3 - plan your career 21-30

8/8/2019 3 - Plan Your Career 21-30

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Take a ew minutes and think about what the ideal work setting would look like to you.

n What city/town are you working in?

n Are you in an ofce setting?

n What is the style o the place? Is it ormal or casual?

n What are your co-workers like?

n How do they dress?

n Are they creative, intelligent, older, younger?

n Do you travel a lot?

n

Are you working on the road?n What activities do you do?

n Are you communicating regularly with people via email, in-person or on the phone?

n Are you using a computer throughout the day? What are you doing on it? What

sotware or computer programs are you using?

Plan Your Carer

Think about the type o environment where you would succeed.n Do you need reedom or structure?n Are you more ormal or casual?n What type o supervision do you want?

When you start to have a picture o your ideal work environment, write

down your ideas so you’ll keep them in mind when you’re job searching.

1. Describe your ideal work environment.



Your job search will go more smoothly i you know yoursel well and are able to

explain to employers why they should hire you.

Basically there are our areas you need to examine:

1. Your Interests: What do I like?

2. Your Skills/Talents: What comes naturally to me?

3. Your Values: What is important to me?

4. Your Style: How do I like to get things done?

2. The four things you need to know about yourself.

Plan Your Carer

Can you identiy who would hire you to use your skills? And in whatworkplace setting would your values and style best t?



Plan Your Carer

You’ll have the most energy and enthusiasm toward your work i your interests relate

in some way to your career. Interests change over time, and some o your interests

will remain hobbies. But taking the time to analyze your past and current interests

can make a huge dierence in your career satisaction throughout your lie.

When you think about your interests, ask yoursel what appeals about that interest.

Why do you enjoy it? Sometimes that can be a clue to what’s important in a job.

For instance, you might enjoy sports, even though you don’t plan a career in that

eld. What do you like about sports—is it the team-playing? Or the competition?

Or the chance to improve yoursel and set goals?

By examining what you like about a hobby, you will have more clues to tell the

employer about why you will do well in a particular job.

3. Identify your interests.

Write down 10 interests you currently have or have had throughout

your lie. Next to each interest write down a word or two about why

you like it. What do you interests reveal about you?



Plan Your Carer

In the previous section you identied several interests you’ve had over the years.

Select a ew o the interests you just identied and try answering the ollowing

questions.

n What employment opportunities are related to this interest?

n How could I be paid to perorm this interest?

n How could I be paid to inorm people about this interest?

n How could I be paid to create products related to this interest?

n

How could I be paid to assist people who perorm this interest?n What interest groups or proessional associations exist or this interest?

n How could I be paid to provide a service related to this interest?

n How could I learn more and develop my skills in this interest?

4. Get paid for what you like to do.

Meet with a career coach or counselor at your career center to talk

about strategies or making money rom your interests.



Plan Your Carer

A laser is ocused, concentrating its beam o light in one direction on one target.

Laser-type people tend to pick a goal and pursue it with single-minded attention.

They can easily block out distraction. I this is your style, you probably have a ew

deep interests which you have pursued or years. You’re not intimidated by careers

which require a lot o training, experience, or education won’t intimidate you. Set a

goal and go or it.

I you’re a oodlight, your attention covers a wide area. You may nd it particularly

hard to commit to a career decision. You probably like to try new things and

quickly drop hobbies when you’ve mastered them. You enjoy taking a varietyo introductory level classes, but start to get bored when the subject is explored

in depth at the advanced level. You are adaptable, curious, and exible. I this

description ts you, consider careers where you have constant variety and get to

investigate new things all the time like librarian, teacher, reporter, documentary

lm-maker, etc.

5. Are you a laser or a oodlight?

So which one are you? How do you know this? Take a minute to

think about how your answer will apply to your job search and job

choice.



Plan Your Carer

As you research possible careers, start analyzing specic elds o interest and how

they might relate to your strengths.

One way to do this is create a career act sheet:

n Start by listing the eld you’re interested in.

n List several job titles within the eld that you might qualiy or.

n List the general requirements or those jobs including:

• education

• knowledge required• experience needed

• skills needed

• popular geographic locations

6. Develop career fact sheets.

Use a variety o sources to uncover the inormation you need about

a career eld. Check the internet and your career center library.

Identiy 3 key sources or inormation about your career eld that

you can reer back to it when you’re preparing or interviews and

writing your résumé.



Plan Your Carer

7. Analyze your past experiences.

One o the best ways to gure out where you might want to go is to analyze where

you’ve been. Try answering the ollowing questions about your past experiences

with jobs, student activities, internships, and volunteering.

Past Experience Analysis Worksheet

n Place:

n Title:

n Key responsibilities:

n Skills which I used/learned:

n

Feedback I received:n Any potential reerences rom this experience?

n What did I like about this environment?

n What did I not like about this environment?

n How does this experience apply to my uture plans?

n Key points about this experience to put in resume or mention in interview:

Complete a “Past Experience Analysis” or all your recent

experiences and see i you uncover any new inormation about

yoursel or your skills.



Plan Your Carer

Maybe you have an experience coming up soon: an internship you’re going to do,

or a volunteer experience you’ve decided to try. One way to make sure that you’ll

get the most out o the experience is to take a ew minutes and think about what

you hope to get.

Current/Upcoming Experience Worksheet

n Place:

n Title:

n Key responsibilities:

n Skills I’m using or will learn:

n Skills I want to learn beore I leave:

n What would I like to say I accomplished beore I leave:

n Feedback which would be helpul:

n Relationship to uture career plans:

n How do I want to be viewed at this experience?

n Who do I want to meet or learn rom?

n Key points about this to put in résumé or mention in interview:

8. Design a future experience.

Copy these questions onto a word processor or a notebook and take

a ew minutes to answer them.



Plan Your Carer

Select three career elds and complete the rest o the inormation. I

you can’t then it’s time to do more research. Visit your career center

or help.

9. Expand your career possibilities.

Part o developing your career involves knowing what jobs are available within

your elds o interest.

Start by listing three top elds you might be interested in working in, and then

identiy several settings where you could work.

For instance, your eld o interest might be healthcare. What settings might

hire you? Perhaps it would be a hospital, a nursing home, a state agency, or a

pharmaceutical company. Possible job titles might include patient representative,

social worker, activities director, sales representative, or health care coordinator.

Now you try it:

Field: _______________________________________________________________

Location A: __________________________________________________________

Possible Job Titles or this location: _______________________________________

Location B: __________________________________________________________

Possible Job Titles or this location: ______________________________________


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Plan Your Carer

Have you considered the geographic location in which you’d like to work? Here’s

an area which can be a major pitall or job seekers who are either too rigid or too

exible in their geographic considerations. As the saying goes, the job seeker who

is willing to do “anything, anywhere” has the hardest job search. It’s important

to know where the jobs are in your eld o interest. Certain geographic regions

(Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Madison Avenue) are known or their conglomeration o

opportunities in specic industries.

Points to consider about your desired location:

n Have I lived there or any period o time?

n How do I know I’d like to live there?

n Do I know the cost o living in this area?

n Do I have relatives or riends nearby?

n Do I have a temporary place to live?

n Can I visit the area to look or a job?

10. Decide where you want to live.

Once you’ve identied one or two geographic preerences, research

the cost o living and other actors related to the area. Start check-

ing the local newspaper online regularly and get acquainted with

the area beore you move there.

3 - plan your career 21-30

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