Work is part of life. A career is a more substantial way of thinking about your employment path. That is not to say your early jobs working at a fast food restaurant or a convenient store will not play out into your future plans, but if you make conscious choices about next steps you may be more aware of what you are learning while at them. And, if you take the time to think more intentionally about your career and work, you are more likely to enjoy it.
Career planning is the continuous process of:
• thinking about your interests, values, skills, and preferences.
• exploring the life, work, and learning options available to you.
• ensuring that your work fits with your personal circumstances.
• continuously fine-tuning your work and learning plans to help you manage the changes in your life and the world of work.
One key practice in planning your future is talking with colleagues, friends, and family.
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The College Fund offers the Focus 2 Career and Education Planning System to help you develop your future.
FOCUS 2 combines self-assessment, career and major exploration, decision making and action planning in one place. By matching your assessment results to career options and majors/programs for your planning consideration, FOCUS 2 guides you through a career and education decision-making model to help you make informed career decisions and take action in developing your future.
To use this free service, register to create an account with the access code collegefund. From there, you can take each test about personality, interests, values, and skills to build your academic and career planning profile.
Print your profile to share with an academic or career counselor or mentor for conversations about developing your initial career plan or transitioning from one profession to another.
Career Examples
- American Indian Studies
- Arts
- Business
- Computer Science and Information Technology
- Education
- Federal Government
- Health Careers and Nursing
- Liberal Arts
- Social Sciences
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
