MY CAREER PLAN STUDENT GUIDE

Contents

Section 1: What is My Career Plan?

Section 2: How do I build My Career Plan?

Step 1: Complete the Career Interests Profiler to identify your career interests.Step 2: Complete the remaining three Career Plan Building Activities to determine your

competencies, work culture preferences, and reasoning aptitude.Step 3: Add your career goal.Step 4: Add tasks to develop your competencies.Step 5: Complete tasks to pursue your career and track your progress.

Section 3: How does My Career Plan help connect my courses to my career goal?

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Section 1: What is My Career Plan?

My Career Plan is designed to help you create a step-by-step plan to achieve your career goals. By completing the 4 Career Plan Building Activities you will learn about your career interests, competencies, work culture preferences and thinking style.

With My Career Plan, you can:

Learn about careers that interest you Add a career goal Determine competencies that can help you achieve your goals Recognize the relevance of your courses in regard to your career goal through conversation with

peers, faculty, Advisors, Counselors and mentors Set up career-development tasks to work toward your goal Receive support as you work to achieve your goal

If I am not searching for a job, does this still apply to me?

Yes. My Career Plan can help you no matter what your employment status is.

Job Seekers find it takes time to research jobs, build a professional network, and develop competencies when looking for a new job. My Career Plan will provide them with reminders and tools needed to begin steps in a job search now.

Job Advancers look to improve their performance and get promoted. The competencies and tasks selected will provide useful activities to focus on. Job Advancers may select activities with a focus on personal growth as well as tracking their education program progression.

To get the most out of this tool, use it while you are taking courses instead of at the end of your course program.

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“Because I already know I want to be a nurse, I use My Career Plan to identify what to work on in my courses to be an even better nurse. That should help me get the job I want.”

How often should I use My Career Plan?

You can use My Career Plan regularly to work on your competency-development tips, review career-development tasks, and track your progress in both. In addition, you may need to adjust the timelines you set. Check back regularly to make sure you are following your schedule and are on target to complete your goals.

Where do I go for help?

If you have additional questions, refer to the Help PET within My Career Plan for technical support (see the illustration below). The Help Pet is located in the tools area to the top right of your eCampus screen. This Help section will provide tips and specific instructions for:

Understanding the main My Career Plan page and the Timeline Completing the Career Plan Building Activities to the right of your Career Plan Working with the task list and editing tasks

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Section 2: How do I build My Career Plan?

To build and use My Career Plan, complete five main steps as shown in the following illustration.

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Step 1: Complete the Career Interests Profiler to identify your career interests.

Learn about your career interests and related careers with the Career Interests Profiler. You may have used Career Interests Profiler on Phoenix.edu before enrolling with the university or during UNIV 100 or 101. If so, please complete it one more time in eCampus. .

You must complete your Career Interests Profiler before completing the Career Plan Building Activities in the next step. These activities were designed to build upon each other and cannot be completed out of order. The Career Interests Profiler includes 18 questions and can be completed within 5 minutes. NOTE: The Career Interest Profiler can only be attempted once per student account. Please contact the student help desk if you experience any connectivity or browser errors while completing the survey.

All 18 questions will ask you to rank four statements in order of interest by dragging the most interesting to the top and least to the bottom. An example of the questions can be seen below:

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Step 2: Complete the remaining three Career Plan Building Activities to determine your competencies, preferences, and aptitude.

My Career Plan offers activities to help you determine your career interests, competencies (skills and behavior related to work performance), work culture preferences, and reasoning aptitude.

Review the Career Plan Building Activities in the following table. The results of each activity can help you understand and articulate your unique strengths.

Activity Description Number of Questions Estimated Time

COMPETENCIES You determine your unique set of behaviors, skills, knowledge, and attributes that predict your work performance.

104 25 minutes

WORK CULTURE PREFERENCES

You learn what types of work environments may engage you most.

113 15 minutes

REASONING APTITUDE

You learn how your reasoning abilities may enable you to excel in a specific career.

30 19 minutes with a time limit of19 minutes

The activities described above can only be attempted once per student. Please contact the student help desk if you experience any connectivity or browser errors while completing these activities.

After completing these activities, you receive competency-development strengths and opportunities based on your activity results. Focusing on both the strengths and opportunities can help promote career success.

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How do I know that the activity results are accurate?

While no single career tool can provide assured results or predict outcomes, the Career Plan Building Activities are based on rigorous and validated research into the predictors of success at work.

Multiple studies have shown that a combination of competencies, reasoning aptitude range, and work culture preferences produces one of the strongest composite predictors of performance. That means the activity results can help you consider careers where you are most likely to perform well.

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Step 3: Add your career goal.

The results provided when you complete the Career Interest Profile will suggest a career matching your stated interests. At this step you decide on a career goal, which is the basis of My Career Plan, by selecting a career under the “Your Career Matches” section as seen below.

