Career planning is a lifetime, ongoing process in which you collect relevant information about yourself, the world of work, and follow a plan that involves a decision-making process. This adventure starts now and will continue throughout your lifetime.

Find your career path by following these simple steps:

STEP 1. Self-Assessment

To assist you with the career decision, the self-assessment step has you gathering information about yourself. Learning about your interests, abilities, values, and personality traits helps you to generate a list of potential careers for exploration.

Resources to help you:

• Choices Planner
• Career Development Links

STEP 2. Explore Career Information

Exploring Career Information is exactly what it sounds like - investigating the world of work. Researching career information is critical to making a good decision. For example, you would not make a decision about a car without learning about the vehicle. It is important to research items such as job functions, educational requirements, work environment, salary range, growth potential, required skills, and lifestyle considerations.

Resources to help you:

• Choices Planner
• Career Services Resource Centers

Note: There are many sites for career information. Have fun surfing.

STEP 3. Identify Alternatives, Tentative Decisions, Goal Setting

Weighing the positives and negatives of your alternatives narrows your career options. Questioning your interests, abilities, and values as they relate to the information you obtained about the different occupations will help you in this process. Set short- and long-term goals.

Resources to help you:

• Choices Planner
• Student Internships
• Part-time Employment
• Informational Interviewing

STEP 4. Take Action

Take steps to test out your decision. Talk with professionals in this field. If possible, find part-time employment related to this field. Try an internship or volunteer your time. Take introductory courses in this field. Join a professional association. Re-evaluate your decision. Redo steps 2 through 4, if necessary.

Resources to help you:

• Student Internships
• Part-time Employment

STEP 5. Job Search/Transfer

It's time to discover job opportunities in your field. Write your resume and have it critiqued. Strengthen your interviewing skills. Develop job contacts. Research companies. Learn to network. Learn how to do a job search. Register with HACCs free on-line job posting source www.collegecentral.com/hacc/. If seeking a four-year degree, plan to transfer to a senior institution. Review transfer agreements and choose courses carefully with your advisor/counselor.

Resources to help you:

• Attend Job Fairs
• Attend Transfer Events
• Peterson's Guide to Colleges
• Register/Search for Jobs/Post Your Resume

** Although all links on this page have been verified at the time of this writing, all links are subject to change without notice. HACC is not responsible for lost or broken links.**