Are you headed along the right path to your dream career? Like any adventure, your career journey is certain to be much more exciting and satisfying if you have a destination in mind. When you are focused and know your strengths and interests, you can target the industries, organizations and positions that fit you best.
The Career Exploration Guide gives you six easy to follow steps to help you make major and career decisions that fit you.
Career Exploration, Step-by-Step:
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1) Explore your interests, skills, personality type and work values.
Make an appointment with a career counselor to explore your career interests. The Career Center offers the Focus 2 assessments to help you answer these questions.
• What skills can I contribute?
• What motivates me to be my best?
• What exactly do I want to do (daily tasks and responsibilities)?
•What organization(s) do I want to work for?Focus 2 New User Registration Instructions
The Focus 2 assessment website info for UNCP is:
1) https://www.focus2career.com/Portal/Login.cfm?SID=1034
2) New users scroll until you see “REGISTER” and select this item.
3) Fill in your PERSONAL DETAILS
- The access code is: braves.
- Fill in your
- First name
- Last name
- Bravemail
- Confirm your bravemail.
4) Fill in your ACCOUNT INFORMATION
- continue registering your account by creating your own username and password on the same registration page to complete your account setup
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2) Explore what you can do with different majors.
Whether you’re exploring majors or searching for information about your chosen field, this website will help you connect majors to careers. Learn about typical career areas and types of employers that hire people with each major, as well as strategies to make you a more marketable candidate. Continue your research through the websites provided. "What Can I Do With This Major?"
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3) Research occupations
Research job duties, tasks, education requirements, salary, wages and job outlook using these resources
- My Next Move
- Occupational Outlook Handbook
- O*NET
- College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC.org)
- NCCareers.org
- NC Tower: a resource that provides graphs and tables of in-depth information on employment rates, wages and ongoing higher education enrollments of graduates from the North Carolina Community College System and from the University of North Carolina system schools. NC Tower includes data on former UNC students who are working in roughly 90% of all jobs in North Carolina.
- Note: The database EXLUDES information for graduates who are:
- Self-Employed
- Work for the federal government, including the military
- Work outside of North Carolina
- Note: The database EXLUDES information for graduates who are:
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4) Find sample job postings
Use job search sites such as Handshake, Indeed and CareerBuilder.
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5) Ask the experts
Get advice from faculty and current students in your academic department of interest.
• Arrange Informational Interviews with professionals in occupations of interest.
• Attend Career Panels, networking events and other campus programs where you can learn more about career paths for Liberal Arts students.
• Create your LinkedIn profile and find professionals in your field of interest.
• Use LinkedIn to find professionals in your field of interest and read more about their career paths. -
6) Give the job a trial run
Consider job shadowing experiences, part-time work, internships or volunteer opportunities to identify what you enjoy doing, test jobs, and build your network.
Download the Career Exploration Guide.
For further assistance, schedule an appointment with a Career Counselor to discuss your career goals.