Explore job possibilities at the Resource Center
Discovering what one can do for a living is different from deciding what one should do for a living.
The Career Exploration Resource Center, located in the University Inn, Room 101, offers a variety of services to guide students through the process of evaluating likes, dislikes and competencies.
Glen Maw, director of the center, created a mnemonic outlining the content of career exploration. SIR/TV stands for skills, interests, realities, temperament and values.
“A career is an identity quest,” Maw said.
He said careers are not determined by one choice, but rather by ongoing choices in which an individual starts by making a simple choice and expanding his or her horizons by encompassing the different elements of SIR/TV.
At the center students may participate in a variety of assessments to help them identify and categorize preferred skills and corresponding career options, according to the center’s exploration overview.
The Skill Scan Professional Pack Card Sort helps students see how different skills can be incorporated into a job, said Peg Hennon, the center’s adviser and librarian.
“It’s a real eye-opener,” Hennon said.
The self-directed search uses a code designed by John Holland, who created a theory to explain results of a survey which included responses of 67,000 people, Hennon said.
The self-directed search takes approximately 15 minutes and results are available immediately. The assessment yields a specific code to the student, specifying the top three areas in which students orient themselves.
Students may be more conventional. This area includes office-type professions such as bookkeeper, bank teller or inventory controller.
If students are more artistic, they may want to be a journalist, actor/actress or composer.
Students who are enterprising may consider pursing public relations, sales, legislature or managing a department store.
Socially-oriented students may want to teach social sciences, provide speech therapy, be a marriage counselor or be a playground director.
Students who are realistically-oriented may pursue professions involving farming, surveying or carpentry.
The self-directed search costs $5.
Brittney Davis, a senior majoring in business management, works as a peer adviser in the center.
“[The self-directed search is] not as in-depth as other assessments,” she said.
One of the other assessments offered at the center for $5 is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Hennon said.
She said since the Myers-Briggs indicator asks more questions and delves into personality types more than the self-directed search, its results require professional interpretation.
That interpretation is done by Hennon or Maw, she said.
Maw said students come to the center to take assessments either to find out what areas they may be interested in or to validate their current choices.