CAREER COUNSELOR

CAREER CONFIDENCE
CAREER PLANNING
Job Market Success

CAREER
PLANNING

Self Assessment
Personality
Goal Setting
Decision Making

What Do You
Want to be When
You Grow Up?

LINKS

Bham-Sou College
Career Services

US Dept
of Labor

NACE
Job Web

Changing
Course

Career
TV

Spirituality
At Work

Road Trip
Nation

What Color is
Your Parachute?

World of Work
Map

Career Hub

Mind Tools

About:
Career Planning

Future Me

Info Net:
Career Resource
Library

Google Careers

Michael Lebeau
Career Counselor
and Director
Birmingham-Southern
College
Career Services

900 Arkadelphia Road
Box 549010
Birmingham AL
35254
Norton Campus Center
Room 241
(205) 226-4719

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CAREER PLANNING n CAREER EXPLORATION n JOB SEARCH
INTERVIEW PREP n RESUME WRITING n WORKPLACE ISSUES

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.

n Career Direction
n Change & Transition
n Decision Making & Goal Setting
n About Career Planning
n Strategies for a Balanced Life
n Self Growth: Goal Setting
n Changing Course

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

n Discover
n Dream It Do It
n Human Metrics
n Personality Page
n Type Logic
n Personality Profiles

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

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."

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

-LEO DUROCHER

"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."

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ON-LINE COMMUNITY:

BSC CAREER SERVICES WEBSITE n CAREER COUNSELOR E-MAIL
FACE BOOK n TWITTER n COLLEGE CENTRAL NETWORK

CAREER CONFIDENCE:
FAQ n CAREER PLANNING n CAREER EXPLORATION n JOB SEARCH
INTERVIEW PREP n RESUME WRITING n WORKPLACE ISSUES

CAREER CONFIDENCE n JOB MARKET SUCCESS n MICHAEL LEBEAU