Summary of Your Options
| CONGRATS - You’ve completed Options to Explore By learning more about career opportunities and ensuring they compliment your career identity, you are making positive progression towards meeting your career aspirations! It is essential that you explore career options that are attractive to you, but it is also important to know those that you are not interested in. Remember, there is no way to know all of the information out there! Now, it may be helpful to create a list that contains items that you want to have more in-depth knowledge about. The next step is to use this information as you progress through the stages of the GOALS program. |
Want more? You may find the following services helpful at this stage in the GOALS program.
Career Counseling
Career counseling services are available either face-to-face or through distance secured methods. Licensed Professional Counselors and supervised counseling interns assist individuals and groups with the decision-making process and facilitate the development of career action plans as it relates to life and career directions. Career counselors tailor services according to the needs of the individual in order to clarify life/career aspirations. Some common concerns confronting individuals can include identification of interests, values or skills; improving decision-making skills as related to choosing a major and/or career; identifying resources such as career planning and occupational information systems; educating about job search strategies; resolving personal conflicts on the job by improving interpersonal skills; assisting with the integration of work and other life roles; providing support and decreasing job stress, job loss, and career transitions. Learn more about Career Counseling.
Informational Interviewing
Informational Interviewing can serve as a dual purpose. The technique can be used to gather important information, so decisions can be made about choosing or refining your career path, identifying what is required to succeed within a chosen career, or to learn how to gain access for entry into a chosen field. An added benefit of informational interviewing is meeting new people and keeping in contact with those individuals who have common interests which expands your network.
Graduate School Preparation
Understanding how to make informed decisions about whether or not to attend graduate school is imperative. The Career Development Staff can assist you in exploring the option to attend graduate school. Primary factors for wanting to attend graduate school are to determine your rationale and to ascertain important information about programs and universities which coincide with your interests and established criteria. Other areas worth investigating include feedback from enrolled students and faculty experience and research interests. An additional item to explore includes requirements of the application process such as graduate admission tests, personal essays, minimum grade point average, and application deadlines. Financial considerations and resources such as financial aid, scholarships and fellowships should be considered. Estimating the daily living expenses, tuition, fees, and other costs to sustain a realistic lifestyle while in graduate school may provide a different outlook once additional information is obtained.
Career Development Center Resource Library
The CDC Resource Library is comprised of up-to-date books, videos, handouts, worksheets, company literature, internship sources, computer kiosks, and career information files available during regular office hours. View a listing of all library resources (Excel).
Focus
FOCUS will help you better understand your interests, work values, personality, skills, and more using tests. The results will enable you to further explore career options.