If your winter break conversations with your student circled around and around topics things like: what they can do after they graduate with their particular major, if what field might be a good fit for their talents, or how their diverse interests might be incorporated into a career or graduate school program, the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) is ready to help! Every semester we see students (and alumni) with questions like these. The good news? In most cases, there are answers!
When a student is struggling with visualizing their life after college, we recommend that they utilize our office. The process of planning the future is often a complex puzzle, and we don’t pretend to offer all the pieces, but we’d like to think that our coaches and resources are important components.
A student can set up an appointment to discuss their concerns and in the course of that meeting, the coach will likely recommend some self-assessment. This is an important cornerstone to determining a career direction because without self-assessment and awareness of how the student’s skills, interests and values intersect with careers they can quickly become overwhelmed (“So many careers look interesting! I don’t know where to start!” or discouraged (“Nothing looks appealing. I give up.”).
If your daughter or son cannot come into the CCPD right now, but needs a little direction, they can access some self-assessment tools without an appointment. We do recommend meeting with a coach for maximum benefit, but realize that is not always feasible. Here are links to some of the instruments we use:
The VIA Survey of Character Strengths
Myers Briggs Type Instrument (this link takes you to an instrument based upon the MBTI)
Focus 2 and CareerOneStop Interest Assessment
As the New Year gets into full swing we hope to see many new faces in the CCPD! We want to help UMW students as they navigate their future, find their own version of “different”* and tap into their talents and passions!
*From The Graduate:
Benjamin: I’m just…
Mr. Braddock: …worried?
Benjamin: Well…
Mr. Braddock: About what?
Benjamin: I guess about my future.
Mr. Braddock: What about it?
Benjamin: I don’t know. I want it to be…
Mr. Braddock: …to be what?
Benjamin: …Different.
Mary Becelia, Career Coach, Center for Career & Professional Development