A career is intended to be an accumulation of challenging experiences over the course of many years – with each experience contributing to the growth of the individual and the university. A career is a long-term journey – not a sprint. Be intentional about your unique career journey. Realistic and desirable planning involves good decisions. Good decisions are based on good information – about yourself, career options, the university, and industry trends. What are your career goals? Your strengths? What skills would you like to enhance or develop? Reflect and set goals that complement your learning, talents, development and passion.
Looking Inward is about discovering yourself: your passion, interests, talents, preferences, values and more. Taking stock of where you’ve been, what you’ve done and who you are provides you with clarity and allows for intentional movement toward career objectives. Knowing specifically what you want from your position and what you have to offer the university is critically important as you embark on a thoughtful career planning process.
Looking Outward assists in identifying areas for personal and professional development. This section provides tools and resources to help employees anticipate the future and make career choices that are not only interesting and play to their strengths but will also serve an organizational need.
Careers happen over time and through a series of moves.The work you’ve done in the Looking Inward and Looking Outward section helps to generate insight into the world of possibilities for those who want to move forward and toward their career goals. Some individuals want to move up or on while others are looking to grow in place or step down. We each have our own unique career journey based on our skills, passion and interests which moves us towards a very personal definition of career success. Use the following tools to help you define your career success and determine your goals.
Learning from experience is an intentional process. One way for employees to learn from experience is through an experiential learning opportunity (ELO). Experiential learning opportunities are a creative way to develop and engage employees while moving projects forward. They take the learner outside their comfort zone and force them to actively engage and reflect on a particular subject.
