Career Exploration

In your BA ECEA program thus far, you haveseen several potential careers and consideredyour personal career aspirations and careerjourney. Developing a career goal is a greatway to take charge of planning your careerand provides a useful tool to manage yourcareer effectively. Many individuals may notknow how to develop a career goal. Tosuccessfully attain your goals, you must takeaction steps and Ashford University has aCareer Services program to support you in thisexploration! Following the steps below willhelp you determine where to start. There are afew steps that can be helpful in determiningyour career goal. These include conducting aself-assessment, exploring industries andcareers, and determining factors that are non-negotiable (e.g., geographic location, salaryrequirements, and health care benefits). Thefinal step of goal setting is writing the firstdraft of your goal.
To prepare for this discussion, explore jobindustries by conducting research on the typeof careers that use your interests and skillset.O*Net OnLine (Links to an external site.), the Occupational OutlookHandbook (Links to an external site.), and Bureau of Labor Statistics (Links to an external site.)are great web resources for careerexploration, job analysis, and educationrequirements.
In your Journal complete the following:
Step 1: Self-Assessment In your initialparagraph, address the following reflectivequestions:
What do you do well?
What energizes you?
If you knew you could not fail, what wouldyou do?
What high school subjects did you do wellin?
What issues do family and friends come toyou for help?
What do you receive praise for at work orhome?
What are some of your greatestaccomplishments?
What is something you do where you losetrack of time when you are doing it?
Step 2: Career Exploration In your secondparagraph, address the following questions:
Does the career you want pay a salary thatmeets your needs?
Will you need any additional training orschooling?
Will it offer you opportunities toadvance?
Is the career you are considering likely toexist when you are ready for a job?
Step 3: Determining Your Non-NegotiableItemsIn your third paragraph, copy, pasteand complete the following chart:
Must Have Do not Want
1.
1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
Although we may not speak them aloud, weeach have things we are not willing tocompromise on. During this step, write outyour must haves for your future career.
Although we may not speak them aloud, weeach have things we are not willing tocompromise on. During this step, write outyour must haves for your future career.

To help get you started, think about theminimum salary you need to have, where youwant to live, and desired work hours. Copyand paste the following table directly afteryour explanation of Step 2, and complete eachsection.
Step 4: Pulling it all together Write yourgoalIn your final paragraph, state yourcareer goal:
Now that you have conducted a self-assessment, explored industries andoccupations, and written down your non-negotiable items, what is your future careergoal? As you enter your chosen field, it isimportant that you return to and reflect onyour original goal often, so having your goalwritten down is an important step for futurereflection.
Be as specific as possible. The following is anexample of a specific career goal:
I would like to become the director of a largechildcare facility utilizing my organizationalskills, my education in child development, myability to work well with others, my leadershipqualities, and my love of children. Since I havea family, I must have a salary of $30,000 ormore, work within 15 miles of Phoenix,Arizona, and work a traditional work schedule.

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