Developing your career plan
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Explore
Look inward. Know yourself. Interests, strengths, skills, and values.
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Determine your interests
Activities about which you are passionate. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
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Recognize your aptitudes
The skills you have and those you want to develop. What do you do well?
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Evaluate your work experience & education
Acquired knowledge that will help you advance toward your desired career paths. What are your accomplishments?
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Recognize your personal qualities
Triats that makes you a strong candidate. What unique characteristics define you?
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Select potential career areas.
Areas of career interest for further research and exploration. What career fields do you gravitate towards?
The assessment helps you to identify your top 5 Talent Themes which point to talents that naturally exist within you and enable you to do certain things better than others.
When developed, talents are:
- Behavior patterns that make you effective.
- Thought patterns that make you efficient.
- Beliefs that empower you to succeed.
- Attitudes that sustain your efforts toward achievement and excellence.
- Motivations that propel you to take action and maintain the energy needed to achieve.
Strengths are developed from our natural talents when combined with acquired skills, lessons or facts learned, and intentional effort. Remember, all themes are positive and can be applied productively in a wide variety of careers. For example, a talent in Communication could be applied to roles in business, education, nutrition, government, theater, public health, and other fields.
Talent + Skills + Knowledge + Effort = Strength
My top 5 talent themes:
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Majors I’m considering now...
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Careers I’m considering now...
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Self-Assessment
To make career decisions, we first have to know about ourselves- our strengths, interests, values, and skills. We can then take this knowledge and explore possible career fields and occupations. With our self-knowledge, we are better able to evaluate whether or not a particular career would be satisfying. Use this self-assessment to start reflecting on your talents, interests, and values.
What I do best
Read through the following list of activities and identify five statements that would best describe tasks or activities you would like to spend most of your time doing in a job or career.
- Volunteer for causes I believe in
- Talk with those going through difficult situations
- Establish routines and processes
- Work hard
- Live for the present
- Find a new way to do things
- Learn as much as I can about the people I meet
- Take on challenges
- Follow through on all of my commitments
- Participate in intellectual and philosophical discussions
- Prove myself successful
- Strive to know more
- Envision the things I want and desire
- Organize a big event or celebration
- Join brainstorming sessions
- Make work fun
- Speak on behalf of other people or organizations
- Compare my performance to others
- Act according to my beliefs
- Include people who feel left out
- Let others know, without words, that I know how they feel
- Help others explain their thoughts
- Meet new people
- Use history to explain my position or idea
- Treat all people the same
- Concentrate until the job gets done
- Do what is expected of me each day
- Discover patterns of data
- Be persuasive
- Keep track of several things at one time
- Figure out how different people can work together productively
- Create future pictures and plans
- Take on significant goals and challenges
- Search for the reasons and causes
- Tell stories
- Push things into action
- Accept people as they are
- Teach or coach people
- Build connections between people of different cultures or experience
My interests
Think about what you enjoy doing and things you like to learn about. Choose five interests that you enjoy most.
- Acting & theater
- Action sports
- Armed services
- Business
- Dance
- Design
- Education
- Engineering
- Entrepreneurship
- Environment & nature
- Fashion
- Film
- Food
- Government
- Journalism
- Law
- Medicine
- Music
- Non-Profit Organizations
- Numbers
- Philosophy & religion
- Politics
- Radio & broadcasting
- Sports
- Science
- Technology
- Televison
- Travel
- Writing
- Other
What I want most
Rank the top five career values that best describe the qualities you would most like to find in the place you choose to work.
- Location
- Help others
- Stability
- Independence
- Honesty & Integrity
- Work with others
- Adventure
- Artistic creativity
- Excitement
- Creative expression
- Power & authority
- Fun & humor
- Work alone
- Work on the frontiers of knowledge
- Change & variety
- Spirituality
- Structure and predictability
- Community
- Tradition
- Recognition
- High earnings anticipated
- Competition
- Influence people
- Time freedom
- Fast pace
- Profit, gain
- Help society
- Advancement
- Diversity
- Moral fulfillment
- Work-life balance
- Challenging problems
Write your top talents, interests, and values below. Brainstorm! In what types of roles or work environments could these connect? Meet with a career counselor, academic or faculty adviser, or a strengths coach to discuss options.
My top 5 talent themes:
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My interests:
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What I want most:
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How have you prepared?
Technology
How have you built this skill?
Leadership
How have you built this skill?
Critical thinking
How have you built this skill?
Communication
How have you built this skill?
Career Management
How have you built this skill?
Global Fluency
How have you built this skill?
Professionalism
How have you built this skill?
Collaboration
How have you built this skill?
Beginning your job search
Begin with self-awareness
- What are your interests, strengths, skills, and values?
- What are your personal and professional goals?
- Where would you like to live? What are your preferred geographic locations?
Explore career & job information
- Explore resources like O*Net, BLS, and Chamber of Commerce websites to research organizations and job titles.
- Read job descriptions and evaluate career fields/industries/employers.
- Conduct informational interviews.
- Think about personal qualities and skills required for jobs of interest. Where might your natural talents fit into different occupations?
Develop job search skills and get started
- Set specific and tangible goals and create a job search plan. Get organized!
- Create strong resumes and cover letters, and hone your interview skills.
- Build and use your network.
Complete your profile on Handshake. - Identify a variety of job search resources and learn to use them effectively.
- Apply to positions of interest and follow up. Tailor your resume and communication accordingly.
- Send thank you notes after each employer/professional interaction.
- Be persistent and recognize that the job search takes time. Plan accordingly!
The power of networking
A successful job search entails using a variety of strategies, and an important component of the search is building strong relationships through networking! We know that 80-90% of jobs are found via referrals and networking, so it’s essential to start creating professional contacts early in your college career. When embarking on the job search, experts suggest that 60% of your time should be spent meeting and connecting with professionals, 30% of your time spent researching opportunities, and 10% sending resumes to contacts.80-90%
of jobs are found via referrals and networking
