Job Search vs Career Exploration
Counseling Center
CG 303 • Phone 313-4054 • on campus dial ext. 4054
e-mail ccac@gonzaga.edu
ATTENTION!
Seniors Juniors Sophomores Freshmen
Do you know the difference between Job Search and Career Exploration?
Where are you on your journey?
Are you in the job search mode or in the career exploration phase?
To find a meaningful job means having clear goals. Are you ready for a career-related job or
are you ready for a concerted career exploration process?
"You can’t get "there" (a meaningful job) from "here" (no clear goal)."
Dana Alexander describes the "journey inward" as that hard work where some student job searchers get to know their skills, interests, values and personality characteristics, and of course that means they can articulate them to a potential employer. They have also gone far in the "journey outward" by gaining experience through internships, meaningful summer work, volunteer opportunities, or encounters with people who do work that interests them. The problem with "career explorers" masquerading as job searchers is their search is scattered and undirected, with applications submitted in widely variant fields. What they don’t know (until we tell them) is that employers have their antennae out for just this kind of "career explorer" who masquerades as a job searcher and comes across lacking confidence and focus. Employers avoid them like the plague. It wasn’t the searcher’s forgotten deodorant that lost them a second interview but that neon sign over their head flashing "I don’t know what I want."
The prepared job searchers have given time to the journey inward and the journey outward. They not only have a sense of who they are but can present that in an interview. Because these job searchers have participated in internships and/or volunteer experiences, they know what to expect in a work environment and have illustrations from their own experience of how to succeed in a job. They have encountered people they trust and whose opinions they value, to confirm that they are moving in the right direction. They have a strong inner conviction that they are the right person for the job they are pursuing.
Moving from being a "career explorer" to a job searcher is not difficult, but just like any developmental process in life, it will take time and effort. There is a way to get "there" from "here." It just takes recognizing where you are and developing a realistic strategy to get you where you want to go.
Through the career counseling process, at Gonzaga University’s Counseling Center, you have the opportunity to work with a counselor who will help you with the "journey inward." This process would likely entail completing the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and using the SIGI computer career exploration program as tools to systematically examine your life in terms of developing a career plan. Personal agency (being self-aware and actively developing your own potential) is the message we relay to students as we assist them in developing realistic strategies to get them where they want to go.
Once you have your career plan, The Career Center, located in the Crosby Student Center, will help you on your "journey outward." They can assist you in the process of finding internships, developing a resume, practicing interview skills, and networking with others in your chosen career field.
Recipe For Frustration: Mixing Up "Job Search" With "Career Exploration" by Dana Alexander
