Career Counseling

Career Counseling

Student Services Counselors offer an assortment of individual or group services to assist with the process of making a career decision that is insightful and well-informed. Career Counseling services are available to all residents of the CSC district at no-charge and fall into the categories of self-awareness resources and occupational resources.

Self-Awareness Resources

Selecting an occupation that complements your personality, interests, personal and relationship goals requires a significant amount of self-awareness. The Counseling staff at CSC an assist you through confidential, individualized sessions with the process of selecting and interpreting the self-awareness instruments that best suit your personal needs.

Online Self-awareness resources

•  www.careercruising.com
  Career Cruising offers a brief interest inventory to generate occupational options based on your interests.

• www.personalitypage.com The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) provides insight occupational options and the potential decision-making issues related to choosing a career. The full length MBTI questionnaire is available by appointment with a Student Services Counselor.

• career.asu.edu
  This brief values assessment from Arizona State University will identify your primary work and personal values. The inclusion of values when making your career decision will result in fewer conflicts between your career and personal objectives.

• www.d.umn.edu
  This brief skills inventory from the University of Minnesota, Duluth can help you identify skills that you possess that may not be obvious from your work history. Many of us may lack awareness of or underestimate our transferrable skills; we may be selling ourselves short when choosing a career. Additionally, recognizing your transferrable skills will be extremely valuable as you network and interview for employment.

Occupational Research

Taking time to research the options generated by an interest or personality inventory will enable you to make an informed decision based on fact, rather than merely following a hunch. Occupational research can provide the following information:

• Information regarding the daily duties for an occupation
• Degree and or certification requirements for an occupation
• Starting and average salaries
• Projections for future job opportunities
• Related or similar jobs
• Working conditions

The following listings represent examples of well-established websites for researching occupations:

• www.careercruising.com
  In addition to the information typically provided at employment websites, Career Cruising also provided projections for each state to identify the regions of the country where opportunities for employment are greatest. Career Cruising also identifies what percentage of expected job openings is due to retirements and what percentage is due to anticipated growth.
• www.bls.gov
  The Occupational Outlook Handbook (A-Z index), compiled by the Bureau of Labor, provides federal nationwide projections for specific occupational fields. This website also identifies long-term national trends regarding overall employment patterns throughout the country.
• www.ides.illinois.gov Workforce Information Center website is maintained by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Once you establish your site identify and password, you may gather employment projections for occupations specific to urban areas and WIA regions in the state of Illinois. This provision permits gathering information specific to your specific region of the state of Illinois.