505 W. Olive Ave. Suite 550 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Phone: (408) 730-7640 Fax: (408) 522-9850 For more info about all of NOVA's programs visit our web site: http://www.novaworks.org  "The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become." -Harold Taylor "Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think." -Ayn Rand	Career Information Career Info Career Choices Career Futures Career Education Career Choices Life is a constant process of balancing what we know about the world around us with the drive and passion we find within ourselves. Each time we make a decision we become like sculptors, shaping yet another piece of our lives and bringing form to our own futures. As you begin to shape your life, remember that this is a journey of learning. You will change as you have new experiences and you may adjust the goals you set according to the person you become in the process. Don't be afraid to change your plans as you change and grow. The sculpture of David may be carved in stone, but your future is not. In the following pages you will find a guide that will help you through 13 steps of the career planning process. The best way to step through the process is to do each section in sequence. You will notice that the first four steps help you to look inward, discovering information about yourself. ENJOY! The Best on the Web 1. My Interests 2. My Talents 3. My Values 4. My Personality 5. Get the Details 6. Hear From the Pros The Best on the Web 10 Step Career Planning Guide Here you will find a cutting-edge interactive web guide that will help you through 10 steps of the career planning process. The best way to step through the process is to do each section in sequence. Career Development Manual Attitude is how you respond to situations in your life. Keep a sense of humor. Don't worry about the future! Prepare! Visualize satisfying work, and expend your energy on locating employers/customers who have needs you can fulfill. Develop goals and strategies to make your dreams come true. The Career Development Manual has been prepared to guide you through the necessary steps, whether you are looking for your 1st job or your 21st. Choose work that will be compatible with your own unique skills, knowledge, personality, and interests. Assessment.com Searching for your ideal college, career and, ultimately, personal fulfillment? MAPP is designed just for you. This incredible career planning tool helps you make appropriate career decisions based on the things you find enjoyable and interesting. Learning and understanding what naturally motivates you brings you closer to a satisfying career and personal fulfillment. Complete this sample Student Career Motivational Appraisal FREE! The appraisal is recommended for high school students, college freshman and sophomores and community college students. It's designed to help you make post-secondary educational choices based on school class size, learning styles, educator/student ratios and majors offered. Combines narrative and learning style information based on your responses. Analyzes your motivations in the following areas: Interest in Job Content, Temperament for the Job, Aptitude for the Job, People, Things, Data, Reasoning, Mathematical Capacity and Language Capacity. Cool Works This site lists jobs at national and state parks, ski resorts, summer camps,dude ranches, and on cruise ships. The jobs are paid or volunteer, seasonal or full-time. FutureScan Magazine An online magazine offering articles on various careers. Monster.com Campus Be sure to check out this site... Monster.com the top rated jobs and career web site has a unique section designed for youth looking for career information as well as jobs. Don't miss this one. JobWEB Career development and job search help for college graduates. Quintessential Careers A comprehensive career, job, and college site, offering free expert career and job-hunting advice (through articles, tool, tips, and tutorials), as well as links to all the best job sites. Special sections for teens, college students, and all other job-seekers (by industry, geography, and job-seeker type) Career Passport CAP™ is an assessment tool that indicates your interests, abilities and personality. Once compared to Career Passport's extensive databases of career and educational opportunities, the end result is a meaningful list of career and educational opportunities tailored for you. Mapping Your Future My Interests Step1: Identifying all of the things we enjoy and are intrigued by will help us paint a picture of the careers that will color our lives. These career interest inventories will help you to see your interests and relate them to the world of work. They are designed to help you gain insight into your interests and some of the jobs that may suit you, but it's not an exact science. Don't stop here; use this exercise as a doorway to explore further interests and possible jobs, to discuss your career options with your career counselor and to go on to complete other self-assessment tools. The Holland Occupational Interest Game This exercise is based on the theory that people and work environments can be loosely classified into six different groups. While you may have some interests in and similarities to several of the six groups, you may be most attracted to two or three of the areas. The Career Key The Career Key is based on John Holland's theory of vocational choice. At its simplest, this theory proposes that "Birds of the same feather flock together." In other words, people like to be around others who have similar personalities. In choosing a career, it means that people choose jobs where they can be around other people who are like them. This assessment tool is used by many career counselors. Understanding it will help you make sense of your Career Key scores and how they are related to career choice. Campbell Interest and Skill Survey For prospective college and graduate students still undecided about which career path to take, this site offers an opportunity to take a first step in sorting out particular skills and interests. Readers may download a PDF version of the complete Campbell Interest and Skill Survey™ produced by National Computer Systems, Inc., of Minneapolis, MN. This internationally famous survey has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals discover for themselves the career direction best suited for them. NOTE: A fee of $14.95 is required if you choose to have your assessment evaluated. Take the MAPP: Motivational Appraisal Personal Potential Assessment Tool The MAPP will help you find where you fit into the world of work. If you are searching for a career path or personal fulfillment