Choosing a career can be exciting, but it can also seem overwhelming. Although there are many factors in play, the information you obtain from My Career Plan can guide you to a career path. Follow the steps listed below to choose your career goal(s).

How do I choose a career goal?

There are numerous factors to consider when deciding which career goal are right for you, such as: your career interests, personal circumstances, career and program specific information. Follow the six steps below to explore and choose career goal(s).

1. Complete the Career Plan Building Activities 2. Review your personal circumstances and how they might impact your career choice3. Compare your career matches in the Job Market Research Tool and select a career goal

The Job Market Research Tool is located in Phoenix Career Services on eCampus (See the highlighted area in the picture below). This tool gathers recent job and labor-market information for specific careers.

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From the Job Market Research Tool, you can obtain data such as:

Typical salary ranges Jobs typically available in specific geographic areas Current and recent hiring demand Typical education, knowledge, skills, and experience requirements Common career paths

A sample of the Job Market Research Tool can be seen in the photo below.

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4. Review the suggested degree program(s) displayed in your Career Plan Building Activity results which will prepare you for your career choice

5. Speak to your Enrollment Advisor to learn the educational requirements of your selected degree program

6. Add tasks to My Career Plan based on the outcomes of the five steps above.

Make sure you have thoroughly researched your career opportunities and considered other factors such as your motivation and personal circumstances when selecting your career goal.

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Step 4: Add tasks to develop your competencies.

By clicking on “tips” next to each competency opportunity or strength on the Reasoning Aptitude results page, competency development tips will be added to My Career Plan. Each competency has multiple components that further define it. My Career Plan displays a list of tips with recommended ways to develop these competency components. You can use these tips as the basis for setting goals and establishing a timeline for developing your competencies.

Keep in mind that some competencies may not have related tips, while others may have multiple tips for you to review. All of the tips in a group will be added to My Career Plan when selected but you have the ability to remove individual tips later in My Career Plan.

You may also find it helpful to review your course assignments to identify opportunities for practicing these tips, as in the following example:

“I learned that I need to work on writing and reporting. My Career Plan recommended that I proofread with another student, summarize an article, and talk to someone who produces good reports.”

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Step 5: Complete tasks to pursue your career.

The Career Development Tasks in My Career Plan are a set of job-search-related tasks such as resume writing, setting up a LinkedIn profile, and networking with potential employers. My Career Plan helps you understand how these tasks are helpful in your job search.

Always mark off these tasks as you complete them to stay on track with your career goals.

How do I set deadlines for each task?

While no job search comes with guarantees of employment or of certain outcomes, typically the more-prepared candidate will fare better than a less-prepared candidate. In order to be as prepared as you can, work backward from your desired end date to set deadlines for completing your tasks.

Select a date when you want be employed, and then work backward to set dates for completing your tasks.

Set tighter deadlines for some of the job-search-related tasks if you are looking for a new job in the near future.

Be realistic; avoid setting so many simultaneous deadlines that you might not be able to accomplish them all.

Do all tasks require deadlines?

No. Only include deadlines when appropriate. Some tasks need to be completed once and should have a deadline, while others will be ongoing and thus will not require deadlines. For example, “Discuss leadership skills with a mentor” is a task that can be completed once and might require a deadline. On the other hand, “Be respectful and open when coaching” is ongoing, and a deadline is not necessary.

Can I create my own tasks?

Yes, you can create your own tasks. Include any task that might contribute to your career-building success that is not already in your plan. For example, if you know someone in your desired field who could provide great insight into getting a job, you would want to make a task to talk to that person. Add any task that you think will help you find a job and excel in your career and at school.

Should I complete all the tasks?

The tasks help you connect your academics to your career goals, manage your job search, and improve in the competencies for your career. You should complete all the tasks that you can, though some tasks

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may not be applicable to your circumstances.

Why do I see similar tasks multiple times?

Because some tasks build multiple competencies, you may have overlapping tasks. For example, the task, “Solve a problem yourself” will help build two competencies: “Deciding and Initiating Action” and “Creating and Innovating.”

If you receive similar tasks, check off all of them when you complete the corresponding action.

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Section 3: How does My Career Plan help connect my courses to my career goal?

As you participate in your courses, look for opportunities to develop and demonstrate the competencies you need.

You may find that your course assignments offer many opportunities to develop your competencies. Faculty members can help you understand how your course assignments are relevant to your career goal, but it is up to you to ask yourself how each assignment can help you progress toward your career.

Why are the Career Plan Building Activities required in University of Phoenix courses?

Connecting your education to your career goals is one of our top priorities. The Career Plan Building Activities will help you better understand your career interests, the competencies you need, and the types of fields that would be a great fit for you. All of this combined will help you build a plan to manage your career. We believe that understanding your career goal should be an integral part of your education.

Keep in mind that at the end of the day, you are still responsible for your own success at work—only you can keep up your attitude, work ethic, and dedication to personal growth.

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