By Alina Nesterenko, Peers for Careers/SCDC Correspondent
(As originally published in the Ticker: http://ticker.baruchconnect.com/article/career-corner-new-tool-uses-personal-traits-for-career-advice/)
Not sure about what major or which career path to take? Have you logged into Baruch’s new career and educational planning system?
If not, you’re missing out! Focus 2 is a Starr Career Development Center initiative designed to help students get exposed to different majors and occupations through a self-guided process.
The system assesses the best major and career for an individual from his or her interests, values, skills and personality. It also allows a student to explore careers with which he or she has less familiarity.
Focus 2 is made simple by six key categories in career readiness, focusing on recording your career and educational goals.
To do this, you are asked to identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as your working experience and educational accomplishments.
Under this section, you can also better understand your career planning status and personal development needs.
Self-assessment evaluates your work interest, personality, skills, values and leisure interests, producing a list of occupations and majors based on your combined results.
For the work interest assessment, it breaks down your level of investigative, conventional, social, realistic, enterprising and artistic interests.
Then it shows a list of careers that match your interests. You have the option of not only saving this information but printing it too. By having a better understanding of yourself, you are able to identify careers that match your unique talents and skills.
How is all of this data about you gathered? Focus 2 asks you questions. It takes about five minutes per activity.
Once the questionnaire is completed, Focus 2 generates a summary specifically tailored to your answers.
If at any point you feel that your answers need updating, Focus 2 allows you to go back and change your answers or simply clear everything and start over.
“Explore the Possibilities” is the place to do your research. Focus 2 allows you to search by occupation name or industry.
You have the unique option to compare two occupations side-by-side. From educational requirements, to skills and earnings, to a graph comparing your interest scores versus a particular occupation, you can get great insight into whether an occupation is of interest of you.
Finally, you can view which occupations you can pursue based on any major you select on the site.
“Create a Plan to Obtain Your Objectives” requires a detailed account of your past, present and future plans.
The system will ask you about your areas of study. Have you decided upon a major? Minor? What type of degree are you pursuing? What about internships, past experience, volunteer and your advisor’s information?
The goal is to be able to complete the section that plans ahead and asks about a career objective.
“Career Portfolio” is your career portfolio. It ties all the previous sections together. Here you can retrieve your careers and majors of interest. You have the option to review, restart and print your results.
“Recommended Tools and Websites” encourages you to connect yourself to resources. You will find a link to job boards and internship opportunities. In this section, you can also find a workbook on career and education planning which gives you more details about understanding this online resource.
So how do you access this great tool? Simply log into your Starr Search account. On the right hand-side, you will find the hyperlink to Focus 2 under “Shortcuts.” When you register, it will ask you for your access code.
This unique code can be found also on Starr Search under the center section “Announcements – Additional Resources.”
Look out for upcoming Focus 2 workshops from the Starr Career Development Center.
The first one will be held on Feb. 27 from 5p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Space is limited, so be sure to sign up on Starr Search. Remember, this is an online tool to help you explore your possibilities.
This should not be a substitute for career counseling. Once you have more information about your interests, a career counselor can help you create an action plan to achieve your goals.