You probably want to be employable when you graduate, right? If so, you’ll need to start the Career Planning Process early. You’ll need to learn about what fits you, discover your options for careers and majors, create a career preparation plan, and make your college experience count!
To complete the Career Planning Process, you’ll need to follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: WHO Am I and What Do I Want in a Career?
You’ll start by thoroughly assessing what you like, what you’re good at, and what matters to you in a job. You’ll use this information to establish your criteria for an ideal career. To help with this, Career Services offers Career Counselors to guide you through this process, and career assessments that can provide information on your interests, abilities, values, and personality.
Step 2: WHAT Are My Options?
The next step involves determining what career options exist that may fit you, gathering more information about careers of interest, and evaluating how well each option fits your criteria for an ideal career. Our Career Counselors can help you identify and research options, or you can use the online resources in the Virtual Career Center.
Step 3: HOW Will I Get There?
In the third step, you’ll determine what what academic options will best prepare you for your chosen career path, what hands-on experience outside the classroom you’ll need to obtain, what professional and technical skills you’ll need to demonstrate, and who will need to be a part of your professional network. Once you have this information, you’ll create a Career Preparation Plan that outlines the steps you’ll take to prepare for your career.
Additional Information:
- Get more in-depth information about each of these three steps, as well as the resources to use in each step in our Career Planning Process handout. Get the Career Planning Process handout.
- For a more interactive experience, visit the Virtual Career Center and take our virtual workshops on career planning, which will guide you through all 3 steps of the process.
- What’s career counseling, and how can it help you? Learn more about career counseling here.
- Need assistance with any part of the career planning process? Make an appointment with Career Services.