Career planning is the process of setting career goals and outlining the steps needed to achieve them. It involves self-assessment, exploring career options, and creating a roadmap that guides your educational and professional journey. Effective career planning helps you align your skills, interests, and values with your long-term career aspirations.
- Clarifies Goals and Objectives: By identifying your career interests and objectives, you can focus your efforts on roles and opportunities that align with your aspirations.
- Enhances Decision-Making: A structured career plan allows you to make informed choices about education, internships, and job opportunities, ensuring that each step contributes to your overall career trajectory.
- Improves Career Satisfaction: Planning for your career encourages you to reflect on your passions and values, leading to more fulfilling career choices and greater job satisfaction.
- Conduct Self-Assessment: Use tools like career assessments, personality tests, and skills inventories to gain insight into your strengths, interests, and values, helping you identify suitable career paths. We suggest starting with PathwayU!
- Research Career Options: Discover industries and roles that align with your interests and skills through informational interviews, job shadowing, and research to explore potential career paths. Leverage tools like PathwayU and St. Thomas Connect to deepen your understanding of various opportunities and engage with the Tommie Network for meaningful conversations with professionals in fields that inspire you.
- Set Short- and Long-Term Goals: Create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that outline your educational and career milestones, keeping you focused and motivated.
Career Compass
The Career Compass is a comprehensive planning tool designed to guide you through your career development journey. Much like a compass points the way forward, this method helps students navigate the complexities of career planning by focusing on key themes: Self-Awareness, Exploration, Goal-Setting, Skill Development, and Community Building. These interconnected elements provide a clear framework for discovering passions, identifying opportunities, and taking actionable steps toward a fulfilling professional life.
Whether you are just starting to consider your future or are ready to take the next big step, the Career Compass offers direction, clarity, and confidence. One of the unique aspects of the Career Compass is its cyclical nature. Career development is not a linear process with a definitive end point but an ongoing journey of growth, learning, and discovery. You can revisit each stage of the framework as their interests evolve, goals shift, or new opportunities arise. This flexibility ensures that the Career Compass remains a relevant and reliable tool at every stage of a student’s professional life, empowering them to adapt to an ever-changing world of work while remaining aligned with their personal values and aspirations.
The journey of career planning begins with understanding yourself and exploring the world of possibilities. Self-awareness helps you identify your unique strengths, interests, values, and skills, providing a solid foundation for making informed career decisions. At the same time, exploration broadens horizons, encouraging you to investigate potential career paths, industries, and roles. Together, these elements enable you to align your personal attributes with professional opportunities. Activities like self-assessments, informational interviews, job shadowing, and internships are vital tools that foster both introspection and discovery. This focus ensures you can make thoughtful, well-informed choices about your future.
Compass Activities:
- Complete PathwayU Assessment
- Sign-up for a Major & Career Exploration Appointment
- Create a Handshake Account
- Follow @USTCareer on Insta
- Visit the Career Development Center
- Draft your resume– consider a drop-in appointment if you are just getting started
- Join a campus club or organization
- Arrange a job shadow of a professional
Goal setting transforms career aspirations into actionable steps. This theme focuses on creating a structured plan that includes short-term and long-term objectives. By setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals, you can break down your career journey into manageable milestones. Goal setting provides clarity, motivation, and a sense of purpose, guiding you through the often-complex process of building a career. It also helps you track your progress, adjust plans as needed, and celebrate achievements along the way.
Compass Activities:
- Update your headshot
- Participate in a CDC event
- Complete an informational interview
- Sign-up for St. Thomas Connect and send a message to an alum
- Begin to drop HS information from resume
- Volunteer to build your resume
- Explore research opportunities
- Create a LinkedIn Account
- Set short-term or long-term career goals
- Use the Whomi platform to develop a career plan
- Officially declare your major
Successful career planning requires identifying and cultivating the skills necessary for achieving professional goals. This theme emphasizes building both technical skills specific to a field and transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptability. Skill development is also an ongoing process, encouraging you to seek opportunities like coursework, certifications, internships, leadership roles, and extracurricular activities to enhance your readiness for the workplace or graduate school. Proactively developing skills positions you to meet employer or industry expectations and stay competitive in your chosen fields.
Compass Activities:
- Finalize a summer opportunity
- Attend a Career Fair
- Participate in a networking event
- Seek a leadership opportunity on campus
- Apply to attend a conference through UROP
- Update LinkedIn and Handshake profiles
- Use Jobscan to tailor your resume
- Research companies and opportunities in your industries of interest
- Develop an elevator pitch
- Complete an internship search appointment
- Explore opportunities abroad with GoinGlobal
Growth and reflection are ongoing processes in career planning, focused on building upon progress and gaining confidence through experience. This phase encourages you to evaluate their achievements, identify areas for growth, and adapt as your goals and interests evolve. By reflecting on past experiences, you can make informed decisions about your next steps, whether it’s exploring new opportunities, refining skills, or pivoting toward a different path. This dynamic approach empowers you to embrace change, celebrate your development, and continue moving forward with purpose and clarity.
Compass Activities:
- Job Offer & Negotiation or Grad School Prep appointment
- Complete a Practice Interview appointment
- Post on LinkedIn about career plans such as announcing a job acceptance or naming industries you are searching for opportunities in
- Research professional associations in your industry and consider joining with a student membership
- Check in with faculty about references or letters of recommendation
- Set LinkedIn profile as Open to Work
- Update your network on your future plans
