Career Planning

Job vs. Career

A job is a trading of service or skills for money. The main purpose for doing the job is to earn a paycheck.
A career is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life with opportunities for progress.

career development plan

step 1: Perform a self-assessment

Self-assessments can help you get to know yourself and how you are different from others. Completing these assessments will also help you find careers that fit your skills and/or personality and hopefully introduce you to something you didn't know existed before!

NERIS Type Explorer-Personality Assessment

Start Here to learn your personality type and learn how it influences many areas of your life.

Interest Profiler

This is a free version of Holland's Interest Inventory, which will help you discover your three top personality traits. It will help you see how your interests can relate to work and give you ideas of career options to explore further.

Values and Work Characteristics Inventory

This is a values assessment that helps you identify your current priorities. It groups 64 work-related values into ten categories to help you find a career that aligns with your work values and characteristics.

Work Preference Inventory

This assessment will help you determine what types of activities suit you best based on your preferred work style.

step 2: explore a career

Use these websites and resources to research the careers you discovered from performing the above self-assessments.

Career Cluster Interest Survey

This assessment helps students connect their interests with the sixteen career clusters and learn more about hundreds of careers within each cluster.

Illinois Postsecondary Profiles

Explore careers and educational options by Institutional Profiles or Occupational Profiles. Then students can explore career pathways or search by keyword to find areas of study and the occupations connected to them.

ILLINOIS CiS360

Use your Illinois CiS360 account to take assessments and explore colleges and career options. Create your own individualized career plan using your personal interests and goals. The more you know, the better career and education decisions you can make!

step 3: Identify a match

It is important to continuously assess and update your career options and plans. It is also okay to change your mind because your skills and priorities will change over your lifetime. Keep track of the important information you have learned about the careers you have researched so far. Use this Career Comparison Worksheet or create your own chart compare the different aspects of the careers you discovered and researched in the first two steps of the process.

Career Comparison Worksheet.pdf

step 4: Write a career action plan

Now that you have created a collection of your goals, priorities, values, and interests, you can create your career action plan. This plan will help you consolidate important information about what you need to do to reach your goals and helps plot a course toward a career that can be continuously visited and updated. Use this template or create your own career action plan to keep all the information in one place.

Career Development Plan.pdf

career preparation

writing an effective entry-level resume

It is very important to develop your first resume while in high school even if you do not have any professional experience. It is easy to forget all of your extracurricular activities, involvement, honors, awards, and volunteering over four years of high school, so creating a resume is a great way to keep it all in one place.
Entry-level resumes can include soft skills like willingness to learn, commitment, and positive attitude since employers understand you do not have much related experience yet at this point in your life.
Common categories in entry-level resumes:
- Personal information→ appropriate contact information
- Objective→ describe the job they’re expecting to do
- Profile→ carefully selected list of soft skills
- Education→ rigorous courses, academic honors, and/or GPA
- Work History→ include paid and volunteer work experience
- Volunteer/Community Activities→ extracurricular activities and involvement in the community throughout high school
- Skills→any important skills related to the job they’re applying for
- References→ do not need to be on resume, but the student should start compiling a list of their references in a separate document
Here are two free templates or use the one below to organize your resume.
- Resume Template #1
- Resume Template #2

Sample Resume.pdf

professionalism

Professionalism is extremely important when thinking about, preparing for, and when working in any job or career at any point in your life.
Behaviors that demonstrate professionalism:
- Separate your work and personal life
- Dress neatly and appropriately
- Be organized
- Demonstrate professional integrity
- Respect coworkers and customers
- Communicate effectively
- Be positive
- Be accountable
- Be prompt, dependable, and cooperative

interviewing

It is critical to prepare for interviews because this is how potential employers will assess an applicant's soft skills, and it is the applicant's opportunity to showcase his/her skills and professionalism.
Interviewing Basics:
- Dress→ dress appropriately; your clothes selection demonstrates your respect for the company and how you represent yourself
- Preparation→ be prepared to answer common interview questions
  - Top 12 Entry-Level Interview Questions and Best Answers
- Arrive early→ a reasonable time is about 15 minutes early. Remember the interview begins as soon as you pull into the parking lot and includes everyone you come across.
- Greeting→ make eye contact, use names, shake hands, match the tone of your interviewer
- Body Language→ posture is important-sit up straight, lean a little forward, and try not to fidget
- Note-taking→ write down names and important information if that is helpful
- How to Prepare for an Interview: The Ultimate Guide
- Types of Interviews

- Structured interview→ often involves panel of potential coworkers and supervisors; you will answer a set of predetermined questions; often used for first-round interview
- Unstructured interview→ more personal and conversational; candidates feel more relaxed and tend to reveal more information about themselves than they normally would in a structured interview
- Problem-solving or case interview→ candidate is given data or other information and asks you to solve a problem related to it; the goal is to articulate your steps as you assess the issue
- Behavioral interview→ designed to determine how you might go about the problem-solving process (watch video below for tips)
  - Use the STAR strategy, which is a storytelling structure you can use to frame your response for open-ended questions
    - Situation→ describe the specific setting and establish the context
    - Task→ describe your responsibility
    - Activity→ describe the actions that you, personally took
    - Result→ describe how the situation was resolved and state the end results

how to ace an interview

top interview tips

behavior based interview questions

After the Interview→
- Send a thank you email within 24 hours of the interview
  - Best Thank You Email After an Interview Examples
  - Sample Thank You Email
- Ask for feedback
  - How to Ask for Job Interview Feedback

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