CAREER COUNSELING

Career Counseling

Career Counseling

Career Counseling with Students Outline

Values

Your values are those aspects of work which you believe to be the most important and often the most rewarding. Therefore, looking at your values will help you identify those job characteristics that are most important to you. For example, do you prefer to work alone or on a team? Do you want to earn a great deal of money? Is helping others of primary importance for you? These are just some of the questions you will need to ask yourself. You will most likely find your career genuinely rewarding if it is consistent with your work-related values.

Values Exercise

The following exercise is designed to help you identify some of your most important work-related values. Of the following factors that give people satisfaction on the job, rate their importance to you on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the most important and 10 being the least important.

Skills Exercise

You can often discover what your skills are by looking at the experiences that have given you the most satisfaction and greatest feeling of accomplishment. Think back on the accomplishments in your life so far. These successes may have occurred through a variety of experiences, do not restrict your self to job-related accomplishments. Reflect on these experiences for a moment and write down your responses to the following questions:

What three accomplishments are you most proud of? For example, being elected president of a sorority, editing the school paper, earning a scholarship, acting in a play.

What skills were involved in each of these activities? Try to classify them as functional, job-specific, or self-management skills.

Of the skills used in those experiences, which did you enjoy using the most, and the least? What does this say about the kind of tasks you enjoy the most?

From Self-Assessment To Career Exploration

How does one begin to identify a possible career to pursue when there are thousands of occupations to choose from? Know thyself: It is crucial to learn about your interests, skills, and values. Knowing yourself helps to identify options that are best suited for you.

When beginning your career search, first identify a broad field for exploration, and then research specific options within that field. For example, if marketing is an area in which you have a general interest, then you might want to explore market research, direct marketing, and product development. Try to keep your options open.

Exercise 1

Identify two broad career fields you would like to explore further (e.g., healthcare and business).

Next, list three specific career options within each field (e.g., healthcare - occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech pathology; business¡ªmarketing, financial analysis, and auditing).

Think about why your chosen fields and options are interesting to you.

Generating Options

There are a number of ways in which you can generate a list of occupational alternatives. Consider the ways in which your interests, major(s), and skills relate to the world of work. Vocational interest and personality inventories may be helpful in pinpointing occupations worthy of further exploration (an ...