A workshop exploring career paths that fit students’ personality, interests and values was held on Nov. 25.
Host organization of the interactive event in Room 213 of the Student Center was the Student Staff Network (SSN).
The workshop started with an explanation of focus two.
This is an online career and education tool that helps users explore majors and careers based on a person’s interests, values, skills and personality.
Attendees took short assessments with different topics: work interest, values assessment, personality assessment and skills assessment.
The host said the focus two will benefit students by offering tools to explore detailed information on various occupations, compare different careers side-by-side and create a personalized career plan, which allows for more informed and confident decision making about a student’s educational and professional future.
“I feel it was very well designed by asking you questions and you can answer but it doesn’t give you answers actually, and like, not just super broad, really interesting,” Noah Misenheimer, an attendee majoring in communication, said after taking the work interest test.
The work interest section refers to attendees’ preferences for certain work activities, tasks, and environments, which can be identified by reflecting on their hobbies, skills, values and what they enjoy doing.
“Most of the values were helping the society in college prestige and I think it’s good that this test clarifies what your values are based on a list rather than asking questions,” Career Services employee Celine Evans-Kennard said after taking the values assessment test.
The values assessment identifies occupations that are compatible with the work values, which are jobs related beliefs and ideas that are important.
The personality assessment section helps users understand how their personality traits relate to their potential career paths as well as identifies personality types to suggest compatible occupations and majors.
“The perspective that you make for the answer will really help you have in mind what you’re thinking of yourself rather than giving you a bunch of jobs that create your career path,” Misenheimer said.
The skills assessment section highlighted existing strengths and weaknesses and areas for development, matching them to occupations.
“It gives me the result that like which one skill is stronger than the others, the job options vary but all fall in the theme of at least one department,” public relations major and student employee of career services Lily Durham said after taking the skills assessment.
The event also encouraged attendees to share their experiences within different basic instructions, such as: “Find one person who is in the same major as you” or “Find one person who is an only child.”
This activity helped connect attendees to interact with the host as well as other students joining in the event.
“After taking the assessments, it helped to match attendees’ results to potential majors and careers, and learn how to use insights to plan their next steps in college and beyond,” Rnee Calloway, host and SSN worker, said.
