Career Exploration

Career planning process: assess, explore & take action

The career planning process can be started at any point in your career. It's a method that helps identify your short- and long-term career goals. The process is designed to assess your work values, guide you in career exploration and end with a list of achievable objectives.

Find out more: Allison Doyle's Brief but Mighty Description of the Career Planning Process

Consider who you are & what you desire professionally

Take note of the strengths, characteristics, passions and preferences that make you, you. Self-assessments, whether they are career-related or personality-focused, encourage you to take inventory of your values, interests and skills to create a baseline for career exploration.

Consider the following when conducting a self-assessment for career exploration:

  • Interests
  • Personality
  • Skills and Strengths
  • Lifestyle
  • Work Values

Strong Interest Inventory® - As the most widely used interest inventory in the world, the Strong Interest Inventory® uses six Holland Themes to summarize interests and how they connect to academic, career and lifestyle goals. The assessment is used to help people understand dissatisfaction, and to find balance between work and leisure activities.

Among other benefits, the college edition of the Strong Interest Inventory® profile connects students' themes and interests to academic majors, extracurricular activities, internship settings and college courses they might enjoy.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) - Based on more than 60 years of research, the MBTI® is the #1 most used instrument for understanding normal personality differences. Because it explains basic patterns in human functioning, the MBTI® tool is used for a wide variety of purposes including career development and exploration, team building, and management and leadership training.

This tool can help you enhance your understanding of yourself, your motivations, your natural strengths and your potential areas for growth. It will also help you appreciate people who differ from you.

Get involved & explore careers

Use the self-assessment results to brainstorm possible job options and start researching. This stage of the career planning process involves gathering information through conversations and hands-on experiences.

Consider the following when exploring career options:

  • Informational Interviews ADD LINK
  • Workshops/Conferences
  • Job Search Resources
  • Internships
  • Volunteering
  • Declaring a Major/Field of Study
  • Signing Up for Courses
Databases
  • MarketLine Company Profiles Authority
    MarketLine provides company profiles that include business description, company history, products and services, key employees/biographies, revenue and SWOT analysis and top competitors. To access, click "Company Profile" at the top of the Business Source Premier database page.
  • Nexis Uni
    News, legal and business information, full-text for more than 350 newspapers in the United States and worldwide.
  • Mergent Intellect
    Offers access to private and public U.S. and international business data, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, the ability to access industry profiles and much more.
Websites
  • CareerOneStop: Explore Careers
    Information on industries, occupations and job skills, as well as self-assessment quizzes. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
  • Cost of Living Calculator (CNN)
  • Data USA
    A comprehensive visualization of U.S. government data.
  • Glassdoor
    Search millions of job listings and see company salaries, reviews and inside connections for any company. Based on user input.
  • Career Planning Sites/Assessments
    Includes self-assessment quizzes and career match-ups.
  • O*NET OnLine
    This useful site provides comprehensive occupational descriptions and data for use by job seekers, workforce development officers, human resources professionals, students, researchers and others.
  • Occupational Outlook Handbook
    Discover everything you want to know about an occupation, including education and training requirements, advancement opportunities, employment, salary and 10-year job outlook. From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Books
International Resources

Set goals & take steps to achieve them

Your career exploration research becomes a guide for choosing a few career paths that fit your personal and professional interests. This is the stage in the career planning process to take action, set concrete goals and begin working on the steps to achieve them.

Consider the following when setting achievable career goals:

  • Job Search LINK
  • Resume & Cover Letter LINK
  • Networking LINK
  • Interviewing LINK
  • Salary Negotiation
  • CareerOneStop
    Your sources for career exploration, training and jobs, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and a proud partner of the American Job Center Network.
  • Indiana Career Explorer
    A career planning system for all Hoosiers. Log in to explore jobs in demand, assess your skills and develop a plan to get the education and training you need to begin planning for your future today.