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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.
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.
You must be viewing this checklist while connected to the
Internet in order for the hyperlinks below to function properly!
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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:
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
When you have
completed this step, move on
to the step below.
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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.