stop in as a guest speaker or call in for a quick conversation to share his or her words describing the job and then compare the two.
1. Would you want to work in this job? Why?
2. How would this job score on the dimensions of job characteristics theory?
3. If you connect with the professional, afterward ask students what assumptions they made about the job and what they learned about the job from the professional.