then MAPP is for you. Our goal is to provide you with an assessment that will help you make good career decisions based on what YOU really want to do. Think of MAPP as your owner's manual. Cars, computers, even your wrist watch comes with one. Find out what you are naturally motivated to do so you can pursue a satisfying career and life plan. School Finder's Interest Quiz After taking the quiz, find a summary of the different interest types here. top of page My Talents Step 2: Knowing ourselves means reading the signs, recognizing our skills and understanding how we can transfer our skills to a variety of situations. As we explore our abilities and aptitudes, we must remember not only to look at what we can do, but also see areas where we are able and willing to learn new skills. We don't have to let our weaknesses limit us. Instead, we make ourselves aware of them and work on turning them into strengths. Hey, we all have to start somewhere! Pride Experiences My Skills  top of page My Values Step 3: Values are the things that are most important to us in our lives and careers. In the context of Career Planning, values generally refer to the things we value in a career. For example most of us will say that having enough money to live comfortably is important to us, but many are willing to work for less because what they value most is not money, it's something else such as working for a specific cause, helping people or having free time. Being aware of what we value in our lives is important because a career choice that is in-line with our core beliefs and values is more likely to be a lasting and positive choice. Mazemaster's Values Quiz VALS: Value & Lifestyle Summary My Values top of page My Personality Step 4: We all have traits that make us unique. From being shy and reserved to being loud and boisterous, people vary in every possible way. Over our lifetimes we will grow and change. We may become more reserved in some ways and more outspoken in others. Through it all, it's important to keep in tune with who we are and to be familiar with our traits. Your unique personality is also important to consider when choosing a career. How do you energize yourself? What captures your attention? How do you make decisions? And, how you organize your daily life? Personality and Characteristics The Keirsey Temperament-PART 1 Take this personality test which is similar to the Myers Briggs to determine your style preferences. See how you energize yourself, what captures your attention, how you make decisions, and how you organize your daily life. The Keirsey Temperament-PART 2 FOR MORE INFO ON YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE CLICK HERE  top of page Get the Details Step 5: There are thousands of job titles and more appear on the job market every day. New jobs, like a Webmaster, are exploding on the scene as a result of technology and work force changes. With so many possibilities, how can we choose one career to zero in on? Just remember, we will all have 4 to 7 careers over our lifetimes, meaning the area we focus on now is just the first in a series of exciting career adventures we will have. The first four steps in the process have taken us inward to answer questionsabout ourselves. This information will help us identify career options that suit our values, personality, abilities, attitude and interests. Now the task is to match this information with realities of the labor market. To begin, generate a list of occupational options. California Occupational Guides CLICK HERE for the Guides by Interest Area CLICK HERE for a description of thr Interest Areas Princeton Review Online Go to this site and click on Seek And Ye Shall Find! To get a profile of the career that most interests you, simply enter the name of the profession. Each career profile contains the following sections: Daily Life, Paying Your Dues, Something to Fall Back On, Past and Future and What to Expect From Your Life. Military Careers at MyFuture.com This site focuses on careers in the miltary. Other useful information is also provided. Business Career Guides Careers in finance, marketing, nonprofit, accounting and management reviewed here. Experience Online Career Reports by Industry Go to the Industry Snapshots to get great information about careers. Health Care Careers Major Resource Kits Links academic majors to career alternatives by providing information on career paths, sample job titles, and a short bibliography of materials available in local public libraries. Major Resource Kits (MRK's) are listed in alphabetical order by major.   top of page Hear From the Pros Step 6: A major part of the career/life planning process is developing a network: that's a group of people who will be there when we need them to help us out or cheer us on. That network may include family, friends, teachers and counselors and people out there in the community who care about youth and can help us access information and programs. The links below take you to one-on-one interviews with professionals in various fields and industries. Experience.com In the networking section of the site, you will be able to meet directly with your peers, mentors, and experts in any number of fields to find out answers to your questions about work. To bring you the best possible experience, we want your feedback. Please email us at editor@experience.com to let us know who you'd like to hear from, chat with, or network with. Information Interviewing Guide Industry Insites Tap into a network of 61843 professionals. Browse the profiles of members working in hundreds of industries, job functions, and companies. Find out how networking can help you get ahead on the job. Job Profiles There are many paths to success in the work world. JobProfiles gives you a look into some of them. Each profile was completed by someone who is successful in their job. They have been selected from their memberships in associations, unions and business organizations. The first section covers the respondents background and what their job is like (accomplishments, time for each kind of task etc.) The second part covers what stresses and rewards they receive from their job. The third part covers what future challenges and advice they have to give. Each Profile has these sections: Background and what their job is like (accomplishments, time for each kind of task etc.) What stresses and rewards they receive from their job. What future challenges and advice they have to give.  top of page

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505 W. Olive Ave. Suite 550
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Phone: (408) 730-7640
Fax: (408) 522-9850
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