Career Planning and Decision Making

By Gloria Rose Koepping, Ph.D.

Where are you now in your career path?

And what does it take to get there?

The Right Education Some Experience

Flexible Social Skills

And not necessarily in that order!

To Begin…..at the Beginning

Assess your Interests

Note your abilities and gifts

Figure out your values

Learn about the world of work. All jobs are made up of some

combination of the interests people have in working with Data, Things,

Ideas, and People.

Rank order these four things and you will have a rough idea of your pattern of interests. Further rate

them from 1-10 to determine your relative

interest in each area.

To figure out the fit between your interest pattern and potential career choices and jobs, you need to figure

out your interest pattern from testing, rank ordering your interests, or completing on line assessments.

If you are consistent across all these measures, you can be sure you are

searching in the right direction.

Interest Assessments

WOIS (Washington Occupational Information System)

Free career interest, skill assessment, and work importance (values) assessments.

Go to http://www.wois.org

Get a site key or password from a counselor or advisor

MBTI M, Newly Revised Strong, or the Career Assessment Inventory.

Cost is $23.20 per test

See a Counselor in the Counseling Center to get started.

Skills, Abilities, Gifts

Use the Skills assessment from WOIS or meet with a Career Counselor to discover your unique skills, abilities, and gifts.

Sometimes it helps to make a list of what friends and family have said about your talents. Music? Math? People Skills? Writing?

Work Values

What do you value in a job or career? Money? Working indoors or outdoors? Varied work? Alone or with a team of co-workers? Flexibility? Setting your own schedule? Prestige? Business or Academia? What is important to you where you work?

Narrowing Down the Choices

Using your interest results, make a list of 10-20 options. Use the WOIS search function to READ about different or related careers. Exclude the choices that don’t make use of your gifts or fit with your values. Make a tentative choice.

Verify Your Choice

After you READ about a career, you need to TALK to people in that career to get more information. People often do this by using an informational or research interview and talking to faculty advisors in that area.

Try it Out

Students often use;

Job shadowing

Volunteering

Community service

Practicum

Field work

Co-operative education (co-op)

or Internships

to further decide if their tentative choice is a good one for them.

Other Ideas

• Try an externship after your degree

• Look for a summer program in that field for students in between semesters/quarters

• Work in the field in an entry level job

• Take extra courses in that area

• Consider Student Programs Activities and Club involvement for your resume

• Think about Mediation training/other trainings

• Then re-evaluate if the fit is right

Consult a Career Counselor for More Ideas

• Visit the Counseling Center in Building 6 for a free consultation with a Career Counselor. Our counselors offer free Career, Personal, or Educational counseling to help you get on track and make the most of your college experience.

• Drop by or call us at 206.592.3353 to make an appointment.