LHS Career Exploration Process

Career Exploration is a continual process that requires gathering information about yourself and information about careers. Whether you are just beginning to think about a career, or have a good idea of where you are heading, make sure you engage in self-assessment, career research, and experiences that enhance your skills and build upon your strengths.

Think of career planning in three steps. These steps include:

Step One:  Understanding Yourself and Self-Assessment. Knowing about yourself is the basis of career decision-making. What are your interests, skills, your values? What is important to you about your work? What are your personal traits and characteristics?

Step Two: Gathering Information about Careers. Learning about the careers, types of jobs, educational requirements, and job functions are important in understanding the careers that fit your interests and goals.

Step Three: Integration. This step requires you to take what you know about yourself and piece it together with the reality of the work world. You begin to evaluate career options that are practical for you.

Career/Life

Career decisions will include more than considering which job to take after graduation. Your career is the value of all the work and experiences you develop over time. In making career decisions, the work you choose to pursue will have a direct impact on the way you live your life. Your values, interests, past experiences, and lifestyle choices are all part of career development

Developing an Action Plan

Planning is an essential component of the process that requires setting goals about work and lifestyle and developing specific objectives that will help you meet them. Regardless of where you are in the planning process – from completely unsure to having somewhat of an idea – you will need to set goals and set strategies to move forward in the process. Gathering information will help you establish clear goals and objectives. Many sources of career information and support are available to help you along.

Making Career Decisions

Your career plan will not be the result of one decision, but rather a series of decisions throughout your lifetime. You will go through the steps in career planning several times because as you continue to grow and develop as a person, your interests, skills, and values will change. The Job market will also continually change. So, “process” implies a dynamic aspect of reflection and knowledge to develop satisfying and successful career and life plans. Don’t be alarmed if you feel uncertain about career plans – now is the time to explore, question, and wonder.

 Career Exploration Quiz

Read each item and decide whether it is true of false:

1.____Career testing will tell me what career is right for me.

2.____There is perfect career for me.

3.____I’ll pursue whatever career is in demand

4.____If I make the wrong decision, I’ll be stuck forever.

5.____I know everything I need to know about the career of my choice.

 6.____I don’t need to be concerned about making career choices until my Junior year.

Generally, all of the above items are false, and can be seen as career myths. Before you consider exploring careers, it is important to identify these myths that could block informer decision-making.

MYTH: Career testing with tell me what career is right for me.

FACT: No test will tell you which career is right for you of what career you should follow. Career assessment results can be useful in gathering information about you and relating it to career types. Test results often help you to put information in order so you can verify of challenge your ideas. These assessments are tools; the decision is yours. 

MYTH: There is a perfect career for me.

FACT: No single career is the perfect one for you. There are many careers that have the potential to meet your career goals, and several ways to find a meaningful career path. Career choice often requires the willingness to balance disadvantages with advantages and to make choices between several alternatives.

MYTH: I’ll pursue whatever career is in demand.

FACT: Knowing what is hot in the job market is important information, but not the only information you need to make a decision. Without knowing about your own interests and skills, you may choose a career that is available, but may learn that it isn’t the right fit for you.

MYTH: If I make the wrong decision, I’ll be stuck forever.

FACT: Fear of making a wrong decision can prevent you from making any decision. Career choices are never permanent. Few people head into one career and stay there for their whole working lives. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the average age worker will change careers five times during a work like.

MYTH: I know everything I need to know about the career of my choice.

FACT: Your knowledge may be incomplete. Understanding careers requires exploration, experience, and knowledge. The world of work is continually changing, and acquiring a variety of skills and apply to a variety of settings, will prepare you for a dynamic job market.

MYTH: I don’t need to be concerned about making career choices until my Junior year.

FACT: Actually, your career development has already begun! Attending college is a career decision and your major choice is a career decision. It is never too early to think about your future and you career.

Reprinted from Cornell University’s office of Career Development. Career Exploration Guide:  Understanding the world and your place in it.