Unit 7: Career Exploration

Learning Objectives

After you have completed this unit you should be able to:

• Identify your motivations for attending college
• Correlate your short-term goals with longer-range ambitions
• Define college ready and career ready
• Describe how your longer-term goals might evolve, relative to your deepening experiences
• Differentiate between “job” and “career”
• Explain the five-step process for choosing a career, which includes aligning your personal interests and skills with appropriate fields
• Identify sources for learning more about specific careers
• List key strategies for selecting a college major
• Identify the relationship between college majors and career paths (both why they matter and why they don’t)
• Identify sources for learning more about specific majors and related careers
• List specific skills that will be necessary for your career path
• List transferable skills that will be valuable for any career path
• Explain how to acquire necessary skills, both in and out of class, for your career goals
• Describe the stages of career development, and identify the stage you’re currently in
• Identify career development resources in your school, community, and beyond
• Define network and identify strategies for networking
• Identify sources for developing professional networks
• Define the purpose and contents of a résumé
• Identify characteristics of an effective cover letter and résumé
• Describe effective strategies to prepare for an interview
• Differentiate between different types of interview situations and identify appropriate interview techniques for each
• Analyze different question types common in interviews