Alumnae Career Services
CAREER PLANNING
The Career Process
Personal career work is some of the most challenging and most important work that you will ever do for yourself. It requires the willingness to look at yourself honestly, with gentleness and clarity: identify your true skills, values, life requirements and goals. I recommend that you revisit this exercise yearly, the world of work is shifting and changing all the time, and as a result we must change too.
There are 4 basic steps to the process:
Self-assessment
- Examine skills, values, interests, life requirements and goals
- Identify skills which need further development
- Consider practical and inspirational goals for yourself
- Choose wisely: what will serve to define your inner compass now?
Marketplace research and assessment
- Examine what is happening on the macro level, including the world economy, trends in industries, new areas of opportunity as well as regional trends for areas you are considering
Strategy and preparation of supporting materials
- Prepare a complete networking list
- Identify geographical areas of interest
- Identify target industries and companies
- Prepare a solid, core elevator speech and practice!
- Prepare a core resume that you can adapt for each application
- Formulate a strategy for activating your networking connections
Implementation
- Integrate information to form a plan and timeline
- Conduct networking steadily and keep good records
- Refine your goals based on what you discover
- Analyze your work regularly and learn from it
- A job search is a full time job, allow the time to do it well
- Remember that the more you strategically reach out to others, the more opportunities will unfold for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I use this website content effectively?
We have grouped information by simple categories to assist you in finding related materials. There will be some overlap between sections of the website. For example, women and entrepreneurial listings may have cross-referencing.
Are the listings for the Career Development Office and Alumnae Association website content integrated?
Our two departments are working together to build content that is meaningful and easy to access for alumnae. For example, the CDO has developed a great collection of online research databases, so those are directly linked to the Alumnae Association website under the research section.
Are there links to other college resources here as well?
Yes. We have identified some college sites that have strong content and reference those in our listings as well.
Will more material be introduced over time?
This site will be a work in process; we are building it now and will continue to add to it over time.
Self-Assessment Online Resources
Assesment
Acinet
Analyze My Career
Authenitc Happiness
Career Discovery
Career Key
Career Values Test
Character Sorter
Jackson Vocational Interest Inventory
JobSkills Transfer Assessment Tool (Identifies jobs with similar content for transferable skills)
ONet Online
Quintessential Careers
Strong Interest Inventory/ DOL version (Assesses areas of interest for career planning)
Transferable skills exercise (Identifies skills related jobs to current or past jobs)
University of Waterloo (Comprehensive site with assessment tools and links)
Self-Assessment Materials
The following series of self-assessment exercises allows you to honestly examine your skills, values, and interests, and gives you tools to reflect on past accomplishments and identify future goals. Alumnae Career Services gives you many opportunities to do these exercises in conjunction with programming, but you can also do them on your own at any time.
