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INTERNET CAREER CONNECTION
Discover your career direction!
A service of Gonyea & Associates, LLC.
© 1999-2009 Gonyea & Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.
www.iccweb.com
Step 1a Checklist: Define your
interests...
Career Selection and Planning
Guide
Internet Career Connection
Interests describe your passions, those activities in life that fascinate you. They are the core of who you are. If identified and acted upon, they can be the seeds of an enjoyable and rewarding career.
The purpose of this step is to help you define your work-related interests - those activities that you would most enjoy doing in a work situation. To help you complete this step, you will first take a "tour" of the World of Work by completing our career interest inventory. Second, using the results of your inventory as clues you will define your work-related interests.
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You must complete this career interest assessment in order for this program to work properly. Completion of the other assessment areas (skills, values and/or behavioral traits) is optional. |
Time required to complete...
Approximately 1 hour. Additional time will be required if you elect to complete any of the optional interest inventories suggested below.
Required form...
Please print a copy of Form 1 and use your printed copy to record your findings as you complete this step.
Directions...
Print a copy of this checklist to record your progress as you complete this step.
On your printed copy, check off each step as it is completed.
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You must be viewing this checklist while connected to the Internet in order for the hyperlinks below to function properly! |
[ ] Complete the Perfect Career Interest Inventory.
In the United States, our World of Work is very large, with thousands of different occupations, with many new occupations created and others dying off on a regular basis. Therefore, before you try to define your interests, it's helpful to first take a "tour" of the World of Work to learn about the most common work-related activities that exist.
Career interest inventories are ideal tools for touring the World of Work. You are invited to complete our career interest inventory called "The Perfect Career." It is a professionally designed interest inventory and is available for your use at no charge. It takes approximately 30 minutes to complete, and you may retake the inventory as many times as you wish.
To use our interest inventory, please click the appropriate link below:
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Click this link if you have never used The Perfect Career before. Simply fill out the registration form and then complete the interest inventory. |
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Click this link if you've used The Perfect Career before. Enter your email address and password that you created previously to return to our inventory. |
When you have completed this step and have printed your Interpretation Report, move on to the step below.
[ ] Complete additional career interest Inventories (optional, but strongly recommended).
As stated above, our World of Work is very large. No single career interest inventory, including The Perfect Career, can expose you to all of the different activities that workers engage in throughout our society. Fortunately, not all interest inventories are created exactly alike. Depending upon each author's selection of inventory items, each inventory will expose you to some similar and some different work activities. Therefore, by completing several interest inventories you can gain the best understanding of your work-related interests.
Listed below are a number of free and fee based interest inventories available on the Internet. If you wish to take additional tours of the World of Work to identify as many interesting work-related activities as possible, you may find these inventories helpful.
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Free
O*NET Computerized Interest Profiler Require a fee |
Please note that neither James Gonyea, nor Gonyea & Associates, LLC, have any relationship what so ever with any of these resources, and offer these additional interest inventories simply as suggested resources for your consideration. |
If you would like to complete any of the above interest inventories, please do so before moving on to the next step below. Complete as many additional interest inventories as you prefer. If possible, print a copy of the results of each inventory. Typically, interest inventories will provide you with a report outlining your strongest interests, how your interests relate to various career fields, and a list of occupations that match your interest selections.
When you have completed this step, or if you prefer not to complete any optional interest inventories, move on to the next step below.
[ ] Define your work-related interests.
Using the results of The Perfect Career (see your Interpretation Report), plus any optional interest inventories that you elected to complete, describe your work-related interests on your printed copy of Form 1. Review the following suggestions before you attempt to define your interests:
Do not list personal interests, only interests that you would be willing to do in a work situation.
List only your strongest interests.
List anywhere from 1 to 5 interests.
Make sure each interest is different from the others.
Do not list job titles, just interests.
Here's an example showing how the interests section could be completed.
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Do not let the above inventories make decisions for you! While such inventories are helpful tools, they do not list all the work-related activities that exist. Therefore, in the final analysis, what you believe are your interests should be the deciding factor when listing your interests. |
[ ] Decide what to do next.
If you prefer only to define your interests and not your skills, values or behavioral traits, then you may move on to Step 2: Identify possible career options. However, if you would like to assess other areas of your personality style, click on the item below that you would like to next assess and follow the directions that will appear.