Decision Making: Your Next Steps
After gathering information about yourself and researching majors and career opportunities, the next step is to make decisions about what to do by strategizing a plan of action.
The Mission Statement:
Whether you are now ready to:
- Research in even more detail your top three possible majors
- Declare your major
- Begin your search for an internship related to your top major choice or
- Pursue a full-time job
It may be worth the time to craft a mission statement to articulate your goal or objective. This will help you:
- Focus your energy
- Gain a sense of purpose
- Finalize an action plan
Having a clear mission statement
will also help you talk about yourself in interviews and networking environments.
Here's how you do it:
Combine the following information into a sentence or short paragraph. Be as specific as possible.
- Name your three highest priority values, interests, and motivated skills.
- Identify the role you most want to play.
- Name the organization(s) where you would like to play this role and apply your skills, values, and interests.
Examples:
"I want to use my people skills to empower others. I want to assist people
in need to receive the services that they are entitled to. I want to work
with children through Child Protective Services so that I can help ease
their suffering."
Sara Chalmers, Major: Social Work
"I want to learn as much as I can about every aspect of photography. I
want to take my camera and travel all over the world and photograph people
from other cultures."
Niki Desautels, Major: Photography, Minor: Photojournalism
"My goal is to use my technical skills along with my people skills to
enable others to overcome their fear of technology to enhance their work
productivity."
Chris Benschoter, Major: MIS
"My goal is to become an artist, concentrating in painting and sculpting
in order to use my skills and Cambodian background to educate the public
about diversity."
Chalidine Meas, Major: Art
Stay on Track
See where you fit according to class standing on the career exploration
"to do list."
Starting the
Job Hunt
Actually, the best time to look for an internship or job is when you don't
need one. This way, you can explore and research the different aspects
of the job search process without all the stress, and establish a great
foundation of the knowledge and experience needed to effectively pursue
an internship of job.
A Lifelong Journey
Look at the career planning process as a lifelong journey-there may be
bumps on your career path as you move forward. The key is to be motivated
and continue to realize that putting in some quality time and effort can
increase your chances of making a successful decision.
