ALABAMA CONNECTION

ALABAMA
CONNECTION

Virtual
CAREER

CENTER

HOME

CRITICAL
INFO FOR
COLLEGE
STUDENTS

GRADUATE
SCHOOL

CAREER
PLANNING

COLLEGE TO
CAREER
TRANSITION

CAREER
EXPLORATION

JOB MARKET
TRENDS

JOB SEARCH
STRATEGIES

INTERVIEW
PREPARATION

RESUME
WRITING

WORKPLACE
ISSUES

GREAT SITES
FOR COLLEGE
STUDENTS

Career
Voyager

Occupational
Outlook
Handbook

US Dept
of Labor

Job Hunter's
Bible

Changing
Course

Career
TV

Hot Jobs
Tests

Self Directed
Search

Wet Feet

What Can I
Do With
This Degree

About
Career
Planning

InfoNet:
Career
Resource
Library

Career Hub

Black
Collegian

Career
Conversations

Michael Lebeau
Career
Counselor

CAREER
BOOK LIST

Topics
Include

Career
Planning
Job Market
Job Search
Interview
Prep
Resume
Writing
Career
Exploration

Plus
On-Line
Resources

CONNECT
WITH YOUR
FUTURE

Click Here
for
Grad School
Fair Info

CAREER
PLANNING

"If you don't know
where you're going,
you might wind up
somewhere else."

-LEO DUROCHER

GRAD SCHOOL n CAREER PLANNING n COLLEGE TO CAREER n CAREER EXPLORATION
JOB MARKET n JOB SEARCH n INTERVIEW PREP n RESUME WRITING n WORKPLACE ISSUES

Click Here for Grad School Fair Info

CAREER PLANNING

It is critical to your career success that you have a strong sense of focus and a clear sense of direction based on a well defined career goal. Effective career planning empowers you to make sound decisions about your future and ensures you are successful in your professional pursuits.

Observing successful candidates over the years, the one consistent factor that seems to have made the most significant difference was the individual's possession of a goal. It appears that a sense of focus was more critical in ensuring career and life success than such factors as the talent and experience of the candidate or the strength of the economy.

GOOD STUFF
CLICK HERE FOR HELPFUL
ARTICLES, RESOURCES, AND LINKS

Career Direction
Change & Transition
Decision Making & Goal Setting
About Career Planning
Strategies for a Balanced Life
Self Growth: Goal Setting
Changing Course
YouTube: Daniel Pink: A Whole New Mind
YouTube: Defining Success

SENSE OF DIRECTION

"We can all be in charge of where we are going and how we plan to get there. In fact, in almost all cases, we are where we are because we decided, consciously or unconsciously, to move toward our present life. The main purpose of setting long-range goals is to help you be more consciously aware of where you are going, why you are going there, and how you imagine it will be when you arrive. Taking charge of your life means more than just thoughts, feelings and intentions. It requires that you set goals and carry them out. Through setting and achieving goals you learn skills for getting where you want to be and feeling good about yourself. Goal setting is the ultimate purpose of career and life planning. With proper goal setting in mind, you are assured a sense of direction."
-RANDY POWELL

"To get somewhere, you must know where you're going. Sounds logical, doesn't it? Yet, for countless unhappy, unsatisfied people, getting through the day is their only ambition. They float along in their daily lives like driftwood in the ocean. They take whatever job falls their way and exert the least amount of energy possible to get the job done."

-WAITLEY & WITT

"As we pass through the various stages of life and as situational changes occur, we set goals, choose from options and alternatives, and make decisions. For many the process of change is difficult and threatening, particularly for those who haphazardly chart their course only to find frustration and dissatisfaction. Through career life planning, we learn to center our attention on carefully laid plans and on those variables over which we have some control. Our lives can be charted more effectively through the maze of changes that we experience, both individually and situationally, by planning programs that place these variables in perspective."

-VERNON ZUNKER

GOOD STUFF
CLICK HERE FOR HELPFUL
ARTICLES, RESOURCES, AND LINKS

GOAL SETTING

To be successful, it is imperative you have a strong sense of focus and a solid feeling of confidence that come from a well established career goal. Your career goal provides you a sense of direction, a map, a plan. To be successful in your career pursuits, it might be necessary to develop a "career action plan."

"Begin with the end in mind. Start with a clear understanding of your destination. Know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now, and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction."

-STEPHEN COVEY

"First, you have to have a goal. For, if you don't know where you are going, then any road will take you there -- and it won't really matter what you do with your life. In fact, if you don't clearly know where you are going in your life, you probably won't recognize it when you get there."

-WAITLEY & WITT

GOOD STUFF
CLICK HERE FOR HELPFUL
ARTICLES, RESOURCES, AND LINKS

Discover
Human Metrics
Personality Page
Type Logic
Personality Profiles

Self Knowledge
Career Assessment
Google: Career Tests
Queendom: Land of Tests
Personality Summary

CAREER & LIFE PLANNING

"An individual's work cannot be considered in isolation; rather, work is conceptualized as a major commitment in life planning that must be integrated into an individual's style of life. Because career life planning can affect individual lifestyle tremendously, it should be considered as an ongoing process that must allow for change of individual needs and situational circumstances. "

-VERNON ZUNKER

"There can be little joy in aimless activity. It is debilitating. Negative attitudes and poor self-esteem fester in the frustration of purposeless labor. Aimless labor is like traveling in a rudderless ship. You are powerless to propel your vessel toward your port of call. On the other hand, virtually nothing on earth can stop a person with a positive attitude who has his goal clearly in sight."

-WAITLEY & WITT

"One of the primary purposes of career life planning is to develop skills through which individuals learn to control their futures. We learn how to develop options and alternatives and effectively decide which to follow. We learn to identify our personal needs and the needs of our closest associates and how to integrate those needs into our life plans. We learn to make plans that we can change and revise as we ourselves change or as circumstances necessitate change. Thus, our planning must be flexible and include realistic options from which effective decisions can be made to promote a fuller and more satisfying life."

-VERNON ZUNKER

"Most people resist the idea of goal-setting. It's easier just to assume everything will work out in the end. Hang loose. Whatever will be will be. So, most people never set goals. They fill their calendars with excursions and diversions. Rather than concentrate on activities and projects that can help them reach their goal, they just hope for the best and go with the flow."

-WAITLEY & WITT

GRAD SCHOOL n CAREER PLANNING n COLLEGE TO CAREER n CAREER EXPLORATION
JOB MARKET n JOB SEARCH n INTERVIEW PREP n RESUME WRITING n WORKPLACE ISSUES

ALABAMA CONNECTION n Virtual Career Center