Choosing a major or career path in today's world of endless possibilities can be a daunting and challenging task. To help you, our students, decide on your major and achieve your educational and career planning goals, we invite you take advantage of the great services and resources offered in the Career Center.
Career Counseling
Career counseling represents one of the core support services available to GCC students. It is a process designed to empower individuals with self-knowledge and position them to make a sound career decision with confidence. Our professionally trained career counselors are experts at guiding students in making the best educational and career choices and enriching their knowledge of the world of work.
Regular contact with a career counselor is critical to students’ academic progress and future professional success. In addition to helping students with choosing a major and charting their respective career course, career counselors provide assistance with internship planning and selection, resume development, interview preparation, job retention, career advancement, and other issues associated with the needs of a person embarking on and managing their career journey.
(Career counseling is available by appointment only and reserved for currently enrolled students.)
Career Assessment
To make an informed career decision, involves asking yourself a series of key questions. Determining who you are, what motivates you, what you are good at, and what you want out of life will enable you to select an academic major and career path that would best suit you as an individual. Career assessment, also referred to as self-assessment, is designed to help you accomplish just that. You'll find career assessment to be an engaging and interesting process. It revolves around you and equips you with self-exploration tools that can serve you well in developing your career today and in charting your professional path throughout your life.
Career Search Components
Career assessment inventories featured on this page will allow you to evaluate your personality style, work relevant interests, core values, academic strengths, and desired future job skills. (Available by referral from a GCC Career Counselor.)
|
|
Learn about your attitudes and mental functions with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument and pinpoint occupational fields that would favor your personality style and values by recognizing:
-
Where you focus your attention and get your energy
-
The way you take in information
-
The way you make decisions
-
How you deal with the outer world
|
|
|
Find the path that's right for you and choose a career you can be passionate about. The Strong Interest Inventory® can be an effective tool in enabling you to:
-
Use interests in shaping your career direction
-
Achieve satisfaction in your work
-
Select appropriate education and training relevant to your interests
-
Determine your preferred learning environments
-
Understand aspects of your personality most closely associated with your interest
-
Learn about your preferences for leadership, risk taking, and teamwork
|
|
|
Connect college planning with career planning. The Major-Minor Finder will help you pick an ideal program of study, leading to a satisfying career when you:
-
Assess your own aptitudes and interests
-
Discover the skills and interests required for different majors
-
Learn about jobs in each college major and their projected growth
-
Set the parameters of your educational goal and desirable job attributes
-
Match your results with majors that are most compatible with your educational and career interests and academic abilities.
|
|
|
Knowing your key transferable skills and prioritizing your natural areas of strength will enhance your career management ability and employment prospects. Apply the SkillScan assessment results to:
-
Identify career options that capitalize on your talents
-
Evaluate the compatibility of your current career
-
Prepare development steps to move your career in the right direction
-
Gain a rich "skill" language for promoting your strengths in resumes and interviews
|
Career Exploration Resources
Research is the corner stone of any decision-making process. To determine which career would be a good match for you, we encourage you to tap into the career information resources you may find in the Career Center.
EUREKA©, The California Career Information System, serves as a powerful source of high quality occupational, educational, job search, and self-employment information, as well as essential career assessment tools. EUREKA© provides access to a wide range of selections exclusively developed with the career explorer in mind and cuts down on research time for career information.
VOCATIONAL BIOGRAPHIES© bring to life career success stories of real people in-easy-to read, 4-page profiles. Each Career Bio-brief follows one person through their everyday workday. It mirrors the real-life, school-to-work path of each subject, detailing each individual's career success story from High School to present, including educational planning and background, job progression, current job, likes and dislikes about their career, lifestyle, and future plans.
CAREER LIBRARY - a vast collection of up-to-date career publications, reference materials, videos, college catalogs, and Internet resources allows users to explore the link between majors and work opportunities, examine occupational descriptions, educational requirements, employment statistics, and salary trends as well as improve one's job-hunting skills.